Elite / Frontier microsoft releasing elite 4 ripoff

[rioshin]

Sounds good so far

This game sounds quite good so far... Hopefully we'll see a playable beta soon.

As an owner of a relatively new PC (C2D, nVidia 8800 GTS, Vista Ultimate...) I'm looking forward to entering the era of Vista-games, especially when they'll start to support DX10 as well as the previous version. (I'm somewhat hoping that you might find the time to create DX10 support in Callsign... )

 

[MisterHalt]

Am I the only one who has noticed the name of Raven's company is "Liandri", the same as the big company in Unreal Tournament?

Also, I'm still kinda skeptical, but if all this is true then I better look into upgrading my computer eventually (but no Vista!!).

 

[Steve O B Have]

Am I the only one who has noticed the name of Raven's company is "Liandri", the same as the big company in Unreal Tournament?

Also, I'm still kinda skeptical, but if all this is true then I better look into upgrading my computer eventually (but no Vista!!).

Yeah I noticed that - and that in itself is a pretty big red flag - I'm sure there are some copywrite issues with naming your company Liandri and be able to retain a trademark on the name. Until we actually see some concrete proof we're all going to have to sit on the fence on this one.

EDIT: It appears that the closest thing to Liandri being trademarked is "The Liandri Conflict". Liandri itself is not trademarked nor copywritten however as a creation of Epic Games and owned by Midway if they decided to throw their toys over it, it is plausible that their lawyers could get the name covered as they can happily prove that they have been using the name for considerably longer than you have. I have not been able to do a trademark search as it costs upwards of £100 a pop.

Seems an odd idea to name a company after something so synonymous as Liandri - it's IMO going to lead to some preconceptions on what your company might be developing.

There have been a few too many co-incidences in this thread to not be suspicious (even gullible ol' me) but hey - the benefit of the doubt is free and if we're wrong then there has been no harm done other than a small knock on an already pessimistic view of the internet community.

Really if Raven is spouting the proverbial then shame on him, and really come the end of it, who is going to loose out more - us for believing him or him and his credibility on a forum which up until now we have all given the respect and common interest that we feel is deserved.

 

[Steve O B Have]

As a team unfortunately we've not released any public media yet. We have to be quite careful about what we do release, and the information we provide. Although I'm happy discussing and eventually show things we have planned or are developing for Callsign. Would like everyone to know that this is not so much an official "this WILL be in Callsign", as "these are the idea's we have and are trying to impliment".

It's a shame that your credibility has been called into question, but I'm sure you can understand our pessimism. Perhapse it would've been wiser to start your own thread, or have kept it quiet till later on.

All I can say is that if it is a scam then I am dissappointed - more so because Frontier has been used as a vehicle for this. It's hard enough these days to take everything that goes on in forums as gospel - more so when there is so little evidence supporting your development claims.

Simply put - is there anything that you can offer as proof so that we can for once and for all get Whizz out of our hair or are we just going to have to start ignoring both of you?

 

[DraQ]

Am I the only one who has noticed the name of Raven's company is "Liandri", the same as the big company in Unreal Tournament?

No, I've made a little jab at that here.

Liandri Mining Corporation working with the NEG estabilished series of leagues and bloody public exhibitions

Also, I'm still kinda skeptical, but if all this is true then I better look into upgrading my computer eventually (but no Vista!!).

Describes my attitude as well, only I would say that I'm very skeptical.

 

[whizz812]

whizz812, if they release ANY information that is not their own. (i.e. what they get from a memo) then that is an NDA breech. No matter how you personally want to look at it, unless it comes from an official channel they're in breech. If you actually do know these people, then I'd suggest you warn them that there might be an investigation as I have let Alistair know about this thread and the potencial leaks.

Hopefully you're lying, and no one will get in trouble.


Your a very funny guy. I don't buy anything you say. I do have to say that you must work as a bull fighter, i mean your holding up the biggest red flag i have ever seen. Lets just hope the bull has sharp horns. It does seem other people are picking up on your deceptions tho.

Simply put - is there anything that you can offer as proof so that we can for once and for all get Whizz out of our hair or are we just going to have to start ignoring both of you?

Steve you not behaving agian. I do not have all the answers i just read the ms memo. Thats all. Im not the bad guy here, raven is the guy spewing all this mumbo jumbo about some clone game. And to be honest its stating to give me the hump. I bet everyday he sits behind hes computer smiling at these people taking him seriously. Its sad.

Lets all just wait for ms to make their press conference regarding the game, which my souce tells me will be within a few weeks. Then ill be the one smiling.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Steve you not behaving agian. I do not have all the answers i just read the ms memo. Thats all. Im not the bad guy here, raven is the guy spewing all this mumbo jumbo about some clone game. And to be honest its stating to give me the hump. I bet everyday he sits behind hes computer smiling at these people taking him seriously. Its sad.

Lets all just wait for ms to make their press conference regarding the game, which my souce tells me will be within a few weeks. Then ill be the one smiling.

Heh - I'm not called O B Have for nothing. Look honestly I'm not overly fussed either way - because from my perspective I'm not going to expect too much from such a small dev team these days (No offense Raven but the amount of cash time and overall resource that goes into these games seems to be, but not exclusively so, proportional to the quality and quantity of the output).

The thing that has got my wick about you Whizz812 is that you deliver your message and all subsequent replies with a flippancy that borderlines on offensive. We are all adults here and carry quite a flame for the Elite game and the genre itself and I guess part of our fear is that it reduces into a childish flame fest like so many other gaming forums.

Similarly as you have produced no proof of your claims other than "you'll see" which I'm sure will be followed by "I told you so", Raven has produced nothing of any substance either however he has been polite and accommodating. Simply put, you wouldn't talk to people in real life like that so why do it now - it does you no favors. A little respect given is often paid back in like.

 

[Linwig]

My 'Cobblers' senses just started tingling.

 

[Raven]

sorry not been around much the past few days, been busy with my other project and a meeting about somethings.

i'm a little sloshed atm, so if i make spelling mistakes or owt then don't mind em. just thought i'd give some response as i've not for a few days.
been trying to get a bad day outta my head.

right as far as the "liandri" aspect goes.
Company Number 05427478 (UK)

Search it if you don't believe it's real. Otherwise shhh!

I know no beta yet, been very very busy with my other project which MS told me today "no publisher, no xdk" which is stupid given i already have xdk access, just wanted to upload the concept for approval. what's more is they were my sodding publisher, but whatever. guess i'll look for another one.

sorry no real update info, but will get to it in morning sometime when i've sobered upo

 

[fera]

I haven't been here for a while, but now I must say that I too realy hope Raven is telling the truth. But even if he's telling the truth I don't know is his team is up for that kind of game making.

I'm still suspicious because of a few things:

- You say your company never released any media content. Why would MS give a game this big to be developed by some unknown (at least in the field of game making) company?? Was it because it was your idea? Or did your employees have any experience in this field before?

- Why would you give your friends primary e-mail address publicly on a forum? Do you hate him or sth, 'cause, by now, you've probably filled his inbox with spam with your action..

And one more question at the end:
You said you've been developing this game for a while and recently stopped it for some money making.. Well, how did you finance before? In other words, what field of work was your company in? Just don't tell me that MS invested in your company's game before you (a company without any game development background) even started developing it!

I still hope, though, you are going to develop this game, 'cause I liked the features

 

[Raven]

You say your company never released any media content. Why would MS give a game this big to be developed by some unknown (at least in the field of game making) company?? Was it because it was your idea? Or did your employees have any experience in this field before?

Being independant means you can work on what you like without a publisher pushing for aspects that will guarentee to make them money. Downside is that you don't personally make anything until titles are released.

Why would you give your friends primary e-mail address publicly on a forum? Do you hate him or sth, 'cause, by now, you've probably filled his inbox with spam with your action..

It's one of his e-mail accounts I know that he doesn't mind being publically available. There are private ones that don't have AV and AS on them, which I wouldn't make available to everyone.

You said you've been developing this game for a while and recently stopped it for some money making.. Well, how did you finance before? In other words, what field of work was your company in? Just don't tell me that MS invested in your company's game before you (a company without any game development background) even started developing it!

We don't have any investments past what we personally put in. This is quite common when developers group together and try to strike out on their own. Most of the time when money starts running thin companies split up and the developers go back to full-time work. With the game never seeing the light of day.

We've tried out best to keep the team together through what has been quite a rough patch that normally teams would've broken up. This may have something to do with the fact I've personally got in to quite a bit of debt just to get the project done, so even if I didn't want to expand our original idea into something worthwhile to fans rather than just casual gamers.. i'd still have that personal investment in finally seeing it reach completion.

 

[Sci-worker]

2 Raven

I beleive you and will not even check out the info you gave for check. Spending so much time posting so much messages just to fool someone and grin on it seems senceless to me. All I want to ask you for now is the following. Is it possible to cooperate with your team in, for instance, lokalizing the game (I mean translating into Russian)? If yes, let me know how I can contact with you. Anyway, good luck with your project.


2 Others
Don't be afraid to be stupid, otherwise you'll never become wise.

Cheers!

 

[syndrome]

Close the topic

Aw cmon, this (Raven) guy is so cheap.

The facts:

• First of all, what's that domain again? All I can see is www.puffinteractive.com(?!). No site there, just 403. Also, the domain ownership information is obscured, and how suspicious is that... Furthermore, www.liandri.eu brings up the default hosting page, as well as www.rstudio.co.uk.
• What's that game you've shown to us? That platform is some Flash-based experimental game based on free graphics provided by the author of www.lostgarden.com. How's that even distantly related to some serious Eve-alike game engine development? And why are you, being the sole engine developer, distracted by such trivial programming adventures?
• If I get this right, you are basing the entire physics engine on some Ion Drives article, which was posted on Jan 11th, 2006, and you claim that the game development started back in 2005?
• If you are developing anything for the XBOX, your company MUST be on the list over here. Somehow it's not in the list. The closest I got is Raven Software, but these guys are waay ahead, making games such as Hexen and Soldier of Fortune back in 90's.
• And finally, everyone, please look at this thread at thegamecreators.com. It's kinda funny

Btw, because of your typing errors and lame e-mails you leave behind (apparantly created just to assure the others that you've made a credible statement), it is very easy to track you down. And now I have more than one source...

So, Raven, I hope you won't bother us anymore.

These people are sincere in their anticipation of Elite4, not because they are childish gameplayers that just sit around, talk about a game and cry for it, but because they've learned to enjoy a deep, imaginative universe that quality space flight games offer to anyone who's intelligent and creative enough.

Please, don't mess with that, unless you're uncreative as much as you're a lyer. Or you're just pure evil, disturbed or something...

 

[Steve O B Have]

Utterly fair call there. Succinct and to the point. Anything to offer Raven?

 

[Glyndo]

This all sounds too good to be true!

I've been a fan ever since I got my hands on FFE and I can't wait until something gets released that has the same feel; hopefully E4 will be as good as everyone here hopes.

I've tried to look up the information Raven has quoted and so far I've found nothing. Although, the only developers listed on the site provided by syndrome are developers that have completed games for the Xbox; if you are developing one but have not yet released one then you don't appear (there are no companies listed with '0' in their 'games' column).

I hope this isn't a hoax, but if it is then it's one of the most elaborate hoaxes I've seen, heard or read in a long time!

 

[Steve O B Have]

Yeah - our friend Raven has been suspiciously absent since being comprehensively challenged on this forum. I wouldn't bet getting my hopes up at all.

 

[Glyndo]

Seems I've found an additional reason for his absence:

Name & Registered Office:
LIANDRI LIMITED
17 GABLE CLOSE
ABBOTS LANGLEY
HERTFORDSHIRE
WD5 0LD
Company No. 05427478


Status: Dissolved 23/01/2007
Date of Incorporation: 18/04/2005

That's from Companies House; I used to work for a company that had access to their system so I was able to have a search - it's free to do, unless you want directors' details (they cost £1).

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/1ea2f556b3134c079a5b839a78dc72af/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

That's the link for the search function; it's called WebCheck if anyone wants a look. Try writing the name (just "Liandri", you don't need to type Limited or Ltd) and check either 'Current / recently dissolved names' or 'Dissolved names'.

Such a shame! What possible reason would he have for this?!

 

[Steve O B Have]

Status: Dissolved 23/01/2007
Date of Incorporation: 18/04/2005

Mmmmph hahahahahaha - Gold. So basically he was full of it - colour me disappointed but totally unsurprised. Either way I just don't think that such a small company was going to come out with anything groundbreaking.

Nice find - well done.

 

[Sci-worker]

I still don't get the reason for Raven to fool elite-games fans. Maybe he still bears the dream to make something worth and the way he posts messages helps him to hold this dream... Anyway, I beleive he has something developed but not finished. And btw, here is the example what even one man can do: http://www.a-astra.com/

 

[Steve O B Have]

I still don't get the reason for Raven to fool elite-games fans. Maybe he still bears the dream to make something worth and the way he posts messages helps him to hold this dream... Anyway, I beleive he has something developed but not finished. And btw, here is the example what even one man can do: http://www.a-astra.com/

Still honesty is worth it's weight in gold. Half truths and pipe-dreams don't help anyone.

That Ad-Astra looks cool -dude should be employed rather than deving for himself.