: Should a new scenario use as it's base: Standard Marathon Infinity, or
: Aleph One with no flourishes (ie all standard Infinity content just in the A1
: engine)
There are two major advantages to sticking with Infinity as I see it - 1) Infinity is time-tested and stable, and 2) films made using Infinity can always be played back with Infinity. On the other hand, there are 2 major disadvantages to releasing the scenario first for Infinity - 1) unless the scenario is a drop-in (just drop it in the Infinity folder), in which case there can be no changes in the basic game interface, you will need an installer which, of necessity, will restrict the game to the Mac Classic environment, and 2) Players will need a working copy of Infinity, and may have to purchase the Mac Action Sack if they don't already have one.
All of this aside, I would have no problem personally with an initial release for Infinity, but I think it's time we recognize the Infinity engine for what it is - a dead end. There will come a time when Infinity will no longer be playable on any modern computer. While the future of AO is by no means assured, the games are timeless and as long as the community cares, there will be working versions of AO that can play on virtually any platform. In addition, since AO is fully scriptable, you can always upgrade the game by revising the script - no need for new installers or updaters. On the downside, there is that small issue of copyright infringement, but I won't tell M$ if you won't.
Speaker - if you're reading this, the issue of playable films is a big one. The film code for AO has never been upgraded that I know of and a film from one build of AO will not work with another, making films virtually useless. With AO implemented on so many platforms and with the game engine itself in evolution, there is a crying need for standardization of film recording. Unfortunately, I suspect that the code for this needs to be rewritten from the ground up. Perhaps a common strategy could be used for film and network play synchronization, so that all events that occur are enforced across versions and platforms.
