[Project Legacy] Saving Dropped Mainlines

[KameRamen]

I have recently launched, with the help of several collaborators, an organization on GitHub named Project Legacy. The purpose of this project is to bring classic campaigns (or equivalent player experiences) that have been dropped from the mainline under version control for centralized and continuous development. Note that this is an unofficial project and is not coordinated with the development team.

<https://github.com/wesnoth-legacy-project>

Campaigns currently hosted by the project include An Orcish Incursion, Delfador's Memoirs, The Dark Hordes, and The South Guard Classic. This thread was created for the purpose of announcements, discussion, and general support. The current project maintainer is KameRamen, contact me if needed.

Outdated Statement posted on WMG Discord

This is still just at the stage of conception in my mind. However, I will post it here early because it would be a shame if I get busy with other projects (TDH in my case) and end up not sharing it forever.

As you are aware, Delfador's Memoirs and The South Guard Classic were recently dropped from the mainline and replaced by their respective successors. Also, some time ago, An Orcish Incursion was completely removed with 1.15. These removals accompany the redesign of the mainline canon expected after 1.20 (grand, according to Yumi), but have, IMO, some negative aspects.

For example, these changes made to the official history have repercussions for references to them by UMC. As far as I know, older campaigns such as The Dark Hordes and The North Wind were radically affected. From another perspective, another concern should be that their removal from the mainline will stop official maintenance to them: in case the maintainer is no longer available or is taken over by a "bad" modder, the dropped mainlines might end miserably.

I believe those various losses should be avoided. Dropped mainlines should not be forgotten by people.

Therefore, I believe that it would be ideal to bring these legacies together as a quasi-mainline, which people can refer to freely, and to launch a project for ongoing and evolving maintenance. More specifically, an organization will be created in GitHub for this plan, allowing for sufficient control over development history and versions, as well as the ability to manage dropped campaigns in bulk.

Delfador's Memoirs and The South Guard Classic will be first on its list; An Orcish Incursion will be excluded, as it may return to the mainline. Also, The Dark Hordes could be part of this project. The project will be managed by a small team from WMG and campaigns will be updated in stages. After sufficient coordination, with a view to a revised version of each, the "older canon" will be released in the form of a mod pack.