Death of a Legend

The fact of the matter is, Ares isn't dead. As someone said earlier, Maelstrom is an incredibly old game and it is still played. However, whatever boards or community there was for Maelstrom is probably long gone. This happens. I was here in the beginning (relativly) of these boards and their furor of activity. It was great. I remember some of the old RPG's... Starlance, that madcap era before we all decided to scrap and start over. The COMPLETE ownz'ing of the humans by the Salrillians. That was no good. We gotz our behinds whupped.

Anyways, there are plenty of things like that that still exist, but they're just now slowing down. Ares is probably going to be moving into the retirement home of games. Activity about that game will slow down, getting less and less fervent until finally (and this takes a while) people forget about it almost entirely and the community all but ceases to exist. This cannot be avoided, for any game. It's like trying to reverse entropy.

What can we do? Not a whole lot of anything really. There's no real reversal of the game's entropy, only retarding the effect.

What may come next? I think anything at all would be a possible Ares II, already mentioned. Perhaps also an Ares plugin for EV Nova. If done with quality, it would make a fine remembrance of Ares though I doubt it'd revive the forums.

Oh yeah, and speaking of the forums, if they want to remain robust, they must become varied. Dedication to one game is admirable, but ultimatly doomed. Discussion about other games, other topics and the such is the last hope for the boards.

That's all i have to say

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Madness takes it's toll; Please have exact change.

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Various exerpts originally posted by El Spamo:
The fact of the matter is, Ares isn't dead. As someone said earlier, Maelstrom is an incredibly old game and it is still played. However, whatever boards or community there was for Maelstrom is probably long gone. This happens.

So, lets just say "its over", sit back, crack open a drink of our choice, and try to make the most of whatever is left. There are some other webboards on ASW in the same state as the Ares ones, yet you can still have quite a "good time" there. Lets get the spirit here rolling!

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I was here in the beginning (relativly) of these boards and their furor of activity. It was great. I remember some of the old RPG's... Starlance, that madcap era before we all decided to scrap and start over.

Hear hear! 😄

Sarg, Sundered, Darkk: Told you I wasn't alone! 🙂

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**Anyways, there are plenty of things like that that still exist, but they're just now slowing down. Ares is probably going to be moving into the retirement home of games. Activity about that game will slow down, getting less and less fervent until finally (and this takes a while) people forget about it almost entirely and the community all but ceases to exist. This cannot be avoided, for any game. It's like trying to reverse entropy.

What can we do? Not a whole lot of anything really. There's no real reversal of the game's entropy, only retarding the effect.

What may come next? I think anything at all would be a possible Ares II, already mentioned. Perhaps also an Ares plugin for EV Nova. If done with quality, it would make a fine remembrance of Ares though I doubt it'd revive the forums.

Oh yeah, and speaking of the forums, if they want to remain robust, they must become varied. Dedication to one game is admirable, but ultimatly doomed. Discussion about other games, other topics and the such is the last hope for the boards.
**

Same with stories/RPGs. We could try branching into other areas than ares, though not too far. (Say discovering new races/empires/planets, like the old rpg did) Strictly Ares rpgs themselves will tend to get boring rather fast, there being not a whole lot to do; in other words, they'll be okay but will suck up new ideas faster than a sponge. If we really wanted to stretch it, we could make a big cross over between several games with an RPG or some chronicles. Have some characters you have in an RPG on one board get trapped in something and have them end up here, or a different board. And I don't mean just EV/Ares blending. (Imagine the possibilites of say a Habnabbit experimenting with technology he doesn't begin to understand, as he's trapped up in some big plot he's unaware of)

There are ideas for what we can do, and it doesn't mean we just mope around whining that the board is dying. We established that fact a year ago, and not much has changed. Members have left, and new ones have come.

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

Hey lets not forget about (url="http://"http://www.magleague.com")www.magleague.com(/url).

that was my contribution to keeping ares alive. The idea worked well in the beginning, but interest keeps falling. We need to promote the ares magleague better. We need to get the word out. Many newbies i come across don't even know what (url="http://"http://www.magleague.com")www.magleague.com(/url) is. We need advertising or something. I've already talked to evill (scott kevil) of GR and he would agree to post a message about our ares tourniment for a week or 2 on GR. We can use that time to recruit more members, and have special tourniments or something.

If ares 2 ever comes out, or if we ever modify ares, it could have a direct link in the actual ares game to the ladder on magleague, where the players can submit their scores live in the game onto the ladder without even leaving the game, much like the netfungus ladder/tourniment works.....

We need special tourniments within the ladder to keep interest up as well. And most importantly, we need everyone who is already involved in the ares magleague, to play games on it and promote it. the more people who see the old school ares players using magleague.com, the more eager they will be to join.

I feel there's alot of possibility in (url="http://"http://www.magleague.com")www.magleague.com(/url), but we have to promote it more and support it to it's best potential.

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ramble on..
--Jimmy Page
(list)
(*)(1st Class Zacha Admiral and guitar legend throughout the sol system.)

Hehehe, nothing like a little doom to get everyone's rear in gear. 😄
Way to go everyone! Avatara, I'm not quite yet to the point of pouring a pint of Guinness and rocking in a chair and watching paint dry.

Oh, and as far as branching out, yes involving other games (though perhaps of the same genre?) would help out a bit.

Hmm, I wonder if Ares will ever get carbonized for OSX...

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Madness takes it's toll; Please have exact change.

A couple of not gonna happens...

Ares will not be carbonised, under Ambrosia's policies, for OS X.

Ares will not have its source code released in the near future.

Apart from that, it's open season on the future. Roll out your concrete plans, get cracking on Hera, etc, and have a ball. As it is, now exams are over I might resume my creative activities in the Hera department.

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

What I've seen happining is that a lot of people like ares but there isn't very much to talk about on the bords because people don't realy care about posting ideas and such.

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Originally posted by Avatara:
**You'll probably want to know more than just C++ if you want to start playing around with coding.
**

Oh, I'm 99.9%+ certain that Hera was done in REALBasic. Look at AIT (I'll upload my replacement for that soon enough...) and notice how its interface is similar to that of Hera. Everything in Hera could be done using REALBasic, and NL seems to be familiar with it.

I'm not going full-blown yet... largely because my parents haven't gotten around to ordering the Academic version of REALBasic ( 😉 ), but all I'm thinking about, so far, is a nice little program that lets you enter in simpler stuff and show you whatever you need for Hera - Ask Slug in a Can, one might say.

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"Might I suggest that we all forget we even met each other? You're involved in politics and I in theft. I'll leave it to god to decide which one's more dishonest."
-Stragen, The Sapphire Rose

Ask Slug In A Can... Thats a great name.

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Brookeview Technologies Worldwide
A name you know, a name you can trust.
(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/brookeview2/")Earth's Journey v2.0 screen shots(/url)
(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/2/wo/vKQKqbIHG9zMWd0R.1/0.2.1.2.27.31.97.1.35.0.0.1.1.1?user=brookeview2&fpath;=Just For Fun Folder&templatefn;=FileSharing6.html")Try the Ares Files that are just for fun(/url)

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Originally posted by Sundered Angel:
**None, I'm afraid.

I was there in the beginning, looks like I'll probably be there at the end, too. Sigh
**

It's the same old story with Ferazel.

It's sad to see a great game like Ares and Ferazel just go down the drain :frown:

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You have been overriden by Overrider. Prepare to die evil scum! -Me
All quiet on the western Front. But not for long.... OH SAY CAN YOU SEE!!!!!!!!........
The Underdogs Smiles:(url="http://"http://community.theunderdogs.org/smiley/gallery.htm")Underdog Smiles(/url)
AIM: Overrider720, Ferazel17 or WhiteStreak7

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Originally posted by Overrider720:
**It's the same old story with Ferazel.

It's sad to see a great game like Ares and Ferazel just go down the drain :frown:

**

Nod

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

Ha ha! I have a cunning plan. Its so simple even an idiot could think it up. Each of us registers Ares three million times, making it ASW's most popular game. ASW then rushes out a sequel. Simple really.

now, 3000000*$25=...ah so thats why no-one suggested it before... 😉

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-Admiral Slathkill II
We do not know what lies around the next bend on the information superhighway. All we know for certain is that when we finally get there, we won't have enough RAM.

(This message has been edited by Admiral Slathkill II (edited 11-24-2001).)

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Originally posted by Sundered Angel:
**A couple of not gonna happens...

Ares will not be carbonised, under Ambrosia's policies, for OS X.

**

Why not? :frown: Ambrosia should carbonize all their games, it isn't like Carbonizing games is a ton of work. :mad: What are "ambrosia's policies?"

It seems like all other mac game makers are carbonizing their games...why not you, Ambrosia? :frown:

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Check out my website: (url="http://"http://www.light.aftran.com")light.aftran.com(/url) for Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout levels, and much more!
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

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Originally posted by cat99:
**Why not?:frown: Ambrosia should carbonize all their games, it isn't like Carbonizing games is a ton of work. :mad: What are "ambrosia's policies?"

It seems like all other mac game makers are carbonizing their games...why not you, Ambrosia? :frown:
**

They are carbonizing their games, just not Ares... (and a few others)

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

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Originally posted by Avatara:
**They are carbonizing their games, just not Ares... (and a few others)

**

Ferazel's Wand and Ares. the two I care about. :mad:

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Check out my website: (url="http://"http://www.light.aftran.com")light.aftran.com(/url) for Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout levels, and much more!
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

I'm not gone yet. Sorry for my quick reappearance and just-as-quick disappearance, I've been up to my nose in schoolwork as well as trying my hardest to get a social life gasp 😛.

Here's the tru7h: Joe Blow plays Ares, quickly finishes the 20 missions. He then goes to netplay, which has so limited options and so few people playing it that he quits that as well. He then tries plugins, which are either A) too short 🆒 too difficult or too easy C) buggy or D) boring. He then forgets Ares and moves along.

What we need to do, and what we can do, is that we all work together to forge one giant plugin that should be capable of holding anyone's interest for atleast 1 year. We're talking up to 100 single player missions, atleast 25 different net scenarios to play, ingeneous new weapons and ship classes, intriguing plot full of twists and turns and surprises.

The reason why Ares plugins flop is because most of the time they're made by one or two people and there's one or two things in Ares that one person or group can't master- for example there's someone who's incredible at graphics, but when it comes to scripting and programming a mission they're simply an amateur.

What we need to do is to merge all of our strong points and nullify our weak ones as best as possible. We're gonna need:

1. Directors - people who would be very good at coordinating a big project like this.
2. Writers - one group could focus on the storyline, others would work on ideas for missions
3. Graphic Artists- people excellent at ship design, as well as interface and misc. work as well
4. Engineers - folks responsible for new ideas for ships, weapons, species, etc.
5. Programmers - the folks that make it all real
6. Musicians - optional, but if someone is making music anyway (i.e. myself) why not contribute some new tunes to Ares?
8. Testers - folks that not only tell us where a bug is in the plugin but also critique us along the way.

Call me optimistic and idealistic, but I think this community is capable of doing it. If we have a large number of people, that makes the division of labor easier on all of us. I'm willing to donate as much time as I can as long as the rest of you are willing to.

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(erich)

I seem to remember suggesting this a little time back when I posted my "Hyper-Plug" proposal. The response was shall we say somewhat underwhelming. However, I remain interested in the idea. We would need at least ten dedicated individuals in the collective (yeah, let's call it that!) who would pledge their very souls for the duration...!

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

an interesting proposal...

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Sign up for the Ares ladder
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum3/...TML/000748.html
www.magleague.com
GameRanger/MagChat SN: Col. Patrick (EL)

Hey, Vegeta and Anic
I started a thread over in the Engineering Room so you might want to go volunteer too heh.

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Sign up for the Ares ladder
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum3/...TML/000748.html
www.magleague.com
GameRanger/MagChat SN: Col. Patrick (EL)

Hmmmm. If there's one lesson to be taken from EV, it's that the most successful plugins have generally been team efforts...

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

I disagree. Frozen Heart & Femme were made by martin turner. SETR is better than Marathon (from what I've seen of the betas) so far, and it's by one person.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.