Collective work to re-do Shandalar 2015 from ground up

[LeMoeur]

Hi to everybody,

Been away for quite a while.. when i came back i found this very sad situation about Korath updates and i find this regression mostly unsettling. I wonder if maybe with the help of the whole community and with some insight from the DEVs we can redo what once was done.
For a brighter and stronger future!

A dreamer

[doenerchef]

Obviously I would love something like this, but any such project would have the IP-issues looming overhead forever. Modding an existing game to accept new cards and game mechanisms while at constant threat that the owner of the IP might pull the plug on the project is one thing, but builing a whole new game from scratch under the same conditions would be torturous for anyone involved (I imagine).

They way I see it, there should be two separate projects pursued here:
1) Create a stripped-down version of Korath's work, removing all non-Shandalar content (i.e. all cards the original Microprose game didn't have and all new deck lists), but maintaining all UI upgrades, bugfixes and potentially adding revamped deck lists, as some of the AI decks are quite weak in vanilla. Let's call this version Shandalar Plus.
This version could even include all the game mechanisms required for later editions and would still remain completely unproblematic from a WotC-IP-perspective, since the only MTG IP used is what was licenced to Mircoprose and is now owned by Atari. In my understanding this is exactly as dodgy as offering the ISO for the game is already. This could probably be achieved by simply taking the latest version of Korath's updates and deleting all non-Shandalar cards from it.
2) Use Shandalar Plus as a platform for the re-development of what we already had here before Korath deleted all his work. I honestly don't know enough about programming and modding to say, but I wonder how one would distinguish a complete recreation of Korath's work (with a few alterations, different choices, etc. here and there) from work based on his work. But I imagine there aren't too many distinct ways of adding a certain card, if you want to do it right.

[dingbat1]

This is what happens when nonlawyers try to lawyer.

No, it does not work that way.
The “IP issues” will ALWAYS be looming overhead, whether you strip it down or go whole hog. Everything about this project is a potential IP issue. It’s all on a scale from “grey area” to “ downright infringement. But from a practical issue WotC/Hasbro have taken a hands-off approach. They have set a handful of boundaries (no use of proprietary fonts)

[doenerchef]

This is what happens when nonlawyers try to lawyer.

No, it does not work that way.
The “IP issues” will ALWAYS be looming overhead, whether you strip it down or go whole hog. Everything about this project is a potential IP issue. It’s all on a scale from “grey area” to “ downright infringement. But from a practical issue WotC/Hasbro have taken a hands-off approach. They have set a handful of boundaries (no use of proprietary fonts)

Had you even read my post before responding? All I said was that providing an improved version of the base game with an overhauled UI but no additional WotC-owned content that wasn't already part of the original Microprose game would create no additional "IP issues" beyond whatever issues offering the ISO for the game already causes anyways (because it is in itself a modded version of the game).

[curtastic]

I'm interested in working on this. Has anyone ripped all the graphics for the world and player and towns etc?