NS2 / NS3.2 Discussion thread!

24

Comments

  • Petros IchorPetros Ichor Join Date: 2005-07-14 Member: 55917Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    burp. ya'll have said a mouth full, but i think the guy coding should decide. lol <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

    whatever the engine, whatever the platform , im game and will be till i die
  • Shadow_SporkShadow_Spork Join Date: 2005-01-07 Member: 33306Members
    This is a very good announcement and a great decision. Thank you Flayra and the rest of the team! I'm seriously looking forward for NS2.
  • MrBombMrBomb Join Date: 2005-01-12 Member: 35074Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1572602:date=Nov 2 2006, 03:08 PM:name=Karba)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Karba @ Nov 2 2006, 03:08 PM) [snapback]1572602[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Actually, Source is the best engine to make NS2, for many reasons:
    - Vissualy, it's one of the best graphics engines on the market.
    - Havok Physics engine is amazing.
    - It's hightly scalable, it runs pretty well on mainstrain and low-end pc.
    - Mapping development tools (hammer) are wel-known, and therefore comunity could make maps for NS2 more easy.
    - This engine is frecuently updated with new tecnologies that can be implemented in NS2 later.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Hmm these are important.

    If Source engine allows the game to run without any loss on the performance even with cool textures of NS maps, then yes to Source engine. I am saying this not for hoping that this comment will be so effective on the devs, but for taking attention on the importance of the performance of the new new game.
  • ExploderExploder Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58202Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1572645:date=Nov 2 2006, 10:13 PM:name=MrBomb)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MrBomb @ Nov 2 2006, 10:13 PM) [snapback]1572645[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Hmm these are important.

    If Source engine allows the game to run without any loss on the performance even with cool textures of NS maps, then yes to Source engine. I am saying this not for hoping that this comment will be so effective on the devs, but for taking attention on the importance of the performance of the new new game.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The Source is more demaning that the old HL1 engine by nature. It still runs fine on most low-end systems however.
  • Termy58Termy58 Join Date: 2006-10-31 Member: 58102Members
    <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/</a>
    Woopsies!
  • MaxMax Technical Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment Join Date: 2002-03-15 Member: 318Super Administrators, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    edited November 2006
    Performance and system requirements are definitely big issues for us for NS2. According to the Steam hardware survey, there's a significant chunk of gamers that don't have the most cutting edge hardware, so we want to keep the system requirements as low as possible. We also want NS2 to be a serious competitive game, and those players demand a really responsive game with a high frame rate.

    I agree with the reasons that were listed here as to why Source would be a good platform for NS2 (in addition to the fact that Valve is a great partner and we like the direction they're heading). However, we're planning some features for NS2 that will require us to muck around in the engine a bit -- being able to do this is one of the nice consequences of making a commercial game versus a mod -- so we need to make sure whatever engine we use will support our design ideas. Even in the original game a lot of things were quite different than what you find in most first person shooters, and as a result we ran into a lot of limitations of the engine and couldn't always get things to work the way we wanted them to (collision detection was a big one for example).

    So, before we commit to an engine we want to do a thorough evaluation to make sure we can deliver the best possible game.
  • schkorpioschkorpio I can mspaint Join Date: 2003-05-23 Member: 16635Members
    insert generic motivational and excitment sentence... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
    No seriously this is a great news !

    I'm pretty sure it said in one of the news posts that source is the engine of choic

    Titan quest runs fine once you adjust the detail <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
  • DadayaDadaya Join Date: 2005-02-02 Member: 39540Members, Constellation
    I was just reading through this and was thinking about the different engines out there, and the thought of an NS MMOFPS tickled me a bit. Picture hundreds of skulks/gorges/lerks/fades/onos running the gauntlet to attack the marine stronghold <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/asrifle.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::asrifle::" border="0" alt="asrifle.gif" />.

    Tickles me pink inside, but it's just a fantasy there!

    Anyway, good luck with NS2, I'll be eagerly awaiting something I can do(*cough mapping *cough)
  • SpaceJesusSpaceJesus Join Date: 2004-07-02 Member: 29683Banned
    <!--quoteo(post=1572795:date=Nov 2 2006, 10:04 PM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Max @ Nov 2 2006, 10:04 PM) [snapback]1572795[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We also want NS2 to be a serious competitive game, and those players demand a really responsive game with a high frame rate.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    To be perfectly honest, the only reason framerates are so seemingly important is because two of the largest Esports enterprises (Counter-Strike and the Quake series) had a reliance on the client framerate for a lot of calculations - that's simply how they worked.

    For example in the GldSrc engine, at higher FPS you can shoot faster, have less recoil, jump higher/further and/or have more air control depending on which mod you're playing. Same thing with the Quake series up to Q3 (GldSrc being understandably based on the Quake engine).

    With newer games (for example Counter-Strike:Source, Painkiller, Battlefield 2) framerates are not so important for competetive gamers as there is no inherent advantage to having an FPS over 60-70 (If you think the human eye cannot distinguish between FPS's higher than 35 you are just plain wrong) like there are in games based on the Quake and GldSrc engines such as Quake3 and Counter-Strike - two of the flagship games of the Esports industry.
  • Petros IchorPetros Ichor Join Date: 2005-07-14 Member: 55917Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    well put.

    i understand you dont want to lose low end gamers, but at the same time you ahve to realize that in a year alot of people with lower systems will upgrade, and another year a whole new array of upgrades. you might want to give a nice system requirement cushion for that.
    for example about the industry. i just today saw a commercial for a AMD X2 system by dell for less then 700$ hell when i built my X2 system it was almost 2 grand. high end systems are getting cheaper. saving for a year to by a cutting edge system isnt happening as much these days.
  • SkyrageSkyrage Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20249Members
    Low-end systems are dead-cheap to build. You can get excellent game computers (albeit not able to run the latest games at max settings) at VERY reasonable prices...assuming you actually build the whole thing yourself.
  • haymohaymo Join Date: 2005-01-09 Member: 34040Members, NS1 Playtester
    By the time NS2 is released, most people will have the equivalent of 7600 or greater graphic cards which can run source at about 100fps anyway.
  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    One thing about this that I really don't get.

    You say you're gonna do a tech demo for NS2 so that third-party mappers can submit their work for official inclusion. Are we talking 'the community makes maps that get included with the game as and when it's sold for retail' or 'once the game has gone retail, we will be looking for custom maps that we will endorse, but that will not be included in the retail version of the game'.

    The two are very different, and the first means you're asking for the rights to distribute people's work without paying them for the privilege... unless of course you are prepared to pay people for their maps to be included with the retail game, in which case >>> ball park figure?
  • SpaceJesusSpaceJesus Join Date: 2004-07-02 Member: 29683Banned
    <!--quoteo(post=1572920:date=Nov 3 2006, 08:24 AM:name=Crispy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crispy @ Nov 3 2006, 08:24 AM) [snapback]1572920[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The two are very different, and the first means you're asking for the rights to distribute people's work without paying them for the privilege... unless of course you are prepared to pay people for their maps to be included with the retail game, in which case >>> ball park figure?
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Unless you're an industry pro I doubt you have any leg to stand on when trying to negotiate your pay - you should be grateful that you're being allowed to work on a retail game (which is a MASSIVE addition to your resume).
  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1572926:date=Nov 3 2006, 01:43 PM:name=SpaceJesus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SpaceJesus @ Nov 3 2006, 01:43 PM) [snapback]1572926[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Unless you're an industry pro I doubt you have any leg to stand on when trying to negotiate your pay - you should be grateful that you're being allowed to work on a retail game (which is a MASSIVE addition to your resume).
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Actually, professional or merely professional standard (of which I'm neither, but I wanted clarification for the benefit of anyone interested), it would be important to know whether there's any financial prospects involved.

    Why? If -for some reason- NS2 doesn't go through or if it is delayed significantly, there may not be any working demo of your work in action to show future employers, which means that the time you spent could have been better spent on doing it for a well-known non-retail project because at least then you'd have something that you could show employers without worrying about whether it infringed upon any NDA you'd signed. Imagine putting in a good 3-4 months work and then finding out that you couldn't show anyone how well it was designed to fit the gameplay because the NS2 team weren't ready to unveil their work just yet.

    On the other hand, if you knew you were gonna have a paycheck at the end of it, you could at least be happy that your time and effort had been somewhat worthwhile. It would offset some of the risk involved. Obviously having your work in NS2 would be amazing, but if you've got the skills you'll probably have a good few games you could map for, and which one you choose will come down to:
    - personal preference
    - what you could get out of it
    - what you <i>will</i> get out of it

    Agreeing on a royalty of some sort falls into the last category, and could sway the decision for some mappers. The "just be grateful" line doesn't cut it now that NS has moved onto being a retail project.
  • ExploderExploder Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58202Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1572914:date=Nov 3 2006, 02:13 PM:name=haymo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(haymo @ Nov 3 2006, 02:13 PM) [snapback]1572914[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    By the time NS2 is released, most people will have the equivalent of 7600 or greater graphic cards which can run source at about 100fps anyway.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    By the time NS2 is released, it would have underwent major graphical additions, so don't count on it.
  • Petros IchorPetros Ichor Join Date: 2005-07-14 Member: 55917Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    hell id work on a map for free. just giving to the community. its called a hobby
  • NikonNikon Join Date: 2003-09-29 Member: 21313Members, Constellation
    I cant help but agree with Crispy on this one.

    It really does feel like Flayra is tring to get people to do work for free so he will make money off it.
    <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
  • SpaceJesusSpaceJesus Join Date: 2004-07-02 Member: 29683Banned
    I can't help but think that you've grossly misunderstood my point.
  • NeroNero Join Date: 2002-12-20 Member: 11236Members
    edited November 2006
    <!--quoteo(post=1572926:date=Nov 3 2006, 08:43 AM:name=SpaceJesus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SpaceJesus @ Nov 3 2006, 08:43 AM) [snapback]1572926[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Unless you're an industry pro I doubt you have any leg to stand on when trying to negotiate your pay - you should be grateful that you're being allowed to work on a retail game (which is a MASSIVE addition to your resume).
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Sure, even if you didn´t receive anything for your work, your resume addition does pay itself. I remember the guy who made ns_nothing got a job at Raven to make Quake 4 maps, just doing what he really likes to do.
    NS for anyone here is just a hobby (mappers, coders, designers, testers) and if NS2 will be well at sales i´m sure Flayra will gratify those who helped. Moreover you helped NS at your free time.
  • Petros IchorPetros Ichor Join Date: 2005-07-14 Member: 55917Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    See now im in complete disagreement of this.

    We are a community. Do you think Flayra would make this game all on his own just to make a buck? i dont and i dont even know the guy. NS is for us, the gamers. If we dont give back, the games production will progress really slow.

    NS2 isnt going to make UnknownWorlds a bunch of millionaires , it might open up some doors for the guys, and most importantly it will enable them to keep NS up to date. If the game is retail thatdoes alot of things for US like, pays the site fees, server fees, and helps everyone apart of the staff worry less about money and more about the game. Lets them get more time to enhance the game overall and keep up with updates.

    The more we help with mapping or whatever is needed just makes the game available alot sooner. if you are third party to NS and are looking to get something out of mapping then i want you to ask yourself something. Why are you interested in Mapping for NS? If im not mistaken its becuase you love the game. And thats teh way it should stay.

    If you are really looking into makeing some money why dont you make a couple maps, let the community decide if your any good. Hell if your maps are amongst the most popular on the servers then maybe UnknownWorlds will free lance ya for a bit to help with newer maps or whatnot.

    I just dont think you should be looking for money if your going to volunteer
  • MaxMax Technical Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment Join Date: 2002-03-15 Member: 318Super Administrators, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    edited November 2006
    The purpose of the NS2TR is to give people an idea about what NS2 will be like, to get people interested in the game and to allow the community to start working on maps. As was done with NS, we'd like to incorporate some community-made maps into the official releases. Our plan is to compensate the authors for any maps that are included with NS2, although we need to figure out exactly how much we can afford and still have enough money to keep the lights on. The details should be announced along with the release of the NS2TR.

    Our hope is that the community will also release their owns maps to complement the maps included with the shipping game. One aspect of NS that we really want to expand on in the sequel is the ability for mappers to do interesting things with the gameplay, so it should be really exciting to see what the community comes up with.
  • SpaceJesusSpaceJesus Join Date: 2004-07-02 Member: 29683Banned
    edited November 2006
    <!--quoteo(post=1573104:date=Nov 3 2006, 05:18 PM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Max @ Nov 3 2006, 05:18 PM) [snapback]1573104[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Our hope is that the community will also release their owns maps to complement the maps included with the shipping game. One aspect of NS that we really want to expand on in the sequel is the ability for mappers to do interesting things with the gameplay, so it should be really exciting to see what the community comes up with.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I swear, whoever that one ****** person will be who will make co_lemmings_source, I'm gonna hunt them down.
  • IcyScytheIcyScythe Join Date: 2005-01-09 Member: 34126Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1573104:date=Nov 3 2006, 05:18 PM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Max @ Nov 3 2006, 05:18 PM) [snapback]1573104[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    The purpose of the NS2TR is to give people an idea about what NS2 will be like, to get people interested in the game and to allow the community to start working on maps. As was done with NS, we'd like to incorporate some community-made maps into the official releases. Our plan is to compensate the authors for any maps that are included with NS2, although we need to figure out exactly how much we can afford and still have enough money to keep the lights on. The details should be announced along with the release of the NS2TR.

    Our hope is that the community will also release their owns maps to complement the maps included with the shipping game. One aspect of NS that we really want to expand on in the sequel is the ability for mappers to do interesting things with the gameplay, so it should be really exciting to see what the community comes up with.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Do you guys have even a very loose release date? Is this game a year or 3 years away?

    I'm been out of the loop for a LONG time... what changes will be in 3.2?
  • Petros IchorPetros Ichor Join Date: 2005-07-14 Member: 55917Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    WoW!! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> I really like the updates. The aliens were not nerfed to bad and im definately excited about the new maps.

    Great job getting this out quickly.
  • BadMouthBadMouth It ceases to be exclusive when you can have a custom member titl Join Date: 2004-05-21 Member: 28815Members
    Damn. 3.2 is looking real good. I'm interested to see how ghost marine structures will look. and now onos will not be blocked by dumb stupid gorges when trying to run away. although i dont know why they have to take the damage away. no more telefragging for PGs!!!! but i think AFK ppl should get telefragged by ips lol. Like the cosmetic changes and hitboxes. gd job man.
  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1572804:date=Nov 2 2006, 11:21 PM:name=SpaceJesus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SpaceJesus @ Nov 2 2006, 11:21 PM) [snapback]1572804[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    To be perfectly honest, the only reason framerates are so seemingly important is because two of the largest Esports enterprises (Counter-Strike and the Quake series) had a reliance on the client framerate for a lot of calculations - that's simply how they worked.

    For example in the GldSrc engine, at higher FPS you can shoot faster, have less recoil, jump higher/further and/or have more air control depending on which mod you're playing. Same thing with the Quake series up to Q3 (GldSrc being understandably based on the Quake engine).

    With newer games (for example Counter-Strike:Source, Painkiller, Battlefield 2) framerates are not so important for competetive gamers as there is no inherent advantage to having an FPS over 60-70 (If you think the human eye cannot distinguish between FPS's higher than 35 you are just plain wrong) like there are in games based on the Quake and GldSrc engines such as Quake3 and Counter-Strike - two of the flagship games of the Esports industry.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Framerates make a signifigant difference to your ability to spot a target and your reaction time as well. And the source engine still has some of the old frame rate dependencies that were so annoying in HL, I know because I've been playing with getting competitive play in SF up for quite a while and most of the customization we do to the game are FPS boosters, they change the way you play significantly. Bhopping is still completely dependent on FPS in source.
  • SpaceJesusSpaceJesus Join Date: 2004-07-02 Member: 29683Banned
    You seem to be forgetting that UWE hasn't yet chosen (publically at least) which engine they will be using - and no - FPS does not make "a signifigant difference to your ability to spot a target and your reaction time" at all, so long as your FPS is above around 65 (incidentally the maximum refresh rate of most monitors) you cannot physically see any higher FPS - so I don't really see your point here.
  • EpidemicEpidemic Dark Force Gorge Join Date: 2003-06-29 Member: 17781Members
    Doesnt a game normally execute stuff based on fps, which means a higher fps might smooth out input controls etc...
  • DrummerDrummer Join Date: 2004-02-18 Member: 26654Members
    exactly, the main reason for increasing your fps in hl1 or source based games is NOT for looks. like swift said, with higher framerates, you can move faster, and jump higher
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