Spring RTS Engine

We have to make models,textures,scripts, and other things in our "mods"...

Are we making the mods or the games?

mods.

Snipawolf wrote:We have to make models,textures,scripts, and other things in our "mods"...

Are we making the mods or the games?

orly? how many mods have actually taken the step to generate all of their own content?

As far as mods are games... I like to think some of us ARE making games that play in spring. However, all the TA varients are merely mods.

Right now? Mods.

Two conditions need to happen to make them true Games:

1) The Spring engine needs to abstract away from TA. It is doing this, slowly. Eventually, once it weens itself off of any OTA legal dependencies, and abstracts things like the resource model, the UI, building and upgrading mechanics, ect, then it will be more of a true multi-game engine rather than "just" a 3D TA engine.

I say "just" because, come on, even in it's current state Spring is pure kickass awesomesauce.

2) The mod maker needs to go the whole mile, replacing all textures, models, sounds, ect. And not just with things like TA but not TA, but with their own style and visual flair. Some mods are already pretty close to this. However, in addition the mods must be unique from a gameplay perspective as well. It would also be a big plus if the UI was unique and identifiable to that mod alone.

If these conditions are met, then yes, I think a mod can transform itself into a "real" game. For precident I would look to the UT mod Red Orchestra.

Erom wrote:
2) The mod maker needs to go the whole mile, replacing all textures, models, sounds, ect.

Models: check
Textures: check
Sounds: check
Visual flare: check
own style: check

Unique gameplay: all games fail after chess....

So how does gundam lack the title of game? At the moment there are 3 things it needs to sepperate it's self from the rest of this lot: Melee weapons, unit limits, customizeable gui.

All things were created from scratch. When I started the mod(outside of testing phase) I started with a blank directory, the fedcom and a tank(the t61).

so... where did I fail?

Erom wrote:If these conditions are met, then yes, I think a mod can transform itself into a "real" game. For precident I would look to the UT mod Red Orchestra.

Red Orchestra is a TC isn't it?

Imho, a new "game" doesn't occur until you cannot tell what engine it was made on. Spring games till look like TA:Spring. They've the same GUI, the same nanolathes, similar functionality, etc. Now, there's no shame in this, making a new game is not necessarily a better or lesser achievement than a mod. Team Fortress is definitely a mod, Daikatana is definitely a new game, and I don't think anyone has illusions about which is "better".

Maybe when we get customized guis, more intricate cusomization of resources, unit AIs, command structure, etc. in Spring, then we'll be able to call the mods games. But right now, I just don't think the Spring engine is really capable of anything more than "mods". Just my $.02CAN.

I think of mods as a bunch of minigames, each one branched off of the main trunk of Spring. Like a tree. And we all love tree's. But the mods are not QUITE distinctive enough to be considered full fledged games. GUI and resouses, as Pxtl says.

Hmm, I believe that pxtl gets a win. Thread Concluded, lock before spam degeneration please.

Yeah, smoth, sorry if I sounded antagonistic. Gundam is pretty damn close, but right now it is held back by the stuff under point (1) above. It needs the engine flexibility to move away from the Spring GUI and the nanoparticle effect to be cut lose. It's no fault of yours.

And Red Orchestra was a TC originally, then it aquired (by winning a contest) a copy of the engine license from the Epic/Atari/whoever-owns-the-franchise guys and is planning to be marketed commercially (Over Steam last time I heard...). Like I said, it was a mod. Now it's a game.

wow, I did not know red orchestra went full on indie

GEM is a game of its own.

I can see why you'd say AA isn't its own game, though I think of it as being "the game I made", since I've worked on it so long. It's a creative outlet of mine which I've spent years working on.... so it's mine! ALL MINE!!!! (with content stolen from across the known universe)

you didn't do all the art, sound, textures or scripts... not yours.

Interesting replies everyone, I dunno, mine will be a game on my side, and still a mod on the engine side, doesn't make a difference

smoth wrote:

Snipawolf wrote:We have to make models,textures,scripts, and other things in our "mods"...

Are we making the mods or the games?

orly? how many mods have actually taken the step to generate all of their own content?

As far as mods are games... I like to think some of us ARE making games that play in spring. However, all the TA varients are merely mods.

Spring 1944

Star Wars Spring

Gundam Annihilation

Gear Commander

EDIT: And Nanoblobs

Those are the ones that immediately spring to mind (no pun intended)

umm, guessmyname... I made gundam remember...

Also, starwars is still using Ota stuff and last time I looked the same is true of AATA... aka 1944. It should be noted that these two are making efforts to strip out ota content :).... which makes me happy :)

as far as mods... you are also forgetting nanoblobs.

Oh damn.

???????????

Oh and Panties's Spring version of Operation Polaris too

yeah, I am looking forward to that. I liked the OTA mod.

it certain seems like 'mod' should be gametype nowadays. modding implies you start with something and tweak it a little - OTA based ones, but when you're creating something from scratch you clearly drift away from that catagory.