Good time of day to you, friends. I am Maxim Bodrikov, project manager of Majesty 2.
I'll try to answer your questions as completely as the NDA (i.e. the non-disclosure agreement, in case anyone doesn't know) allows.
We read the main forums where Majesty 2 discussion takes place very attentively. We apologize for the lack of direct answers. Our silence is caused by the fact that, in the past, all such attempts were buried under the heap of dirt and direct insults from trolls of all stripes. I hope that they've calmed down already, and the only ones remaining on the forum are adequate players who really care about the game, and who are prepared to discuss rather than insult.
Unfortunately, Roman Lupashevsky cannot answer your questions in full, as he alone works on PR of over 400 games. Of course, with such a workload, he can't dig deep into the game, and doesn't have any details - he doesn't have enough time to chat to us and find them out.
Trust me that we, just as you are, concerned about the fate of Majesty. It's our favorite child, on which we've spend several years of our lives. At this point we work very hard to make the game better, fix the remaining bugs, and add new features (I'll tell about them later). Aside from the patch, we're working on fulfilling a contract for the publisher with extremely (EXTREMELY!) stringent conditions. Just to survive, we have to stay at work until late night, and work on weekends.
Now regarding the points of the open letter.
1. At this moment we're going through a complicated process of separating game data into moddable non-moddable; it's not over yet, and we had to release the patch, because we already made a lot of fixes and changes requested by the players. With luck, the original game data will become open again. But, I repeat, we cannot open absolutely everything. It's likely that the same things that were open in the past will become open then.
There will be a full-featured editor, too.
2. The editor will be released with the first Majesty 2 add-on. Also, most likely, it will be available separately via a free patch; though there's no such clause in our contract, and it seems that no-one is going to pay us for building it.
The editor sees all original game data, and can open campaign maps as well as single-player maps. User maps are saved to "My Documents", to be accessible even if user doesn't have administrative privileges. Those maps will be automatically detected by the game.
The editor will come with a manual describing main techniques, hotkey list, and video demos (available online). I believe that, of all people, modders will definitely be able to figure out how to use the editor.
The editor in its current form can create single-player maps, but not multiplayer ones. We plan to add multiplayer map support in the next version.
3. Multiplayer compatibility is a highly complex task. It has to do not as much with varying localizations, so much as with very different executable files. Different publishers use differing protection schemes, which makes compatibility very, very difficult to achieve. Our programmers have a few tricks "from the dark side of the force", so maybe it'll work in the end. But at this moment, with such a stringent contract, we can't find free days to deal with this problem. And, as you may have guessed already, no-one is going to pay us for solving it.
Regarding the upcoming additional features.
Soon (likely at the beginning of next year), we will be able to release a patch with a "randomizer". Thart is, at any mission start, you will be able to check a special checkbox, and the map will be changed. The changes will include the locations of trade posts and holy grounds. Many monster layers will appear in altogether different places. Content of chests will change - heroes won't just find gold (different amounts of it) there, but also weapons and artifacts. Because of this, the difficulty of the map may also suddenly change, but I hope that's precisely what you want to get, isn't it?
I apologize for using the word "soon" without giving specific dates. Add-ons and patches have to be released simulataneously in Russia and in the West. Publishers are different, and their requirements differ, too. Until all fine details are agreed upon, we cannot give specific dates.
I am Maxim Bodrikov, project manager of Majesty 2. I apologize in advance if I won't be able to respond to your questions quickly. There are many few hours in a day, but we find time to at least read the forum. Friends, write about Majesty 2, discuss and create; even if not all of your ideas will be implemented in lines of code, you still help us a lot.
If a group of modders has formed that is actually working - write to us directly to
official@ino-co.com, let's have a chat.
