Spring RTS Engine

Hi all,

I hope this is an ok place to post this.

I'd like to commission a mod for a very famous pen & paper futuristic tank game. The goal is to get it far enough along to use it as a demo for the rights holder and attempt to get a license. If that succeeds, the positions becoming paying positions.

Note that it will probably only being a paying gig once the license is secured. Yes, getting the license first would make more sense. The problem is that the owner has a long established history of not wanting to work with new outfits. A demo might change that.

So what do I need? Well, everybody. I don't code, I don't do artwork (though I do have an exceptionally talented modeller lined up), I don't do much else that would be useful in a project like this. I do, however, have money and ideas (and as they say, a fool and his money are soon venture capital).

Um, are we talking OGRE? Been thinking that'd be fun, and I almost did make an OGRE-for-Spring... Steve Jackson is (historically) actually pretty cool about people making games built off his concepts, so long as people don't rip him off financially in the process and give due credit.

But there's zero incentive to work for for you, for free, when you don't have any game-design credentials, bring no skills to the table, and your "awesome modeler" will have to learn Spring's workflow, and will probably blow steam out of his/her ears when they find out what it's going to take to do animation in BOS

Just bein' straight... there aren't that many of us who could actually do what you're proposing, and I doubt any of us are dumb enough to work for free, in the vague hope it'll be profitable later.

No single player game would be marketable under spring without someone to do the skirmish AI side, and right now only lindir the green and neddierow seem bothered with it, and they're taken, and they don't seem as bothered by it atm as they sued to anyway.

I appreciate your concern. Maybe I'm a little naive. This is what I was thinking: If you're working on a mod, it's already done on your own time on your own dime, yes? What changes if it's a mod that you're already interested in doing, but now there's a chance for financial reward?

If I came to you with my own universe that had zero exposure, then yes, I completely see your point and never would've suggested it. I guess I was thinking that the specific mod was the key.

What sort of time investiture are we talking about for a basic demo? I'm thinking ~half-dozen units, no real sound/effects, a single basic scenario/map -- a proof of concept.

I haven't forgotten about the Skirmish AI. I have a few ideas about that. If it was Ogre, and there was a single player version with the Ogre being computer controlled (how ironic), I'd think it would need to be a pretty special AI.

I'm trying to propose this in a way that's a win for everybody, but I may be willing to fall on the sword if necessary. Depends on how big the $word is. That might be a topic better suited to PM. Whatever other people are most comfortable with.

To quote that horrid movie, help me help you.

Help me to help you? win for everybody?
Money? spring?
AHHH CAPITALIST BUISNESSMEN ARE COMING TO SPRING!
*unholsters flame gun*

1v0ry_k1ng wrote:Help me to help you? win for everybody?
Money? spring?
AHHH CAPITALIST BUISNESSMEN ARE COMING TO SPRING!
*unholsters flame gun*

Thanks.

1v0ry_k1ng wrote:...
Money? spring?
AHHH CAPITALIST BUISNESSMEN ARE COMING TO SPRING!
*unholsters flame gun*

Yet, how many games, OSs, movies, musics, etc, etc, etc, have you spent money with!? It's just that you haven't been seeing they're discussions about making money from the work. Funny how things are.

I know for a fact that I am somewhat lacking in the skills department as far as Skirmish AI development and specialization goes - and am very busy. I believe Lindir has similar time constraints.

You would probably need a focused developer for it, just for your information.

I think it is still a good project idea from a development perspective, however vague it may currently appear. I'm not sure, however, that Spring is the correct engine to do this work on. It would be much easier in the upcoming OSRTS, which hopefully will rectify the failings of this engine.

I don't think you need to worry so much about Steve Jackson accepting your business proposal as the Spring engine developers themselves.

neddiedrow wrote:I know for a fact that I am somewhat lacking in the skills department as far as Skirmish AI development and specialization goes - and am very busy. I believe Lindir has similar time constraints.

I do in fact have many time constraints, and time that I don't spend with homework or NTai XTA configurating I want to actually play Spring.

As for the "Special OGRE Skirmish AI," I have enough experience configurating NTai to probably make a decent OGRE buildtree... But I wouldn't want to spend hours and hours fine-tuning it, which is the hard part.

And it wouldn't be possible to make something *that* special with any of the current AIs (maybe AAI...) because they lack the seemingly basic ability to look at what the enemy is building and build something to counter it.

And none of the current AIs really have to ability to do anything other than a normal Spring game where the two sides try to kill each other by any means neccesary. Unless you can recruit someone to write a new AI from scratch, no scripted AI missions for you.

Lindir The Green wrote:
And it wouldn't be possible to make something *that* special with any of the current AIs (maybe AAI...) because they lack the seemingly basic ability to look at what the enemy is building and build something to counter it.

And none of the current AIs really have to ability to do anything other than a normal Spring game where the two sides try to kill each other by any means neccesary. Unless you can recruit someone to write a new AI from scratch, no scripted AI missions for you.

Not that I'm publically admitting that Ogre is the project (...cough...), but there's no build phase. Each scenario is started by choosing units that add to a pre-determined points value. The AI just needs to be able to accomplish its mission (run the table, kill all the enemy, smash the command post, etc).

Granted, there's a finite number of scenarios of this nature that can be run before it starts to get boring. I do have a plan for beyond that, but it's beyond the scope of what I'm looking for here initially.