View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
MauveBib

Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 602
|
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:38 pm Post subject: The Quake mod dreams thread. |
|
|
Over the years we've all started on projects we've never finished, and had ideas that were beyond our abilities or inclination. I've started this thread for us to share these ideas with each other.
My biggest such project was the infamous Malefic. Envisioned as a grand scale FPS with cinematic elements, it was set in a dystopian future city where style had become more important than substance, and atrocities had become a matter of course.
Unfortunately, several events culminated in the death of this project. Firstly, the sheer scale of the thing was insane. Secondly, completing DiD2 left me utterly drained on modding. Thirdly, and most importantly, I finally played half life 2, and found that it had many of the same ideas, though executed in what I considered a poor way.
Other issues included uncertainties over the actual content of the game. We had a great setting, and a good script, but little in the way of gameplay ideas. In the end we realised we'd written more of a movie than a game.
My grand total of development: 1 model, 1 map and a few textures.
What are your biggest flops? _________________ Apathy Now! |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Wazat
Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 732 Location: Middle 'o the desert, USA
|
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I tend to be the opposite: I'll spend months planning out a game that is really only centered around gameplay. I plan out the mechanics, the monsters, the weapons, the player's abilities and how everything works, but my plans will normally be utterly devoid of story.
Lava lemmings is one exception, where the story drove the gameplay instead of coming up with a game and trying to generate a story for it. Unfortunately, lava lemmings died the same death so many other mods have faced. I managed to code a bit, make part of a map, a bunch of sounds, and a partial model converted from the Fiend model turned forwards so be on 4 legs. It never got anywhere after that, I think because I was getting too bogged down, didn't make real progress, and got drawn into real life again and finally settled on other projects.
Likewise, Super Smash Quake (which was supposed to have controls like super smash bros, and a side camera), SoldatQuake, QTactics (Final Fantasy Tactics mechanics), and a number of other ambitious mods have all died because I got lost in the mire of limitations, whether they be those of the game engine or my own personal abilities and attention span. I did get fairly far with some of them, and had major breakthroughs that could be used by me or other coders to create other mods, but the projects themselves very certainly died.
I even consider some of my successes to be failures. Conquest, for example, is a source of pride for me, but I can never share it with anyone because few people have ever gotten it. It takes a lot of patience to figure out and get anything out of. It takes considerable explanation before the player knows even how to play, and then when they face their first ogre and can't hurt it, they end up severely confused without coaching.
Conquest lacks some critical features (scan feature to see a monster's shields, hud elements to show your shielding etc better, in-game descriptions of monsters, shields, weapons, and basic gameplay... and so on) that would make it playable. As it stands now, it doesn't even serve as a proper prototype to show off the underlying idea to game companies or anyone else that may be interested in my work. It's just too incomplete.
Tactics Quake got pretty far, if I may say so myself. I had a more or less functioning grid system, which could handle unit movement, terrain height, multiple levels (bridges, caves), multiple unit types, placing units, various attacks and attack ranges, and so on. It needed work, but on a very basic level it worked. Once the infinite looping bug was fixed by switching to darkplaces, I was basically able to do whatever calculations and searches I needed.
I had pages and pages of unit classes, abilities and spells, game mechanics, and technical plans on how to overcome various Quake engine obstacles. No story, but lots of cool mechanics. Unfortunately, the project fell out of sight for years, and when I tried to return I was overwhelmed with work that needed to be done, and confusion over how to do it. Worse, I was severely frustrated with how hard it was to get anything to work properly, and how sharply the quake engine limited me. What's worse, it was just hard to keep working on a project that was based on my poorly written code from years ago, with all kinds of bugs and limitations, and no truly cool features up and running to show off. I could basically have units move around and poke each other with arrows, swords, or jump attacks, and the rest was gonna be hard. Eventually, I just walked away.
The project is not a complete failure, however. It evolved, slowly, into a different game design that I've continued fleshing out ever since (even today I'm adding ideas and refining when I go home each day). I'm considering making an independent video game out of it, or perhaps a pen and paper game based on an hex grid. The sky's the limit there, and planning is a lot less restricting/discouraging than trying to code the thing myself. Who knows what'll come of it.
I suppose nothing is a complete failure. I've done some cool stuff, and taken on some very ambitious projects. Some failed, others flourished. Even some of those that "failed" have produced insights and lessons for future projects. And ultimately, I mod to create things. Some of those creations never get finished, or even started, but I love to plan them. Just creating the plans can be very rewarding for me.
And as long as none of those unfinished projects become sentient and/or vengeful (or needy), I think I'm good.  _________________ When my computer inevitably explodes and kills me, my cat inherits everything I own. He may be the only one capable of continuing my work. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
RenegadeC

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 370 Location: The freezing hell; Canada
|
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Codename: Envenom is probably my biggest flop, too much of a grand scale for a project - although I did put a lot of effort into it and therefore got a release.
Street Fighter 2 Quake would be my second as it only had 2 playable characters; Ryu and Ken.
Space Quake, simple horizontal shooter game I only made a few models and gathered some sounds for and relied on Tux for coding back then. It never got far, but I consider it my 3rd due to how little was done and how long I waited for the code from Tux only to have him disappear forever.
CastleVania: Dance Before Dawn, I got bored working on this one and just fell out of it; has a release with a few test maps though.
That's all I can think of on my end. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
leileilol

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 1321
|
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
StuntCopter Quake. It wouldn't be hard to do this actually, I keep dreaming of it and how exactly it could be possibly done, I even have an all new color palette for it, it's just that I never even extracted a progs106.zip for its base
Darkstalkers Quake. CMON ENTHROPY ANSWER MY EMAILS!!!! DAMMITTTTT. This won't ever come to fruition
An Ultimate Quake that doesn't crash. _________________
 |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Monster

Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 94 Location: North Carolina
|
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
some type of Quake RPG game would be fun... kinda like Oblivion with its open-ended-ness, except not really fantasy themed. with lovecraftian themes. The Demon King was a pretty fun mod.
i've always wanted to play a really well-made swordfighting mod.
and of course i'd love to see an extremely intelligent close to human bot.
too bad i don't know any QuakeC |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
frag.machine

Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 728
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: |
|
|
My great project was called Realms of Quake. It started back in 2000, just before the Quake source code release, and basically would be a cooperative mod in a persistent world (something like WoW, but set in the Quake universe). People would complete quests to get 8 pieces of an ancient armor that would allow you to fight Quake itself in a final quest. We (me and Spinal, another well known brazilian Quake modder) even had a pre-alpha version using a customized GLQuake engine, but it was very buggy and unstable. Besides, we had no custom maps except an ugly hub start made by me. Years later I tried to ressurect some of the original ideas into a single player version, but Real Life(tm) sucked my time and eventually I just gave up. It was a very ambitious project to finish alone.  _________________ frag.machine - Q2K4 Project
http://fragmachine.quakedev.com/ |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
RenegadeC

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 370 Location: The freezing hell; Canada
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
Monster, that reminded me of wanting to do a mod like Soul Blade/Calibur in Quake. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Dr. Shadowborg Inside3D Staff

Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 726
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
I want to make a mod that isn't for the most part immediatly ignored right from release.  _________________ "Roboto suggests Plasma Bazooka." |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Monster

Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 94 Location: North Carolina
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
RenegadeC: I meant more of an FPS-style swordfighting game, that could be toggled into third person if desired... IMO sidescrolling type stuff is kinda weird in Quake.
yeah Dr shadowborg i would understand how that feels. Dunno why people dont wanna try it though, its tons of fun. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Urre

Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 1073 Location: Sweden
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
Monster: it's only weird if not executed well enough.
My biggest flop... Not sure what that would be, most things have been, mainly because I've been unable to stop myself from going too far and complex with the design and ambitions.
I guess this one adds up as the worst. My second ever project was an MMORTS.
Let that sink in.
Now, most people would realize how overly ambitious this is, and just not go there. But no, I had to, overly enthusiastic 15 year old as I was. Somehow, I even managed to brainwash a coder and a modeler to do it for me, with me just basicly directing and designing, as I had no skills whatsoever. You can imagine how that went. Work done would be... Engine with console, textured terrain with deformation abilities (heightfield), basic water physics (water flowed into new areas if the heightfield was changed). Now that's already rather impressive. The modeler managed to churn out 5 or so untextured vehicles. It's sad really, the coder seemed to know what he was doing. In hindsight I wonder what the hell he was doing teaming up with me in the first place
If talking about Quake mods, Qmet would probably be the biggest one. It was going to be my take on a Metroid-like mod done in Quake, with some experimental controls and levels. It turned out those experimental features are what basicly killed it. I even had some players who quite enjoyed the few test matches we had in it, I had made a sidescrolling version of Quake to test the system in, made for some sorta neat deathmatching. The controls were however unusable, atleast in such a fast environment, the camera system, even though cool, was also not made for multiplayer it turned out. So I got discouraged and gave it up, as one of the main features I wanted in it was coop play. Work done: small deathmatch map, Quake done sideways plus a batch of new weapons, and at the time some neat code. I'm convinced however that I could make that mod happen today, even *with* the experimental features, but it might be best to strip those out. But then again, I have another ambitious project in the workings, so meh.
Enough embarrasment for today. _________________ Look out for Twigboy |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
LordHavoc
Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 243 Location: western Oregon, USA
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
Urre wrote: | I guess this one adds up as the worst. My second ever project was an MMORTS. |
The list of MMORTS's on wikipedia is pretty lonely.
The main one I can recall is Planet Visitor (aka 10six), which was not hugely popular, but had some very neat social mechanics to it (like the fact that people joined clans to get into mutual defense pacts, so that if anyone was playing and a clanmate was attacked they were required to either give a good excuse or join in the defense of that clanmate IMMEDIATELY).
Urre wrote: | If talking about Quake mods, Qmet would probably be the biggest one. |
When I suggested the idea of a Quake metroid remake I *VERY* specifically insisted that it be a dedicated sidescroller like TargetQuake, NO fancy camera stuff at all, but when you made qmet you insisted that it had to be 3D from a side view and be able to deal with arbitrary 3D levels, which to me completely defeated the point.
As for flops of my own - I'd be inclined to say my Alien Infestation mod for the qexpo speed modding contest (the one with the face hugger like critters, eggs, and ball robot - possibly the worst speed modding model set ever ), but that was at least playable and released, even if not met with much praise (and not terribly satisfying to me either).
So the biggest flop for me has to be:
DarkPlaces Mod
Now some of you may be thinking "but that's tons of fun", but that would be missing the definition of a flop - did it come anywhere near its intended result? Did it reach its potential at all? Nope.
dpmod you see was to be a full singleplayer Quake episode, with new weapons (pipebomb launcher in place of the grenade launcher being my favorite, GREAT fun for blowing up destroyable wall sections in dpmod maps, and of course blowing monsters' heads off with midair detonations, triple chain-shotgun similar to the duke nukem chaingun, and other interesting weapons), all new maps (full of secrets and cool stuff like destroyable wall sections all over the place), some new monsters and some other goodies.
Thus I declare dpmod a flop, as none of the singleplayer campaign ever got out of the early stages. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Urre

Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 1073 Location: Sweden
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
dpmod must be one of the coolest, most complete and fun to play flops ever  _________________ Look out for Twigboy |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ajay

Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 295 Location: Swindon, UK
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Codename: Envenom : if I recall correctly you had it and TAOV beginning at roughly the same time, and I was kinda hoping that C:E would be the keeper, but then you went and made TAOV all good and all and C:E went away
My biggest "idea being beyond my skillz" was Lunkin's Journey; I really had ideas for that which went far beyond both what ended up in the mod, and what I could acheive. Both in terms of mapping and code.
I was going to have a proper race mini game; it became the solo time trial around the village.
I was going to have sidequests; collecting stuff for villagers, a bit of fable-esque stuff.
The village was going to be a living, breathing centre of life; it became a few goblins shouting stuff at you randomly, in a boring, unrealastic, repetive 'town'
I was going to have proper speech instead of just text; to be honest this got dropped out of laziness.
The centaurs were meant to have a much bigger role, with more levels, demonstrating more variety; to begin with you'd need to get a "shape-shifting" skill to change into one to infiltrate their world.
The finale was going to be a mass battle involving you and dozens (hundreds!) of centaurs against hundreds of hobgoblins and your baddy brother.
Failing that it was going to be a race against time as the hobgoblin world succumbed to a rising wave of lava; in the end it became a "you can't lose battle in a cave against a few hobgoblins"
I feel like I have some closure now ...  _________________ my site |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
CocoT

Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 599 Location: Belly-Gum
|
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
There are quite a few mods that I started and never ended, but my biggest "flop" was probably The Arcade Project...
I thought the concept would be great, even though it was in fact rather basic: run around levels, grab artefacts (yeah, I know, it's an obsession) while "attacking elements" (weather, defense turrets, random hazards) became increasingly important and you had absolutely nothing to defend yourself. I might one day try to convert that into a mini-mod, who knows...
Anyway, the biggest problem was that I had all those crazy ideas for maps (think running through the streets of Pompeii while the volcano is irrupting, walking on a small tropical island as pirate ships fire at you, that sort of stuff) and... my mapping skills sucked (and still do, to a large extent).
The only things that came out of Arcade was
- one test map (which some of you might remember)
- a poor attempt at creating my own engine
- some code, mainly tests for elements that were to appear in the game
- the conviction that I should stick to more humble stuff...
Oh, well... _________________ http://www.planetcocot.net/ |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Error Inside3D Staff

Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 558 Location: VA, USA
|
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2004 phpBB Group
|