Twilight Online

[kato13]

jasonlips 03-03-2008, 12:47 AM I found this while googling and found it very interesting.


http://62.142.186.185/twilight/


Seems to have alot of potential. I joined for fun to see what the newsletter might say. It was a test. Anyone here heard of this? Anyone involved? What do you think?

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Targan 03-03-2008, 05:49 AM Fascinating, thanks for bringing this to my attention JL. It will be very interesting to see how it ends up.

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chico20854 03-03-2008, 06:53 AM Well, it looks like their equipment list is a direct rip of Paul's site. Not a good start...

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pmulcahy 03-03-2008, 07:22 AM Hmmmm...I generally don't mind other players using my stuff on their site -- but I do want them to at least ask me first!

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Targan 03-03-2008, 09:17 AM That is strange. Quite aside from their lack of courtesy in not asking Paul if they could use his data, you'd think they would ask so they could cite Paul as a source and thereby gain advantage through association. I mean in the sense that Paul's site is widely known by T2Kers and he is respected in the T2K community.


Are you going to contact them Paul or would you prefer that one of us has a word with them? Or would you prefer that no one talks to them about it? The cheeky buggers.

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pmulcahy 03-03-2008, 09:52 AM I "whoised" him a few minutes ago and emailed him. I use VOIP and could call him on the cheap, but I'll try emailing first; the site's owner is named Matti Vanhanen, from Oulu, Finland.


Maybe Marc Miller should also be told about this, since Mr. Vanhanen also has a lot of stuff copied from T2K itself...

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smokewolf 03-03-2008, 02:18 PM Yeah the info on the front page is incorrect...Twilight: 2000 is the creation of GDW. While I am flattered he mentioned me, I am not the creator of the award winning Twilight: 2000 [just the soon to be award winning Twilight: 2013 ].


Update - just spoke to Matt and he seems to be a nice guy. He corrected the front page while I was talking to him.

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akula_au 03-03-2008, 04:50 PM Well that's interesting...


"Twilight Online is a computer simulated survival among the devastation of World War III. This Nethack/Rogue style multiplayer environment is based on Twilight: 2000, an award-winning title of the Games Workshop. No profit is being made from running the game."


Games Workshop hmmmm.....

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chico20854 03-03-2008, 05:02 PM Well, at least that part of the web site is updated. Earlier today it said it was a product of 93 Games. Now to work on the accuracy and (IMHO) integrity...

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leonpoi 03-04-2008, 02:00 AM Hmmmm...I generally don't mind other players using my stuff on their site -- but I do want them to at least ask me first!

When I saw this I thought you must have got around to updating your site - I guess someone just ripped off your stuff, not so good.

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mattivanhanen 03-13-2008, 09:03 AM Hi all,



First of all, I am very very, very sorry for the trouble. My honest understanding was that Paul's archive was a sort of resource to utilize freely for possible fan innovations. On this ground my initial logic to use this database was a sort of "Okay, as long as we're on the same wavelength (non-profit, fan-based) and I'll just offer out my contact info freely I guess anyone alive and kicking will inform of their presence shortly for possible discussions." Yeah, this happened - I had a conversation with Keith and a brief exchange of emails with Paul. And as I have now learned of this forum's existence, I will visit this thread often.


For the incorrect information part - Keith took the initial trouble of correcting my incorrect information by approaching me in a very objective manner. Too bad that this information reached me almost simultaneously with Paul's email. Not surprisingly this email was not that objective an approach, which in my opinion - in the context of my current understanding of the community - was absolutely justified. But I had no time to re-assess my actions "in between" if you see what I mean. The next step would certainly had been to contact Paul to check whether he's a "real" Internet-active person or just some guy who just chose to stuff a huge T2K database into the web ten years ago, got children, became disinterested in the genre and the archive now resides in some long-abandoned dusty corner of some Angelf1re server and is about to drop off the internet any moment. If it would have been the case that I by some myriad reason would have wanted to work "covertly" it would be illogical to give away one's contact information nor have a public forum in where anyone can register for free to discuss about whatever comes in mind.


So please understand and have patience for the viewpoint of a 100% newbie to the T2K community. Before I started the TwO site, I DID google around for Twilight-related stuff. I wasn't sure that the genre was even alive in the first place. Finally I found my way to the 93 Games Studio site, and after a brief study I (mistakenly) took that they are the current owners of the T2K trademark and have chosen to take it further (T2K13). So I rationalized that like with a lot of stuff from the "past" (at least was for me until now), the doors have been opened for fans by becoming more or less "open source" for community innovations. Like what happened to D&D in the medieval fantasy genre - in where you can't really look at just about any modern medieval fantasy creation without seeing variations of the branch theme - elves with pointy ears who hate dwarves, "half-men" with furry feet who like comfort and tobacco, snake'ugh'mannan and alike derivations from the monsters of the all-too-famous cadre.


Since (to my best knowledge) there have been no decent T2K based games since 1993 by Paragon. I thought it could be a damn well time.



All the best,

Matti Vanhanen

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Targan 03-13-2008, 09:10 AM Hi Matti, glad you're posting here. I won't try to speak for others from around here that have contacted you. Speaking for myself I appreciate that explanation you have posted. I like what I have read at your Twilight Online site. I look forward to seeing how the environment you are creating works out.


I have to tell you, the guys here are collectively an incredible information source for T2K. Finding this forum was by far the best thing that ever happened in my T2K career apart from discovering T2K in the first place.


Peace, out.


Geoff.

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General Pain 03-13-2008, 09:22 AM aboard the board

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boogiedowndonovan 03-13-2008, 02:26 PM Hi all,



Since (to my best knowledge) there have been no decent T2K based games since 1993 by Paragon. I thought it could be a damn well time.





by 'decent T2k based games since 1993 by Paragon', you mean computer games based on T2k, then you are correct, there haven't been any.


and I wouldn't call that T2k game by Paragon a decent one...


but on a serious note, thanks, keep us updated about T2k online. I am sure all of us here would like to play.

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TiggerCCW UK 03-28-2008, 04:37 PM Sounds like an excellent idea. I'll definitely be checking it out, time permitting.

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mattivanhanen 04-12-2008, 12:40 PM Some project information - the project is still alive and kicking. However, after serious consideration, I have chosen to steer the game world toward the Merc: 2000. It appears to be more suitable for global-oriented play (traveling between continents, completing missions in different parts of world) and offers a more solid base for open-ended scenarios and organized military operations. The old sketch site has served it's purpose and will be closed soon. The official Mercs Online game site is now open at www.twilightonline.org/mercs (will be moved to replace www.twilightonline.org in a few days). So far you will find from there the raw Mercs Online worldmap, a master skill list and available career choices. As an additional feature, and to give users something to chew on as idle fodder between operations (or while waiting for the beta to open) is the arcade and shop.


By posting, you will receive a small reward per post. Later on, there will be competitions in the arcade yielding rewards. The interesting point is that these forum dollars are compatible with the actual Mercs Online dollars and your forum account dollars are transferred periodically to your Mercs Online player's ingame bank account once the beta opens. So if you hone your skills in the arcade and be an active participant in the forums, you will benefit some nice small bonuses (for the sake of game balance these bonuses must be small) in the actual Mercs Online game. Also later on, the shop will contain items (classified satellite imagery, information, equipment, etc.) that will be converted to Mercs Online simultaneously with these periodical ingame money transfers.


I will keep you informed of the progress.

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mattivanhanen 05-28-2008, 01:39 AM The Mercs Online is nearing alpha with a total of 456 weapons, 294 vehicles and 103 aircraft. The first scenario will be a model of the Belize-Guatemala scenario presented in the Gazetteer. A team of four playtesters has joined the fray in order to assist in the task of huntings bugs and testing playability in order to bringing alpha to beta as functional as possible.


More playtesters are generally welcome. The only requirement is patience - to acknowledge that a pre-alpha is far from complete and still has an arseload of bugs. If interested, PM me via the Mercs Online forum (http://www.twilightonline.org).

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Targan 05-28-2008, 01:46 AM Matti, have you considered posting this notice at http://www.93gamesstudio.com/forum as well? 93 Games Studio are about to publish the new version of T2K, Twilight:2013 and the posters on those forums are very keen T2Kers.

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mattivanhanen 05-28-2008, 02:01 AM Yeah, but I thought to give this one all the time it needs to ripen (seven months now, btw). So I planned to keep it a bit low until beta as the thing is still bugging and incomplete.


But you people spotted me from the Internet first... so feel that I kinda owe you some status updates. 93 Games Studio and other RPG forums will be targeted as the timing is right!

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mattivanhanen 06-07-2008, 01:45 PM After long and tedious brewing, the Mercs Online has finally reached it's alpha stage and is now open for public. To get a hold of anything Mercs, visit the site for more information (including client installation/gameplay tutorials).


Thank you.


Now I'm off for a cigar...

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mattivanhanen 06-14-2008, 09:31 AM Here is a 24 Meg video clip of the game:


http://www.twilightonline.org/mercs/gauntlet.avi


The track in the clip is the first of the three tests a new merc player has to pass, and is known as the Gauntlet. Running the Gauntlet is mandatory to get assigned into a real combat unit.


Sorry for the somewhat blurred video quality - the sacrifice was necessary to keep the video reasonably small for downloading.

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