[quote=Guest]

Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: GuestMaybe Underworld Ascendant will be a game for you. They just released the backer beta (also on Linux). So it's coming...

The blockwise movement in some of the other dungeon crawler games (Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic, Bards Tale, Grimrock, Vaporum ..) is a quality in itself. It determines completely how the game plays.

it gets old quick. What i meant by quality is in how big and how much variety those old games had. They were pushing the envelope with new ideas and mechanics. But what do we get now? a rehash of old ideas and worse they are streamlined making for monotonous gameplay. Give me exploration, and adventure with different bulds and a retro look with synthesizers.

This grid based and turn based is just not appealing. Both add to the monotonous. Watch how TES Arena is being remade in an openengine (openTESarena) and you can see the potential for how these old dungeon crawlers can be made today with faster gameplay and still retain the good rpg mechanics, exploration and interaction with NPCs.

Oh and i backed Underworld Ascandent during kickstarter. However this game is more puzzle based than RPG.

For me dungeon crawlers were always more dungeon exploration games with puzzles and other obstacles. Sometimes they are balanced in the exploaration direction, sometimes it's puzzles, sometimes you get to outmaneuver your opponents with movement, sometimes you fight turn based or you do it real time. You need to upgrade your Character(s) to be able to overcome the later obstacles or opponents, but in most cases there is not much role playing involved. There might be exceptions like Dungeon Master or Ultima Underworld, but certainly not TES Arena (in the old days at least).

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[quote=Guest] Maybe Underworld Ascendant will be a game for you. They just released the backer beta (also on Linux). So it's coming...

The blockwise movement in some of the other dungeon crawler games (Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic, Bards Tale, Grimrock, Vaporum ..) is a quality in itself. It determines completely how the game plays.

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Thank you! I love dungeon crawlers, but completely overlooked this one.

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Quoting: BeamboomI'm honestly surprised at many of the responses here. It looks like you haven't really been in touch with the IT world in at least ten years?

It's fair enough to be sceptical, I can totally relate to that, but over the last 5-6 years there's been significant policy changes in how Microsoft has approached open source in general and Linux in particular. So much so that it's made nonstop headlines in the IT press. Hence my surprise.

Their dedication is of a very wide nature and involves a lot of areas. Examples are aplenty: Linux version of Visual Studio Code (and a bloody good editor it is too) and MSSQL server, investment in time and money on the Linux Foundation, cooperation with both Canonical and Redhat on running their distros on Azure and Windows 10, change to supporting GIT over their own versioning system, I mean... I could go on and on. The list really is extensive. This is just how it is.

I'm an old man myself, and by God I tell you I've swore and cursed over their name many a times. I was there in the 90s and early 2000 when they did nothing but to inject and pollute every single open standard protocol on the whole god damn internet, shitty implementations where their friggin' trademark! Not to mention their CEOs and their attitude towards Linux.

But this is not the case today. Yes, they are a corporation and yes they have an agenda, but so do every other commercial company, also those who for a long time has proven to support Linux. Open source and corporations can coexist and benefit from each other - they have, for a very long time already. The Linux kernel would not have been what it is today had it not been for contributions from the big, commercial actors out there. Corporations have been depending on Linux for decades already - and Linux depend on them too.

There are no impenetrable walls between Linux and the corporate world, other than amongst evangelists and - yes I dare say it - fanatics.

It is only natural that Microsoft, maybe even a bit more than any other corporation, wants and needs a certain degree of control over everything they invest in. The more they depend on an investment, the more control they will want over it. So a strategic investment in Linux is not the problem, but what follows out of it is very uncertain...
I guess we have to watch their behaviour very closely, to get better views on their whole strategy. They might seem a lot friendlier than before, they might even release some free tools (that people can use to work on MS related things), but do they generally open up? Will they stop closing down gaming for example? We will have to see!

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Quoting: GuestPeople wondering why they would want a Linux based windows OS when they can have "the real thing", they need to look at android... Why use android on phones when you can use the real thing, linux itself?

At some point the vast majority of consumers need stability, quality assurance, eye candy, compatibility, the "it just works" mentality that Linux distros lack. Microsoft and other behemoths have the resources to ensure such a thing. It is the same thing Canonical has been trying for more than a decade with moderate success. Yet despite the fact that Ubuntu is very flawed as a distro, it still is the most widely used... Why not use the real thing (Debian) instead of Ubuntu or Mint?

Windows 10 has become a huge monstrosity of spaghetti code that is very hard to improve and maintain. Everytime they update something they even delete user files... It makes sense, most people responsible for large parts of Windows code have retired... The cost to develop and maintain Windows is on the rise while the profits are slim. The OS itself is fast becoming a liability for Microsoft, and is only useful for running their other more profitable stuff like Office, .Net, Azure, Xbox, etc.

Microsoft has already witnessed the inevitability of competing with opensource. Internet Explorer once ruled the internet with an iron grip when Netscape was opensourced to become Mozilla and Firefox... Alongside Chromium they utterly destroyed Microsoft's marketshare. Today IE and Edge marketshare is a joke...

So why keep Windows at all? Why not just port their profitable stuff on Linux, which is free software and the burden of development and maintainance falls on many companies/individuals and not just them? If you can't beat them, join them...

Obviously Microsoft will still keep a large part of the OS closed source, like Apple did with Macintosh and Darwin. And believe me, if they play their cards right, it will pay dividends to them because people will flock to Windows L(inux kernel) in droves...

Add the benefit of being better able to port their work on servers and mobile and you got a sweet deal for MS. It is a nobrainer.

Obviously it can't happen really soon. Remember Microsoft still has the upper hand on the Desktop and don't intend to just waste it. They will try to milk their Windows 10 dry first. But they need to prepare the next day.

And how you begin transitioning to Linux? First you need to make sure your compiler toolchain is up to snuff... Seeing as Linux already has one in place for C and C++, you just make sure your (ex) prioprietary framework and tools also work. Can you say .Net Core? Can you say opensourced Visual Studio? See where this is going?

If that happened we'd have to protect Linux from Microsoft once more. This time from within. They will start to influence kernel development more.. That's one big coocoo in our nest...

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Quoting: Guppy

Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: TheRiddickIf Microsoft really wanted to outdo themselves, they can use Linux as the backend for their next windows release, now that would be crazy, maybe make WINDOWS a desktop environment just like gnome/xfce/plasma5, that be pretty cool.

Mind in the clouds thoughts, I know...

It would have to be a DE that did all the bad stuff Windows 10 is supposed to do now. I wouldn't want it as much as don't want Windows 10.
Why would I want a Linux coming from Microsoft, when I can have a real one without MS spyware?

Nah "Windows Next" - with a compatibility modes in the form of wine/dosbox, that could be done today - hell it was done more or less 17 years ago ( Lindows )

And why you would want a Linux distro with the Microsoft stamp on it? Not for your self properly as It's hard to imagine it wouldn't come with half the OS in the form of proprietary binaries - but, a mac os like thing would mean more programs & games that works out of the box with Linux ;)

A guy can dream...

If we benefit from it as much as Darwin from Mac OS or BSD from Playstation OS, then I'm not sure it would be that great... Microsoft might start boasting around saying: "Hey, look, we love Linux, we actually made it better! Our Linux runs UWP Apps!"

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Quoting: TheRiddickIf Microsoft really wanted to outdo themselves, they can use Linux as the backend for their next windows release, now that would be crazy, maybe make WINDOWS a desktop environment just like gnome/xfce/plasma5, that be pretty cool.

Mind in the clouds thoughts, I know...

It would have to be a DE that did all the bad stuff Windows 10 is supposed to do now. I wouldn't want it as much as don't want Windows 10.
Why would I want a Linux coming from Microsoft, when I can have a real one without MS spyware?

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Quoting: GuppyIt's sometimes hard to remember that microsoft is no longer the company of yore, because when I hear the name my mind automatically goes to things like the stacker case and F.U.D.

I kind of like this new company and I can write that with little to no sour taste in my mouth xD

I'll make my decision what to think of the current state of Microsoft when they bought Obsidian and part 3 of a Big Game is announced... (just a really wild guess of course..)

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First thought: Lie deception infiltration...
No second thoughts have emerged yet...

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Definitely going to back this! But my toaster seems to have low bandwith today... So I'll have to use that computer again... (oldschool)

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