[Ulala]

Originally posted by Holy Imperial Gloriano
Well good luck getting FS licence

You'll need it.

[Kosh]

I say go for it, but make sure that everything is at least as good as FS2.

[GT-Keravnos]

Even if I compeletely agree with Lightspeed, and I want to be supportive of the new guys, I only see pitfalls and manholes in the road ahead.

1. Our genre is financially wise - dead. We might as well admit it. Fan driven expansion is and can be achieved as SCP has shown. New market games much like Starshatter are much less limited in appeal than a moderate PC shooter game. UNLESS YOU GO FOR XBOX. And that means coughing up big dough to Microsoft.

2. I suspect that you all saw the spaghetti code and the work done by Kazan, Taylor, Bobbau in implementing all that wonderful stuff, and think you can do better. You just may. But, think. Only now do I really think that SCP is getting to the point where it should be. It will take you guys a lot of time, more than you suspect.

3. Eventually some good friend, business acquaintance and all will suggest the "smart" move of doing away with freeloaders and stuff (HLP and SCP), thus destroying the beautiful Academia of free thinkers and coders we have right now.

4. Talented people will NO DOUBT say, "why the frigging hell should I work on something for free, when a company *$$ will rip off whatever he wants and claim he has the rights". Because no doubt, a lot of your people will benefit from the enhanced Fenris, the retextured Sathanas, and what have you.

5. You will make a tech demo and dissappear into the night, (a friend will find a better offer somewhere, another will doubt the validity of it all, etc), leaving us high and dry.

6. It may just be that you are the knights in shining armor, have all the money in the world and rescue us all from "certain death". Just that in real life it doesn't work that way, and we have been hearing too many excuses, seen too many things go awry.

7. Think and think again. You (whatever you do) must let this community find its own way. Don't jeopardize it, and some of the community will help you. Try to limit it, and find legal ways to go at it, and inevitably we will go after you (like fallout fans), and possibly die out in the process.

8. There has been a major paradigm shift. Gamers of my generation ( I am older and none the wiser), didn't think you could be one without a Joystick. Nowadays all there is is keyboard/mouse. To try to accomodate the genre like Freelancer did, is to fail much like Freelancer did. You must stick to the basics (FS2 wise) give more control options, DON'T DUMB IT UP, and you might have a chance, like Il2 did. However that is doubtful because Il2 had this MASS of people who wanted to play WW2.

What have you guys got?

[GT-Keravnos]

Besides, some of Fs2's worth was its excellent production...

Lines like...

" I can live with being a pawn if the game makes sense" are still haunting me.

It was the MAJOR release from a major company like INTERPLAY once was. Thus a lot of money were spent designing it. You really must top that to be able to go further. And no offense. It will take money and time, and I REALLY HOPE you do have what it takes.

Because in the words of the Oracle...

" You are a good man, Neo, and I hate telling good people bad news"

[Gai Daigoji]

You all raise some very good points, I'll try and answer some of the questions now for you.

Lightspeed - We understand about the importance of the SCP and the project, I for one love the work the SCP crew have done. You've done a great job updating every aspect of the FS2 game and am looking forward to furture updates. Also we would never ask you or demand of you to stop work on the SCP project if we got the rights. You have some very good coders and have some great ideas - if anything we might ask some of you to work on parts of the coding or put forward your ideas if you wanted to.

We're not going to be a Derek guy and say: "We have the rights, the community can go to hell I'll make the game the way I want"

The fact is without you guys I wouldn't even be attempting to get the rights. All the posts I've read, all the campaign ideas, all the story-lines, all the models and the SCP show us that you people are what matters in a project of this undertaking.

Without you guys/gals then whats the point in wasting money in trying to get the rights? I for one believe that if we can get it then we can create FS3 with your insights and ideas, it would then be a game you would all enjoy and what other people would also enjoy since it would contain the ideas and thoughts of many gamers alike.

[Ashrak]

besides ... you COULD make it 100% moddable .... (look at nexus) and if the engine gets wasted or soemthing release the source

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Sandwich
Guys! Where are your manners??!?!

We already welcomed him on the other thread since he posted there first

[Singh]

Originally posted by Lightspeed


While I agree 100% with that, it is one of my big hopes that nobody will ever get the chance to make a FS3.

Look, they may or may not make FS3 - but they can still re-sell FS2 along with the SCP and inferno and the other ub3rness that is associated with this game before they do!

[aldo_14]

I'd suggest going for something original rather than FS3, myself.

[Ransom]

As much as I want to see an FS3, I agree that as a flagship product you should do something original. You could even make a space sim, just not Freespace. I'm going to remain skeptical of any potential FS3 until it's been proven the makers are capable of making it better, or at least equal, to the original games and the SCP's improvements.

[silverwolf]

i suppose if i were you i'de work on some stunning original work to make your company or business which ever you want to call it noticed and liked. then once the general population knows about you then work on buying already exisiting licences and what not.

I suppose though if you are really concerned about the FS licences that much you could buy it and hold on to it till plan A(above) has been completed

[Sandwich]

You know what would be in a way easier as well as more likely to succeed? A FreeSpace-universe based thinking-man's FPS. Heck, the community has tried to start such a project (as a TC to other game engines) a couple of times (myself included), but it's died from lack of talent in MODding FPS games.

Think about it. You could come out of the blue, like FarCry did, but with a game that already has a captivating backstory. After all, what's the ONE cutscene that everyone (who has seen it) ranks as the best?

Hallfight!!

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Sandwich
a thinking-man's FPS

Isn't that an oxymoron?

[Triple Ace]

If Volition doesn't get it, then by all means go for it. If Derek Smart gets the license then it will be time to mass suicide.

[.::Tin Can::.]

I say friggin do it. It would be much safer in your hands. However, if it aint [V], it aint Freespace. They gotta be part of the plotline. I just hope you can come up with something that has a whole bunch of eye-candy for us that we wouldnt even be able to dream of making with improvements. Whoopie!

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Sandwich
You know what would be in a way easier as well as more likely to succeed? A FreeSpace-universe based thinking-man's FPS. Heck, the community has tried to start such a project (as a TC to other game engines) a couple of times (myself included), but it's died from lack of talent in MODding FPS games.

Think about it. You could come out of the blue, like FarCry did, but with a game that already has a captivating backstory. After all, what's the ONE cutscene that everyone (who has seen it) ranks as the best?

Hallfight!!

Tough, oversaturated market though.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by aldo_14


Tough, oversaturated market though.

Oversaturated yes, but not, I would suspect, particularly tough to break into. The modern FPS gamer is, and I realize this is something of a generalization, attracted by two things - good graphics and good multiplayer. If you can pull these two off, and make the rest at least decent, you might not have the next Half Life, but in all likelyhood you'll have a reasonably successful game under your companies belt. Insert a slightly unique element in there (Stealth, GeoMod, or, in the case of a FS game, perhaps strong vehicular integration), make sure it's not too hard to mod (or at least provide good tools/documentation) and you're prety much home.

I'm not saying you want to strive for a mediocre game, but I don't think it's particularly difficult to create a commercially viable game if you don't deviate too much from what is a working formula. Attatch this sort of game to a recognizable franchise (As the Derek Smart thing showed us that Freespace apparently still is) and you're probably in the clear.

[Gai Daigoji]

Originally posted by .::Tin Can::.
I say friggin do it. It would be much safer in your hands. However, if it aint [V], it aint Freespace. They gotta be part of the plotline. I just hope you can come up with something that has a whole bunch of eye-candy for us that we wouldnt even be able to dream of making with improvements. Whoopie!

I agree 100% with what you said, thats why I've already contact [V] about, if we gain the rights to Freespace,  producing a joint project

Also I like everyones input about this topic, its the whole reasn why I asked here so I could get thoughts on the matter. Keep them comming and if you have questions let me know and I'll reply. Also I'll inform you about updates as I get them.

Also I said, if we didn't gain the license to Freespace, we'd work on a project using the HLP members input as to what they would like in a game. Either way this community would be a part of production.

[aldo_14]

Have you tried securing funding yet, perchance?

[Stealth]

and by funding we're talking the $100,000+ it'll take to acquire the license, if it's even possible :-/