This is not the L2J client project, although it is somewhat related.
About 2 years ago, some members from L2J decided to make a client for L2J, we had a secret forum and lots of discussion over many months, but eventually the project was put aside due to lack of resource on the main L2J server.
Then, 1 year ago, a small group of us revisited the idea of making a client, however this time we agreed we would be better off writing a server core from scratch due to the complexities of decoupling the L2 elements from L2J and the licensing problems posted by the GPL. Could our client work with L2J? Yes of course, but then we could also use the knowledge and experience we have from L2J to make something original and more optimised to our task.
We recognised that many of the problems we've had with L2J have been related to people forking/stealing code and making repacks and the need to release all our source code gives serious security and distribution worries we'd prefer to avoid. An additional rationale was of course costs. To host and run a large MMO costs a LOT of money, not to mention advertising and development costs, so we want to keep our options open with regard to being able to license our software or the service, which is hard to do if we make it all GPL.
It is however developed in a community spirit - if people wan't to gain access to the source and contribute we welcome them to join us, but on our terms, we don't want anyone to launch our game before we do
Our project was started in the summer last year by a few core members. Since then, some othere people as you know have been looking at making an L2J client again. That is a different set of people. It seems that project has faced similar starting problems to our first attempt at an L2J client project, although it would be great to see it succeed. It would be great news if some of those people would like to join forces with us though as I think we have a similar goal - to make a great new MMO of our own
The state of our project is that we have spent over half a year developing a good client core. We have produced a wrapper for Ogre 1.7 (the latest Ogre engine) in C#, which allows us to use the best open source 3D engine from a nice managed environment. The bridge between our Java skills and C# is quite straightforward as C# is largely based on Java. The core is now quite ready to begin building the game, and we have a working paging, splattable terrain system with shaders, Hydrax ocean system, SkyX sky and environment system, MyGUI gui system and paging geometry system for grass and trees.
Development on the server side is now also underway and we have the initial core running, but its in its starting stages and that's why we turn to the best server community for help once again
We kept the team very small at first, as one of the main problems our initial client effort suffered from was "too many cooks" syndrome. With over 20 people in the discussions, there were so many different ideas and opinions and it was hard to go in any direction.
This time we have done the ground work and got things started off so that there is a clear direction and project management at the start and we have already ruled out the impossiblities. This time most of the technical limitations have already been overcome and there is nothing left to prevent this effort from succeeding except that it is a huge undertaking and the current team really needs to grow if we are going to get everything done within a reasonable time frame.
I really hope some of the people who are interested in making an original MMO will step forwards to help us. Really we only need one or two people who are skilled at C#, C++ or Java to make this work. If anyone is good at 3d modelling, design or artwork we could also use their help too.
So, if you're interested please do let me know. This is really a team of people who love games and MMOs. It doesn't really matter what level of skill or knowledge you have, we just want people who are willing to put in some effort and have a passion for creating our own online universe
