Mod Contest For Unreal...
Fat_Man_Little_Coat
Join Date: 2003-12-02 Member: 23857Members
Join Date: 2003-12-02 Member: 23857Members
Latest issue of Computer Gaming World has details about a mod contest for Unreal.
<a href='http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ut2004/news_6029610.html' target='_blank'>Mod contest</a>
The prizes are impressive and includes an engine license for the Unreal engine itself.
Natural Selection has to enter this, with such a large supportive community developing this game, while hard, would be easier than for most of the competition. This contest would be a big boost on putting this game into the mainstream market, and further develop the sweetness that is NS.
I'd like to know if the developers intend to enter this contest, since I see no reason why they shouldn't.
<a href='http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ut2004/news_6029610.html' target='_blank'>Mod contest</a>
The prizes are impressive and includes an engine license for the Unreal engine itself.
Natural Selection has to enter this, with such a large supportive community developing this game, while hard, would be easier than for most of the competition. This contest would be a big boost on putting this game into the mainstream market, and further develop the sweetness that is NS.
I'd like to know if the developers intend to enter this contest, since I see no reason why they shouldn't.
Comments
As for the Unreal engine, well, lets face it, the Half life engine is dying if not dead. Those familiar with Battlefield 1942 know how popular that engine has become, and when HL2 comes out (if ever) it will mean the official death of one the most popularly modded games in history.
Unknown Worlds never expressly stated they would use HL2 for the next projects they intend to release. And with Valve's continual delay, I think few would be upset if the developers of NS chose a more available engine for the meantime (HL2 is, what, a Fall release now?).
If NS wants to stay viable and reach its goals,quoted from the website :
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->First we'd like to get Natural Selection into retail as a stand-alone product. NS is gaining players every day, but it's still a modification without a PR-budget, so a retail launch would gain many more players and reviews. The game has been tested, played casually and played competitively by many thousands of players, so a retail release is relatively low-risk. This release would build the franchise name and build an even larger audience for our next offering.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This statement leads me to believe that the developers would jump at the chance at the contest that is currently ongoing, despite the fact it would require many of us to buy Unreal tournament.
Now, I know many of us would be peeved at the idea of having to buy a game in order to play NS, but
one: the game itself is relatively inexpensive these days
two: the current engine, while beautifully modded, is outdated.
Again, as a fan I feel the developers can do little wrong with this baby they call NS. so any "critiscm" I say is intended to expand their vision and the creation that I've enjoyed for so long.
Well, it still seems to me the mod scene of halflife is a lot stronger than that of battlefield, and the fact that battlefield already has a sequel coming out doesn't bode well for it's mod community, since it's highly unlikely that 1942 will be supported when vietnam is out.
Riiiiight. And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
Flayra's done miracles with the HL engine, thanks in large part to the extremely large modding community and long modding history of the game. Porting over the code is likely impossible (as Epic uses its own engine, not a Quake-based one like HL's), and re-creating it in UT2k4 would take a long, long time.
Not to mention all the models would have to be rebuilt for UT2k4, both aesthetically (higher poly, better skins) and mechanically (recompiling, adjusting animations, etc). All the maps would have to be rebuilt in UnrealEd, or new maps would have to be created.
Yeah, piece of cake.
Besides that, as someone has already said, this competition is already well under way. Not gonna happen.
Perhaps it was idealistic thinking as far as entering the contest, but anyone who's been gaming know that the main thing that causes a game to win/fail is the gameplay, balancing and design, which NS has in shades already. Not to mention, music, ambient sound effects, voice talent etc. The technical aspects are more straightforward, and more about manpower and technical skill, which I'm sure they will have many skilled volunteers ready to help.
Ultimately, they're not going to be in the contest, which, I think many of us agree, is unfortunate. The prizes would have probably put it on the map and on the shelves, and if not, help get it closer to that goal.
Now, again, I am a fan and only want to see NS as widespread as some other games that are only half as deserving as its fame. I think the game is pretty extraordinary and enjoy it immensely. Which is why not seeing them in this contest causes me to wonder if they're waiting for the HL2 engine, which looks amazing, but is rumored to be pushed back ANOTHER few months, when there's the Unreal engine, which looks great and offers opportunities like the one stated
above.
*edit: I'd like to also note, as far as the technical aspects, there are over 100 hours of downloadable video training modules for the Unreal engine.
You make it sound simple, and to be honest it sounds like you don't know much about coding yourself. Making the gameplay and the balancing is NOT the most time-consuming part of a mod. It might be the most important, but the most time consuming? No way. It will take very long to convert the game to UT. Also, you're saying there's plenty of skilled volunteers who would gladly work on someone else's mod port just like that, but can you point me to any skilled modmakers who haven't made their own mod already? (and here I'm not talking "know how to code", I'm talking "skilled enough to COOPERATE in a coding effort with someone they haven't met). And even so, there will have to be people converting all models. And even SO, even if that all happened, NS would lose LOTS of players because the UT engine has a smaller fanbase, and NS will even have to begin from scratch taking over this fanbase.
So really, it's nowhere as easy as you make it out to be.
No matter how much you like the current version of NS it is without doubt that they will eventually have to port it to another engine.
With Doom3, HL2 and even newer titles like Farcry and Battlefield:Vietnam on the horizons, it is inevitable the HL engine will die.
Regardless of the contest, NS has to expect to change engines soon or expect itself to become outdated. Why fight the inevitable?
In reverse order:
NS was built on the HL engine for many excellent reasons.
1) Valve is very supportive of its modding community
2) Modding tools for HL are fairly easy to use and very well documented, both by Valve and by the substantial modding community.
3) At any given time, there are 75-100k people playing Counterstrike. The HL2 survey through Steam has already generated almost 400,000 unique responses. That is a player base that Epic *wishes* UT2k* had.
4) Related to the above, HL runs on many older systems (NS was originally planned to support Software mode, though that has for now at least been dropped) that UT2k* wouldn't. My system can't handle UT2k*; if NS had been built for that engine, I and many, many others would never have even gotten the chance to play it.
Etc.
Regarding your first question: Flayra has said he can't wait to get his hands on HL2, but currently has no plans to port NS as it currently exists to another engine. Any future NS development would be on one of two things: (1) Retail NS, or (2) a true sequel on a new engine (which Flayra has neither confirmed nor denied), which would probably be Valve's Source engine.
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Yep.
Half-Life modding community isn't going to magically die when HL2 comes out. It may eventually become nothing more than a trickle of players, but that won't happen for a long time. Unless a large chunk of the HL community comes up with the cash to buy new oober systems, they will be playing HL for a long time. Thats what makes HL so great, you can have a pc that blows goats and still play HL just fine.
Also, unlike UT2k4 HL doesn't need to "cheat" its player stats up. You go look for yourselves and see how many bots are playing in servers. They say they fixed it but it still counts them.
I mean seriously who is running on a older system that can't afford $500 bucks? I have that much left over after my bills are paid every 2 weeks and I don't make that much money.
People that either A) Don't have jobs, or B)Go to school and have a small part-time job, which they spent all made money on groceries and bills and such. I don't have $500 to spend right now. If I did, I'd have a 9800 XT.
And I think that the HL modding community won't die out, but be cut down in size when the Source engine is released. Valve is trying very hard to get the engine able to run on PCs that blow without going at 5fps. And since they're also attempting to make MODs portable to the HL2 engine, and NS is pushing the HL engine to the limits (Trust me, playing NS on a system that blows isn't all that fun - 735 Mhz + 4MB integrated chipset graphics + integrated sound + 128 MB SDRAM = 5fps. In normal HL I'd get upwards of 40 :\ ). If no new media (models/textures/maps) is released, HL2 could drastically improve performance on many older systems.
I mean seriously who is running on a older system that can't afford $500 bucks? I have that much left over after my bills are paid every 2 weeks and I don't make that much money. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You'd be surprised.
Anyway, I don't think they would make NS for a contest, because it would put uneeded pressure on them to finish before the phase ended. I dont know if flayra would release a version for a contest that wasn't finished, or wasn't what he wanted, but it wouldn't be good if he did. A mod team did that for phase 1 or two, and the game seriously sucked. *Cough* frag ops *cough* Though, I hear they have made major improvements, he pushed his game out to get it in the phase, and it was terrible.