Vice City Multiplayer is dead(?)

dracc · Feb 18, 2019, 09:06 AM

It would seem this project has been abandoned.
None of the (registered/official) developers have been active on this forum since last October.
They don't answer email inquiries.
Wiki registration is broken leading to a stagnation in documentation when the case is still that there are LOTS of articles that need improvements.

Is VC:MP a sinking ship? Has the developers abandoned the project or just taken an undisclosed hiatus?

Sebastian · Feb 18, 2019, 10:32 AM

history repeats

DizzasTeR · Feb 18, 2019, 11:01 AM

They come back, when they are free, this is a free project anyway.

NewK · Feb 18, 2019, 12:07 PM

During this time of the year VCMP development is usually not very active, but I wouldn't really call VCMP "dead" as a whole, seeing as there's new servers being created by the community, support for new programming languages being added by non-vcmp developers, questions being asked on this forum, etc...

This happens every year. And every year people say "VCMP is dead". I've been hearing this same thing ever since I started playing VCMP. And at one point that was mostly true, but it's no longer the case in my opinion. We get yearly updates, usually released during the summer (august/july), which is probably the best we can ask for, for a free mod that's being developed by (mostly) 2 developers at the moment. It's just a bit sad because we can all see alot of potential and when we look at samp and mta, we see everything that vcmp could be, and seeing all that they've achieved, we can't help but think why is it that we can't achieve a similar set of features or popularity.

This has been discussed before, but the conclusion we always come to is that there needs to be more people involved with vcmp development, otherwise it's always going to be this way unfortunately.

NicusorN5 · Feb 18, 2019, 12:09 PM

Why the vcmp devs didn't accept SLC as a dev? :c

dracc · Feb 18, 2019, 01:12 PM

Quote from: NewK on Feb 18, 2019, 12:07 PMThis happens every year. And every year people say "VCMP is dead". I've been hearing this same thing ever since I started playing VCMP. And at one point that was mostly true, but it's no longer the case in my opinion. We get yearly updates, usually released during the summer (august/july), which is probably the best we can ask for, for a free mod that's being developed by (mostly) 2 developers at the moment. It's just a bit sad because we can all see alot of potential and when we look at samp and mta, we see everything that vcmp could be, and seeing all that they've achieved, we can't help but think why is it that we can't achieve a similar set of features or popularity.

This has been discussed before, but the conclusion we always come to is that there needs to be more people involved with vcmp development, otherwise it's always going to be this way unfortunately.

4 months currently without any Developer presence for a free but closed source project. Has there been any official explanation as to why this is a closed source project? AFAICT the whole community would benefit from an Open Source model.

Also, the lack of developers will never solve unless more developers are allowed to join in on the fun - right?

Sir. Cucuruchito · Feb 18, 2019, 01:18 PM

Quote from: NewK on Feb 18, 2019, 12:07 PMDuring this time of the year VCMP development is usually not very active, but I wouldn't really call VCMP "dead" as a whole, seeing as there's new servers being created by the community, support for new programming languages being added by non-vcmp developers, questions being asked on this forum, etc...

This happens every year. And every year people say "VCMP is dead". I've been hearing this same thing ever since I started playing VCMP. And at one point that was mostly true, but it's no longer the case in my opinion. We get yearly updates, usually released during the summer (august/july), which is probably the best we can ask for, for a free mod that's being developed by (mostly) 2 developers at the moment. It's just a bit sad because we can all see alot of potential and when we look at samp and mta, we see everything that vcmp could be, and seeing all that they've achieved, we can't help but think why is it that we can't achieve a similar set of features or popularity.

This has been discussed before, but the conclusion we always come to is that there needs to be more people involved with vcmp development, otherwise it's always going to be this way unfortunately.

They are stubborn about not opening the code so that anyone can contribute. This is a decision that only has consequences.
They could accept new developers, maybe, but don't do it.

Sir. Cucuruchito · Feb 18, 2019, 01:21 PM

Quote from: dracc on Feb 18, 2019, 01:12 PM
Quote from: NewK on Feb 18, 2019, 12:07 PMThis happens every year. And every year people say "VCMP is dead". I've been hearing this same thing ever since I started playing VCMP. And at one point that was mostly true, but it's no longer the case in my opinion. We get yearly updates, usually released during the summer (august/july), which is probably the best we can ask for, for a free mod that's being developed by (mostly) 2 developers at the moment. It's just a bit sad because we can all see alot of potential and when we look at samp and mta, we see everything that vcmp could be, and seeing all that they've achieved, we can't help but think why is it that we can't achieve a similar set of features or popularity.

This has been discussed before, but the conclusion we always come to is that there needs to be more people involved with vcmp development, otherwise it's always going to be this way unfortunately.

4 months currently without any Developer presence for a free but closed source project. Has there been any official explanation as to why this is a closed source project? AFAICT the whole community would benefit from an Open Source model.

Also, the lack of developers will never solve unless more developers are allowed to join in on the fun - right?

This would be wonderful situation, but it has never been done. At other times, we have tried to convince the main developers without results.

Oh, wait a moment... GTA-Connected is open source. *migrating*

dracc · Feb 18, 2019, 02:17 PM

Quote from: Sir. Cucuruchito on Feb 18, 2019, 01:21 PMOh, wait a moment... GTA-Connected is open source. *migrating*

Is gtaconnected open source?
I can't find the source code anywhere on their site and the gtaconnected GitHub user only contains SDL2, gecko-dev and an SDK?
These three alone does not make it more open source than VC:MP.

Edit: According to Vortrex (one of the GTA:C developers) GTA Connected is not open source.

Sir. Cucuruchito · Feb 18, 2019, 09:29 PM

Quote from: dracc on Feb 18, 2019, 02:17 PM
Quote from: Sir. Cucuruchito on Feb 18, 2019, 01:21 PMOh, wait a moment... GTA-Connected is open source. *migrating*

Is gtaconnected open source?
I can't find the source code anywhere on their site and the gtaconnected GitHub user only contains SDL2, gecko-dev and an SDK?
These three alone does not make it more open source than VC:MP.

Edit: According to Vortrex (one of the GTA:C developers) GTA Connected is not open source.

Okay. I thought so... Anyway, at least it's a more active alternative than VC:MP.

NewK · Feb 19, 2019, 01:25 AM

Quote from: dracc on Feb 18, 2019, 01:12 PMHas there been any official explanation as to why this is a closed source project?

Yea stormeus talked about it before:

Quote from: Stormeus on Jun 02, 2018, 06:11 AMI don't want VC:MP to die considering there's still an active community surrounding it. I honestly don't know what to do though -- the few community members I figured were knowledgeable enough in C++ and good ambassadors of the community don't seem to be active anymore either, and I've been away for so long that I don't even know if there's anyone I can recruit as a developer. As many have also noticed and taken advantage of, the anti-cheat infrastructure isn't robust, so completely open sourcing VC:MP is also out of the question since I have no doubt that any positive contributions by the community would be immediately outweighed by people changing the code to cheat.

While I appreciate the open source model I do agree with stormeus there. Open sourcing VCMP would do more harm than good. Atleast for the time being, seeing as there's many VCMP cheats being developed every day. This is something that probably not many people notice unless you run a popular server and have to deal with it daily.

dracc · Feb 19, 2019, 06:36 AM

Quote from: NewK on Feb 19, 2019, 01:25 AMOpen sourcing VCMP would do more harm than good. Atleast for the time being, seeing as there's many VCMP cheats being developed every day.

I doubt it could be worse if it's already an ongoing issue even when the source code is NOT freely available?
Also, more eyes on the code means more brains to find fixes for exploits.

NewK · Feb 19, 2019, 01:00 PM

Quote from: dracc on Feb 19, 2019, 06:36 AMI doubt it could be worse if it's already an ongoing issue even when the source code is NOT freely available?
Also, more eyes on the code means more brains to find fixes for exploits.

Regardless of being an ongoing issue or not, it would still make it worse as cheaters would take of advantage of vcmp internals to make better cheats. Also I think you're overestimating the amount of willing and knowledgeable people available that could contribute in a positive manner. Something stormeus also mentioned:

Quote from: Stormeus on Jun 02, 2018, 06:11 AMthe few community members I figured were knowledgeable enough in C++ and good ambassadors of the community don't seem to be active anymore either

This was proven when VCMP devs made the code for VCMP 0.1 available. It's been public for years now, and all that's happened in the meantime was that 1 or 2 people made clones of it to create their own version of VCMP but then quickly abandoned it once they faced issues.

Sir. Cucuruchito · Feb 19, 2019, 02:12 PM

Quote from: NewK on Feb 19, 2019, 01:00 PM
Quote from: dracc on Feb 19, 2019, 06:36 AMI doubt it could be worse if it's already an ongoing issue even when the source code is NOT freely available?
Also, more eyes on the code means more brains to find fixes for exploits.
Regardless of being an ongoing issue or not, it would still make it worse as cheaters would take of advantage of vcmp internals to make better cheats. Also I think you're overestimating the amount of willing and knowledgeable people available that could contribute in a positive manner. Something stormeus also mentioned:
Quote from: Stormeus on Jun 02, 2018, 06:11 AMthe few community members I figured were knowledgeable enough in C++ and good ambassadors of the community don't seem to be active anymore either
This was proven when VCMP devs made the code for VCMP 0.1 available. It's been public for years now, and all that's happened in the meantime was that 1 or 2 people made clones of it to create their own version of VCMP but then quickly abandoned it once they faced issues.

Okay, I think we understand the staff's position about this issue, but the still don't give a reasonable solution to the problem. We have been stuck for years without doing anything.

The viable solution is to recruitment people as a developer, but it isn't done either. Then... Is developing for a half-dead project the best solution?

Mötley · Feb 19, 2019, 02:32 PM

If a dead community bothers you then your not having fun. It's not about all of the players, It's the current one playing. Play, have fun, do dumb things.
People are generally looking for a server that has players rather than going to a server that should be fun regardless. Go do what I say and others will join.

The biggest issue I have in this multiplayer people are more concerned with dming and winning over kills versus f*** it I don't give a s***

Vice City Multiplayer is dead(?)

NicusorN5