Free Allegiance Zone
| Free Allegiance code suppliers
Last updated: Aug 2010 · Update |
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Allegiance was released in early 2000 and Microsoft supported it until mid 2001. From that point onwards no improvements, no new features, no bug fixes were made until Solap persuaded Microsoft to release the code under a shared-source license in 2004.
The surviving Allegiance players quickly organised a volunteer development team to begin work and named themselves the Free Allegiance Zone - an amalagation of two terms originally used to segregate the community (the restricted-features Free Zone and the pay-per-month Allegiance Zone)). FAZ is used to describe the new version of Allegiance which strives to incorporate all the features that AZ had while still remaining completely free.
FAZ history
The code which the FAZ team had their hands on in 2004 was written using a 1999 compiler and was almost completely incompatible with modern development environments - in other words, nearly useless for what they wanted to do. The first step was therefore to change Microsoft's sourcecode to compile with modern compilers used in today's development environments.
The FAZ team completed that in 2006, producing their own stable build of Allegiance. They were finally at "Square One" and from there have been able to march proudly forwards, slowly but surely adding features that have been requested since Allegiance was first released and correcting bugs/errors.
For a full synopsis of the improvements that have been made browse the releases section below.
Development team
Lead by Dogbones, the Development Zone Leader, these guys have made tremendous strides in our code. They have rewritten the underlying code to work with the latest software and hardware. Not enough can be said about their work and efforts. If you would like to help develop the code then PM Dogbones.
Current development
FAZ R8 is in open beta.
- Last updated: 3 OCT, 2014
Suggesting new features
If you have an idea for a new feature then please make a new thread in the Code bugs & Suggestions forum. Note that many suggestions have been made in the past and that yours may not get first priority - especially if it is difficult to implement!
Beta testing
- Main article: Testing FAZ Beta
Beta testing is an important part of releasing new builds. Towards the end of each development cycle public beta games are held weekly on a Wednesday evening (EST) to stress test the new releases and find the final bugs.
When the Beta build is ready for public testing the Development Zone Leader will make an announcement on the FAO's homepage and/or broadcast a message to people logging in using ASGS.
How else you can help
Since the Allegiance development is community based, it's up to all of us to make it better. The philosophy is simple: If you don't build it, it won't be used.
You can help by:
- Helping new players learn how to play the game
- Writing Documentation
- Add or edit articles on the wiki. If you need edit privileges here, PM TheBored.
- Create new documentation that hasn't already been written and post it on the forums. If it fits, it will be added.
- Reporting bugs
- Any time you encounter something that doesn't work right, mention it in the Code Bugs forum.
- The developers use Trac to keep track of bugs that still need to be fixed.
- Fixing bugs
- If you see a bug in Trac that you can fix, do it! Check out the page on downloading and building Allegiance's source.
- Improving the game
- Designing models.
- There are many ships and bases in existing factions that are repeats of other faction bases.
- Design some new high res models.
- Check out this information about modeling for Allegiance.
- Designing models.
- Playing the game!
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