Apple and open source are odd bedfellows
Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
71–80 of 118 posts
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#72I find the new trend interesting, to sell the game on Steam, but have a link to Github with the actual source. So free for developers and people who care to find out. Thats fair, I think, but I would prefer if the direct donation model would be more established among the masses. But this link points to the general site, with lots of options and also directly the free version. Kudos. Will try it out later.
Buying on steam is a donation basically? Why is it not?
Because of the cut steam takes I guess. And fixed price, and a middleman, and depends on a central platform, etc
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#73This is funny to me and maybe worth mentioning. In prison they charge inmates for this game on the tablets, is that legal? It's AccessCorrections or Access something, I know for a fact, I played it for years and now hate it because of the associations it draws for my uneuphoric recall of doing time. They also charge for Andors Trail, another open source project.
It's legal to charge for distributions of GPL licensed projects. The OSI definition [1] specifically notes it's one of the freedoms in licenses considered open source.
Back in the mid 2000s I recall seeing drama about projects like The GIMP being repackaged and sold. While legal, the sellers exploited information asymmetry to profit from people unaware the software was available for free. The counterpoint is that distributors do work packaging the app -- maybe AccessConnections contributed some value by reviewing the content as a trusted third party.
So yeah, it's legal but might not be ethical. Open source licenses do require the source code and license to be accessible to the end user. This can be tucked away as a link in a credits screen. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm curious whether a link counts as source code distribution if you know your end users won't have unrestricted access to the Internet.
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#74Slightly off topic, but does anyone have any resources / tips on how to build your own tower defense game with multiplayer? Been deving for a very long time, but game dev feels like a completely different beast.
I feel like mindustry is a great example of just trying something. If you were to ask this question in a game dev forum, people probably wouldn't recommend you to look at Java and yet mindustry uses Java and made it work. I guess something along the lines of JavaScript with Websockets would also work really well and you wouldn't have to worry about building for different platforms. Research some options for JS game e…
> and yet mindustry uses Java and made it work
I'm pretty sure the game I've spent the most hours playing over the last few years is written in java - Slay the spire.
Minecraft was originally Java too I think.
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like mindustry is a great example of just trying something. If you were to ask this question in a game dev forum, people probably wouldn't recommend you to look at Java and yet mindustry uses Java and made it work. I guess something along the lines of JavaScript with Websockets would also work really well and you wouldn't have to worry about building for different platforms. Research some options for JS game e…
> and yet mindustry uses Java and made it work I'm pretty sure the game I've spent the most hours playing over the last few years is written in java - Slay the spire. Minecraft was originally Java too I think.
The Bedrock edition of Minecraft (XBox, Microsoft store) is in C++. The original is still built with Java and called the Java Edition (unless I missed some big news the past few years)
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buying on steam is a donation basically? Why is it not?
Because of the cut steam takes I guess. And fixed price, and a middleman, and depends on a central platform, etc
available (nearly) anywhere, built in support forums, refund capability, and until a couple of years ago being able to use bitcoin to pay (buy steam gift cards with bitcoin). family sharing - where another computer can play games you've bought if it's on the same network, is also a nice feature. I know it doesn't matter here because the game is open source (or whatever), but in the general sense it's reduced my spending on games. When my kid wants to play a steam game i either do work or play a game on xbox for windows, gog, battlenet, whatever. As i type he's playing BeamNG on his computer via my steam login on my computer.
Also, i am a bit biased. I'm part of the steam class action, and potentially will receive $500 or more from valve due to their "cut".
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is actually fair idea. I am going to try it with an Android app - paid in G Play Store, free in FDroid.
DAVx⁵ operates under the same principle and they seem to have success with it. https://www.davx5.com/
wow, thanks for that, i didn't know you could build it yourself. I have a nextcloud and was irked that i had to shell out cash for something i had considered non-essential, syncing calendars.
Now i am going to try it out for free and buy it if it works without issue, awesome.
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't want to build or direct troops in a Factorio game. You won't like upcoming Industrial Annihilation then probably.
I enjoyed Planetary Annhilation and this game claims you can let the AI do all of the RTS and just base build, so I would enjoy it. "Build impressively productive bases as your primary focus and delegate advanced artificial intelligences to do the fighting for you. Or, roll up your sleeves, and get hands-on by leading the real-time strategy action yourself." If in Mindustry the AI completely controlled the units, I w…
These days i use wemod or cheatengine to bypass the challenge in games. I buy games to support the arts, and play games to see the story or experience the art. But the second a game has a time sink element, i break out the cheats to bypass it. I don't mind challenging content, but i give each game maybe 5-10 "reload from checkpoint" before i bypass the content with a cheat.
back when i used to "compete" in starcraft, i don't know what my action rate was or anything. I didn't micro that much, either. I never played terran, only protoss and occasionally zerg if my opponent was a well known zerg-er. at one point i was top 10 in the world, and i forget if that excluded or included cheaters. That was something we used to joke about, me and my competitive gaming friends, especially the RTS leaderboards - "ranked 23rd, but everyone above me is an obvious cheater!" After starcraft and Total Annhilation, went on to getting ranked top 10 in a few FPS (never counterstrike, barely played, oddly), and leaderboards on indie games. Having a newborn took the steam out, no pun intended.
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like something I might try. Factorio has a tower defense element that never really works because the attacks are too small, my base is too large, and I always just wipe out the biter camps. That's an aspect of the game that clearly needs a lot more challenge, but lots of players just ignore it and build. For my first half-dozen tries, I always built may bases far too compact. I really had to learn to use the s…
You have the difficulty sliders and the death world preset and an entire enemies tag on https://mods.factorio.com . What more do you want?
for me Factorio combat was overall boring and just drudgery, and just adding unfun pressure.
Re: Mindustry: Open-source automation tower defense game
#80Its PvP mode is also excellent. You can complete both defense and offense by laying supply lines. It's possible to ambush the opponent's supply lines as well, gaining a significant advantage on the front lines before the enemy detects the disruption in the power facility and logistics system. This is what I consider one of the most important characteristics of a real-time strategy (RTS) game. It would be better if on…
Though open servers with team modes had huge griefer problems when I tried it.