Alternative

ID:186473
 
Jul 1 2005, 1:19 pm
I haven't looked at it too closely, but maybe http://www.volity.org/ could be used? Definatly not as easy at BYOND, though :-(
Jul 1 2005, 1:24 pm
Why are you looking for alternatives to BYOND?
Jul 1 2005, 1:27 pm
In response to Wizkidd0123
BYOND is centralized, and there's the possibility of requiring membership. Also, it means Dantom needs to pay money to keep BYOND going, and that would mean they might require memberships.
Jul 1 2005, 1:30 pm (Edited on Jul 1 2005, 1:49 pm)
In response to Sgeo
Congrats! You're Sgeo!

Anyone who had half a mind and was concerned enough to read around would realise that DanTom has said:

Making and Playing BYOND games will ALWAYS be free.

BYONDMembers are not getting any more than pager, a blog and a tiddly bit of webspace. You are losing nothing but the pager.

But maybe someone as flighty as yourself should consider leaving and reducing the chance of trash-posts like these cluttering the forums.

-Thorg

P.s. http://www.rpgtoolkit.com I'm sure a large, faceless and impersonal community like RPGToolkit would suit you better.
Jul 1 2005, 1:35 pm
In response to Sgeo
I can promise you that whatever misinformation others may be spreading, BYOND will -never- require money.
Jul 1 2005, 1:35 pm
In response to Thorg
If you define "free" as "no cost", then yes, for the time being, it is free. Even if Dantom says it will always be free, there isn't a true guarantee. What if the cost of running BYOND gets so that it's impossible to run BYOND without charging money for its use? Also, BYOND still isn't free as in "free to modify."
Jul 1 2005, 1:43 pm
In response to Sgeo
Free
adv.
1. In a free manner; without restraint.
2. Without charge.

Not for the time being. Forever. They have said it will be free FOREVER.

BYOND won't ever need to require to make you pay to play and make games, y'know whay? Because steps are been taken by DanTOm to generate income in other ways. BYOND Memberships are a good example. Donations by kind and generous people (Who consider BYOND a worthwhile proggie) is another. And of course, Dan and Tom have grey mass between their ears and very well tuned grey mass at that.

As for free to modify. I'll take off my gloves and say:

Seriously. Why should they share their source with people like you? You like BYOND, want to make it better? Prove your worth and get on the BYOND Dev team. Or make your own! It's my opinion that the only source that should be opened up is that which the creator has given the go ahead to or abandonware.

-Thorg
Jul 1 2005, 1:43 pm
In response to Thorg

P.s. http://www.rpgtoolkit.com I'm sure a large, faceless and impersonal community like RPGToolkit would suit you better.

Was that supposed to be sarcasm? RPGToolkit looks interesting, and it, unlike BYOND, is open-source...
Jul 1 2005, 1:46 pm
In response to Sgeo
Enjoy it. RPGToolkit is a nice, clunky #command based system. It's good for single player RPGs. No, no sarcasm.

I started out on RPGToolkit. Quit because the RPGCode sucked and the Community stank.

Right up your alley.

-Thorg
Jul 1 2005, 1:46 pm
In response to Sgeo
Nevermind. I didn't notice it wasn't for multi-player games.
Jul 1 2005, 2:05 pm
In response to Sgeo
First, BYOND will always be free. If Dantom goes broke, the contingency plan is that they'll release the hub software (so others can host their own, at their own expense) and even without a working hub, DS and DM will still function just fine. I wouldn't want anybody holding them to this on my faulty memory, but they might have said they'd leave the code in the hands of the current other developers so updates could still happen.

If that dark day did occur, I could honestly see it going open source, but only as a last resort. There is no danger of BYOND going away from us.

Anyways, why must it be free to modify? Nothing that was done with BYOND is magical or unique (except in the aggregate)... you have access to all the same tools its creators have.

If you want BYOND, have BYOND. If you want to make something else, make something else. You're free to do either, both, or neither! Nothing more could be free to you than already is!
Jul 1 2005, 2:19 pm
Sgeo wrote:
I haven't looked at it too closely, but maybe http://www.volity.org/ could be used? Definatly not as easy at BYOND, though :-(

Thanks for the pointer. That looks like an interesting project, and one of the few that appears to target the same space as BYOND. It'll be interesting to see how they do.

Meantime, we did quite a lot of checking into comparable systems recently, and what we discovered was interesting and somewhat surprising: At this time, we could not find a single BYOND-like system out there. That is, no other system had all of these:

- Automated multiplayer support
- Flexible development, not tied to one kind of game
- A hub
- An active online community

It's quite possible that some project like Volity will get there some day...I'll be surprised if someone else doesn't try for it at some point. But as of today, it looks like only BYOND is in this space.
Jul 1 2005, 2:34 pm
In response to Deadron
Though Volity isn't necessarily tied to one type of game, I did find the following in its documentation:

While it can theoretically be applied to any sort of multiplayer computer game, the Volity system currently limits its intended scope to the sorts of games where network latency times prove less of an issue, and usually this means turn-based games, or other pursuits where precise timing is not critical. This allows Volity to use communication technologies without worry about the overhead that individual messages carry, and furthermore lets games run on platforms that introduce latency-times of their own, such as cellular phone networks.

When this book talks about games, it generally will refer to these less time-senstive games that the young Volity project is more comfortable supporting.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Volity won't evolve, gaining the capability to create more "time-sensitive" games.
Jul 2 2005, 8:43 am
In response to Sgeo
Sgeo wrote:
Also, it means Dantom needs to pay money to keep BYOND going, and that would mean they might require memberships.

You think this Volity thing doesn't require money? It may not require much now, but its bound to in the future. I'm going to keep my eye on this community. I'm loyal to BYOND and always will be, but I'd like to see how a possible alternate BYOND works out.