Greetings, those of you who know me, know that I am the design Lead for Descent IV as well as President and Owner of Orbital Design Studios.
There is a LOT of enthusiasm on this board for FS3. I only managed to get through the first _7_ pages of this thread before giving up to post.
This is good, but there are several issues to address BEFORE STARTING, that I may be able to help you with.
1. The copyright issue. This is a major problem for both FS3 AND D4. Interplay is far from dead in fact, thanks to Titus, it's nearly revitialized and it's debts are lower than before even Descent II's production. They DO CARE about the FreeSpace Copyrights, but the problem isn't there...
The problem is that both Volition and Interplay own part of FreeSpace. Much simpler scenario for you then D4, I envy you. I have to deal with Outrage, Volition, Parallax and Interplay owning parts of Descent.
The OTHER problem you have, is that the Space Sim/shooter market is in a slump. I myself asked Interplay about FS3, they said not now.
You have ONLY 2 solutions:
Make a FS clone and have totally different storyline, ships, etc...
OR, get it done and have Interplay publish it, provided Volition gives their ok..in writing.
Possible Solution, and best solution I think, is to take advantage of Orbital's 8 month old management base, and come onboard as the FS3 project. We're already neck deep in the CS engine, capable of editing it to accept any file format we choose, even new ones we design. We have a large group of Descent fans (many Descent fans were FS fans too, I was one of them...) that work here, and the clentcher: D4 is designed to be ubermoddable. Tacking FS3 onto D4 in the same box as a "mod" (not really), would get it out the door, avert copyright issues (because if D4 can clear the legal problems it has, I don't think I'd have any problems at all clearing them for FS3), avert the problem with the slump in the space shooter market, and help D4 sell more copies, generating more income for Orbital, and helping to further it's continued existance.
2. This is indeed a huge project you wish to undertake. We can help you, but only if you're willing to do all of what it entails. I admit that I myself figured D4 would be easy, slap a few models around, write up a little new code and wizzbang it would be done....6 months later I look back and laugh at my own stupidity. What the hell was I thinking?
It's now almost a year along, I'm a lot smarter than I was, I've learned a lot, as has the rest of the team.
In closing, I think we have a lot we can offer you, if you're interested. Send me an email and we'll talk about it, Kazan.
[email protected] --Orbital Design Studios--
For gamers, by gamers. No compromise.
