Questions for both you, Luciano, and Matrix:
ORIGINAL: Luciano B
Gentlemen and fellow BG enthusiasts, some of you may remember my old, never completed project covering the battle of the Wilderness (1864) and the other battles of the Rappahannock front...
Since it seems that there's still a lot of interest around the old BG titles, I'm taking into consideration to continue the effort and complete all those games...
Let me know please your feelings ... comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated
Pardon me for mentioning HPS, but:
Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon in vain attempting to install and get working your (Luciano's) 3rd Winchester scenario, as posted at the ACW Campaign Games Design Center, for HPS' Campaign Corinth. With I believe
all files correctly in place (not just yours, but also the auxiliaries), the map would load correctly, but no units. Something about an error in the .SCN file. I had similar difficulty, and similar failure, with several of the other posted scenarios (by other authors). Is this due to
8. These Add-Ons won't work with Corinth after I applied a new patch. Why not?
HPS has decided to protect their investment in their games by blocking maps which did not come with the original games, starting with Corinth patch 1.02...
Who knows? I didn't bother reinstalling Campaign Corinth (and leaving it unpatched) to find out. Life is too short.
A large part of the appeal of returning to the Tiller BGS games is the wealth of free user-modded scenarios available, particularly for NIR (see the Napoleon in Russia Project), also yours. But as I survey the mod and fan site scene, I see lots of broken links, outdated and even abandoned sites. Poorly organized. Confusing! Does not inspire confidence.
Other older Matrix games (one example: Uncommon Valor) are taking on new life as, years after initial release, modding teams are organized and gain access to the original game source code. In particular, another John Tiller game, John Tiller's Campaign Series (East Front, West Front, Rising Sun)--not only did Matrix remarket that old classic, it is being actively developed and extended, with new patches, upgrades, new scenarios, even entirely new eras and topics--all as easy-to-install, very-likely-to-work officially supported packages.
Question, Matrix: Is there any prospect that the John Tiller BGS games will be similarly blessed?
No offense to you, Luciano, but if in future attempting to install your Battles on the Rappahannock mod I have to jump through all sorts of hoops and struggle to get the thing to work ... I probably won't bother. I just want things to work "out of the box," with the least hassle. I don't want to futz and mod. I just want to play!
So, Matrix (repeating): Is there any prospect that the John Tiller BGS games will get the same treatment--active, officially sanctioned mods and upgrades extending into the future--as, say, the John Tiller Campaign Series (and other older games in your lineup)?
Or are the John Tiller BGS games officially done, stuck in time, forever just available on a take-it-or-leave-it basis?
If the latter, the BGS games lose much of their potential appeal (for me), and I will probably just give up on them and turn my attention back to the HPS ACW and Napoleonic games (actively supported, upgraded, new titles coming out all the time). Sure, I will have to pay HPS for their new stuff, but I don't mind paying for the peace of mind and convenience. Time is money, too.