WCP Explosions
- Thread starter Sonntag
- Start date
- Status
Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
Why not? I always thought constructive criticism is always appreciated...
Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
Yeah, you seem to get a lot for your money 
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
SO had a deadline because, although it was free to us, it cost Origin lots and lots and lots and lots of money <G> Dev teams don't work for *free*... voice work doesn't get done for free... and the bandwith to allow 200 meg game downloads definately doesn't come free! From Origin's standpoint, SO was very expensive!
Well dont that just bite a big one! Still they should have made the time to put in some multi code. Just about every game you get today, even then when WCP came out, had multi capabilities. They too had deadlines etc. Thats why most of them have a bunch of patches!! In any case, I would put up with downloading patches had they put multi code in either WCP or SO. It didnt need massive multi code, which is what I think they wanted to do and that would have put them way behind schedule. But I also think that the fans are sort of to blame for that also. Pushing them to get it out makes them leave out the most interesting things, like this ship explosion thing. Same thing happend to Q2. Everybody rushed ID to get it out, and what happend?...server code crashing, single play glitches, incomplete goals in some levels, incompatiable vid card drivers, IPX network errors, shall I go on? If EA makes another WC game, I think we as fans should encourage them to..TAKE YOUR TIME AND PUT ALL THE BELLS AND WHISTLES IN IT! We have waited this long for a new WC game we should be able to wait and let them put in all the neat things.
RFBurns
RFBurns
I've heard that is the "problem" with Chris Roberts. He likes to get things exactly right, even if it means they miss deadlines by months or more. I remember back in my days at WCHQ we kept waiting and waiting and waiting for Strike Commander. In fact I waited so long my financial situation changed (Grad School) and keeping up on the hardware and software while still being able to put a roof over my head and food on the table became very hard unless I wanted to enter Credit Card Hell But I saw demos of it at the time, people in WCHQ raved about it and now I have it, and if you compare it to other flight sims of that year, graphically it blows them away. I know I would rather wait for a game and have it work and come with the features I want instead of getting it right on time. The key is, though, getting it right. There are several games I can think of that were hyped beyond belief and missed multiple ship dates and when they were finally released were buggy and not worth the money or the wait.
But I saw demos of it at the time, people in WCHQ raved about it and now I have it, and if you compare it to other flight sims of that year, graphically it blows them away. I know I would rather wait for a game and have it work and come with the features I want instead of getting it right on time. The key is, though, getting it right. There are several games I can think of that were hyped beyond belief and missed multiple ship dates and when they were finally released were buggy and not worth the money or the wait.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
I haven't really heard that about Chris Roberts -- SC was delayed for other reasons <G>
(Supposedly, the *problem* with CR is that he's much more interested in impressing Hollywood than he is creating a profitable game -- so he's willing to go way overbudget and miss release dates to create a big impressive game... good for a while, but it gets the people who want sequels in trouble <G>)
(Supposedly, the *problem* with CR is that he's much more interested in impressing Hollywood than he is creating a profitable game -- so he's willing to go way overbudget and miss release dates to create a big impressive game... good for a while, but it gets the people who want sequels in trouble <G>)
Originally posted by Wedge009
Funny, are we in any position to demand things from Origin? They should have this, they should have that...
The end user is definately in a position to give ANY company ideas about improving a product, I mean we arent hitching horses to our cars are we? Just look at the history of games. Those that have multi capabilities are big money makers and still sell and get played today, those games without multi capabilites get swept aside by both customers and companies. If they had the ability to incorporate multi code in Armada, they could have easily put it in WCIII thru WCP and SO, they were going to put multi in SO from what I read in other threads. They should have. The days of single play only games has faded away as far as popular or heavily bought games. A good example of this is the old game Doom. ID learned that multi play increases the games value. I get people in Kali asking all the time does anyone want to play a round of Doom. Now when Doom came out, that was about the same time WCII and Armada was out. Armada had multi code, even if it was only direct connect or modem or NetBios. The whole point here is, if the masses want multi, they tend to go with the flow of games providing multi play. To us hard core fans of WC that may not matter, but I am shure all here who enjoy WC would love to climb into their favorite craft and go up against human opponents rather than fighting against the same AI routines and flight patterns of non-human opponents. If EA puts out a new WC game, they might want to seriously look at all the other sims out there that sport multi play capabilities and see that those games continue to be played, even the old famous Doom and Quake. IMO, they litteraly put the rope around their (EA) own necks and jumped off the horse when they cancelled Privateer Online. Obviously the fans and new players are looking for something to expand the base game, otherwise all these mods for other games with multi capabilites wouldnt be around. Just to let you know, flying a Vampire in FS against human opponents in Kilrathi fighters is a whole new experience in the WC world. Its like night and day. Single player only games dont last as long as those with both single and multi capabilities. Obviously EA thinks the same thing, otherwise they would have trashed UO long ago.
RFBurns
Im suprised to read this from one of the CIC admins! Ive been saying all along, any, ANY game maker who does a Hollywood impression will get bit in the six sooner or later. Although the FMVs added to the game, it may have been the killer also. Game companies do not have the multi billion dollar resources as Hollywood does, yes thats multi BILLION! They have been around for over 70 years. Game makers for PC or console, only the last 15. Big difference. No amount of budgeting will match Hollywoods never ending resource of funds. They have money to burn, thats why you see alot of flop movies come out of Hollywood. Some good, but some bad also. Game makers cannot take that chance, so they have to put the afterburner on full force to produce something to the likes of that multi billion dollar backed Hollywood picture, and make it good, and make it sell. For the time (1990-1995) the FMV was neat since multimedia was hot and heavy in the PC, which was the selling point for a PC to the average consumer. To us geeks that played with computers in the heyday of cassette drive data storage and 8088 processors, it didnt matter. But PC makers wanted to sell to the masses, as they still do today. But they dont emphasize on multimedia anymore, they emphasize on CDRW, USB, FireWire, DSL, 20 inch monitors, free internet access and big rebates from those providers. Its standard now to find a CD drive in computers today, but in 1990, the standard PC of the day had a 3 incher and 5 incher flop dirves, the CD was extra and cost over 150 bucks. Today you can fill your case with 5 CD drives if you wanted to at 40 bucks a drive. Movies in games wont sell the game anymore, its the game content, and replay value of multiplayer capabilities.
RFBurns
A couple of weeks ago I reloaded WC3 and finished it a couple of nights ago. I then reloaded WC4 and from watching just the beginning - whoa! More people, bigger better sets, et al. I don't think it was the FMV that was the "killer" but the level that Roberts pushed it to.
I disagree. FMV, IMO, was and still is great! What a way to pull a person into the story! Even now, after playing WC3 & 4 a couple of times each, I still say "Cool" when I load it up. I didn't do that with other games. Halflife was the last game to really impress me with its "feel" (the beginning creeped me out).
I have yet to see a multiplayer game that has a plot. They're all basically "run around and shoot" games whether they be with a gun or in a cockpit. WC was always a single player game because it had characters and a plot. In my mind, a multiplayer WC would simply be another space shootem up. Didn't Freespace/I-War have multiplayer capabilities? What would make WC any different from them? If EA did do a WC multiplayer game it would have to be truly innovative.
What would make WC different and more appealing than say FS or FS2 would in fact be the storyline and yes the FMV's. But what do you do after finishing the single play game and theres no multi play capabilities? Look at every WC game with add ons. Except for the ones made by EA/OSI, you usually had to load some program made by a fan to even get external missions to work. In some other games, such as FS and FS2, you dont need any special program to modify the game in order to play fan made missions or play them in multi play mode. The multi play missions in FS and FS2 are no different than their single play counterparts, except that you are pitted against other human players instead of the same AI routines of single play games, even tho you loaded up a fan made mission, those enemies run the same AI routine, hence the flight patterns, their evasive manuvers become familiar and you can breeze thru missions cause you know how that bug or Kilrathi is going to fly to avoid your fire. In a multi situation, you dont know what is going to happen next, which is what makes it exciting, more realistic, and brings the player into the game just like the FMV's do. The problem with FS and FS2 in their storyline is that there was absolutely no interaction with the characters, even tho the characters were CGI. In WC, you actually talked to other characters, changed their motives, selected wingmen, walked around the carrier, talk to bartenders and other pilots. FS could have done this also but focused on the space flight sim itself. Another example of this is the game Descent. Those had a storyline and plot to them. They had CGI generated cutscenes, but no interaction or decision making at all. But the one thing that game did have, even in Descent 1, was multi player capability. They stuck to that format even thru Descent 3 and Mercenary add on pak. One thing I also noticed in WCP's FMV was that there was just about zero interactivity with the characters compared to WCIII and WCIV. I would guess they could still make a new WC game with all the FMV's etc and make it so interactive you have to choose everytime you talk to someone. But these other games that have CGI cutscenes dont employ that interactivity, but that is proof that the movie or cutscene is not the games point of sale, it is more like just another part of it if you look at the current games with FMV or CGI cutscenes. What makes those games continue to be played and sold is the multi player capabilities. Of course back in mid 90's the internet was as slow as a turtle walking backwards. But today, the net is fast enough to allow massive multi play games. There isnt any reason, and I dont accept deadlines as a viable reason to leave out such an important aspect of a game as the multi player capability. Alot of fans of FS and FS2 will tell you they are fans of WC also, but are they playing it as much as they are the multi play games?...not by a long shot! I know of one guy who was so heavy into WC that after WCIV, he said to me "I wont buy another Origin game until they put multi player capabilities in it". This guy is like LOAF, who has everything WC except for WCP and SO. Im shure he isnt the only one. Besides, if EA didnt think that a game with multi play capability would fly, why is there UO? Must mean something eh!
RFBurns
RFBurns
- Status