Print

[dfunked]

OK. Here's what is going on. TheDaddy's got a lot of personal things to take care of at the moment so I'm starting this, but he'll eventually contribute to it...

A few days ago, RUNTiME from XBMC (who is developing the Kai integration along with other XDK crews like Team Avalaunch) had a dilemma. We had told RUNTiME that he was not to commit his code to CVS as we had an agreement with Team Avalaunch that they would be the first to release anything for the XBox in terms of Kai functionality, as they have been in co-operation for the longest amount of time, and they have worked with TheDaddy on many many features, so that it's only fair that they get the recognition they deserve.

The other XDK crews will eventually implement these changes themselves, but Team Avalaunch remains the "leader of the pack".

RUNTiME had no choice but to commit to CVS because of some issues the rest of the team members requiring it. On successive attempts to contact TheDaddy to notify him that he had to make a decision, communication was unavailable and RUNTiME was forced to commit. A few hours later when TheDaddy came back to his screen, he found messages from RUNTiME but realised it was too late to do anything...

Obviously this got TheDaddy pissed off because Team Avalaunch would get pissed off and he felt that the "grand plan" was over now, as XBMC has the advantage (it's only slightly functional right now).

Deciding to leave everything for a few days and take a bit of a breather (he still doesn't have his broadband connection back), many people started questioning his motives. People started to get split over where XLink was heading.

After talkin with TeXLink (he's staying with TheDaddy at his house), TheDaddy came back to see a lot of emotion and drama. However here is the plan...

XLink Kai has been brought back to full functionality. TheDaddy shut off the authentication a few days ago, because he wanted interest in the project to die down a little so that he could get on with things at his own pace. After negotiating with him, I brought the server back online (some people realised this last night, that was myself that brought it online, not TheDaddy and I was doing it to check the XBMC functionality). The server will remain online for those people that cannot use RC2 for whatever reason.

However, the forums will remain read-only. The reason for this is so that people who need to use it do, but that we're taking things on our own now. We've got lots of suggestions already, and have implemented and are still implementing those as we speak. Due to development slow downs, we don't want interest to pick up in it right at this point in time. Myself and TheDaddy have briefly spoken about the marketing and the big push that will come about and we are both confident that the push will cause a surge of people trying it out and building on to the community. This is no longer a battle against WarpPipe, XBConnect or GameSpy. This is a GLOBAL GAMING NETWORK, covering all 3 major consoles, and is something that nobody has dared to try.

TheDaddy and RUNTiME have since patched up the miscommunications, and rest assured that XBMC will continue to develop their Kai functionality.

Basically, we're asking everyone to just use Kai and not bother us with anything for a while. TheDaddy wants to push into the backstage for the time being and just concentrate on finishing this off in his own time, with no pressures from anyone (you may have noticed he's rarely on anyway)...

We hope you understand where we're coming from and I'll let TheDaddy contribute to this himself...

dfunked,
Team XLink.

[dfunked]

Please don't take this the wrong way and that we don't want your input. All I can say for you to support us, even if you don't want to use Kai or RC2 right now, is come back when we've got it all happening and be part of the big push...

Or you could always stick with us and keep playing, slowly recruiting new people (reminding them to not bother us with suggestions etc)...

If there were no potential for users, we wouldn't bother continuing, so thanks guys...

[Hajaz]

well i'm very glad u made this statement...
I'l post a thorough reply tomorrow when im sober.
Cheers

[RUNTiME]

Since all of this has been *resolved* its a bit academic really but I need to make a rather major correction to what dfunked said, none of my team 'required' the changes to be commited.  Thats just how we run our day-to-day activities at XBMC we're an open-source group, the changes needed to be checked in because of the quick ever-evolving nature of the XBMC CVS.

I wasn't especially aware of any such agreements with AVA although I understand AVA bear no ill will on this matter.   Simply AVA and XBMC do not race, we do not compete, and having arguably the finest pieces of homebrew implementing KAI can only be a good thing.

In future TD and I will be crystal clear on things like this, such discussions will be reserved for e-mail to avoid potentially glossing over them in a couple of lines on chat clients where intent and importance may not be all that clear.

This post has been edited by RUNTiME: Apr 10 2004, 05:12 AM

[Heet]

 

I got scared for a second  

[e[X]odus]

Thanks for putting Kai back online, we have big plans for next week and Kai's so much easier to arrange big games in than XBC.

QUOTE

TheDaddy wants to push into the backstage for the time being and just concentrate on finishing this off in his own time, with no pressures from anyone (you may have noticed he's rarely on anyway)...

Like I've said so many times before, go for it TD, take as long as you want. We'll still be here You have to have a social life too, and to get something like Kai done quickly would pretty much take that away. You and Louise have a good time and get to Kai when you're ready man

Good luck

[tizzo]

.

I'm glad this had been resolved in an adult manner and not in a personal 'flaming' way. Once again, the difference between Xlink and XBC has been made clear...
(adult <-> childish)

Good luck with the final parts of the site Dfunked, and for the rest of the xlink team: "I hope your BT problems are quickly solved "  

gRtz tiZ

[dscjbr]

Thanks for bringing KAI back online.  When me and my group of buddies who play, found KAI down and not online, we were just hopeful that it was a temporary thing.   We all went to XBC, and I can tell you that while it was fun to play, the game experience was not the same.  The HALO games we played seemed at half-speed, and the R63 games we played seemed really slow as well.

From one of the follows here who is also in application development, let me add to the others echoing these basic comments.

1.  Thank YOU for all the work you have done bringing us KAI
2.  Take your time, and don't let your future development become "WORK".   KAI is very playable today, and we enjoy it plenty.  Take the future at your speed, not ours.
3.  Ignore the goofs who look a gift horse in the mouth and ask for free software faster and with more funtionality.  They know not what they do.
4.  We stand ready to help you if we can.  By playing on KAI instead of anywhere else, we hope that is a start.   Let us know if we can do anything else.  

I am an almost 40 year old father of two, who has had an immense amount of fun using KAI.  I am thankful for every day it is here and I can use it, and appreciate the passion with which you bring it to us.

Keep up the great work.  Your team of folks is incredible.

Peace,
Chris

[SniperKilla]

this xbmc integration has only brought good around here... as 5 of my friends with pc's far away from their xbox's can finally come and play with me on kai..

and the avalaunch integration will only make things better

it shouldent be about whos first..

[docdoom]

I just wanted to second the sentements from dscjbr. As a regular on Kai I was completly lost when it went down. They say you don't realize what you have untill it's gone..it's true. Thankyou and take your time. We all look forward to the final release but please don't burn out on something that is supposed to be fun. Thats all I got ....Thanx agin !

L8

[dstmo]

TD, et al.........

I also want to second the thoughts of dscjbr.  He and I play over KAI all of the time, and exclusively (minus one night).  We believe in your efforts and will participate any way we can.

We also appreciate all of the time everyone spends creating the best software available for tunneling systems across the internet.

Keep up the good work, and don't take any criticism personally when it comes from people 'not considerate' regarding your efforts (that's as 'polite' as I can state it).

dstmo

[flat235]

To everyone,

This is one of the brief moments which i have online at the moment.. lots of stuff has been happening behind the scenes over the last week or so, but theres one thing which you must not forget...

"As long as there are a.) people like you who want to use the stuff that we do, and b.) As long as their are half assed biatch alternatives who claim some sort of superiority.. we will stay here - Kai will be completed, we will be happy, you will not be disappointed."

It's that simple..

Secondly, all this "trouble" was actually nothing - there was actually *no problem at all* with XBMC - I personally think the work of RUNTiME and his crew is first rate, and I am sure it will continue through - producing one hell of a xbox based client for the evo7 engine. This crap all came about through an unusual set of circumstances whereby I was offline when there was a minor situation which needed my attention. Misunderstanding did the rest.....

Rest assured that any outstanding issues are now resolved, and there is now *no problem whatsoever* between any members of this crew, or any other crew, as regards Kai..

However, what I said before still stands - this is to be the last contribution to console tunelling from the current "Team Xlink".. nothing else will be released tunnel wise apart from minor bugfix releases and engine core releases for different platforms. I dont know about the other guys, but after this, im gonna work on the initial alpha of the Factions project (remember that?? before all this Kai nonsense ), as well as some *very* interesting projects with the guys from Ava and XBMC.

With that said, should any biatch start shouting Kai down for any reason.. speed, featureset, flexibility, openness (yeah - OSS *will* come with Kai - but not yet), then we will be here to answer, but the focus will shift towards new stuff, mainly games, which will actually *use* the Kai network itself. Factions will be the finished product - but expect a lot of spinoffs as we learn about the whole thing.

OK.. so thats me done.. dont expect much from me for the next few weeks - partly because of connectivity issues here, and partly because im gonna fall back internal stylee with my crew to get this crap finished. But as a parting shot, I would honestly say: "Stop being such fucking drama queens " ... there is no problem, there never was, there never will be... just relax, and wait for the end.....

TD/TL