Posted by Wildbill (pcp08580158pcs.alxndr01.va.comcast.net | 68.83.210.192) on June 29, 2004 at 14:40:54:
I, too, am supportive of Necro's release.
The needed finishing touches were minor, mainly the Intro that needed an ASM fix in the routine that makes the English text format and display correctly. An English title screen would have been nice, but would have been a complex ASM undertaking for one tiny feature.
I still have a few final beta messages to filter, otherwise, the game dialogue is finished. The beta testers on this project were quite diligent. I used several. Most worked hard. Because of the randomness of dungeon generation, I needed to play through quite a few times to seek every line in the dump. A few routines, I never saw, so I just formatted their scripts to fit the screens. I think we used a proportional font, so that made CPL counts an easy way to go.
Many people contributed to this project, including a number of bilingual translators. Necro built the inserter, and gave me almost unlimited room for text expansion.
What I enjoyed most about this game was how the town and shop grew around the castle. The people in the bar carried on a particularly zany discourse. I had a lot of fun with that.
I viewed this game as an extension of DW-IV. Thus, those interested in the project and I decided a long time ago to follow DW-IV naming conventions. Then, along came that PS release with the weird "Torneko" (or whatever it was) spelling for Taloon.
If I get time, I'll update Necro's release with a few final notes. In addition to Necro, who has my heartfelt appreciation for his efforts, the translators and beta testers deserve recognition, too.
BTW, Taskforce and I talk frequently. He is one of two people in the scene I've met personally. I plan to get out Oklahoma way someday and see him again, as well as have him visit us in Virginia, that is, if we ever get settled in one place.
I am particularly interested in finishing Hourai High School, Lennus-II, Mystic Ark, and DoaE-GB. We are in possession of fully translated scripts for those, as well as a few other games. If we get started again, I may suggest that we use our CTC vehicles for internal coordination, mostly.
We founded CTC with the idea of bringing together talent, based on the belief that Zophar's burgeoning site had devolved into a counterproductive format, especially after Steve folded his board. We conceived CTC as an "underground", to separate ourselves from the emulation world in general, that is, draw a distinction between purely players, and game translators, hackers, and creators.
If we return, maybe it's time to incorporate everything under the M-D banner, and go even further underground. I have reached a point in my life in which time is increasing valuable, with many competing demands. Anything I endeavor, recreational pursuits included, I want to work as efficiently as possible with dedicated professionals and committed individuals.
When it comes to scriptwriting, as with the novelist, a game writer creates for himself, first. On a hobby level, he endeavors to satisfy his inner circle of project collaborators. Then, if these works are released to the public, he may take a little time to enjoy compliments, even consider constructive criticism, but in order to remain productive, he doesn't have time to get "in the weeds" and deal with the clutter. His juices are better utilized channeling them into creative enterprises.
Simply put, for this writer, the more I screen out distractions, the more I'll achieve, but the main point is that, otherwise, I won't have time for certain pursuits, RPG translations specifically.
Finally, most (if not all) of moving forward will hinge on what Taskforce wants to do, and has time to do. Completion of certain projects will hinge on specific individuals, as in the case of Lennus-II, in which we probably cannot proceed unless `Bongo "hooks up" with us again, to help wade through and correct a number of mid-game ASM fix-related locks.
In the meantime, I hope people will enjoy TnD English. Many people put a lot of work into it, well over a thousand hours combined, I would guess.