Modders of TES: when is it time to take the next step?

[morrowmouse]

I have great hopes for a true open source game engine that is modular enough to use for diverse type games from space war to medieval and black powder. And RPG as well as FPS games.

 

 

 

Although I have heard many people talk over the years, people online, and people I work with, about the desire and need for exactly this. It is 2010 and there still is no real solid open source solution for a base rpg system. Even a proprietary solution would be acceptable. I would pay quite a bit for this. And i have the cash to spare now. There has not been a decent game worth spitting at in years. My mmo subs have all long been cancelled. Im just sitting around wondering if someday someone is going to build me my next game. Well wtf. If nobody is going to do it then im left with living in oblivion forever, or getting to work. The pedastrian market is king now. And the developers who once had values focused toward 'us' are going for the money. Its in the console, its in the iphones, its for the short attention span fast food gamers, its for the money.

 

I can tell you the people that built morrowind had a higher ethic involved then money. There was a vision there of something greater. I bought into that idea completely, and now they are going to leave me in the dust so they can chase after this mmo. Yeah maybe all the reports I have read are just rumors. But until I see hard facts to the contrary, I believe the age of tes modding is over in the long run.

 

As much as I am greatful for morrowind, oblivion, and fallout3, I also do not like feeling hostage. There is a universe of possibilities they have opened up with this gaming system. Those possibilities will never be realized. Because market forces will not really take them in that direction. And its not just bethesda. I'm still sitting here pissed off about what sony did to swg. And sad for all the unrealized possibilities of Vanguard. Lamenting the insidious expansions of planetside that ushered in its downfall. Angry, yet unsurprised that eq2 is going with battlegrounds, the shitty site of wow, instead of fixing their open world pvp the way it should have been. And recently walking away from sto for its simplicity, non persistent world mmo and lack of cerebral content. The lists of MMOs i have tried is kinda embarrasing. For the most part, sandbox is not the winner. If TES becomes an MMO, it will either fail financially for being the ultimate and beautiful sandbox people like us enjoy, or it will become another mmo mcdonalds to satisfy the childmind market and cash in on the wow crowd. Fail or success, without modding, its not really tes. This just leave me with nowhere left to go, and a growing amount of free time. Which is fine, ill get more exercise i guess. But i chose my career based on my love affair with technology over the past twenty years. And there is nothing I enjoy more after a day of code then a good immersive game.

 

If I could start a gaming company now, it would be to provide the platform, and target the mature gamers market. The people like me who feel like they helped start this whole thing decades ago, and now are being completely removed from the equation. This platform needs to take one of these engines, be it ogre or whatever, and finish connecting the dots so that someone at the modding level can get into it and do their content without alot of hassle.

 

Imagine it as a new gaming model. Instead of buying a full game from start to finish in a single box, or instead of buying into a subscription MMO where content is updated and expanded, you actually buy the platform and access to content you can pick and choose from to put together your own game. You could add in main quests, add in the environment, maps, and effects you want, and contribute back your own content. It might come at a higher price, maybe its even a premium level of subscription. But some of us arent kids anymore, and we are more then willing and able to pay out quite a bit more for a game thats actually worth playing.

[Nexus Set]

...

 

If I could start a gaming company now, it would be to provide the platform, and target the mature gamers market. The people like me who feel like they helped start this whole thing decades ago, and now are being completely removed from the equation. This platform needs to take one of these engines, be it ogre or whatever, and finish connecting the dots so that someone at the modding level can get into it and do their content without alot of hassle.

 

Imagine it as a new gaming model. Instead of buying a full game from start to finish in a single box, or instead of buying into a subscription MMO where content is updated and expanded, you actually buy the platform and access to content you can pick and choose from to put together your own game. You could add in main quests, add in the environment, maps, and effects you want, and contribute back your own content. It might come at a higher price, maybe its even a premium level of subscription. But some of us arent kids anymore, and we are more then willing and able to pay out quite a bit more for a game thats actually worth playing.

That sounds a bit like Garry's mod.

 

Edit:

You may also be interested in the current development of Myst Online.

The developers are planning to release modding tools and opening up the source code to allow community made content. And it's an MMO to boot.

 

MO:ULagain is the currently available reincarnation of everything in MO:UL in a free, donation-supported, server run by Cyan. It is the first step in “opening” MO:UL. Cyan is planning that the client, servers and tools of MO:UL will soon become open source, allowing fans to continue developing the game and its universe. Fans will be able to host their own Uru servers and write their own custom, fan-made worlds for everyone to explore. For details, please see the Developers page.

This is definitely not TES, but I think it's closely related to the gaming dimension that you're interested in.

[clouddew]

I don't see a problem here.

 

Bethesda have been using the Gamebryo engine for a while and have released mod resources for it. Also they have just recently bought iD who also have a history of releasing mod resources.

 

Both Gamebryo & iD are not going to drop their tech.

 

Sure MMO's can't be modded but for other games the devs know that for their tech to take hold in the market its got to offer moddability so that new talent for their dev teams can be found.

 

Still IF the PC market drys up into 'MMO's only' due to pirating fears, then yeah all game devs are going to have a hard time getting new workers to build using their engines and they will have chased cash for short to mid term gains.

But I don't think they are that daft. Sure the marketing bunch are, but the game builders aren't.

BTW Another factor which is easily over looked is the gamers 'changing attitude' to games as they get older. i.e sometimes its not the game its the gamer. I know I suffer from this if I play COD4 I get owned a lot now but 10 years ago I was good!

 

:mellow:

[Nimboss]

... I have great hopes for a true open source game engine that is modular enough to use for diverse type games from space war to medieval and black powder. And RPG as well as FPS games. ...

Well there is one open source game engine slowly evolving and when ready will fulfill anyones needs to get a complete set of all tools needed. Not much showoff to play with or fancy screen shoots and partly I think that is on purpose to not attract all kiddos that want to make the next gen ũber MMO but hardly can spell to compile.

 

The concept is called IndieZen and they really have a clear goal what they want to achieve. About IndieZen.org

I'm still too bad at C++ programming otherwise I would gladly jumped in on that project.

[Skotte]

I don't see a problem here.

 

Bethesda have been using the Gamebryo engine for a while and have released mod resources for it. Also they have just recently bought iD who also have a history of releasing mod resources.

 

Both Gamebryo & iD are not going to drop their tech.

 

<snip>

:mellow:

 

Actually, Beth did not buy Id Zenimax did (which owns Beth)

[hoshi23]

why not actually go mod crysis? aint it like an superb enginge for all this?

the sandbox editor seems to be a charm to work with.

[morrowmouse]

I did alot of digging around after i made the first post and ive ended up with using the unreal 3 engine. I had a full hands on training with someone who uses it for media products and got to see all sorts of examples how to implement rpg functionality with it. I didnt realize just how open the personal licensing is with their dev kit, at least as far as I want to use it. They made some sort of licensing changes at the end of last year that really throws the doors open for me. For the most part it looks like I can do whatever I want as long as I'm not making money. poo thats easy, i dont make money like all the time. So i'm going to be unreal programming for awhile. Bringing in fantasy assests and textures(materials) so far is a breeze. And the 3ds style animation timeline is a fantastic idea. Somehow i just need to be more people and im all set.

[AncientSpaceAeon]

TES5 won't be an MMO

They don't always tell the truth do they ? No one does. TES5 maybe wouldn't be, but the next TES games probably will. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[rdamstrom]

I started playing around with the unity engine yesterday with the same idea of creating the frame work on which to create new and exciting mods . I was surprised at how easy it was to import the hgec model into the game and even got an animation in there as well. I started looking around for other resources that might be of use and found at least two path finding addons that are open for non commercial use. there seems to be more out their that would be of use as well but it will take some time to dig it up. unity and blender almost work together like they were the same program and you can even open blender from unity just by double clicking your mesh. if you have photo shop you can do the same as well. gimp didn't work but there may be a way to correct this. the documentation is excellent and has a strong user base for answer newbie questions there is a lot to like about this engine at first glance and opportunity to land a few jobs as well. the next release is on its way and even if you had to pay the two hundred dollar indie fee for it. it would be worth it if we had a good base to work with. as it stands now I see no reason to continue to waste my time chasing these game companys around trying to get them to give me what I really want when I can just make it myself. I did notice alot of similarity's to the torque engine. remember tribes. that was a great game until they ported it to the unreal engine. there is probably a lot of old code left from that game just waiting to find a new home.

[Vagrant0]

I started playing around with the unity engine yesterday with the same idea of creating the frame work on which to create new and exciting mods . I was surprised at how easy it was to import the hgec model into the game and even got an animation in there as well. I started looking around for other resources that might be of use and found at least two path finding addons that are open for non commercial use. there seems to be more out their that would be of use as well but it will take some time to dig it up. unity and blender almost work together like they were the same program and you can even open blender from unity just by double clicking your mesh. if you have photo shop you can do the same as well. gimp didn't work but there may be a way to correct this. the documentation is excellent and has a strong user base for answer newbie questions there is a lot to like about this engine at first glance and opportunity to land a few jobs as well. the next release is on its way and even if you had to pay the two hundred dollar indie fee for it. it would be worth it if we had a good base to work with. as it stands now I see no reason to continue to waste my time chasing these game companys around trying to get them to give me what I really want when I can just make it myself. I did notice alot of similarity's to the torque engine. remember tribes. that was a great game until they ported it to the unreal engine. there is probably a lot of old code left from that game just waiting to find a new home.

A couple of stolen/repurposed resources does not make a game. You still need to know how to program to be able to do jack with an engine... Modding on the other hand has most of that work already done and doesn't require using assets without permission or legal rights.