New WC 3 & 4 mod idea...

[Preacher]

Here's one I can't believe I (or anyone else, AFAIK) haven't thought up till now:

How about a WC3/4 flight engine update?...

What I'm proposing here is a project that takes the WC 3 & 4 flight engine and replaces it with, say, UE-type combat engine/graphics. What this would be is that you would need the original WC3/4 CD's for the cutscenes/dialogues, but when you go out in space to fight, it would take the previous combat engine and replace it with a UE-style engine & graphix, to replace all the beloved old fighters & ships with more up to date versions, not to mention the special effects/explosions/etc would be more in line with modern graphix cards' capabilities.

Since it would be tied to the original CD's, that ensures that no one could play it who didn't own the original games, possibly cuts down on any copyright problems, and since it only adds a new combat engine, the project team could dedicate themselves to that task, and not have to worry about creating new cutscenes, etc. I guess this would be along the lines of mod's for numerous FPS games where the original game is required, but you get to do new things, have newer graphix/special effects, etc.

What do y'all think?...

 

[Quarto]

You're talking about an idea that never existed .

That is to say, people have thought about that before. The overall conclusion is that it would be pointless. Because of the WCP engine's limitations (cloak, et cetera), the final product might even look better than the original, but it sure as hell wouldna play better. It probably wouldn't be impossible to jury-rig a solution for each of the problems, but it still wouldn't be the same.

 

[Preacher]

...The overall conclusion is that it would be pointless. Because of the WCP engine's limitations (cloak, et cetera), the final product might even look better than the original, but it sure as hell wouldna play better. It probably wouldn't be impossible to jury-rig a solution for each of the problems, but it still wouldn't be the same.

I understand that it wouldn't "be the same", but logically, that's the very *point* of many mods: The sense that the original has grown somewhat tired, and a crushing sense of "sameness" has sunk in. That is to say, many mods are an exercise in doing stuff in a new & different way, thus avoiding "same"ness is their very raison de etre (?sp.)...

Them what are satisfied with the "same old" will ignore the mod, and those what want a new twist on something old will flock to it
.
btw, why do ya think it wouldn't play better?... You'd already admitted that it would look better, so, as long as a solution to each of the problems could be found & implemented, why would it not play better?...

 

[Nomad Terror]

I definately find Prophecy's engine to be a much smoother play than the WC3/4 engine, but that's just me.

 

[ChrisReid]

I think what people have agreed upon in the past is that if you can do all it takes to get WC1/2 over.. you might as well be creative and make new stuff, like Standoff, Unknown Enemy, etc.

 

[Quarto]

btw, why do ya think it wouldn't play better?... You'd already admitted that it would look better, so, as long as a solution to each of the problems could be found & implemented, why would it not play better?...

Because I've got enough experience jury-rigging WCP to know that this sort of thing never feels right. Take UE mission 7, for example. This is most likely the closest we could get to simulating the jamming effect from WC4. But, because we're not actually disabling the missile locking system (we're simply unlocking the player's target constantly), it's still possible to use guided munitions accurately, rather than as dumb-fires.

What you'd end up with is a Dune 2000. It might look better than Dune 2, and the gameplay may even be improved in some aspects, but you'll have to use those damned engineers every time you want to capture a building.