Privateer 3 Script

Thanks for the comments.

I'll remain hopeful that someday this will happen, but I'll be patient in the meantime.

Well, let me just say this. If anyone decides to do it, I would help round up the voice acting. I have access to both men and women who think its fun, and coming up with the lines that different factions would use wouldn't be too hard.

I know there's a guy doing com videos for Standoff.

But I see your point. People would really have to be into the idea of helping with the project, because we wouldn't want it to be anything less than the best we would produce.

We'll see what the future holds for us on this topic.
 
Sphynx,
thanks for the enthusiasm - that's sometimes exactly what we need here sometimes.
With the script, the community has something to dream about - a lot of that surreal nostalgia of "it would have been great".

If something ever happens about it - who knows? We have seen amazing things yet, and keep seeing them - plotlines being smoothened out by meticulous research and dedicated fanfiction projects, technology being overhauled and old dreams being filled with new color & light by the modelers, and the continuation and recreation (and evolution) of the WC gaming experience by mods, TC's and the from-scratch projects. Not to mention lots of art, thoughts, music, new media and new concepts the WC ideas have been introduced to.

So we might all sit down and say: It's too big, it's the Elite IV of the Wing Commander Universe, it's a sacrilege to touch it because we can only go wrong - if someone tries to do it, it will turn people off, it will draw ridicule and litigation, it will tie up talent needed for other (more original) projects in the pipeline, and it will just not work.

But some months ago I read this article about those three teenagers who started to remake "Raiders of the Lost Ark", shot by shot, with amateur equipment (in 1982!) and home-made props. For a long time, that was some inspriration for me, looking at a lot of started and "frozen" stuff in my garage and on my harddisk. Okay, those kids took six years to finish it. Okay, back in the 80's the day lasted for at least 32 hours and people had that much more spare time (*yeah*). So why not dream? Why not risk failure for something that maybe never gets finished, but will be fun in the making?

I need to get the foot off the accelerator again. Let's look at the document when we get it - I really savour the anticipation. Let's think what can be done, and what could be done. If anything forms up, I'd rather give it a shot and be turned down (with whatever - I used to be a writer, translator, actor, even singer and DTP artist [although I can confirm that I'm not Tom Wilson]) than just, well, mope.
 
Maj.Striker said:
To make a truly decent rendition of this privateer 3 script it would take someone with the passion for detail and authenticity like Loaf and the programming/modelling/texturing/designing/etc of the entire community combined.
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Well, I dunno about that last part. The "entire community combined" currently has enough "programming/modelling/texturing/designing/etc" skills to work on more than one game at a time. :p

I can see at least three fan projects which appear to have semi-constant progress and which are relatively close to release... so I believe that if it was possible to gather even half these people under a common goal, you could have a nicely polished and reasonably authentic game come out of it in a reasonable amount of time. The problem would lie in actually getting these people to commit to a common goal.

(What I'm saying is... could the community make a good game based on the Priv 3 script if it wanted to? In theory, yup. In practice, would enough people want to? I don't think so.)
 
I do believe we have many great and talented people working on projects in the WC community... But I can't see them/us making P3 following the script because it goes way beyond our time and equipment resources. It would take a huge budget and the full dedication of a big development/art/design team to pull that off.

Not only that, I don't know if doing that game is what the mod people want to do. We have some great projects covering some really interesting documented events in the WCU... I don't know what the response would be if the teams started to create 100% new stuff, there would be lots of annoying people complaining.

Sphinx, I'm glad my comment didn't offend you or anything, that wasn't my intention. It's just that this kind of idea feels like "Hey, let us make SW episodes 7 to 9"...
 
Eder said:
(What I'm saying is... could the community make a good game based on the Priv 3 script if it wanted to? In theory, yup. In practice, would enough people want to? I don't think so.)
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I'm sorry, isn't that exactly what I was saying?
 
No idea. :p

The impression I got was you thought it possible only with the efforts of the entire community combined. I'm saying it would be possible with the efforts of just a handful of talented people - as any other fan project currently in development is made possible by just a handful of talented people. Either way, we both agree that whatever the requirements are, they probably won't be met. :p
 
Well, this has generated some interesting discussion (you're right, Edfilho, the idea of making P3 does sound a little like continuing the Star Wars series, but I think the community here is more capable of making P3 than the Star Wars community is capable of banding togehter and making SW 6, 7, and 8, especially without making them a little too "fan boyish".

But no offense taken at all, Edfilho. Like I said, that sort of honest feedback is something I really came to value when I was in Brasil, and you actually reminded me of a few of my life's important lessons that I learned there. So, I really owe you my thanks. Sometimes I need to laugh at the comic aspects of my own idealism to keep me grounded a little bit more). Maybe this question of feasability will be something for us to ask about after WC Saga and WC Standoff are finished.

So, maybe this is a question we woul ask at that point: who would think it was a good idea to give it a try, and who would be willing to commit themselves to the project?

But, I think you have a point, Critical Mass. While enthusiasm is helpful and keeps the commuinity going (and sometimes needs to be reigned in) I think I am putting the cart before the horse on this issue (and I'm the one chomping on the bit, instead of the horse :D ). Maybe we need to see the script before we can decide whether this is even a remote possibility.

That doesn't mean that the idea doesn't still excite me, though. I guess I'll always be a bit of a dreamer. ;)

We'll see what happens. I guess if there's enough interest and commitment to it, it will happen. If not, it will remain a pleasant dream. Sometimes anticipating something is as fulfilling as actually obtaining it.
 
One of the technical issues that ocurred to is that the mods all employ previosly existing engines, while expanding its capabilties just a bit. To make P3, it would be necessary to have all that Priv mission and universe structure... something not easily found. Maybe Freelancer's engine has this stuff, BUT I don't think that a 3rd person mouse controlled P3 is what we want.
 
Yes, I think you have a point. I was thinking of beginning with the Vega Strike Engine which is being used in the Privateer Remake, but there may be other possibilities that I don't know about.

I think most of us can agree (expect for those who would disagree :D ), you've gotta have the joystick for Wing Commander!

But, you pose a good question. What engine would we want to use?
 
If regular scripted mission is already so comples to program, just imagine how hard would it be to do all the random encounters, the "normal" missions and the Plot missions...
 
The Privateer Remake shows promise with that VS engine of theirs. Looks like with enough work put into it, the engine would be able to pull off a "bigger and better" version of Privateer.

I also like Starshatter, but it'd probably take more work to get it to be WC-like.

Anyway, you need a few capable and dedicated programmers to make any game, wheter you already have the perfect engine for it or not.
 
Looks like with enough work put into it, the engine would be able to pull off a "bigger and better" version of Privateer.
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I'm reasonably certain that there's no such thing as a *better* game than Privateer. It's just about the most perfect game ever made. (G)
 
I agree, hence the quotes. :p
Better meaning more features - which doesn't always mean a more satisfying gameplay experience. (MOO3 comes to mind)
 
Wow, what a great thread! I cant wait to see the script. Im geussing that the prospects of a fan made P3 would depend on what is in the script. Privateer 3 was probably designed with FMV in mind and thats a major obstical we would need to get by.

I know that I would be willing to help with a P3 project, though my knowledge in game design is very limited, I would want to help in any way possbile, and im sure a lot of other fans would feel the same way.

I think that without a doupt vegastrike would be the most suitable engine to use if we were to attempt creating privateer 3.

The VS engine wass created by members of the community and its open source and free. If anyone makes privateer 3, they need there own engine that they can modify and change the source code. Simply moding it into an engine like freelancer would be both lazy and unsuitable for a project of this scope.

I think that if we did attemp to make P3 it would streangthen the community whether it succeeded or failed. If it did fail we would have no doupt made some huge progress on the VS engine which would help WC:U and the privateer remake, as well as giving other fan projects an advanced platform to work on. The VS, or P3 engine could become the next secret ops engine, but with far greater flexibility and better rendering.

Another thing we must consider is what EA would think of this. I mean, so far the've been good about us using the wing commander universe in our own projects, but this is privateer 3 people! I dont know if EA will be that forgiving when it comes to there intellectual property.

Anyway, Im probably way too optimistic. Porbably better to wait for the script before discussing a fan made priv 3
 
I am of the opinion that making a game and calling it "Privateer 3" would not be a good idea. I don't think there's any way a fan project can live up to the legacy of Privateer and plus it would seem kind of intrusive. I think making a spin-off game would be better... either in the spirit of Wing Commander or calling it like "Privateer: Drunk Dancing Puppies" (arbitrary subtitle because I couldn't think of a good one)... then one could create a sort of connection to Privateer without being too intrusive.
 
Well, I really wonder where this will go. Whatever will be in the script will be an inspiration to people, will create new ideas and will maybe wake up some sleeping talent, "perchance to dream".

Sure, it can be a big letdown - maybe the script is full of plot or dialogue holes, maybe it absolutely requires Idunnowhat (random encounters that have an impact on mission scripts, fuzzy logic plotline, you name it), maybe EA has stamped "copyrighted and every letter trademaked" all over it. So what?

I'll place a bet on the motivational factor - seeing what could have been can spawn a lot of new ideas, and make people rethink what couldn't be done - until then.
So maybe we can't do FMV - but maybe somebody comes up with the idea to dress up Sims2 characters, capture it and add voice actor dialogue to it. Maybe we don't like the storyline - so we can get the WC theologians out to disproof that the P3 script is part of the canon. Maybe we need to discuss for a couple of years what an "authentic" sequel to the WC universe might look like, after having considered the plotline to be closed for all this time.

It'll be fun. Seriously.
 
Well, I'm sure if we really wanted to we could do final fantasy spirits within style FMV, but it would need a lot of work. Creating FMV with real actors would be another story, about the only way we would ever be able to pull that off would be filming everything behind a "white screen" and having all of the enviroments computer generated, as in episode 1-3 style. The cummunity has a lot of wing commander props, but this idea is still pretty far fetched.

Then, theres the possibility of doing all of the cinematics with an in-game engine.

oops, just got ahead of myslef again :)
 
Um....it's commonly referred to as a Blue screen or sometimes a green screen but rarely (if ever) is it referred to as a "white screen." But truly if you had some talented CG artists and movie editors you could make FMV using a blue screen mask...that would probably take more work than the programming of the missions though.
 
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