168 replies to this topic

[Asseri]

First of all. I'd like to say that MWO is great game, I enjoy it a lot. Another Mechwarrior game I enjoy was Living Legends. Really promising mod where I was waiting lots of features to come.

Well, that aint going to happend anymore. MWLL dev team is not allowed to continue their work on this title anymore. Why is that? Is this decision of IGP? PGI? What's going on?

Am I even allowed to ask about this?

Here is 7.0 final release letter.

"
MechWarrior: Living Legends 0.7.0
First, I must present you with some heavy news.
This is a very hard letter for me to write as it doubles as a thank you and a farewell.
Over the years, we’ve strived to create the greatest, most innovative Battletech/MechWarrior game ever conceived. We feel our efforts re-inspired faith in the MechWarrior IP and paved the way to show that hard work and perseverance can bring anything to life given enough blood, sweat, and tears. Created by fans, for fans, we present to you this culmination of 6 years of work and whatever else we could slap together in time to release this final update to you; our community. You’ve stood by us over the years; providing critiques, discussions, and arguments that have bettered this game and made it into one of the best MechWarrior Communities I’ve ever seen.
To clarify how this situation came to be I’ll go into a bit of detail about what’s been happening behind the scenes to clear up any misconceptions. As Developers and Staff of Wandering Samurai Studios, we are, as of this point, no longer allowed to create future content based on the MechWarrior IP due to legal obligations on behalf of various rights holders. These rights holders own the Legally Binding, Non-Transferrable, Non-Commercial License Agreement with Microsoft and as of 2013 will no longer officially support the MechWarrior: Living Legends division of Wandering Samurai Studios. This is not a choice of the development team, this is a choice of the ownership and we have no control over the decision-making process. While we may not agree with the choice that must be made we respect their decision to make it, as without them, this project would have never come to fruition.
As developers, this is a hard patch to free into the wild. It’s a compilation of everything we’ve made functional up to this point with more than likely a few bugs thrown in for good measure. We are unable to include or finish various features and assets that were in development, and many of the things we’d planned will never come to realization. When we started this project we had great ambitions, and in some respects may have been a bit much, although as our enthusiasm grew, so did the scope and possibilities. Given enough time, anything is possible, but in this day and age time is a luxury. You may not have as much time as you may believe. In turn, do what you can while you can to make a lasting impact on the world around you. In our case, we’ve made a lasting impact on an intellectual property we love. We’ve paved the way for innovation and have proven the viability of new ideas.
In terms of overall scope, I believe we’ve met and exceeded our initial expectations set forth when creating our original design document. Many things have changed, many things have been included or excluded, but in the grand scheme of things it’s exactly what we envisioned; a Combined Arms Battletech Experience. It has been amazing seeing it come to life before our eyes through the tips of our fingers. Over the years we’ve won multiple consecutive industry awards and were noted in various international print and digital publications. We don’t close our doors feeling any regrets; we close our doors knowing we’ve provided one of the most unique and in-depth Battletech/MechWarrior experiences ever created; with gameplay innovations and graphical fidelity that matches and even surpasses many AAA titles to this date. There will never be another experience quite like this.
We will move on to greater things as individuals, always remembering and presenting MechWarrior: Living Legends as our shining beacon of accomplishment. A testament to what can be accomplished by the devoted players who see fit to take game development into their own hands, with their own vision, on their own time. To create a unique experience that will be remembered by players and industry leaders alike for years to come. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride as much as we’ve enjoyed the journey. Thanks for supporting us, and have fun playing MechWarrior: Living Legends.

We here at Wandering Samurai Studios would also like to inform you of our list of incompletions.
These are features, assets, and game-play mechanics that are at various stages of development but will never see the light of day due to recent events. We thought you, as our community, would like to know what you will not have just as much as you’d like to know what you will have. These items listed below were other milestones we planned to meet that we did not have time to finish by this final release but were notable based on our long-term goals. All of these items had substantial work done but were left incomplete.
Game Features:
- MechLab
- Aerospace HUD
- BattleArmor Claw
- Revised Buy Menu
- Revised Launch/Start menu
- User Selectable Ammo Types
- Full Damage/Impact sound set
- External Destructible Equipment Slots
- Finalized Internal Damage Components
Playable Assets:
- Kodiak
- Marauder
- Commando
- Schrek Tank
- APC variants
- Hunchback IIc
- Mobile Field Base
- Anhur Aerospace
- Xerxes Aerospace
- Kharnov Aerospace
- Svantovit Hovercraft
- Alacorn Assault Tank
- Commando Light ‘Mech
- Swiftwind Scout vehicle
- Corona Heavy Battle Armor
- Phalanx Heavy Battle Armor
Game Modes:
- Capture the Flag game mode
- Planetary Assault game mode
- Team Domination game mode
Maps:
- Cold Steel
- Scorched
- Palace Gates
- Cavernous
- Wildlands
- TC_Ascent
- TC_Breach
- TC_Clearcut
- TC_Enkeladus
- TC_Extremity
- TC_Harvest
- TC_IndustrialRiverbed
- TC_Ridgeline
- TC_Tremors
- SA_Vesuvius
Sound:
- In-game ambient music
- MWLL specific F-key radio dialog
- Unique sounds for each mech including ambience and movement/torso sounds
- Replacement sounds for every crysis weapon/asset
- Dialog for events: under 5:00 minutes, under 20 tickets, etc
- Replacement sound for all the subpar ticks, warnings, beeps, etc
- Elimination of sounds cutting out"

Sorry for the long post.

[therealswilly]

Yeah, I would like to know if the publisher did this or if you guys asked for it. Also, if it is at all possible, try and pick up these modders. They did fantastic ******* work.

[Congzilla]

PGI has gotten the rights for Mechwarrior from Microsoft and by doing so is expected to protect the IP which includes shutting down people producing games based on the IP without the licensing rights.

[Sheraf]

This is sad. MWO is no longer have something to compete with it. What will happen next?

[Penance]

Congzilla, on 16 January 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

PGI has gotten the rights for Mechwarrior from Microsoft and by doing so is expected to protect the IP which includes shutting down people producing games based on the IP without the licensing rights.

pretty much. BLAME LAWYERS!

But, I wanted to try MWll and had a terrible time with it, I THINK i installed it correctly, but couldn't find a game when I tried.

[bug3at3r]

Congzilla, on 16 January 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

PGI has gotten the rights for Mechwarrior from Microsoft and by doing so is expected to protect the IP which includes shutting down people producing games based on the IP without the licensing rights.

I'm a little lost here, I thought IGP had the rights. Is there a way to confirm the actual rights holder? I can't imagine MS giving the rights exclusively to a dev team of what, 60 people?

[Egomane]

As this is not a discussion about MWO, I will have to move this to Off-Topic.

I sympathize with the fans of MW:LL for losing such an enthusiastic project.

[Tennex]

therealswilly, on 16 January 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

Yeah, I would like to know if the publisher did this or if you guys asked for it. Also, if it is at all possible, try and pick up these modders. They did fantastic ******* work.

give them jobs at PGI! PGI's understaffed as it is.\

and they do such great jobs so ambitious

Edited by Tennex, 16 January 2013 - 07:31 AM.

[Carnivoris]

Sheraf, on 16 January 2013 - 07:29 AM, said:

This is sad. MWO is no longer have something to compete with it. What will happen next?

They'll squeeze as much money from us as possible before shutting down citing lack of funding.

[Revorn]

Verry sad News. Imho.

[Penance]

bug3at3r, on 16 January 2013 - 07:30 AM, said:

I'm a little lost here, I thought IGP had the rights. Is there a way to confirm the actual rights holder? I can't imagine MS giving the rights exclusively to a dev team of what, 60 people?

Why not?

MWll was being made "under the table" so to speak, as a free modification to an existing game. They were using the MechWarrior name without permission apparently (but it was ok at the time due to legalese structuring).

" we are, as of this point, no longer allowed to create future content based on the MechWarrior IP due to legal obligations on behalf of various rights holders"


This quote from the letter, basically tells me that the studio, used the MW name, withouth permission from microsoft who holds the digital rights to the game. Other companies hold rights to other chassis they are using, but can't.

MS will give exclusivity to whom whoever pays more.

[Purplefluffybunny]

Terrible news. I am not impressed with the actions of PGI on this issue. I feel that a statement from them should be forthcoming so that we can hear their side of the story.

Edited by Purplefluffybunny, 16 January 2013 - 08:00 AM.

[Asseri]

Sorry for the wrong forum section.
Anyways, yeah. I dont know who to blame but whoever is to blame should not have done this to non commercial free mod for existing game. I feel a bit betrayed

[Purplefluffybunny]

Penance, on 16 January 2013 - 07:35 AM, said:

Why not?

MWll was being made "under the table" so to speak, as a free modification to an existing game. They were using the MechWarrior name without permission apparently (but it was ok at the time due to legalese structuring).

" we are, as of this point, no longer allowed to create future content based on the MechWarrior IP due to legal obligations on behalf of various rights holders"


This quote from the letter, basically tells me that the studio, used the MW name, withouth permission from microsoft who holds the digital rights to the game. Other companies hold rights to other chassis they are using, but can't.

MS will give exclusivity to whom whoever pays more.

The MWLL dev team secured permission from MS as an educational project I believe. If you go over to the MWLL forums KIngLeer sets out what permissions and granted rights from MS they had.

[Deathz Jester]

So am I to assume there's alot of ******** here?


lol the words butt and hurt are censored...

Edited by Iron Harlequin, 16 January 2013 - 07:46 AM.

[bug3at3r]

Penance, on 16 January 2013 - 07:35 AM, said:

Why not?

I can't imagine any successful company giving the right's to a dev team that had a hand in Duke Nukem Forever.
/end possible sarcasm

[Star Captain Obvious Kerensky]

The funny part is, the termination of new development (its not really a shutdown, we can still play it), is going to have the opposite effect that PGI wanted.

[Deathz Jester]

bug3at3r, on 16 January 2013 - 07:46 AM, said:

I can't imagine any successful company giving the right's to a dev team that had a hand in Duke Nukem Forever.
/end possible sarcasm

Hey man bass pro shops "The Strike" was stellar

[Purplefluffybunny]

Well, on that highly overoptimistic list of 'to do' things, I was excited to read about 'planetary assault' game mode and the mobile field base as a playable asset.

I am going to call it now and say MWO will become a full spectrum warfare game with tanks, air and infantry units all playable on the battlefield. Their business model, from what little I know of it, IMO may require this.

[Billygoat]

Since I more or less said my peace in the other thread, I'll just echo PFB in saying it's sad news and those responsible ought to be ashamed (and any apologists who feel like making uninformed posts about how "they" had to do it to "protect" their "property" or the gub'mint would somehow take it away / it's value would be lessened / etc. etc. ought to feel preemptively ashamed).

I also fear for MegaMek given that MW: Tactics is also controlled by IGP and both projects seek to be computer implementations/interpretations of the board game in some fashion.