Go To "Greater Good" Agreement

Title: Falcon 4 Unified Team Agreement
Author: Glenn Kletzky
Date: August 31, 2001

The FALCON 4 UNIFIED TEAM Agreement with G2 Interactive inc.

 

and

 

The Falcon 4.0 SuperPAK Project

 

Purpose:  To generate an agreement between G2 Interactive Inc. (the current license holder of all Falcon 4 intellectual property) and the Falcon 4 community of developers which results in G2 Interactive allowing continued community-based development of Falcon 4.0 in such a way that the work of the RPG, eTeam, F4Alliance, F4Terrain, and other meaningful independent teams are brought into a single Falcon 4.0 version patch.

 

General Statement:  G2 accepts that no amount of time from any individual will be required.  Time management and use of any person’s free time will be at their own discretion.  The management team of this newly organized FALCON 4 UNIFIED TEAM (F4UT) will determine if a persons position or work needs to be removed.

 

The new patch will be called the Falcon 4.0 SuperPAK

 

Motivation for G2 to allow this:

 

  1. All development work done by the F4UT will be signed over by each developer for use by G2 in their for-profit endeavors.  Signing over Intellectual Property claims will be done via a release form and is required as part of the membership/signup process.  

 

  1. Additionally, all persons using the source code must also sign an NDA as part of membership and signup. This NDA, as provided by G2, will state that each user of the source code agrees to share it only with G2 authorized persons.

 

  1. Certain high-priority features as required by G2 Interactive must be addressed and developed first.  These will likely be the same features that the community has been working on anyway, so this should be a win-win for all concerned.  Examples of such features will be:

 

    1. The total merger of all possible and reasonable community based modifications (data, functionality, cockpits, terrains, etc.) within the 1.10  executable code base:

 

                                                               i.      All possible eTeam exe edits and Sylvain Gagnon’s AI exe edits, as determined by the management team, will be included.

 

                                                             ii.      All possible and reasonable Cockpits, terrains, etc will be included

 

                                                            iii.      All possible and reasonable eTeam Source Code features and functions will be included

 

    1. Completion of the multiplayer client/server code that the eTeam had to drop just before the 1.10 release, and fixing of Jet-net as necessary (Should Jet-net lie in the domain which is covered by signed members of this team).  Should Jet-net not be made readily available to G2 by eRazor, his decision will be respected, and every reasonable effort will be made to create a new Jet-Net like code which will manage the peer to peer game matching.

 

    1. DirectX 8.0a compatibility and new features (offloading to GPU, T&L, increased poly capability, etc.) to the extent that such skills exist within the team

 

    1. Other features as agreed upon in the negotiation such as:

 

                                                               i.      Major features/fixes available in the 1.08i2 version of the Microprose code that haven’t yet made it into the eTeam 1.10 version.  (As put forth by G2 in a list format) .

 

                                                             ii.      In game, easy and fully integrated Terrain/campaign switching

 

                                                            iii.      An expanded configuration interface where new/modified features can be turned off/on based on user preference.

 

                                                            iv.      All possible and reasonable Hooks for additional aircraft, HUDs, avionics, and other aircraft systems

 

                                                              v.      All features desired by the F4UT Management Team for the second Falcon4SuperPak released patch (not the first combination-only patch) must be submitted to G2 within 14 days of the completion of this agreement.  This list must be a short, concise list of desired features that can be accomplished, along with G2’s required features, in the minimum time allotted by this agreement (120 days).  Should both the initial list of G2’s priority features as well as F4UT’s desired list of features be completed with time remaining, F4UT’s management team may then submit a second round of requested features to G2 that can be incorporated in the second patch or a subsequent third patch if all parties agree.  All new features beyond the initial lists are subject to veto by G2.  However, should time remain and G2 be amenable to a new feature list, it may approve them in a line item fashion.

 

                                                            vi.      EFalcon terrain features (color pallet, far tiles, etc.)

 

Motivation for the F4 community developers and testers to sign on and join the new team:

 

  1. The F4UT will have the right to continue the development process that they have already committed so much of their time and devotion to.

 

  1. The F4UT will have the right to choose and develop features of their choosing and desire in addition to the features agreed upon with G2 (with G2s approval of the feature)

 

  1. The F4UT will have the opportunity to place old feelings aside, to come together as one in the community, and to continue to contribute positively to the best flight simulation available.

 

  1. The F4UT will have the chance to bolster up and help a burgeoning new flight sim company in their endeavor to build a new age of flight Sims.

 

Other Deal points

 

  • In order to establish some momentum and success, the new Falcon4 UNIFIED TEAM (F4UT) agrees to create, as their first release, a simple combination of eTeam features from the 1.10 exe and Sylvain Gagnon’s exe modifications, well tested and integrated – no major new development.  This will allow the team to gain a foothold and not be drawn down by a long, complex development cycle.  This, of course, will also return the community to a happy place. It will show then that the F4UT is keeping their eye on the ball and they are going in the next logical direction. This will also allow the F4UT and G2 to gauge the success of this operation and to better predict how long subsequent releases might take

 

  • The sole arbitrator in feature disputes will be G2.  In other words, any features not agreed upon in this initial negotiation must be submitted to G2 for final decision before any development on said feature is begun.

 

  • A management team will be formed to handle feature set decisions as well as parsing out development/testing tasks.  The management team will consist of approximately 1 (one) member from each of the old community teams and one neutral party for the purpose of tie breaking during management team votes.  A total of 5 voting members and 5 non-voting alternates will make up the entirety of the 10-person management team.  In cases where consensus cannot be reached on details of this project, the 5th voting member, (known as the tie breaker), will cast his tie breaking vote.  All issues resolved by this voting mechanism and not achieved by consensus will be accepted and respected by all members of the Management team.

 

  • A development team will be formed and managed by the F4UT management team – only those people who directly contribute to development (either Source Code or data) will be a member of this team.  All contributors of code enhancements and data enhancements will have to first sign a copyright release.  Furthermore, any handling the source code specifically will additionally require the need to sign an NDA relating to that source code.

 

  • A separate testing team will be formed and managed by the F4UT management team as well.

 

  • The F4SuperPAK, developed by this community effort and copyright controlled by G2, must be allowed to be available free to the community for internet download.  This is irrespective of any for-profit endeavors potentially also done by G2 with the code or any of its components.

 

  • The management team will compile a short, concise list of their desired new features and present them to G2 for line-item approval.  This list must be consistent with being doable within the minimum time frame allotted in this arrangement (120 days) and must also take into consideration the fact that G2’s required features will be completed first. Furthermore, in so far as no other requirements and priorities of this agreement are overlooked, the F4UT management team has the full right to determine how to implement the currently existing features and the full right to fix bugs to any of those features as needed.

 

  • A G2I representative will be involved in the management team, but will not have voting rights for day to day decisions – G2I will be available for advice, counsel, and direction setting, and to relay G2’s position in ongoing development decisions.  G2I will not try to overly affect the new teams operations, but as the custodian for the Falcon 4.0 IP, G2 will have complete veto power on any new feature requests. Upon execution of this contract, G2 must approve any additional features not agreed to up-front.

 

  • The F4UT management team will make all day-to-day decisions, but G2 will have veto authority on any decision to include a new feature not previously agreed upon.  This authority will be used only when necessary and as a last and final resort.

 

  • No new features should be forced upon the new team by G2 other than those features agreed to at the start of this process

 

  • The team will have a finite life span.  When G2 has determined that any future development by the community would compete with their forthcoming products, the new community team will be allowed to finalize their current release, but will close down operations shortly thereafter – at least 30 days notice will be granted prior to final release.  And no less than 90 days will be assured from the time of the projects inception.  So a total of 120 days minimum is guaranteed for this “SuperPAK” project.  It should be at G2’s sole discretion to grant any continued development or additional time from that point on.

 

  • During the finite life span of the newly formed “Falcon4 Unified Team”, F4UT has the right to also continue development on all tools that may require the use of F4 source code in their development (such as TacEdit and F4Browse as examples).

 

  • Even beyond the aforementioned 120-day minimum development time, G2 will permit no less than 60 additional days for the sole purpose of fixing bugs in any feature already approved and already functioning in the executable portion of the F4SuperPAK .  This automatically includes all Crashes to Desktop (CTDs) and any other bugs that may exist in otherwise implemented and approved features.  The F4UT (The SuperPAK team) respects that this is not a loophole for continued development of features that did not get implemented prior to the closure of programming once the aforementioned 30-days notice was complete.  These 60 days do, however, begin after the end of the 30-day notice period.

 

  • The new team will not attempt to develop aircraft or scenarios that might be in competition with the future FV product features that G2 has already announced: no Taiwan theatre, no F-15 aircraft, etc.  Other than that, all features are possible (if they meet the design principles documented below)

 

  • If G2 should ever use any of the code made by this team in a for-profit capacity, the authors of SuperPAK who come from this community effort may not be held liable for any results of their work and are not in any way required to fix the bugs or provide continued support on their code.

 

DESIGN PRINCIPLES for the FALCON4 UNIFIED TEAM

 

The “Design Principles” will guide the team’s actions during the course of development.  These principles should be referenced when establishing priorities, selecting features, and arbitrating disagreements.  They are as follows:

 

  1. The changes will not add any instability to Falcon 4.0
  2. The data and functionality changes must reflect “real world values”.
  3. Real world values must be supported by non-classified military or civilian documentation.
  4. The changes will not adversely affect gameplay

 

Note 1 - The “real world” in Falcon 4.0 terms is a hypothetical battlefield in the current or near future timeframe that involves US, ROK, DPRK, Chinese, and Russian forces.  All modifications to the objects and capabilities of Falcon 4.0 will be made with these force capabilities in mind.  Other aircraft/theatres/weapons should be incorporated as available, but the standard version of the Falcon 4.0 SuperPak will be offered with the default standard Falcon 4.0 default Korean scenario in mind.  All other equipment, theatres, weapons, etc. should be integrated, but user-selectable either from the in-game interface or through pre-game configuration panels.

 

Note 2 - Although the F-16C has additional capabilities beyond what the USAF employs, the F4UT agrees to keep strict USAF specifications, as well as the specifications set forth by the other theatre combatants.  When other countries aircraft/capabilities are to be incorporated (example: F-16 MLUs or blocks that are of foreign military configurations), these can be integrated, but incorporated as non-default options that can be user-selectable.

 

Note 3 – One of F4UTs principals must be that of documentation for their choices of realism.  A most sacred guiding principle must be to support all changes with recognized military and civilian sources.  Sources must be submitted to all members of the F4UT’s management team and G2, verified, and re-verified as necessary.