Oh and I just saw this reply on the older A-II thread that posits an interesting notion too:
hxxp: aurora2. pentarch. org/index. php/topic,4103. msg40097. html#msg40097
I am reminded what ToadyOne of Dwarf Fortress did with the OpenGL code. He basically posted source of a MUCH older unrelated game which uses the same drawing engine as DF. The community stepped in and OpenGL'fied the code, fixing it and improving its performance considerably, after which he took the resulting product and merged it with DF source, in the end keeping DF closed but still getting help from the community.
I wonder if that is possible with the Aurora and Aurora II UI? If there isn't too much game logic in there is it possible to post it and have the community help and pretty it up, while keeping the backend (the interesting stuff) closed? Particularly, I am thinking of the system and galaxy views. This is a decisively non-artist game, but those two can still do with some love.
This. Totally this! If there were closed assemblies maintained by the original designer but with published interfaces, they could be consumed by enthusiastic contributors to help build out new UI parts for Aurora II's frontend.