I just finished reading the consolidated patch notes for "i25" and, I must say, if I had to chose, I'd rather play "i25" then a perfectly re-created "i24."
It just fixes so many things. And while I would't agree with all the ways they handled no longer having a real-money or auction-house economy... for the most part, it's perfectly fine.
And while I haven't tried it, people who've been using i25's revamped Base-Builder have only raved about it.
If any group wants to have an i24 server, they'd be better off with i25 and just reverting or removing a few things they'd do differently to make it more like i24 rather than take i24 and making all the fixes already done in i25. IMO.
Well, now the 'cat is out the bag' if Leandro or SCORE want to run a server with issue 25 and it's continued development, I'd be happy with that.
I think SCORE have shown good judgement in the releases of ICON, Paragon Chat (the SG base is superb work and points to how they would reverse engineer the rest of the game.)
It was 'taking time' and they 'kept it a secret' both things I won't condemn them for.
The 'work' they've done so far shows good judgement and common sense.
That doesn't mean the community can't enjoy or have 'as per shutdown' i23. (Sorry, i24 which wasn't officially released? So it isn't 'official' either...mere beta...the wider community didn't have that either due to the hand of 'god' or NC Soft.) i24 nearly made it...but thanks to the preservation work of SCORE we have it. (And the original brave dev' who leaked the plans to the Death Star...) I'd like to know more about i25 personally. And maybe if Tony V can sort out a deal with NC, SCORE can use Titan as the home of that dev' distro/strain/version.
I hope (and I think they will...) SCORE continue along their development path with i25 'Unbroken Shard'. I think the last 6 years 'is about right' in terms of getting something out there. Regardless of how it happened. Sometimes in life, it takes how long it takes. 'When it's ready or when it's done.'
And while I'm 'pontificating' (that's what forums are for, eh?)
So, SCORE took the 'market' out the game. Easier. Makes sense to me. We didn't have it in the early game. Big deal. That's more in line with heroes, Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark asides...
As someone noted above, the 'grey morality' of the universe (you believe what your politicians and mainstream media tell you, right? Or that WWF is well rehearsed real? Or that WWF and Politics are not so strangely related...) of the community contrasted with heroes in the game? Meh. *shrugs. Heroes pick pocketing the goons they beat up to go trade and play 'wall street' Michael Douglas on the stock exchange.
And that isn't a quandary? Noooo.....god bless crony capitalism. Even the 'heroes' are at it... *Biff, wham, wallop, *pick pockets the 'villain' and sells his 'moral gains' by short selling on the 'stock' exchange.
Lies and truths. Truth depends greatly upon our point of view. Especially after the way NC Soft treated the devs', the community and their customers. In that context, I'm happy that a dev' leaked the code and happy that SCORE preserved the legacy that we are playing now.
Sure that's against the law. Ahhh, naughty. But it's ok for corporations to lobby and 'buy' politicians and stack the 'law' in their favour with ransome ware licence ware that sucks the life out of its host until it's a hollowed husk remains and leave it lying on the floor when they've extracted all they can from it. (We have an 'empty' box with a client with no 'pulse' because 'It's dead Jim.') Call it 'subscription' call it rental call it 'you don't own it' call it you don't own anything call it the odds are stacked against you. But hey, it's the 'law' so it must be 'right'. As somebody put it on the Discord (you have to look carefully amongst the blood lust and fever pitch...), 'Corporations aren't human.' Deal with them accordingly.
I'm happy that brave 'patriots' leak the fact that our governments spy on us. Some may condemn as traitors.
'I don't trust the government. I don't trust alternatives. It's not that I'm paranoid. That's just the way it is.' Fish.
What of it?
Azrael.
