What would revive the UT franchise?

[Northrawn]

10 ****ing pages?

UT3 is dead. Nobody cares anymore. It's not coming back.

UT3?

If you had the ability to at least read and understand the headline you might have better understood what this thread is about.

I have a nice site for you, that you fits your capabilities better: /snip - don't link to that site northrawn.


EDIT:
I just saw your other posts. Sorry I didn't link to the hentai-channel directly. I think you aren't able to find that by yourself from your reading and writing skills.

 

[Selerox]

It's much tougher on new players that UT was.

Are fast-paced shooters dead? Take a look at TF2. Loads of players. Take a look at Quake Live. Not stellar numbers yet, but you can be guaranteed to find a busy game in any gametype within seconds.

Quake Live has exactly the right idea, the one thing that could let it down is it's pretty drastic learning curve.

Is UT dead? Yes. Lots of things killed it, but it's never going to come back.

 

[NeoNite]

What a stylish poster.

Just another spammer. Best if everyone ignores them

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Are fast-paced shooters dead? Take a look at TF2. Loads of players. Take a look at Quake Live. Not stellar numbers yet, but you can be guaranteed to find a busy game in any gametype within seconds.

I wouldn't call TF2 a "fast paced shooter" and Quake Live is free.

 

[Grobut]

Some sort of custom content management in the game would be great, although I doubt it would revive the franchise.

Obviously it woulden't, whilst it would be a step in the right direction, organizing mods is not nearly enough to save UT3 on it's own.

But if they ever do relaunch the UT franchise in a good way (be it a propper Unreal sequal with good MP, or a really good UT4), it's definately something that would help the game greatly, be it an integrated mod browser, or even just a really good one-stop site that people can go to for their mod needs, it'd be a really good addition.

 

[TWD]

The franchise cannot be revived because the basic premise is flawed. Since registering in 2000 I've watched the community chase this dream. I'm here to tell you today that it's a farce. It just doesn't exist. It was a bad idea to begin with.

Some people will tell you that it's just an issue of Epic dropping the ball. That they just weren't making the game that the fans wanted. This couldn't be farther from the truth. More complicated movement, an arena/sports feel, in your face combat. These weren't Epic's ideas. They were ours. I mentioned, discussed, and suggested almost every single one of these features long before Epic ever did.

It's not that we made the wrong decisions here or there. The whole idea just doesn't work. We've been trying to create the mother of all competitive FPS games, and it's just not possible. There's no such thing. The only way that this series can ever be successful is by bringing real innovation to the series. Yet our own rigid ideas of what UT is supposed to be prevents us from doing so. The only way this series can move forward is to throw all of our aspirations out the window and start from scratch. That is why I now believe that the Unreal franchise needs to move on without UT.

 

[Benfica]

be it an integrated mod browser

I played a bit with the idea. The problem is that I made it with python, not Unreal script

http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=678285

 

[Benfica]

We've been trying to create the mother of all competitive FPS games, and it's just not possible.

And the end result was a game for "serious" FPS nerds.

 

[Selerox]

It's about the core concept...

I wouldn't call TF2 a "fast paced shooter" and Quake Live is free.

I'd call TF2 fast. It might not be the speed of Quake 3/Live (then again, nothing's that fast), but it's still fast paced, and it's a million miles from most online FPS games.

How does the fact that Quake Live is free matter? id have set themselves up with a game that's guaranteed a playerbase. They marketed it a different way, but the core concept of the game is identical to UT's, it's a fast-paced arena shooter. It's already got more players than UT2003 got and it's still only a beta.

In terms of online players it's beaten UT3 already.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I'd call TF2 fast. It might not be the speed of Quake 3/Live (then again, nothing's that fast), but it's still fast paced, and it's a million miles from most online FPS games.

How so? I find TF2 to be the same as TFC which was essentially the same as core Half Life gameplay. It doesn't feel any "faster" than your typical, modern FPS like Halo.

How does the fact that Quake Live is free matter? id have set themselves up with a game that's guaranteed a playerbase. They marketed it a different way, but the core concept of the game is identical to UT's, it's a fast-paced arena shooter. It's already got more players than UT2003 got and it's still only a beta.

In terms of online players it's beaten UT3 already.

Because cost is a factor? Why else would it matter?

Quake already has a fanbase. If Epic made a simple interface to UT, made it free, added a browser plugin to connect to and browse running servers it would no doubt be the most popular UT game to date. Why? Because anyone will play something that costs no money.

The other thing to consider is that Quake Live is old technology. The game runs fine on my old POS Pentium 3 933mhz/512mb ram system. It will literally run on anything.

So comparing UT3 to Quake Live is dumb. They are different products with different goals. If there was a UT Live, it would be a more appropriate comparison.

As far as just comparing playerbases, there aren't many games that have players that are as dead as UT3 in that way.

 

[deletemepls]

Nude Japanese characters that when you frag someone scream things like "HAI!"

 

[Mardok]

The series needs to move on to new things.

I'm a more recent hardcore UT fan. I consistently play UT2004's Onslaught and Bombing Run gametypes and play UT3's Warfare and DM. However, I did play UT on the PS2 (and enjoyed it very much), so I somewhat have a feel for the original series.

Coming from the perspective of all the UT's from both the console and PC, I think this series just needs to forget about anything and everything that made the previous titles special and just move on. Forget about Onslaught, Capture the Flag, VCTF, Instagib DM, etc. because we're never going to bring them back to their original glory. Id Software had it right with Quake Live; no Quake title they release is going to revive it no matter how much work they put into new gameplay mechanics or engine rebuilds. The only way to keep people coming to Quake is to make it easily accessible to everyone in the form that made it popular in the first place and move on. You can't make money by directly selling the milk that came from your dead cow, you need to do it in different ways (like... getting paid to perform on an acting show to see how much of it you can drink before you puke).

The Unreal series needs to do the same thing. There's no point in trying to enter your 35 year-old horse into the Kentucky Derby, it's just not going to work. If you want your old horse to keep riding, just let your kids on it for a short walk every once in a while. Take it to one of their birthday parties and all the kids there will want to have a ride on it (Quake Live). If you want to race, you need to breed a new horse.

Analogy aside, I do think the series can make a return in popularity, but not by going back to its roots. The series needs to come up with something new and pick one target audience, be it PC or console, and let's face it: no matter what gametypes Epic tries to remake, they're never going to be as good as the previous one. Let the previous titles do what they did best and come up with something new and make the next title do what it does best that the previous titles don't have.

There were plenty of other mistakes Epic made with UT3, but I think the above is the main thing that's killing UT: it's old and Epic is trying to put makeup on it.

 

[JohnDoe641]

Id Software had it right with Quake Live; no Quake title they release is going to revive it no matter how much work they put into new gameplay mechanics or engine rebuilds. The only way to keep people coming to Quake is to make it easily accessible to everyone in the form that made it popular in the first place and move on.

Quake is primarily DM and CTF with CPM, I haven't played Quake Live since the beta, but unless I'm missing something, it's the same thing as vq3a and cpm q3.

Though I'm a bit confused, you say that "no matter how much work they put into new gameplay mechanics or engine rebuilds." yet then you state "Let the previous titles do what they did best and come up with something new and make the next title do what it does best that the previous titles don't have."

So which is it?

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I think he means inconsequential gameplay tweaks aren't helping.

 

[Mardok]

Quake is primarily DM and CTF with CPM, I haven't played Quake Live since the beta, but unless I'm missing something, it's the same thing as vq3a and cpm q3.

Though I'm a bit confused, you say that "no matter how much work they put into new gameplay mechanics or engine rebuilds." yet then you state "Let the previous titles do what they did best and come up with something new and make the next title do what it does best that the previous titles don't have."

So which is it?

I think he means inconsequential gameplay tweaks aren't helping.

That, and also Epic was trying to go back to the roots with UT3 by combining UT99 with UT2k4. I'm saying that's the wrong way to do it. They should have done something completely different with UT3. They should have targeted a completely different audience with something brand new rather than trying to bring back the old community by trying to refine the old games. The old community is never going to be satisfied with refined gameplay. So if Epic wants to keep that community alive (AKA get money from it), they should copy what Quake Live did, in one way or another.

 

[JohnDoe641]

What did Quake Live do besides make a slightly altered version (combining some of CPM's movement system with vq3a) of Quake3 free? I didn't see anything new in the beta besides DM/TDM and CTF. Did they add something else?

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

What did Quake Live do besides make a slightly altered version (combining some of CPM's movement system with vq3a) of Quake3 free? I didn't see anything new in the beta besides DM/TDM and CTF. Did they add something else?

No, except few new maps there is nothing new in QuakeLive, even are missing few maps from team arena and there are no team arena gametypes either.
And of course Clan Arena from RocketArena mod is there.

 

[Mardok]

What did Quake Live do besides make a slightly altered version (combining some of CPM's movement system with vq3a) of Quake3 free? I didn't see anything new in the beta besides DM/TDM and CTF. Did they add something else?

That's exactly my point. They didn't do anything to Quake besides a couple tweaks here and there.

All they did was rewrite Quake 3 Arena so it can be played in the browser for free by anyone, got the word out, and it has a fanbase.

Is that fanbase big? Not really, compared to other big titles like Halo or MW1/2. But they sure as hell got enough people back so its community is respectable by even newcomers, and hopefully Id is making money off of it through advertisements... hopefully. So it should be a win-win situation for everyone.

 

[UnrealGrrl]

That, and also Epic was trying to go back to the roots with UT3 by combining UT99 with UT2k4. They should have done something completely different with UT3. They should have targeted a completely different audience with something brand new rather than trying to bring back the old community by trying to refine the old games. The old community is never going to be satisfied with refined gameplay.

True UT3 is my fave of the series but... it's 2010!

I wouldn't call TF2 a "fast paced shooter" and Quake Live is free.

ditto and happy new year! luv ya all (well most of you).... havent played UT in a couple months, but only cause real life got in the way! freakin rl is a pain

UT needs, leveling, matchmaking, socializing and other neato stuff to get 'up-to-date' and maybe then itll be back, it wont be UT99 or even UT3 but it could be cool hey my level 96 g00gungoddess has 100k+ income! come on Epic, you can do it...

UT4 in 2012!

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Indeed. Epic should focus on making UT a better team game, because it is severely lacking in that area in every way and the team game modes were one of the biggest draws of the original. Additionally, having classes and upgrades is not a bad thing. Make it that way by default and have tournament modes that are not like that.