[all] Some general questions

[quaxocal]

Well the two I'd be most likely to work with would be either Angband or Zangband (the two that I'm most comfortable with playing, its hard to get into some of the others, and a couple I won't play because I just can't deal with all the ASCII symbols for graphics).

So seems like as long as credit is given to the original authors (who wouldn't do that) and nothing charged, then can be modified as seen fit.

Which leads me to another question.


Are there any good programs around which would enable me to play with the code in the .exe files and other files in Angband (or another variant)?

[Magnate]

This is going to be a strange post, as I'm not sure how to word it.

How exactly do licenses work for the variants of Angband? It seems like they are open-source, which means anyone can modify the contents as long as they give credit to the original authors and not make any monetary gain on it (must always be freeware). Do you have to have permission from an author to modify things?

I have some experience with C programming (though its been a few years, when I was in college), and a MASSIVE amount of experience with pretty much every kind of rpg imaginable.

So, what I was wanting to do, was taking a variant and updating it and modifying it a bit, to make a more fulfilling and challenging game. How would I go about this? Can I go about this?

Any information would be helpful.

Angband has its own licence, which is included with every distribution (and every variant, I think). It is fairly liberal, much as you expect above. You can modify stuff, but can't charge money for it, and need to credit original authors whose work you modify. Some variants may have slightly different licences.

There is a project to bring Angband (Vanilla) fully under the GPL, but it is unfinished - several people remain to be contacted to release their contributions under the GPL.

The bottom line is that nobody is likely to object to you releasing any modified version of V or any other existing variant, providing you give proper credit to whoever's work you use. (With the possible exception of the author of Utumno who is rumoured to have a bee in his bonnet about such things - but since nobody's heard of him for years, and Utumno is extremely unlikely to be the variant you choose to use for your modifications, all should be well.)

Good luck,

CC

[quaxocal]

This is going to be a strange post, as I'm not sure how to word it.


How exactly do licenses work for the variants of Angband? It seems like they are open-source, which means anyone can modify the contents as long as they give credit to the original authors and not make any monetary gain on it (must always be freeware). Do you have to have permission from an author to modify things?


I have some experience with C programming (though its been a few years, when I was in college), and a MASSIVE amount of experience with pretty much every kind of rpg imaginable.

So, what I was wanting to do, was taking a variant and updating it and modifying it a bit, to make a more fulfilling and challenging game. How would I go about this? Can I go about this?

Any information would be helpful.