Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS game

Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS game

Postby ThinkSome » 18 May 2018, 18:13

2x2-brighter.jpg


Spring: 1944 is a World War II themed 3D multiplayer real time strategy game based on military technology available in year 1944 and built on the SpringRTS Engine. Our goal is to create a game that is as realistic as possible while still being fun and accessible to play. Games on average take 40 minutes and feature up to 8 factions battling to complete their objectives or to the last man standing. All factions are complete with several types of infantry, towed and self-propelled guns, normal and rocket artillery, tanks, aircraft and boats. The game supports big matches with thousands of units and double digit player counts.

Take charge of one of the axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary), one of the allies (Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States) or even be neutral (Sweden). There is also capturable 1940-era french armor optionally available around the map. Spring: 1944 is a full featured game with complex in-game mechanics. To learn more about them we have prepared a tutorial, commented replays and unit guide at project wiki.

Features:
  • >5000 units and >10 players per match
  • per-turret ammunition (>.50cal only) of different types (HE, AP, smoke)
  • "logistics wins wars": ammunition ressuply mechanics and infantry bonuses when in supply range
  • advanced armor defense system (front/side/rear/top) against projectile penetration
  • advanced artillery and mortar fire support system with target locking and inaccuracy
  • advanced unit ordering, formation move
  • infantry and open turret supression system, turrets can be destroyed and rebuilt.
  • complex fog of war system with scout planes, tectonic signatures, blind tanks and smoke screens
  • 8 complete playable factions, with french armor capturable
  • large air dogfights, air to ground attacks and anti-aircraft cannons
  • airborne troop and equipment delivery
  • river navies, naval fire support and both infantry and armor landings for every faction
  • freely controllable viewport, FPS mode for single unit control
  • advanced resource system based on territory control
  • resource efficient lobby system with automatic downloads of engines, maps and game versions with dependencies
  • fully moddable Lua game code; overlays (mutators) and map mods are supported
  • player-side scripting

Spring: 1944 is hosted on the common spring lobby platform together with other SpringRTS games. To play, grab the latest Springlobby client. After you are connected to the lobby, join one of our rooms. Their names are:
  • S:1944 latest and greatest, join up! (daily development testing, matches from 19h00@UTC+0 to 24h00@UTC+0)
  • S:1944 Stable! World WarTwo on an epic scale [1]
  • S:1944 Stable! World WarTwo on an epic scale [2]

Springlobby will download the appropriate engine, game and map. While this is in progress, you are welcome to join our rooms by clicking Tools->"Join channel" and typing "s44". The same room is also linked as #s44 on irc.freenode.net and #s44 on matrix.org. Spring: 1944's source code is released under the GPLv2, while its assets are covered under CC-BY-NC.

Important links:
ThinkSome
 
Posts: 5
Joined: 13 May 2018, 14:57

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby Lyberta » 19 May 2018, 13:16

Deleted.
Last edited by Lyberta on 01 Oct 2021, 09:27, edited 1 time in total.
Lyberta
 
Posts: 765
Joined: 19 Jun 2013, 10:45

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby sanguinariojoe » 19 May 2018, 19:21

* The assets are CC-BY-NC, so FOSS.
* You can tweak Vignette (and much other GFX effects).
sanguinariojoe
 
Posts: 2
Joined: 14 May 2018, 19:09

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby Julius » 20 May 2018, 05:08

This has always been a cool project, but as far as I know there is still no menu/serverbrowser other than spring-lobby? Besides having a 3rd party common tool for essential game features is really confusing for new players, it is also a pain to get running on Linux :(
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby Lyberta » 20 May 2018, 06:58

Deleted.
Last edited by Lyberta on 01 Oct 2021, 09:28, edited 1 time in total.
Lyberta
 
Posts: 765
Joined: 19 Jun 2013, 10:45

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby ThinkSome » 20 May 2018, 15:43

Lyberta {l Wrote}:The assets are proprietary so not FOSS. Also, that vignette on screenshots looks awful.

Lyberta {l Wrote}:
sanguinariojoe {l Wrote}:* The assets are CC-BY-NC, so FOSS.


Puh-lease, they were always proprietary because they violate Freedoms 1 and 3 - distribution of verbatim copies and derivative works.


The assets could not be FOSS even if they would be CC-by-anythingbutNC as they are works of art and not software. That said I do agree that them being CC-by-NC is not the optimum and I encourage you to replace them with free ones or argue with the artists if you wish, but CC-by-NC assets pose no issue for either me, distro acceptance or anyone else.


Julius {l Wrote}:This has always been a cool project, but as far as I know there is still no menu/serverbrowser other than spring-lobby? Besides having a 3rd party common tool for essential game features is really confusing for new players, it is also a pain to get running on Linux :(


Springlobby has a lot of features that can be daunting for a newbie, but it also has numerous advantages over ingame lobbies:
  • Game developers don't have to worry about coding an ingame client;
  • Game developers are saved from setting up >3/4 of the infrastructure themselves;
  • Getting initial players is much easier as near everyone on the lobby will be able to see it, download it and play it, all automatically;
  • There is no need to worry about distributing correct versions of the game and engine to distros and therefore players as the lobby downloads everything automatically. As such people on debian old stable can play with people on Arch without hunting down and adding any additional repos;
  • There is no need to keep different engine and game versions compatible to eachother for the same reason as above;
  • It provides normal chat channels for help,discussions and development and a common environment for everyone.
  • etc etc etc...

It shouldn't be a pain to get running on GNU/Linux as most of its developers are on GNU/Linux.

There are other lobby clients that you can try:
  • Flobby(GNU/Linux only);
  • Weblobby(dumbed down in-browser lobby);
  • NOTALobby(proprietary and closed-source, its developers have stated that they will launch Spring: 1944 on Steam with it);
ThinkSome
 
Posts: 5
Joined: 13 May 2018, 14:57

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby onpon4 » 20 May 2018, 16:41

ThinkSome {l Wrote}:CC-by-NC assets pose no issue for[...] distro acceptance

This is untrue. Debian and Trisquel (for example) also exclude non-libre culture (though Trisquel includes an exception for the GFDL). In the case of Debian, a game with a libre engine and proprietary assets would have the engine put in contrib and the assets put in non-free.

That's probably a good thing, too, because the line between software and non-software is often blurred.
onpon4
 
Posts: 596
Joined: 13 Mar 2014, 18:38

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby ThinkSome » 20 May 2018, 17:27

onpon4 {l Wrote}:
ThinkSome {l Wrote}:CC-by-NC assets pose no issue for[...] distro acceptance

This is untrue. Debian and Trisquel (for example) also exclude non-libre culture (though Trisquel includes an exception for the GFDL). In the case of Debian, a game with a libre engine and proprietary assets would have the engine put in contrib and the assets put in non-free.

That's probably a good thing, too, because the line between software and non-software is often blurred.


Re-read what I said please: none of those distributions care about in-program downloads and both the game and engine are not distributed by the distro, but are downloaded by the lobby client(=Springlobby) itself. The latter is also why such a system is much better for game and engine developers and indirectly players as well. Springlobby is a package in Debian as it is free software.

I agree that it would be excellent if the FSF pulled its head out of the sand and this applies to many more areas than just "proprietary assets are fine". Likewise for Debian, Trisquel and others in that and multiple other areas. I'm quite sure that Spring: 1944 would not have had -NC assets in the first place if this had been frowned upon.

But the game is where it is after 16 years of development, so can we please discuss and enjoy it rather than arguing about licensing?
ThinkSome
 
Posts: 5
Joined: 13 May 2018, 14:57

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby onpon4 » 21 May 2018, 04:10

You're reading a bit more into my reply than is actually there. No need to get so defensive.

You said "distro acceptance". That implies "allowing it into the distro's repo" to me; if a distro (like Debian) doesn't even bother monitoring something, then it's not "distro acceptance". For example, Debian does not "accept" Firefox add-ons, it just doesn't care (presumably because they don't consider it to be a part of Debian).
onpon4
 
Posts: 596
Joined: 13 Mar 2014, 18:38

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby Lyberta » 21 May 2018, 07:07

Deleted.
Last edited by Lyberta on 01 Oct 2021, 09:28, edited 1 time in total.
Lyberta
 
Posts: 765
Joined: 19 Jun 2013, 10:45

Re: Spring: 1944, original, epic scale, World War II RTS gam

Postby ThinkSome » 26 May 2018, 20:37

Lyberta {l Wrote}:
ThinkSome {l Wrote}:Re-read what I said please: none of those distributions care about in-program downloads and both the game and engine are not distributed by the distro, but are downloaded by the lobby client(=Springlobby) itself.


Does the lobby have license filter or it just silently infects people's computers with proprietary software and assets without asking?

ThinkSome {l Wrote}:I agree that it would be excellent if the FSF pulled its head out of the sand.


Oh yes, I guess the better name for FSF would be Non-free Non-software Foundation.


There are no license filters. But Spring as the engine mandates game code to be under a GPLv2 compatible license. There is however no limit on art licensing.

The FSF should modernise and start caring for both hardware and program assets.
ThinkSome
 
Posts: 5
Joined: 13 May 2018, 14:57

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 1 guest