• Since we're having an issue with spam and very few people use this website, I've closed Game-Warden to new user registrations. Any FS2, BtRL, SoL, etc questions can be directed to HLP instead.

Farewell BTRL

MatthewPapa

GWBB Admin
Staff member
Dear GW Denizens and BTRL Fans,

As you know, the BTRL project has been on Game-Warden for many years. It was the second major project for GW to host after SoL, and it helped put this place on the map. We had a great many good times here throughout the season debuts of the show Battlestar Galactica, discussing and speculating etc. We also had a great time playing with the released demo and discussing further future modifications. Lots of work and care was put into this TC, and many good things became of it.

As you may know shortly after the demo was released there was a fallout between some members of the team. This instigated a split amongst the team members due to certain differences. Although I will not get into specifics, another project was spawned (I will get to that later) and BTRL lost most of its staff, with the exception of some of its original members.

After this split, BTRL was no longer the same project that it used to be. The BTRL leadership then felt it very necessary to be very protective of their forum. Unfortunately I was doing some RL stuff while this was going on and I was not able to address this problem. Some things happened during this period of time that were regrettable. Posts and threads were deleted with no explanation, completely miffing their fans. While they had their reasons for doing this, I want to make it clear that I did not approve of this censorship and if I would have been around I would not have allowed it.

Inactivity combined with this seemingly hostile stance toward their fans was the beginning of the end for BTRL existing here. When I came back a few weeks ago I began to access the situation and try and salvage something for the sake of their fans. While this may have caused some strife for our users and our staff alike, i felt it necessary to attempt to reconcile differences. This failed, and we were in a difficult situation.

Now, unfortunately, it has now been mutually agreed between the GW Administration and the remaining members of BTRL that their continued existence here is neither profitable nor desirable for both parties. Continued existence here would only be marred by more strife and arguments, neither of which I have the stress capacity to deal with anymore.

This will put to close a very vibrant and interesting chapter in GW history.

Now about all of these posts that were allegedly deleted in the last 2 days: nothing has been permanently deleted. We will be making all public posts visible soon. We cannot do this instantly because everything got dumped into one hidden forum (long story), but they will be reappearing as soon as the admins get some spare time to go through them and move them so the public can see them.

If you have any concerns, regrets, parting statements, and/or fun times to share feel free to voice them in this forum. Just keep them civil. I know there are quite a few people that had bad blood with the old staff, but please refrain from taunting or flame baiting. It is over now, so there is no sense in these activities.

Now, some words about the future:
You should go visit Dispora, the other fork that came from BTRL. Its team contains mostly ex BTRL members. I doubt that they would have any interest in coming back here after what has happened but if you liked BTRL you should definitely check out and throw your support behind this project. They are working on another, independent Freespace 2 BSG TC that looks very interesting.

That is all and thanks for reading,
Matt
 
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"Problems with the community" = the completely predictable and expected response from fans regarding the complete erasure of any and all information on the forum?
 
NOTHING was erased. It has been moved temporarily so I can go through everything. Its a long story that I will post details of later.
 
I wait for the announcement before i post my opinion.

I am curious what these "Problems with the community" are.
 
Me too, the term is a bit generic...

MatthewPapa is posting the updates right now, so it won't be long before we know more.
 
Thank you for that information. Finally we have clarity.

As for Anecdotes....Well, BtRL will always have a special place in my games collection simply because it was the game that served as an entry point into the FS community for me. There I was, back in 2007, looking for a BSG Game for the PC. Lo and behold, there was BtRL. Played it, had fun with it, and got curious. It said that it was based on FreeSpace, a game I fondly remembered from back when it was new. So I went on a hunt to reacquire FS, get FSOpen going, and, well. 2 years later, I'm still here playing it.
 
I enjoyed quite much the BtRL demo, the voice acting was superv, a bump it ended like this.
My thanks to the BtRL (past and actual) members alike.
 
Fair enough Omniscaper wanted to focus on the final release after the demo and I can respect that but it doesn't take much effort to release some information now and again on something you're working on especially when it has drawn so much attention. This amount of interest in BtRL I found it increasingly odd that it was shunned when I thought it would add some pride to the developers and that they'd take some satisfaction in receiving it.

All I can say now is I hope it will still continue to be developed so that we have two BSG mods to look forward to in the future, both with their own unique content.
 
How about the BtRL team members? Did they say that progress would continue elsewhere? Judging from the status update, this can't be determined.
 
they did not inform me of a place they would continue development. I can speculate that they are continuing their development in private, as they have been for the past months.
 
Cheers for the info, :yes:

Ah well,

it wasnt written in stone,

Whats that phrase again.... "All good things......."

Pity it happened here.

Still other mods in development to look forward to here!!!! :D
 
IF most of the events were behind the scenes, it's kind of overkill to take the project elsewhere, as it's genesis was HERE. Not only that BTRL and GW became synonymous since then.

If they somehow feel the GW is "tainted" or have been traumatized in some way, that's unfortuante. Half the team left for HLP and now the other half is leaving as well.

Still if they feel an actual need to do it, then more power to them. I just hope it makes them more productive.

I have no other comments on the issue...
 
You should go visit Dispora, the other fork that came from BTRL. Its team contains mostly ex BTRL members. I doubt that they would have any interest in coming back here after what has happened but if you liked BTRL you should definitely check out and throw your support behind this project.

The interest is there but it would be rather disrespectful to HLP to move as soon as BtRL is gone not to mention breaking my rather long standing rule that projects shouldn't move without a damn good reason.
 
The interest is there but it would be rather disrespectful to HLP to move as soon as BtRL is gone not to mention breaking my rather long standing rule that projects shouldn't move without a damn good reason.

Of course. I would have assumed as much. But thanks for clarifying anyway.
 
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