Steam & Ivan (and greetz in general)

[Oleg Mastruko]

Hi guys, Oleg here - seeing names, nicks & stuff I guess there are more people here who know me (as I know them) than those I haven't had the opportunity to meet yet. <gets onstage, yells and makes stupid moves with hands doing 50 cent impersonation> Yowza to my buddies Vicenzo, Eddy, shout out to my homies from Matrix and war-historic, Don Maddox, guys from TOAW 'hood.... OK, I am not very good at this gangsta stuff.

Bullethead, some nice posts BTW....

What I think of DG - that it is already excellent game, with huge promise for the future of this engine - I already said in my preview for Wargamer, which can be read on their site (Don, you'll allow this I hope?).

I am Croatian BTW, but seeing some Croats here on the board already ummmhh... OK, I will just skip this and put some other flag in my profile to make things more interesting LOL! (I picked the country with ugliest flag to make you remember me easier.) Watch out though, seeing the alarming trends, we Croats will outnumber you soon, whoever you are. I think I had account on this forum loong ago but I forgot the password so I had to open a new one.

Now, lame jokes aside, I have two serious questions for developers (Norm & Jim). I think they are fitting for a public forum like this.

1.) Steam - Valve Steam. Have you thought of using Steam as distribution model for DG? Do you think in retrospect, it would have "off loaded" huge part of work that (presumably) went into developing your own licencing scheme, server side software, and what not. Norm posted that he tried Steam recently, buying Half Life 2, and that he's happy how it worked. (Incidentally, I bought HL2 over Steam as well). It all worked like charm. I pre-loaded another Steam-distributed game that is about to be released in March (Red Orchestra), and was beta tester for third (naval sim Dangerous Waters - I didn't buy this one via Steam, as I received complimentary beta copy when it was *originally* released more than a year ago).

I think I read somewhere Steam (ie Valve) takes hefty 40% of the price for "distribution services", but if it does what it should do, it should off load huuuge burden from the neck of developers, allowing them to devote solely to developing their game. After trying it, I am big supporter of Steam distribution model. (Matrix digital distribution, which relies on third party, Digital River, does not work nearly as good, even though I am Matrix fanboy, generally speaking.)

There is another thing - by distributing DG via Steam, this whole *mountain* of very unpleasant posts, regarding copy protection and what not, could have been avoided (in big part at least). Stupid question => redirect to Steam support: "sorry dude, we develop games, any questions re distribution and copy control, go ask Steam". Period. Wouldn't that be sweet? LOL No one would accuse YOU of being unfair, as they do now.

Also, there is this free marketing and "market exposure" you get via Steam, via their forums, net buzz etc. This is also something that should not be ignored. Many new guys noticed Dangerous Waters on Steam forums and their site etc.

So, to repeat my question - why not Steam as distribution model for DG?

2.) Ivan! What's not to like in a game with "code name" such as that? :bandit: Jim mentioned "Project Ivan" in some of his posts - without anyone even asking :smoke: and said it "will blow our socks off". Being a long time TOAW afficionado, and seeing Jim obviously *wants* to tell us more, how about this obvious question: tell us more about "Project Ivan"! LOL

Stay cool (that goes for you Bloodstar too :alien: )

Oleg

[JAMiAM]

Welcome to SZO, Oleg. Be careful wading into this sub forum. Lately, everybody has been a bit steamed, and the distant guns all seem to be pointed at one another's heads.:laugh:

[Don Maddox]

What I think of DG - that it is already excellent game, with huge promise for the future of this engine - I already said in my preview for Wargamer, which can be read on their site (Don, you'll allow this I hope?).

Hi Oleg. I don't mind you linking to another gaming site. There is some great content on Wargamer.

[Lempereur1]

Oleg:

There really is no problem with our distribution model. It works great! and we dont have to pay 40%. There are those who would like to see it fail!

Certain individuals have gone out of thier way to try and damage us before we even ship the game. I think its kind of funny that 3 or 4 of our major detractors here signed up here the day this forum went live and have done nothing but bad mouth us.

Funny that they come here and dont even post in the other forums, just bad mouth us.

They have not even seen the copy protection, much less played the game. YOu are only seeing the public side of this!

Thats ok though Oleg. Norm and I are big boys. These same people attacked me at Talonsoft. At the end of the day, the game is all the matters. No matter what someone says, no matter who points fingers, the proof is in the pudding.

If our pudding is better, we win. If not, we lose. We enjoy the financial ability to do what ever title we choose. Thats the best part!

Leveling outright slanderous, outrageous attacks on the most prolific, user friendly, kindest game developer I have ever met, Norm Koger, is where I draw the line. The minions have crossed over it.

I dont care what they say about me, but I do care what they say about Norm.

These very same people come here and act like they are doing people a service by hounding us? I dont think so.

Do they really think that looking up my SEC records for Take Two and trying to publish them out on the net hurts me?

All they had to do was ask I would tell them that my net worth is north of $24 Million dollars(and growing).....:{} :laugh: and I own more Take Two shares than I started with! (Ya gotta know when to buy, like right now) And this valuation is after Take Two stock took a recent hit due to slowed industry wide game sales.

I am not doing this for the money....I love this stuff. Very happy indeed.

BUt Norm's ferrets have thier needs and they DO need the money.

The Old Guard has been committed. Its moving forward, steadily, unchecked. The pitiful diversions that are at hand are just that. Our copy protection and distribution works just fine!

The closer we get to release, the more enemy morale slips away.

The bar is about to be raised to the year 2009, the year which I estimate it will take them to catch up!

I dont remember who it was that said someting like "you can judge your success by how much your attacked by your enemies" or something like that.

Thanks

[Bullethead]

Oleg Mastruko said:
Bullethead, some nice posts BTW....

Thank you, sir. I do my best :devil:

1.) Steam - Valve Steam.

This seems to be sore subject which has resulted in most of the locked threads you see in here, as well as a few bannings and lots guys getting onto various folks' "ignore list". I would approach it with great caution.

From my perspective on the sidelines, it appears that's it's all a moot point because whatever SES has planned for DG is already in place and we'll just have to live with it. Too late to change it now.

Also, many of those who've gotten into trouble with this subject seem fixated on the notion that SES won't last very long, or are concerned that they won't be able to play DG on another computer years down the road. Life's too short to worry about that, IMHO. Enjoy it while you've got it, and remember that some sort of major OS and hardware change is inevitably due in the next couple years anyway, which will do to Windows games what Windows did to DOS games. In a few years, you won't be able to run any of today's software on a new machine, which makes concerns about DG's copy protection and SES's longevity also moot.

[Bloodstar]

Stay cool (that goes for you Bloodstar too :alien:

Don't worry Oleg and I never, ever acted without reason or some provocation, so I don't mind coming you here and posting, welcome. In any case I don't think that you will act here strenge hehe as I know that you are fan of Norm Koger. Nothing wrong with that, I can also say that.

So from me, tomahawk is buried. :salute:


Mario

[stache]

Certain individuals have gone out of thier way to try and damage us before we even ship the game. I think its kind of funny that 3 or 4 of our major detractors here signed up here the day this forum went live and have done nothing but bad mouth us.


Perhaps they were motivated by your complete lack of candor, and the fact that you and your partner scurried away from public forums at the first sign of serious criticism.


Funny that they come here and dont even post in the other forums, just bad mouth us.


How do you know they don't post in other forums?


They have not even seen the copy protection, much less played the game. YOu are only seeing the public side of this!


I haven't seen the inside of a Turkish prison, either, but I'm pretty sure I don't want any part of it.

Thats ok though Oleg. Norm and I are big boys.

Yeah, ignoring questions from the public, killfiling anyone who dares advance a criticism, and demanding they be banned from the forum certainly qualifies as a non-juvenile way to operate.


Leveling outright slanderous, outrageous attacks on the most prolific, user friendly, kindest game developer I have ever met, Norm Koger, is where I draw the line. The minions have crossed over it.


The line was crossed when you and Koger made the decision to treat your customers like criminals.

And that's the great pity here.

Stan

[Don Maddox]

Perhaps they were motivated by your complete lack of candor, and the fact that you and your partner scurried away from public forums at the first sign of serious criticism.

Stache, you are now in violation of the TERMS OF USE and FORUM RULES of this site. You were banned from the site yesterday as 'Chetnikk' and you provided false and misleading information in your account. You have now attempted to evade the ban by creating multiple user accounts with ficticious names and false information.

Tread with extreme caution, Sir. You have gone to considerable lengths to disguise your real name and identity, but perhaps not so good as you suppose.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Also, many of those who've gotten into trouble with this subject seem fixated on the notion that SES won't last very long, or are concerned that they won't be able to play DG on another computer years down the road. Life's too short to worry about that, IMHO. Enjoy it while you've got it, and remember that some sort of major OS and hardware change is inevitably due in the next couple years anyway, which will do to Windows games what Windows did to DOS games. In a few years, you won't be able to run any of today's software on a new machine, which makes concerns about DG's copy protection and SES's longevity also moot.

I am not overly concerned with copy protection issues, in fact I am not concerned at all. I have played the preview version and I can't say copy protection ever got in the way of having fun with the game.

There are so many more interesting things to discuss about this game and this engine, than to waste time on copy protection and such....

O.

[dhuffjr]

If our pudding is better, we win. I'm partial to tapioca myself.....those swiss hotties make the best:cheeky:


I dont care what they say about me, but I do care what they say about Norm. I have to say that I'm a fan of Norms past efforts....never played TOAW though. Red Lightning is great though. Jim your kinda like that vp candidate for Perot...who are you?:laugh:

I've followed some of this discussion with an interest in entertainment. If you don't like the distribution model copy protection don't buy it. Really its not that hard. I'm starting to wonder if the "detractors" are not really employees of Steam (whatever that is) or some other such endeavor.

Now that I have your attention :D ---something that might be worth considering is to release Red Lighting, the Korean war game, and Arab Israeli wars to a new developer....there are some great nuggets in each that if combined would make a really neat classic wargame...not to mention give a and comming developer something to cut his teeth on and make a small name for himself. Just my thoughts for the 2 cents they are worth.

DG sounds like it is a great engine for future developement. Not my cup of tea persay but maybe in a future development. Great screen shots though, itooks great, I'm sure you'll do well with it.

.....and Oleg, welcome to the forums!

[Lempereur1]

Thanks for the kind words!

We are actually using the Korean War as one of the test beds for IVAN!
Opps..

:whist:

[nemo]

We are actually using the Korean War as one of the test beds for IVAN!
Opps..

:whist: :laugh: Come on now, enough teasing, spit it out!

[JAMiAM]

:laugh: Come on now, enough teasing, spit it out!
Norm gave us some info on this, a few months ago, here (http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33718) .

...We also have an operational land campaign engine ("project Ivan") at an advanced stage of development. It's nowhere near as ready as the RJW title, but it's coming down the tracks - and while it is quite different in many respects, it could be considered a competitor to Classic TOAW. When the time comes, you can be the judge. Everything I'm doing these days is real-time and 3d based. The same kind of attention to what I consider fundamentals (...if a shell of a certain weight flies in this way, at this velocity, and strikes a target with this amount of armor of this particular type at this point, at this angle, does it penetrate or bounce off? etc...) is there, but now that is accompanied by things like specular lighting considerations and Doppler effects for sounds emitted by moving objects. The engine is designed to work, with variations, for both naval and land games, operational and tactical, or even a mix of the two. This is where ALL of my effort is going right now.

Things might have been different, but the fact of the matter is that I had to move on and I am no longer free to tinker endlessly with TOAW. Even if I were, there would be an obvious conflict of interest considering my newer projects...

[nemo]

Norm gave us some info on this, a few months ago, here (http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33718) .Thanks for the link - I remember now having read this post in fact. This memory of mine is falling apart.

[Lempereur1]

NOrm and I were pleased when Matrix picked up support for the Talonsoft games. They are kind of like our children. Matrix will do an excellent job supporting them!