|
frEqUEntlY AskEd qUEstIOns Q: Why are you re-releasing a BBS door game? Aren't doors obsolete? A: It's not going to be a door game anymore. Ultimate Universe is being completely rebuilt from the ground up to use an internet connection instead of a modem, and to handle authentication and multiuser play internally. In a nutshell, it's being turned into a MUD. Q: Is Garth Bigelow still involved in the project? A: Garth Bigelow is still the creator of the game, and as such will continue to exert strong influence over the direction UU follows in the foreseeable future. A long-term strategic alliance has been forged, and Garth will definitely have a hand in the development for at least the next three years. Q: What are you changing about the game? A: Nothing, just yet. We don't want to ruin what we are all agreed is a great game. We are, however, open to suggestions; you can email them to ultimate@ultimate-universe.com if you have any great ideas. We are specifically interested in ways we can make the game easier to learn for new players, as it is difficult to look at the game through those eyes after the many years we've been playing. Q: What platforms will be supported? A: We are currently targeting Windows and Linux, although we do not plan to make a full source release. This plan may change at some point in the future, but the server will be released in precompiled binary form only at first. Q: Will there be a development kit, and how extensive will it be? A: There will be a development kit provided which has comparable coverage to the original UUdevkit archive. We expect to provide more documentation and to encapsulate the kit in C++ classes for ease of development. The use of the development kit will be royalty-free as always. Q: Will the universal key still work? A: There are no plans to invalidate any existing registration keys at this time. How we're ever going to realise any returns from this project is still under examination. Q: How far along are you in development? A: As of May 10, 1999, we have a Windows-native version of DAILY.EXE which is undergoing preliminary testing. Once we feel confident that Bad Things will not happen to your game when using this executable, we will release it for public beta to ensure that it works flawlessly on all systems. It's not as pretty as the DOS version, and there are still some logic errors to be tracked down, but it compiles cleanly... which means we now have a clean Visual C++ browse file to work with. Q: Will you be porting the utilities, too? A: The current plan is to port all TSE utilities to Windows-native applications. The logic behind this is that the vast majority of server operators will be running Windows, and doing their editing remotely. The previous requirement of running your utilities on the local machine from the same directory the game is in cannot reasonably be continued. All utilities should continue to work in a DOS box under Windows 9x/NT for the 2.5 release. |