FAQs of project tether

What is Scorched Moon?

Scorched Moon is an open source remake of the classic strategy game Moonbase Commander

What is Moonbase Commander?

Moonbase Commander has quite often been called "the best game no one has ever heard of". It is the first and most well known ATS game. If you've never played an ATS, most people describe it as a unique combination of Starcraft and Scorched Earth but that doesn't say much. The best way to find out what Moonbase Commander is like is to play the game.

Well then where can I go to play Moonbase Commander?

Do a web search and you can find places online that still sell it. Last we checked it was available at GOG.com. There used to be a trial but that is hard to find these days.

Moonbase Commander absolutely rocks! Why recreate something thats so perfect?

While Moonbase Commander is a great game, there are some flaws and glitches that have never been fixed. Because the game has not received any support or updates from any of the different companies that have owned it for over 10 years we assume that they will never be resolved. Rather then live with it we started this project to resolve these flaws ourselves.

Aren't there other ATS games out there that fix those issues? What about Kingdom Commander?

There are very few ATS games out there, we've looked. Project Tether started development in 2005 long before Kingdom Commander was announced. While we have no problem with others remaking Moonbase Commander as a commercial venture we remain dedicated to making an open source version as well so that if commercial versions become unprofitable the users won't be stuck like what happened with the original. Given that kingdom commander has not updated since 2012 our concerns are justified.

What is Project Tether?

Project Tether is the name of the group that originally got together to make an open source ATS game. Recently we have decided to rebrand under the Scorched Moon name rather then have seperate names for the group and the game we are working on.

I can't find a download for Scorched Moon, where is it?

Scorched Moon is still in early development and has no release packages yet. The code for it is available on GitHub if you want to help with testing or just take a look.

I downloaded Scorched Moon from GitHub but can't figure out how to play it

Scorched Moon is not playable yet as we are still early in development. Currently the only purpose in running either server or client is for testing purposes.

Why is it sometimes months or even years between updates?

Because we're all unpaid volunteers, so when we get busy with real life work on Scorched Moon gets put on the back burner.

Why are you using python, why not a real programming language like C++?

There are many reasons we're using python but the top 3 reasons are: it's simple to code, it's easily portable to different OS's, and it does what we need.

What OS are you developing for?

We are planning on having Scorched Moon be compatible with Linux, osX, and Windows. The server should theoretically work on any computer with python3 installed while the client should theoretically work on any computer with python3 and pygame for python3 installed.

Will Scorched Moon be compatible with Moonbase Commander?

No.

Really? Why not?

What we're trying to do is hard enough already without completely reverse engineering everything. Also the changes we want to include will Scorched Moon incompatible with the original even if we did manage to reverse engineer everything.

What changes are being made?

The biggest change is the number of players. The original Moonbase Commander can not have more then 4 players in a single game which we found inconvenient. In addition to the change in the player limit. We are also planning on implementing integrated online play along with a system to make it easier to find people to play with.

Changing Moonbase Commander is heresy! Why did you change things?

Most of the changes we have listed are things that we felt were flaws in Moonbase Commander. The 4 player limit for example was always a major problem for most of us. Likewise being able to find people to play with and actually being able to play online without a VPN or 3rd party modules are absolutely essential. Same goes true for most of the other changes listed. We have tried to keep the actual gameplay itself as accurate to the original as we can make it.

I think Scorched Moon should do X, why don't you do it?

We take suggestions but remember we're all unpaid volunteers doing this out love for Moonbase Commander. If you really want something implemented everything we have is open source so feel free to implement it yourself.

I've seen a program called MoonPy mentioned as part of Project Tether, is that Scorched Moon?

MoonPy was our initial attempt at remaking Moonbase Commander. MoonPy did reach a playable state however there were some fundamental design flaws to it that resulted in bugs we could not fix with the engine we were using. Because of this we started over with Scorched Moon which is being built with our own engine.

Can I still get MoonPy?

You can sometimes find MoonPy floating around on various 3rd party websites and our project maintainer keeps a copy of the source on his GitHub account but we do not support MoonPy anymore.

I found a bug, what do I do?

Great, identifying them is (usually) the hardest part. However Scorched Moon is still early in development and we're not directly tracking bugs until we at least reach alpha.

How can I help out with Scorched Moon?

We can always use some help to keep this project going. Currently the biggest help we need is people to help us code it. In addition to help with the code we also could use graphics, sounds, music, documentation, etc. We also will eventually need a server to use as an official game host once we reach beta. Also just spreading the word about project tether is a big benefit to us as well. The more people interested, the more likely someone with skills we need will be able to help. If interested in Scorched Moon and want to keep track of news and updates follow us on Google+ or join our mailing list.

I've been looking through the MoonPy source code archives and keep seeing mention of openRTS, is project tether a part of openRTS?

OpenRTS is a completely separate project from project tether. We have however integrated code from various other open source projects to help speed up development of project tether. The MoonPy engine is a heavily modified version of the openRTS engine and as such elements of openRTS occasionally show up, especially in older versions of MoonPy. Currently very little of the original openRTS engine remains unchanged within MoonPy. Scorched Moon shares no code at all with openRTS.