Quoting: salitynam

Quoting: DJVikingHOMM3 was previously released on Linux by Loki Software. It really should be re-released on Steam.

Where can I buy it now?

I still have an old copy of it, but it's a hassle to get to run these days, due to library dependency issues. I guess you are better of with VCMI, really. You can get the game from GOG for cheap if you don't have it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Awesome to see that this is still in active development. HOMM3 is probably the best fantasy strategy games ever made.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Alm888Companies such as Feral and Aspyr are basically parasites. Or "middlemen" if that word is very strong for one's taste; it does not matter how to call them. The only thing that counts is what they do: they are flourishing on the current Windows/Linux disparity. They are not interested in increasing the number of Linux developers (why would they slay their "herd" ) and instead milking money from developers' foolishness and ignorance in tools selection and lack of Linux experience.

Tbh, if you already suggest that your language in inappropriate, it's probably because it is! ;)

Yes, I get the point that in an ideal world we wouldn't need porting houses anymore, because devs would just develop using multi-platform tools and dump DirectX and other obsolete proprietary middleware into the garbage bin of history where they belong.

But I am -happy- to have Feral and Aspyr around. Because we just have to face the reality that larger studios won't change their development processes for us 1%. You call them parasites, I call them catalysts. Yes, in the end they will make themselves obsolete if it works out the way we want to. But without them, Linux gaming will never become a mainstream thing in the first place. By porting AAA games, Feral and Aspyr are paving the road for others to follow. They make AAA gaming viable for Linux by showing that it can be done. And by making AAA games run on Linux they show both gamers and developers that Linux is a viable gaming platform and not just a OS for nerds and servers. You need a critical mass to get a platform recognized as a gaming platform. Porting houses are giving us that. My Steam library is full of games they ported. Without that I wouldn't even -think- about eventually ditching Windows. And without Linux-exclusive users developers will do what Blizzard does and just tell us to boot into Windows instead of releasing Linux versions of their games.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I am not a typical "gamer". I am just a person who loves games. But I certainly don't buy $1,000 GPUs to get another 2 FPS and maximized anti-aliasing out of a game when I already get 60 FPS out of the games I am playing. I just want enough FPS not to get any visible stuttering and I don't insist on setting -every- single graphics option to "Ultra Quality".

I have yet to find a Linux game that would disturb me, performance-wisely. *shrug*

That being said, I am still looking forward to the day when they stop -porting- games, but develop them with multi-platform support in mind right away. Because that's how it should be.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: soulsourceThere's one thing that I'd really like in case we won't see a port:
A long and detailed explanation why porting this game would not be worth the effort.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for justification by Aspyr, as (not?) making the port is their and their business partner's decision. I'm just curious if there are technical reasons, what those technical reasons are, and if the community can do something about them (think: fix certain bugs in the open source graphics drivers, work on missing GL extensions,...). Sadly though, I'm pretty certain that Aspyr will not be able to provide this information due to NDAs...

If anything this teaches us how multi-platform deployment is NOT done right. Firaxis clearly wanted a Linux port (and said so), but they obviously failed to incorporate that objective into their development process. They made a Windows game, apparently not caring about anything they do being hard or even impossible to get to run on Linux. And when the entire thing was (almost) done, they gave it to Aspyr and said "There, get out your magic wand and make it run on Linux!"

And that's just not how it works.

If you want to deploy multi-platform, you need to develop multi-platform. At the very least, get Aspyr on board early on and keep them informed. That way they could have at least said "Oh guys, if you do this and that, it will be a pain in the arse to port the game later on."

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Personally I don't think

Quoting: EhvisI don't really have the patience for C:S, but from what I've seen the game is actually quite easy. This could add some much needed problems to the game (if you play it as a game).

Kudos for the inappropriate music in the trailer! :D

Personally I don't think a game has to be difficult to be a game, this notion is more a part of established video game culture rather than a needed feature of a game. I always found games like city builders fun, and I have even disabled disasters in the games that had them. I just want to...build. Like a box of Lego bricks is no challenge either, just a lot of fun.

I will get this expansion anyway, just to support the game.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: prosoorCiv 5 was a disaster. There was a free weekend, I really tried to play it but I couldn't know how? Also graphics are 90s. And hexagrams? Who still uses hexagrams?

Umm. All great turn-based strategy games do? Because they represent front lines and possible movement along them a lot better than any other shape?

Also, Civ 5 looks loads better than Civ 6's infantile cartoon art.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Wow, my PC is lightyears away from the recommended specs despite it's only three years old. I am not sure I ever had -that- happen with any game.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: HyperdriveMaybe Gamingonlinux could help coordinate a legal action against people who take advantage of this scheme?

I doubt it. Kickstarter only requires that a "good faith effort" is made to complete a project as described. It's basically a risk-free source of free money.

"Kickstarter's Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill. (This is what creators see before they launch.) We crafted these terms to create a legal requirement for creators to follow through on their projects, and to give backers a recourse if they don't. We hope that backers will consider using this provision only in cases where they feel that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill."

https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/accountability-on-kickstarter

I would actually argue that -deliberately- choosing tools that they had to know would prevent them from fulfilling their promise, when there -are- tools available that would have allowed them to keep it, DOES constitute a breach of good faith. It's quite clear that they didn't make their best effort to keep their promises.

View this comment - View article - View full comments