Sooo... where's that Skulltag source code?

Well as you probably know, many many months ago the Skulltag team promised that it would soon open the source, and as you definitely know, this has yet to materialize. So to make this simple, what exactly is causing the delay? Answers would be greatly appreciated.

Or was that announcement nothing more than a shill to boost interest in Skulltag?

Edit: Sorry if this comes off as a little bit demanding, but it's been many months and absolutely nothing has happened. I was skeptical about the announcement from the start, and I'm doubtful that it'll ever happen now.

The source code to at least one older build was released, but not the current up-to-date version. Beyond that, I have no idea what the plans are.

I thought that they settled on releasing a version suitably out of date as to not threaten their security-by-obscurity scheme, personally, which I consider to be much preferable to having no source release.

The promised release is on the downloads page near the bottom (in the "older versions" section). Future source releases are planned, but there no set deadlines for them.

So in other words, the source code for a version is never going to be released at the same time as the executable? I thought Skulltag was going to go fully open source, guess I was wrong though :(. Thanks anyways.

T@rget said:

So in other words, the source code for a version is never going to be released at the same time as the executable?

Not necessarily never, but at the moment it's how it's gonna work.

T@rget said:

I thought Skulltag was going to go fully open source, guess I was wrong though :(. Thanks anyways.

Several of the Skulltag developers would be favorable to going fully open source. But there are issues to be solved first.

Security-through-obscurity is not a foolproof scheme, and the developers are well aware of that. But it at least heighten the barrier to entry a bit for cheaters. And the devs prefer to work on the "game" parts of the code rather than the "cop" parts, so STO is what we get for now.

T@rget said:

So in other words, the source code for a version is never going to be released at the same time as the executable? I thought Skulltag was going to go fully open source, guess I was wrong though :(. Thanks anyways.

I'll ask Torr about this. 98e should be releasing soon, and I agree with you that it's been far too long since a source release, as the last one gave us unlagged and ScoreDoomST.

EDIT: Bug 291 has a request for a more recent open-source Skulltag, with a request to consider going completely open source.

Gez said:

Security-through-obscurity is not a foolproof scheme, and the developers are well aware of that. But it at least heighten the barrier to entry a bit for cheaters.

I don't think it's cheating as much as stupid kids trying to hack into someone's box using Skulltag as a portal. This bothers me, because some of the shitkickers are so pissed off about clanwars and who is internet sexting who and other dramatic BULLSHIT that no one else cares about, that some pissed off 15 year-old with way too much time on his hands can craft up a way to fuck someone's server over, or a client over. I've seen it happen on Graal Online back in the late 90s.

It's pretty sad that something as ancient as Doom would attract these morons. You would think these people would be more interested in whatever modern game is currently popular.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Alexmax! Please keep the pressure on, as I don't want the developers to forget about this again :). It will be one great day when Skulltag finally goes completely open source, let's just hope that day is soon :).

This is excellent news indeed. Skulltag will benefit greatly from going completely open source. Perhaps I might donate a few patches myself. Now if only we could get Zdaemon to follow suit, too bad that is never going to happen. I suggest that both Altdeath and Doomworld stop posting any news articles or references to any closed source ports. The last thing we should do is aid these ports in gaining more players.

Cyberbaron2 said:

I suggest that both Altdeath and Doomworld stop posting any news articles or references to any closed source ports. The last thing we should do is aid these ports in gaining more players.

YES, i am never finishing that IDL writeup! eat that, alex!
*goes back to writing it*

Cyberbaron2 said:

I suggest that both Altdeath and Doomworld stop posting any news articles or references to any closed source ports. The last thing we should do is aid these ports in gaining more players.

And that's going to get anybody what?

dew said:

YES, i am never finishing that IDL writeup! eat that, alex!
*goes back to writing it*

IDL is open source! Ladna released the site source code and zdstack :)