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Stuart, we are possibly containing some of the greatest gaming minds inside of our little populous community, and many would love a chance to develop the next Populous game, but the one thing that stands in our way is the source code. How on earth do you suggest we get something like that?
How much do you think Populous has progresses since Bullfrog has left?
If there was any new Populous project in development, would you be interested in helping with it?
Would you know if there is a way to extend the maximum number of codes [4,095] in a script file?
What features were removed from the final release of the game?
Was there a reason super warriors were renamed fire warriors?
Does anyone from the Populous development team still play Populous [online or offline]?
I guess it's inevitable that any free service has a limited shelf life. I think in the case of the Populous server there was some complaints made by users over other users and EA took the view that it was easier to close down the server than continue. Dungeon Keeper 2 i can't comment on - but again, it's not a surprise that games servers that are offered as free are eventually closed down - the running costs aren't free and when a game is no longer making money and the number of visitors has dropped right down then companies will close them
Lol! You'd have to get it out of Electronic Arts - which is very very unlikely unless they one day decide to open source their old games. Very very few companies do this - in part due to lawyers who are worried about legal issues arising out of people using internal code (ranging from illegal usage of open source through to dodgy commenting of code by programmers). Typically it's safer just not to release.
How much do you think Populous has progresses since Bullfrog has left? [GoD]khaos
Not sure what you mean by this question. Populous The Beginning (and the expansion) were the last games i'm aware that were released - we did start on a Pop4 at Bullfrog but unfortunatley the lack of breakthrough success of TB meant that it wasn't commercially viable :-( EA could potentially resurrect it again...
patrol fires (with the 'n' key from memory) was very much by design and was for real advanced players. Landbridge to freeze volcanoes sounds like a bug that can be exploited. Lay plans in world view - at one point the entire game was playable in world view but i got it removed - primarily as i felt that real advanced players would only play the game in this view which rather defeated the object of the pretty graphics. Didn't know about the guard tower door thing - certainly the higher the guard tower was increased it's range and that was by design. Shamans casting spells mid flight we were aware of but we thought it was funny so kept it in.
If there was any new Populous project in development, would you be interested in helping with it? TedTycoon
Phew! Much as i'd love to work on another Populous game my time is fully spent working on projects at Lionhead - so i just don't feel i'd have the time to commit. Besides if i was to go back and work on one game again that i made it would be X-Com.
Why did EA stop supporting Populous: The Beginning although as we can see its still a very popular and often used game online? [GoD]Karakrot
I guess it's just inevitable that games stop being supported over a certain time unless they are still very popular. I know that you guys say it's still very popular now but a measure of popularity for a publisher is probably hundred fold the numbers that are playing it nowadays. I guess the support would have lasted longer if more people had bought the game but sales were never stellar compared to other RTS games like C&C.
Dunno. That would be pretty cool though :-)
Would you know if there is a way to extend the maximum number of codes [4,095] in a script file? Danzence_DT
Sorry - no idea!
What features were removed from the final release of the game? Fredrick
Good question. Probably the two biggest features not to make it in the final game were dynamic wall building/landscape manipulation and an editor. The landscape stuff was really cool but the interface was just a little fiddly and the editor was just too much work in the time we had to finish the game.
See above response to Fredrick - we had them in and working - it was the interface side that was complicated (manipulating something in 3d with a 2d mousepointer is problematic!)
Was there a reason super warriors were renamed fire warriors? Smowy_DT
I can't really remember. I know we renamed them quite late in the development. It may have been purely down to the fact that 'super warriors' inferred that they were the best unit... which is debatable :-)
Does anyone from the Populous development team still play Populous [online or offline]? Nightmare
I don't know. I know i've tried a few times but getting it to work on Vista is quite problematic. I've dusted it off a few times over the years to play it though. I'm still a big gamer and love playing RTS / FPS / RPG games - it was a real honour to work with the Populous team and between us i think we're all very proud of the game we created.
I'd just like to give a thanks to everyone who submitted questions and a HUGE thanks to Stuart Whyte for not only doing the two Q & A's but also supporting the Populous community all these years.
This will be the last Q & A I do with Stuart Whyte. Sorry if you didn't get to send your question in!