Descent 4 (Open D4)

Sage · Post by **Sage** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 1:46 am

Hahahahahahaha, Descent 4, my god it makes me laugh.

Mickey1 · Post by **Mickey1** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 1:38 pm

Good luck guys. One more team on 6dof is great. D4E

Topher · Post by **Topher** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 1:52 pm

Trackball wrote:Remake Descent 1. Do it well, and you shall be worshipped for all eternity. Fail, and we shall feast upon your soul.

Yay, it's Descent 1 remade, with outdoor areas and nifty explosions. Even comes with it's own t3h c00l level editor!

Now worship me...by doing something useful with your life.

zbriggs · Post by **zbriggs** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 2:05 pm

Thenior wrote:Hi,

Several freinds and I have loved Descent 3 for a while. We used to play Parallax on Saturdays. But now that Parallax is down, we are limited to occasional LAN parties. So I went to look for a Descent 4. Orbital-inc started it, and was a few months from release, when Volition stopped them. Now Orbital-inc considers that a very touchy subject (you cannot even talk to them without them closing the topic). Now orbital's site is down. Interplay, Parallax, Outrage, and Volition have 2 year old sites. It is dying. I cannot find any modern game like Descent anymore. This is where Open Source comes in handy.

Me and a freind would like to start a Open Source Descent 4 project. I have 3D skills, and he has some programming skills. Descent used to be a huge community. We are trying to get peoples attention. We want to get a huge community helping. Can you a) Contribute to this project or b) tell me how to get the d3 Communities attention.

We currently have no good web site (www.freewebs.com/opend4), and the project will not start for a short while, becasue we are figuring out what engine we will use (http://www.radonlabs.de/ is the current one we like). We need a lot of awsome programmers, 3D artists and such. Begginers would be good too. We want at least 20 Devs, that way it could get done in a couple of years or so. First a Single player Campaign will be made, then Multiplayer stuff. Then a Massive Multiplayer server would be added. That way we could all play in a huge community!
Think about it, 200 pyros vs. 200 Magnums. That would be awsome!

I saw what High Octane Games was doing, and they thought this was a good idea.

Send your emails and replies to (of course) this Forum, and mayawerks@hotmail.com

Right now a Domain and webspace would be nice, a webmaster to take care of it, and a programmer +Modelers to speed stuff up would be needed. I would appreciate if everyone here would help.

I would like to clarify this. I did not say that this was a good idea nor did I back this. I simply told him when he asked if we were a company and whether the game was open source and/or free; that we are a company and that this is a commercial full production game. I told him he is welcome to create anything he likes. However, if he infringes on our current development he will be violating copyright law and we can no sooner allow this than he would us to infringe on his product.

Sincerely,
Zachary Briggs, Executive Producer
HighOctane Software

P.S. The company's name is HighOctane Software not Games.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 2:24 pm

Heh... sounds like a 13-year-old kid with a new DirectX book and a lot of dreams.

In other words, me at his age.

zbriggs · Post by **zbriggs** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 9:17 pm

Thenior wrote:Thank you for some better replies.
I am aware of highoctanes project (core descision). I talked to them about it, since I do not want to compete with them. They thought we should keep going, and make this game.

This is the email that I received from this gentelman.

Received by Development@HighOctaneSoftware.com from Jared Johnson - mayawerks@hotmail.com wrote: Hello,

I read some stuff about your Descent like project. Is this a company hoping to make money of the game? I sort of started a Descent project, that continues descent, but will be open source. I do not want to take away from your game, but same token, I wish your game was free. Is it?

What do you suggest be done? I want similiar things that you want, I want the descent comunity to help, but I do not want to take away from you. I hope your project is open source, and it could be a combined effort rather then competing. A free game that was close to as good would prob do better.
I also do not want to be limited to Closed source stuff (meaning I have a work schedule, and most likely, I get rotten pay). Again, what do you suggest? I started some work (only the first page you see does anything:
www.freewebs.com/opend4

Thenior

My response,

Sent by Zach@HighOctaneSoftware.com to Jared Johnson - mayawerks@hotmail.com wrote: Jared,

I understand your desire to see the series continue and agree that it would be nice if it were free. Unfortunately, this is a 7 year old company that is in the business of designing software, networks, and electronics. Even though, I also share your passion for the game, I cannot justify the usage of well over a million dollars in funds for a result that I do not intend to profit from. This is a commercial, full production game. That doesn't just mean bringing the old crowd to the new ring but also bringing in thousands, and even millions of new players. I do not intend to release this game for an unreasonable price; $35 is what I was shooting for. But unfortunately I have a staff of 17 people to pay and the cost of the engine. I have already made more than enough money for myself from my other projects. You are welcome to release your free, open-source version of the game but please keep in mind that without money for production and marketing the game will have the same result, the same crowd with better graphics which isn't a bad thing. You are what helps keep the blood of the Descent community flowing.

Please, do not read this wrong. I understand your angle 100% and would be more than happy to speak with you more about this.

Sincerely,
Zachary Briggs, Executive Producer
HighOctane Software
(269)506-3116 Feel free anytime 24/7, I don't mind.

Please understand that we have nothing to do with his project.

Sincerely,
Zachary Briggs, Executive Producer
HighOctane Software

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 9:56 pm

I don't think that was ever really in question.

DigiJo · Post by **DigiJo** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 3:09 am

i really like the idea of such an ambitous fan-project and i am sure they are talented people, but lets face the truth. the time that a small fangroup can make a full new game something near todays game-standards is long over. you need a payed team of fulltime professionals for it cause its just way to much work.

a cool total-mod for d3 for example, yes that would be possible but a complete new d3/d4-like game from scratch, no that cant be done by a group of fans.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 3:15 am

Well, considering the only difference is some programming, I wouldn't be so sure. A total mod is quite a lot of work in itself; it just doesn't require the same area of expertise.

DigiJo · Post by **DigiJo** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 4:21 am

hmm ok, lets not talk about the programming then and the engine, just about the content. stock d3 had on release ~900 complex objects (a lot with animations), ~3000 textures, ~600 sounds, 17 hugh singleplayer levels, a lot multiplayerlevels, musictracks and moviefiles. and that was 1998, todays games have a lot more. show me a group of fans capable of finishing so much work in the free time, and without any hierachy in the group (thats is what you get if you dont pay the devs). no way, such fan-projects are a failure right from start.

Sage · Post by **Sage** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:26 am

^^^ Yea I agree, but if you make a MOD for a game, now there's possibility. Just look at Counter-Strike and Desert Combat. Both where made by fans, and then bought by the official game makers.

A new Descent game is probably just TOO LARGE for a group of fans to make in they spare time. :
I wish id would buy the rights to Descent and make a kick ass Descent 4. Or at least a Descent-like game.

Thenior · Post by **Thenior** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:39 am

DigiJo wrote:i really like the idea of such an ambitous fan-project and i am sure they are talented people, but lets face the truth. the time that a small fangroup can make a full new game something near todays game-standards is long over. you need a payed team of fulltime professionals for it cause its just way to much work.

I fully understand how the game process works. I have seen the open source projects do thier job. Look at www.planeshift.it I have been with that project for a year now, and understand the work that it takes to make a game. Why am I recieving so much flaq for this? What reason do you have to dog the effort?
And Zachary, I did not mean to imply you were helping, and I did was not going to use any of your material.
But you did say "You are what helps keep the blood of the Descent community flowing." So that does imply you are supporting the idea, but not actaully helping. I am not going to post on this topic anymore, and would appreciate if no one else would post anything either.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 10:53 am

Thenior, the reason that everyone's trying to discourage you is because we've seen projects like this before, and we've watched them fail. The community has had its hopes raised by a "D4" too many times to put much stock in another effort. With Core Decision, we're not talking about a Descent sequel; we're talking about an unrelated game based on the gameplay of the Descent series. This has generally been seen as a much healthier prospect. No one here is willing your project to fail, Thenior; they're just going on experience and predicting it will.

Descent 4 (Open D4)

D4E

Re: Descent 4 (Open D4)