The WWII Game to End all WWII Games?

[bapenguin]

Has anybody seen 1944 (http://www.1944game.com/index.php) yet? The game is aiming to be a HUGE large scale recreation of Normandy...in fact...that's the game's only map.

Will the game be large scale, like battlefield 1942, or will it be small scale and squad based, more like Day of Defeat?

The game is a bit more unique than these two game systems. The game itself is driven by the AI, and we are currently ensuring that the mods follow the same structure. Currently within the AI the entire command structure for each nation is loaded into the game. This means that every Battalion, Division, Company and Squad will be represented. The benefit of this system is that it easily allows for more realistic and dynamic gameplay, because we can show how a squad plays a role in the overall scenario.
The game will be coming out as a Stand Alone product as well as a mod for Half-Life 2 and Battlefield 2.

Sounds like a HUGE project, especially with a main game as well as 2 modifications.

[NoName]

Soo... is this a small indy devloper producing this? Sounds like a bit lofty to be doing two mods as well as a stand alone game.

[Heretic Machine]

Sounds very cool, if done properlly. Sort of a wait-and-see thing.

[ÜberJumper]

Wow, this could be like a whole historical simulator... "What if the Rangers never hit the top of the cliffs?" "What if the Canadians didn't hit all of their D-Day Objectives?" "What if the paradrops went off with absolute precision?" "What if they actually woke Hitler the fuck up and he released the reserve divisions into action as soon as he got wind of the landings?".

This could be way cool.

[JediSanf]

The sheer amount of AI processing required makes me think they're over promising a bit, espically given they reccommended specs. I've only had an introduction to AI programming but how can you get this
So while it is a closely knit squad structure that the player will be dealing with at a tactical level, the game is at the same time a full representation of the overall army structure, meaning that your actions have a direct impact to the overall scenario. For example, you see a platoon of enemy tanks go rolling past your positions - forget to make radio calls about them and it means that other squads will be in danger, and if those tanks break through then your own position could be in danger, and pretty soon the whole front could be shifting like sand beneath your feet.

from this?
We are looking at following specs as a rough guide:

-1.8Ghz processor
-512 RAM
-DirectX 9.0 graphics card with shader support.
-128MB Graphics Card


You can read the rest of the FAQ here (http://www.1944game.com/faq.html) , maybe you guys will spot something I missed.

But man, if they can make it work....

[bapenguin]

The sheer amount of AI processing required makes me think they're over promising a bit, espically given they reccommended specs. I've only had an introduction to AI programming but how can you get this


Maybe there's some sort of distributive processing structure? I don't know...it sounds like the mods are trying to accomplish it on a small scale while the full game will really ramp it up.

[The Iron Weasel]

This sounds great......in theory.

[Demo_Boy]

This game has already been started and completed. It has been out for several years.
WWII Online.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61375

Results: It is not possible to have sufficient player density to generate gameplay when realistically simulating the spaces they are talking about.

Planetside has something of the same problem. They've probably got the best handle on driving players together for combat, but it reeks of artificiality.

Tribes 2 also had some big maps, they solved the problem by having rapid personal transport (jetpacks) and focusing action with Flags and Gens.

I think that RTS gameplay models are probably better suited to the map sizes they want to simulate. Relic's Company of Heroes is a realistically themed PC RTS. <-- could be great.

[see colon]

i just want to point out that this game (not the mods of course) runs on the reality engine (http://www.artificialstudios.com/), wich was shaping up to be a slick low cost but fully featured piece of middleware, until epic games bought it and hired the lead programer. it was like the poor man's UE3.

[Demo_Boy]

Interested in a slick low cost but fully featured piece of middleware?

Check out the Torque engine. www.garagegames.com

[Schnoogs]

How low cost are we talking? I know the Garage Games engine is like $100.

How much for this Reality Engine?

[Paltry]

i will not die a happy man until i play a game that can pull all this off

[ÜberJumper]

Demo_Boy:

That's the first time I've seen Relic's two completely different titles combined into one!

It's "Company of Heroes" and "The Outfit"

Relic's Company of Heroes is a more realistically themed PC RTS.

Relic's The Outfit is an XBox360 title, set in an "alternate" WW2 history with airdroppable tanks.

[see colon]

Interested in a slick low cost but fully featured piece of middleware?

Check out the Torque engine. www.garagegames.com
the difference in features between torque and reality is pretty big. reality could do many if not all of the things UE3/doom3/source can do.

another cheap, fully featured engine was amp II. it had a doom3-like lighting model and a (budget priced and budget quality) game almost a year before doom 3 was released.
http://www.4drulers.com/amp.html

How low cost are we talking? I know the Garage Games engine is like $100. How much for this Reality Engine?
reality is no longer available, but i think it was more than torque. another thing that made relity unique was they had a licensing package for multiple (infinite?) titles. i'm not sure about the details or pricing (since it's no longer available) but the jist of it was you can make as many games you wanted with the engine for once licensing fee, and from what i've heard it was still cheaper than licensing one of the "big" engines.

[danhoo]

the jist of it was you can make as many games you wanted with the engine for once licensing fee, and from what i've heard it was still cheaper than licensing one of the "big" engines.

If that's true, that would have been a sweet deal. When I priced out engines some 5+ years ago, the Quake III engine was something like 300K _per title_ plus id got %15 of the royalties on your game. Ouch. Renderware was roughly the same, but no royalties I believe. I can only imagine the big engines these days are even more expensive, and almost certainly per title.

[Schnoogs]

That's a shame that it's not available...I would assume that they pulled it off the market since Epic bought them.

I wish poor programmers such as myself could get access to a modern gaming engine without having to sell my kidneys.

[bapenguin]

This game has already been started and completed. It has been out for several years.
WWII Online.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61375

Results: It is not possible to have sufficient player density to generate gameplay when realistically simulating the spaces they are talking about.

Planetside has something of the same problem. They've probably got the best handle on driving players together for combat, but it reeks of artificiality.



The difference is this game is going to have AI fill in the holes.

[retsudo]

the OFP engine can do this (it doesn't by default, but there are mods like the chain of command that do this, and OFP 2 does)

[see colon]

That's a shame that it's not available...I would assume that they pulled it off the market since Epic bought them.

I wish poor programmers such as myself could get access to a modern gaming engine without having to sell my kidneys.
iirc you can get a "demo" of the ampII engine for free if you just want to play around with it, you could add features to open source engines (like quake III), or just make a mod to a popular game and get your name on the street.

[Oblivion]

why two mods?

[Liquidize105]

Because they're modders, they bite off more than they can chew.

Incorporate was for HL2 and Farcry before they got their Reality Engine license, and now they wanna go retail. Jesus, test your untested goddamn mod first.

[Apex]

I smell disappointment