The Beenox Website has just posted new news- that they are working on a new game engine like the quake engine and will be developing a new TPS (Third Person Shooter) with it?!?!?! I sure hope this doesnt mean that they are abandoning Coldstone, because it's never a good sign that a company who has just released a HUGE release to move onto another project and have polished screenshots so quickly.
(This message has been edited by maxx (edited 04-22-2002).)
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Originally posted by maxx:
I sure hope this doesnt mean that they are abandoning Coldstone, because it's never a good sign that a company who has just released a HUGE release to move onto another project and have polished screenshots so quickly.
Hello Mr. Maxx,
I hate to spoil your melancholy but just because Beenox is developing another game doesn't mean they have abandoned Coldstone. I do believe Ambrosia has 2 games they are developing, yet they have not abandoned their just released Nova, or SnapZ Pro X, or any of their other games.
Remember that there are many stages of software development, and many people work on it. There is art that needs to be done(the screenshots display the art work very well), but Coldstone doesn't need any additional art work. So no time conflicts there. There is definitely code work that needs to be done on a new design as well as code work needed to fix bugs and release patches for Coldstone, so there is a possible time conflict there.
Also remember that Beenox is a company, and a company makes no money doing bug fixes. Yes this is an important part of software development because lets face it, no one is going to buy software from a company that won't fix its bugs. But in order to make money the company has to release new products, so it makes sense that once a game is out to the market that a new project needs to be developed for release. This does not mean however that the released project is now ignored.
It is my guess that Beenox has enough employees that there are people able and willing to devote time to the Coldstone project, and Dee has stated that he has interests in making a Coldstone 2. So I don't think Coldstone is being neglected in the least.
Don't worry.
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Biggest security gap - an open mouth.
Funny, I was expecting such a topic when I openned the board this morning 
(as you can see, I still read the Coldstone and PoG boards on a regular basis).
I'll quote myself here from an interview with MacGamer that just got posted this morning:
How did Coldstone and the associated products (i.e. Ambrosia's Pillars of Garendall) work out for you guys?
Quite well! We're aware that the current version of Coldstone has some issues on OSX but I'm happy to announce that there is a new patch on its way. Coldstone 1.0.1 is in final beta testing as we speak. It includes numerous bug fixes but also some minor features for the game developers (and the plugin developers for P.o.G.!). We also got a nomination in the "Multimedia" category at the "Octas" contest, the highest computer contest here in the province of Quebec (the winner will be announced in June).
(And:...)
Will you be seeking a shareware publisher such as Ambrosia or will you be looking for a wider commercial release?
Our shareware days are over. Of course, we will continue to maintain Coldstone as it has a huge potential and I'm still very enthusiastic about it.
You can read the complete interview (url="http://"http://www.macgamer.com/features/publish.php?id=883")here(/url).
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Dee Brown
Beenox inc. - (url="http://"http://www.beenox.com")www.beenox.com(/url) (check our new web site!)
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/coldstone/")Coldstone Game Engine(/url) / (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/pog/")Pillars of Garendall(/url) developers
(This message has been edited by Dee (edited 04-23-2002).)
Quote
Originally posted by maxx:
**The Beenox Website has just posted new news- that they are working on a new game engine like the quake engine and will be developing a new TPS (Third Person Shooter) with it?!?!?! I sure hope this doesnt mean that they are abandoning Coldstone, because it's never a good sign that a company who has just released a HUGE release to move onto another project and have polished screenshots so quickly.
(This message has been edited by maxx (edited 04-22-2002).)**
God forbid a software company release more software 
As for VATZ, its for Xbox and hopeful working on it will bring forth new ideas that Dee can incroperate into the next Coldstone release and also the extra $$$ around the office of Beenox should free up time to devote to the CGE.
-stray
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'mentally I'm compatible with Macintosh and I can get a girl in the sack with floss, Hop on the microphone actin lost' --- Casual
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Originally posted by Dee:
** <snip>**
Some people would say you're selling out....
...not me though. 
Didn't see this topic till after I e-mailed you, oh well. Looks very nice, any chance of some movies for your loyal coldstone users?
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Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know we have something special for you at
Birdland this evening. A recording for Blue Note Records...
"Actions have reactions, don't be quick to judge, you may not know the hardships people don't speak of,
It's best to step back, and observe with couth, for we all must meet our moment of truth." - (url="http://"http://www.OHHLA.com/anonymous/gngstarr/moment/moment.gsr.txt")Guru(/url)
I understand beenox developing a game to actually make some money - i was under the impression that they were developing another game engine for sale (this time 3d) which i was certain spelled doom for coldstone...sorry
This goes out to Dee - I'm just curious if there will ever be a 2.o version (or 1.5 - whatever) that will take care of things like bullets passing through blocked areas, allies (very important I think), zoom (although I read that that requires 3d, so it's not that important), particles (same 3d thing as before I think), etc...? I really hope the answer is a yes, but I just want to know if I should rewrite some game ideas that I have and work with what I have - or sit tight (I'm not in a hurry) and wait for the upgrade which adds these features?
Thanks for your time!
I've seen a lot of posts recently about the bullets passin gthrough blocked areas being a bug. It isn't. If they didn't pass through, you'd end up with bullets that stopped when passing over a river or some such. And that would be just as bad.
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"... For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause..." - Willaim Shakespeare, Hamlet
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Originally posted by Celchu:
I've seen a lot of posts recently about the bullets passin gthrough blocked areas being a bug. It isn't. If they didn't pass through, you'd end up with bullets that stopped when passing over a river or some such. And that would be just as bad.
Correct. In order for something like this to work there would need to be at minimum a 3-tiered access condition:
Of course then one would also have to start tracking object animations in relation to the space they occupy. Ie, each tile it moves across you would have to check if it was blocked to it and if not, continue along its path.
And probably a few other things that I haven't thought of from the top of my head probably need to be done as well.
So I don't know if this is something that would be done in a "bug fix" type of thing, or even in a version update(ala. CS 1.1). But I doubt it unless the powers that be really want to include it.
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System going down at 1:45 this afternoon for disk crashing.
