CryEngine 3 SDK coming

[zeep]

A modern Infiltration in a modern engine. 3D Sounds, gfx, animations, textures, stances, physics, mechanics, ballistics, all up to date. Lots of maps, randomized objective team games, randomized positions on maps, uban, jungle, desert. Moddable and community additions.

That's an end-all game for me.

The key is keeping multiplayer games interesting. A unique combo of gamemodes. Stuff like randomized events, side missions, stuff occuring that alters balance. All stuff like that.

I hate how "balance" is always key with all modern games. Nerf this, powerup that, chokepoint here, objective there... Screw balance. Your loadout is key. Period.
Sometimes your team easily spots the enemy and wipes them out, other times the enemy sneaks past all your defences and caps the objective while you sit there looking the wrong way. Stuff like that is refreshing after cod/bf/blahblah same balance rules and **** in other games.

 

[STELLAR 7]

The end-all, come on. When has there ever been an end-all for anyone.
Sure it might look good on paper. But have you actually experienced any of that? It might not turn out how you would have expected it to. And you'll get bored of that too, guaranteed.
I don't know, have you guys ever considered trying other genres even if just for a little bit?
You want a realistic game to play, try FreeFalcon. It's a modded version of Falcon 4.0, the F-16 simulator. And it's free to download. And there's multiplayer.

 

[Psychomorph]

To me it would be end-all. I'd not need any other game, at all, unless it is as fun.

INF was about more than what generic games ever covered. It wasn't about technical flawlessness, but about conceptual strength. Let's take weapon handling, you shoulder the rifle and lower the muzzle to scan the area and raise the muzzle to put the sights in front of your eyes (and that by your chosen speed, since you move the mouse to move the muzzle), just like in f*cking reality! See movement, to cover large distances quickly you don't sprint like in most games, you slow down to jog and keep the gun at a carry position (hipped in INF, I see it as carry rather), JUST LIKE IN F*CKING REALITY!! Name a game that does the same thing. Then goes projectile ricochet and more.
INFILTRATION is a god damn conceptual masterpiece, only the execution isn't always to well, which is because of various reasons though. I'd like to see that stuff, but practically better executed.

I have to name it though; the more important part about a game are surely the co-players (if we talk MP). I have very hard times to enjoy INF the way I used to, since about all players quit who played INF the way I enjoy to play it.


As for other genres, I'm a realism fan, this has a good and a bad side. The good is that I can play any genre, be it sword and sorcery or sci-fi, the bad part is that most games, especially the ones I just named are not about realism.
I played Oblivion and seeing how you put about 10 arrows in a 4 feet creature and seeing how it runs and jumps around like a damn tree (because of all the wood sticking out of it's body), that made me go some serious major WTF!!! I was enraged and about to insta-quit. I just can't take that bullsh*t!

 

[STELLAR 7]

Programming is really the core, the means of creation for a game. Any other skill set, regardless of how important, is just an addition to complete the picture.
Basically what I mean to say is, it all depends on Beppo, lol.

I meant to comment on this earlier. Just an addition to complete the picture? Well then so is programming in the same sense. You can't have one without the other to make a video game. What's a programmer supposed to make by himself if all he knows is code? It's especially relevant today, where modern game engines have shifted a significant amount of focus onto artist control.
As you may know, I can say this because I dealt with every game design aspect of making something with UT/INF, from level design, textures, models, animation, sound to code. And I can tell you that there's a lot of technical challenges artists and sound guys have to face. I consider myself an artist first; but for me, unfortunately, all the graphic work is a long and painstaking process. Programming is the fun part. So even if Beppo knew how to do it all, he'll still want a team.

 

[Psychomorph]

Inigo, I didn't mean to disregard other fields of game design. You can't have a game without content, but what I meant to say was that content such as art and sound are fragments that are put (and held) together by programming. I think there is no doubt about that programming is the foundation on which you lay the bricks of content to build the game.

As for the more fun part. I can agree. While of course, having zero knowledge of programming, my only real skill is art and I find it honestly highly annoying. However, back in 2003 I made my first (and last) mod for Aliens Versus Predator 2. The cool thing about it was that you could change values in attribute files to create new effects and physical attributes, which you compiled and could use as a mod. See it as predefined programming without the need of actual coding knowledge. I had a blast doing that, because you can really see what you create, change few numbers and you create more realistic rocket and grenade behaviour. So I can confirm, doing art is annoying, programming was fun for me. Which why I am sure if I was gifted with the talent of programming, I would have experimented with it in the past 10 years and maybe had created some sort of a mod by now.

 

[krisredbeard]

Code is one of the easier things.
Asset creation is hard.

 

[STELLAR 7]

I'm just letting you know that today, asset creation plays a larger role now than before. And it's because of engine programming to save steps. In that sense, programming "under the hood" does play a central role. To contrast some differences between the then and the now, I'll choose Unreal Engine to be consistent. The main new features that I've seen from Unreal Engine 3 that differentiates it from its previous iterations (ue1, ue2..) is the dynamic lighting system, shader flexibility, and the streamlined in-editor tools (Kismet, PhAT, etc). There's more of course, but these are things that stand out for me. The point is this. What had to be done by a programmer in the past can now be done by the artist. Judging from these new tools, it seems like game artists today are likely to be familiar with several programming concepts already or will need to be. I gave an example in the INFILTRATION 3 thread of how first-person proper would need to rely on the animator to set up alignment angles rather than have the programmer define the vectors in the script. While this would be true of the old engine as well, there is less scripting involved now with such mechanics.

The selling point for something like UE3 is that it allows developers to prototype an idea relatively quickly. That is, it saves the programmers time by shifting the workload onto asset handlers. Creating assets has only recently changed in the direction of adding more detail which means the artist's job is longer than ever. But once you have all the pieces ready, you'll be able to put it all together much faster.