wildweasel wrote:I have one question for Enjay.
If you'll release something like this, which is flooded with copyrighted/parts of copyrighted material...WHY WON'T YOU RELEASE ASPECTS?!
OK, you want the long or the short answer? Heck, I've got verbal diarrhoea, you're getting the long one. Like it or not.
Hmmmm, Marine Assault...
It has some sprites, which I credited to the original author, it has some textures based on stuff by Fredrik, which I credited. It has a palette based on ideas by Fredrik which I forgot to credit, but will do when I upload a slightly fixed version. It was inspired by a map by Espi, credited. I didn't know who was the original author of the dog sprites because I have seen them in quite a few WADs. I understand they were originally by Laz of WolfenDoom fame, so credit is due.
Over and above that, it has resources from a few games, none of which have made it into the WAD unaltered - just like half the WADs out there. Are the people who made those games going to come after me because I have a few downsized and altered versions of some textures in my WAD? - no, I suspect not.
Aspects on the other hand has 88 levels, a good proportion of which (maybe 60%) were originally by other people. I have altered them all, usually to quite a large extent, but many of them are levels where the author said not to distribute stuff based off their WADs. So, that stuff doesn't get released. There are levels that I don't even remember who they are by. So they don't get released. There are 3398 textures using 3169 patches and 869 flats. These came from all over the place. Some commercial sources, some "community" produced resources - but most of them I have no idea of the original source, so I can't credit anyone - so they don't get released. The sounds in Aspects (all 810 of them) - some are by me, many are ripped from other games. The music in Aspects - most of it is copyrighted MP3's (all 120 of them).
So, what does that leave? The sprites - most are based on sprites from other games, but I've done a lot to them myself and don't have a problem releasing them - which is where a few of the skin packs I have done came from (although not the marines one I did a few weeks ago - I bet you can work out where a few of them ended up though). A few incidental graphics that I did - titlepic, bossback, interpic, credit etc etc.
So Marine Assault does have resources from a variety of places. None of those places are especially unusual sources for resources in a WAD. Wherever someone has worked on or originally produced the resources in it, I have done my best to credit them, and the rest of the stuff is irrelevant because there will be no fall out because of it. In other words, it's a typical WAD using resources from typical places and complying with typical conventions.
Aspects, however, is stuffed full of things from people who have specifically stated they do not want their work redistributed in another form. It contains more sensitive material (eg MP3s). The sheer scale of it is quite different and the bottom line is even if I wanted to remember where it all came from and either credit or remove resources as appropriate I couldn't. Nor would I want to. The mod was not originally intended for release. It was a treat for a friend that got out of hand. It was a thank you to him for starting the role playing scenario that Aspects is based on. It was my way of saying thank you and paying him back for hours of his hard work and my fun. To rip it apart would spoil the integrity of the mod, which hangs together very nicely.
One of the reasons for releasing Marine Assault was actually to give people a taster of what Aspects is like. It was my attempt to try and release something "Aspectsy" without releasing the full mod, because I can't. So, I made a very Aspects feeling level (or at least it feels a bit like one of the 3 Aspects scenarios) and populated it with Doom marines. I (mainly) kept the Doom weapons because the WAD was being done for a Doom audience and I wanted to keep the Doom feel. That being said, the level is quite like a few in Aspects - especially the Red Giant scenario ones. That is - it is a mission based level, with a briefing, clear goals, predominantly human enemies with some tougher hardware to back them up.
For information, the equivalent level in Aspects has a slightly different twist (I've just about finished porting the level to Aspects). In the briefing (complete with on screen photographs), you are told that "Red Giant" - a huge interplanetary corporation, tempted a group of settlers to the fourth moon of a planet called "Hope" then they arranged an "accident" to test a biological weapon on the settlers. This is not especially unusual or out of character for Red Giant. Remember, Aspects is actually a role playing game that has been running for over 10 years now. Red Giant is well established in my mind and I have pages and pages of material on them, and planet Hope for that matter (not an especially nice place). There are a lot of subtleties and nuances that are only hinted at in the Doom mod which only the intended audience (my friend Russell) would get. The mod isn't meant for every one. Each and every level has a little something intended to delight or amuse him, and it would simply not be relevant to most people. Moreover, he's not a Doom player, so the levels are set up for his game style and preferences, not those of a hard core doomer (whatever that may be). Anyway... Some settlers escaped and are hiding in the caves. Red Giant have tried to track them down, and any survivors they find end up as part of the genetic experimentation programme. Some of the survivors have managed to get an SOS signal to the British Galactic Police Association. Then you get back into familiar territory - you are told about the power couplings and the defence grid. Except in this case, the power couplings provide power for the Red Giant communications system. The next significant difference comes near the end. Once you disable all the power couplings, the refugees reveal their hiding place so that you can join them. Once you do, they send a signal (now possible because the Red Giant system is down and cannot block or detect the refugees one). The signal guides the BGPA ships through the defence grid and the level ends.
So, you see, Marine Assault was my attempt to try and get a little "Aspects" out there, but in a more releasable form, and reconfigured and tailored for a Doom audience.
Well, you did ask.
