h1. Public Relations
-Our first announcement of this project is coming immediately after illfonic first announces their Nexuiz game at GDC http://www.gdconf.com
-Their announcement could happen anytime during that conference, which is held March 9th - 13th.
+Our first announcement of this project is coming sometime after illfonic first unveils their Nexuiz game at GDC http://www.gdconf.com
+which is held March 9th - 13th.
-Here, we will organize the ideas behind our first project announcement.
+h2. Some supporting requirements before we make this announcement.
+
+* Setup IRC channels
+* Finish initial logo
+* Prepare website with at least
+** a simple frontpage placeholder
+** and a forum for answering questions
+* Setup twitter and facebook pages
+* a FAQ page focused on the fork
+** we'll add entries to it as we go
+** we'll refer people to this whenever we can
+
+h2. This announcement will be pushed out through the following channels
+
+* Through "HELP" system on popular Nexuiz servers, like Simba in Europe and HOCTF/HODM in US
+* Slashdot, digg, reddit and other social news sites
+* Nexuiz IRC channels and private messaging
+* Alientrap forum
+* Email or PM to key individuals who left Nexuiz long ago (Perhaps using AT or NN forum private messaging)
+
+While our official project announcement is going to be very neutral, the Slashdot/digg/reddit posts will reflect more of the community's overall impression of the Illfonic issue.
+
+h2. Goals
The main goal for this introductory announcement is to state *1) our reasons* and *2) our plans*, but we will focus more on our plans. This announcement shouldn't focus on finger-pointing. Rather, it should focus on our own values and the goals that we plan to accomplish with this new game. We will have to touch upon the *broken trust* that stemmed from decisions made behind closed doors. But our main goal for this announcement is to make our intentions clear, and, of course, to unveil the new name. We want to begin filling up our IRC channels and our website.
h2. What is going on?
-# a new game formed from the major contributors of Nexuiz GPL
-# the name of the game is Xonotic
-# the website is xonotic.org
-# irc channel is #xonotic on quakenet
+# A new game formed from the major contributors of Nexuiz GPL
+# The name of the game is Xonotic
+# The website is xonotic.org
+# IRC channel is #xonotic on quakenet
+# Development IRC channel is #xonotic @ freenode
h2. Reasons
-# trust issues
-# a fresh start
-# focus on our values
+# Trust issues
+# A fresh start
+# Focus on our values
h2. Project changes
-# restructure project leadership for more balance
-# improved project organization
-# more community focus
-# better attention to marketing and public relations
-# a more defined artistic direction
-# more emphasis on recruiting and communicating with new contributors to the project
+# Restructure project leadership for more balance
+# Improved project organization
+# More focus on the community
+# Better management of marketing and public relations
+# A more defined artistic direction
+# More emphasis on recruiting and communicating with new contributors to the project
h2. What will change in the game?
-# new set of player models
-# new set of sounds
-# default maps will get a makeover
-# new names for some weapons and gamemodes, especially ones using the "nex" prefix
+# New set of player models
+# New player animations
+# New set of sounds
+# Default maps will get a makeover
+# New names for some weapons and game modes
+# Improved bot AI system
+# Increased quality and detail of textures
h2. Timeline
-# we can't give a timeline
-# instead, we will invite people to our IRC channels and to our website to keep updated
+# We can't give a timeline at this moment but we will try to produce our first release as soon as we can
+# Instead, we will invite people to our IRC channels and to our website to keep updated
h2. The name
-# some reasons why we chose the name
+# Uniqueness
+# Most voted by the team
+# Other reasons about why we chose the name
h2. Summary
# We appreciate everyone's support
-# We look forward to creating a game that everyone will enjoy.
+# We will try to be open and supportive with new potential contributors (as opposed to "I'm too 1337 for you" attitude)
+# We want to keep an active flow of information among the team members
+# We look forward to creating a game that everyone will enjoy
-h2. Details or topics we will not mention in this announcement
+h2. Details or topics we will not mention in our announcement
(better to spread out to future announcements)
# Central user system
# Website features
# Details about roles
-
-h1. Our announcement
-
-(Here is where the announcement copy will start)
-
-We'd like to formally announce the beginnings of our new community project, Xonotic. The founders of Xonotic were first Nexuiz[link] developers, contributors and believers. On March 3rd 2010 IllFonic announced[AT link] their aquisition of nexuiz.com[link], rights to the name and a commercial license from Id Software[link] for the original Quake 1 game engine, so build a closed source console version of Nexuiz. A large portion of the community was very upset by this surprise because Lee Vermeulen failed to complete his due diligence to contributors and more importantly the development team known as 'Alientrap', which in this deal only consisted of Lee Vermeulen and Forest Hale (Darkplaces Engine creator).
-
-An open-letter[link] fell on deaf ears, Vermeulen didn't apologize and trust has been lost.
-
-Developers and contributors joined together to create Xonotic. Beyond being a first person shooter based on Nexuiz (GPL) 2.5.2svn[link], Xonotic aims to be a rethink and reorganization of how we share a GPL video game and organize the services around it.
-
-[still reworking]
-
-
-h1. v2 expanded by Spaceman
-
-We formally announce the beginning of our new community project, Xonotic[link].
-
-The founders of the Xonotic[link] project and community were once Nexuiz[link] developers, contributors and believers.
-
-On March 3rd 2010 IllFonic announced[AT link] their aquisition of nexuiz.com[link], the rights to the games name and a commercial licence for the original Quake 1 game engine for a closed source console version of Nexuiz.
-
-Following their announcement a large portion of the community joined together to create Team Xonotic[link] and an enduring legacy. Beyond being a first person shooter based on Nexuiz (GPL), Team Xonotic aims to be a rethink and reorganization of how a community creates an open source video game and organizes the services around it.
-
-A distinct lack of leadership (the announced 253 hot fix is 5 months late), the underhand manner that AlienTrap used to sell the game code and the loss of the Nexuiz identity caused a huge uproar in the game community. This brought together the game coders and players in a community revolt.
-
-Team Xonotic[link] will be run by a small team of volunteers with no one in total control. All significant decisions will be made by an elected body of six people.
-
-Xonotic 1.0 is planned to be released in about 6 months. Today a compatibilty pack has been released that will rebrand Nexuiz 252.
-
-Team Xonotic
-
-h1. v3, edited by a grue -- re-edited by -z-
-
-On March 3rd, 2010, game developer IllFonic[link] announced that they had acquired a commercial, closed-source license for Nexuiz[link], its engine (darkplaces[link]) and the rights to the game's name from Alientrap. Much to the surprise of everyone who considered themselves part of Alientrap, only Lee Vermeulen (Nexuiz's original creator) was 'Alientrap' in this deal. After exhausting all options for compromise with Lee and IllFonic, including an open letter from the community[link], it became clear that the deal had been finalized and things were not going to change. A large portion of the community, including several major Nexuiz developers and contributors, joined together to continue development under a new name, where we can preserve our freedoms, stay open-source and community-based.
-
-While functionality-wise being a direct successor to Nexuiz, the Xonotic[link] project is a rethink and reorganization of how a community creates an open source video game and organizes the services around it. The idea is to bring game development and design under the community control and to change the development process in a way that will make it easier to contribute. The major organizational change is that the decisions affecting the game at large will be made by an elected group of three to six people, XSG (Xonotic Steering Group), with no single person maintaining total control.
-
-The major technical change is the transition of development to the Git version control system, which should make collaboration much easier. While the push (i.e. write) access to the master branch will be limited to a few people, many more will have permissions to create and maintain topic branches, which can then be easily tested and integrated into the master.
-
-Without getting into much detail, a few other mentionable changes in planning are:
-
-Missing project changes:
-# better attention to marketing and public relations
-# a more defined artistic direction
-
-Missing game changes:
-# new set of player models
-# new set of sounds
-# default maps will get a makeover
-# new names for some weapons and gamemodes, especially ones using the "nex" prefix
-
-An explanation is due regarding the name choice. It was decided by a voting from a list of names, which was compiled based on several factors, primarily availability of the domain name and pronouncability. The choice had to be kept secret to avoid cybersquatting attempts.
-
-While we don't have a specific timeline for the first release under the new title, you can track the progress and updates here, the new website[link] and on IRC:
-
-#xonotic on irc.quakenet.org - general discussion
-#xonotic on irc.freenode.org - development discussion
-
-We look forward to creating a game that everyone will enjoy. Your support is much appreciated.
-
-The Xonotic team.
projects / xonotic / xonotic.wiki.git / blobdiff