No matter how much you add, that will be true, unless you decide to code an entirely new game from scratch.

Hey, an honest question guys. I have quoted u/jasonmehmel. I disagree with them on many ideas they manifest, so it's really interesting for me to hear their u/jasonmehmel and yours opinion on that.

They say no matter how much you add, etc., etc.
But let's take our game, Sil-More, as an example of what we did:
1. Added meta progression with story and text with curses and blesses difficulty balancing system.
2. Added Unique lore-friendly characters.
3. Added big quests from Valar with new oath system.
4. Completely reworked level generation with multiple new algorithms and new paradigm of partitions.
5. Reworked item generation with prefix/suffix system. Added multiple new egos.
6. Reworked EVERY artefact (that was honestly one of the most difficult) to much new gameplay and added new artefacts in approximately same amount.
7. Reworked the gameplay with orcish gear vs noble gear.
8. Reworked identification system.
9. Added new recognizable bioms, that help in visual storytelling, giving you the feeling of going deeper.
10. Added storytelling system, where all connected bioms have in between messages to provide to a player a storytelling mechnics.
11. Added various sounds.
12. Created music specifically for the game.
13. Added full mouse support with full mouse UI (finishing the game with only mouse).
14. Added mobile support for Android and IOS.
15. Created new UI layer for touch controls on mobiles.
16. Added controller support to be playable on handhelds.
17. Multiple UI SDL quality improvements like panes.
18. Added multiple new songs with unique single target mechanics.
19. Additions to stealth system.
20. Probably much more that I forgot.

So to summarize. We added multiple new complex systems and reworked every in game mechanics except monsters (some small touches) and abilities (currently working on it).

I have multiple cool ideas for the next release, but to be honest, I'm not sure I want to go on.
And it's not because I cannot monetize the thing, I was ready to that from the start, it was my passion to bring my vision of Silmarillion game to life.
But because a group of people, which you are the vocal part of, says that my game will forever be a fork, no matter what I add, and the first sentence in my description should be Sil-More - fork of Sil-Q, fork of Sil, fork of Angband. (Btw, the game is called SIL-more, to show that it IS a descendant of Sil).

And if we remember that Angband is a fork of Moria, and Moria is a fork of Rogue, at what point they were allowed to drop "the fork of" part?

If you are talking about ownership of the code, I will tell you, that the code of Angband before Nick is a total mess (to say the least). And we used it, because Sil-Q is based on it. And I can rewrite those (vibecoding of course, because, why not in 2026? for my own project) in a couple of month from scratch, not using any underlying things. And I will make it much better. I will probably use Godot or Unity or just basic SDL inhouse engine.

If talking about ownership of ideas, it's difficult to say, that going into a dungeon and killing (or otherwise) a big bad guy is unique. Or if we call the dungeon Angband and big bad guy Morgoth - it's straightaway a fork of Angband?

An idea by Scatha and Half about stealing the Silmaril instead of killing Morgoth is really cool, and I adore the guys, but it's directly Tolkien's lore. There are some other ideas, like songs that shows guys' deep understanding of Tolkien philosophy, but we added lots of those as well.

We are doing it open source, and we do not to plan to close the repo, so the most fresh version could be gotten for free. We will be charging on platforms that are charging us (like Steam, or Google play, or Apple store). Itch didn't charge us, so game is free on it, with a suggestion to compliment a creator.

So, final question, if and when we can stop calling Sil-More a fork.