Author Topic: Could this be the year?  (Read 12925 times)

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Could this be the year?
Could this be the year we see FOTG released?  I guess we can hope.

 

Offline zookeeper

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Re: Could this be the year?
It could be!

 

Offline niffiwan

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Re: Could this be the year?
certainly possible!
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Offline chief1983

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Re: Could this be the year?
I hope so!
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Re: Could this be the year?
You mean 2017? Maybeeee.
If you mean 2016 then yeah, fat chance of that considering it'll be over in 2 days.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline CountBuggula

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Re: Could this be the year?
Not complaining, but...




I would have really loved to.  We had high hopes early in the year, but circumstances proved otherwise.  I can't go into all the reasons why it didn't happen, but not all of them were in our hands.  I can say that we've picked up momentum again towards the end of this year and I have very high hopes of some sort of public release in 2017.  Stay tuned, and check our open positions board for ways you can help make that a reality.

Speaking of, I need to update the job board, but we don't have any currently active modelers/texture artists to do some mostly minor fixes and tweaks that are needed before final release.  If you or someone you know can assist, please contact us.

 

Offline Tnadz

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Re: Could this be the year?
I'm very excited that you guys have reached campaign testing.  Very cool to see this project coming along.  Very fine work.

 

Offline CountBuggula

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Re: Could this be the year?
I'm very excited that you guys have reached campaign testing.  Very cool to see this project coming along.  Very fine work.

Thanks, the encouragement goes a long way with a project like this.  I can say that we're at a feature complete but unpolished state right now.  Everything (except multiplayer, which is out of our hands) pretty much works and is at least playable in its current form.  We've got relatively few minor issues we need to take care of before we launch a closed beta, which I very much hope will happen within the next few months.  The closed beta will be focused on making sure there aren't any leftover problems with the campaign missions, as well as taking a serious look at ship balancing.  Other than that, there's just a few rough edges here and there that we need to polish out before an official public launch.

So could that all happen this year?  Potentially.  But keep in mind that this all depends on a bunch of enthusiasts doing the work in their spare time, and we all have other jobs, families, lives, etc that do a very good job of disrupting our best laid plans.  As always with this sort of project it will be done When It's Done(tm).  Meanwhile, we'll try to keep sharing as much of our progress as we're able, and definitely value the comments, suggestions, and contributions from forum members who are not officially part of the team.  So stick around, enjoy the ride, and maybe even try and find a way you can contribute to the project.

I'm also happy to state that we don't plan on disappearing after our first release - we have a number of goals and ideas for the future that we'll continue to work on, including new missions, campaigns, and ships.  We'll also need community feedback for further balance efforts in the hopes that multiplayer will eventually be a possibility.  The SCP also continues to give us new features and opportunities to play with, and we look forward to continuing to improve the experience of FotG through game engine enhancements.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2017, 12:53:13 pm by CountBuggula »

 

Offline Dain

  • 26
Re: Could this be the year?
I think I've said this before, but I think the scope for post-release 3rd party campaigns is pretty good. A Star Wars flight sim in a modern engine with easy to use mission design tools and a fairly sizable number of ships.. there's a lot of potential to tell a whole bunch of stories in the SW universe and the tools to do it. I was mainly thinking about this in comparison to Diaspora, which is utterly fantastic but limited by its universe. All your stories pretty much have to be "and THIS Battlestar also survived.." which I feel has limited the number of campaigns for it (Though one was just released, so what do I know!)

So hopefully upon release there is a wave of enthusiasm if the word gets out there (though I appreciate that this is a balancing act with lawyers.. but there are a few free fanmade standalone SW games on ModDB so perhaps it's best not to worry TOO much) it certainly seems like a good time to be a Star Wars fan at the moment..

 

Offline Rolf

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Re: Could this be the year?
I think I've said this before, but I think the scope for post-release 3rd party campaigns is pretty good. A Star Wars flight sim in a modern engine with easy to use mission design tools and a fairly sizable number of ships.. there's a lot of potential to tell a whole bunch of stories in the SW universe and the tools to do it. I was mainly thinking about this in comparison to Diaspora, which is utterly fantastic but limited by its universe. All your stories pretty much have to be "and THIS Battlestar also survived.." which I feel has limited the number of campaigns for it (Though one was just released, so what do I know!)

So hopefully upon release there is a wave of enthusiasm if the word gets out there (though I appreciate that this is a balancing act with lawyers.. but there are a few free fanmade standalone SW games on ModDB so perhaps it's best not to worry TOO much) it certainly seems like a good time to be a Star Wars fan at the moment..

This is partly why an early public release might be a good idea, evn if it is rather unpolished. I remember watching a video by totalbiscuit where he discussed why the MERP (Middle-Earth Role-playing) mod for Skyrim got CnD'd but Third Age Total War didn't. The obvious reason he gave was that Third Age was already out, and that this made any kind of CnD entirely pointless. Hundreds, if not thousands of people had already downloaded the mod and would easily be able to put up versions for download all over the web, and third parties would continue to work on it.

Keeping these kind of mods in closed development for so long increases the risk of a MERP scenario.

Another reason totalbiscuit suggested for what happened to MERP was that Warner Brothers might have had their own Lord of the Rings RPG in the works (Shadow of Mordor, it could be argued, was this) and they were concerned MERP might have drawn attention and enthusiasm away from that product. So this mod might be in trouble if Disney decides they want to make some Star Wars space sim.

 

Offline CountBuggula

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Re: Could this be the year?
... So this mod might be in trouble if Disney decides they want to make some Star Wars space sim.

Fortunately, the chances of that actually happening are so minuscule to not even consider.  Even if they did, it would be more along the lines of Ace Combat as opposed to DCS.

Either way, we've gone to pretty great lengths to avoid many of the pitfalls that attract lawyers and CnD letters.  That said, if you want to discuss the legal side and your worries about it, there's a thread for that.  Let's not clutter up the thread here with baseless concerns.

 

Offline Dain

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Re: Could this be the year?
Yeah, I can't see EA doing a space sim ever again..

Though if I was in control I'd just take a bunch of the assets from the new Battlefront, stick a small team on it and release a PC only space sim.. but I suppose the Star Was license is too valuable for them to try experiments like that. And they're probably worried it would suck some audience away from the next Big Thing they release, presumably this Xmas..

So FOTG is the only hope we have for a new SW flight sim.

 
Re: Could this be the year?
Actually there is another SW space combat game being worked on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKjkD6_PS7M

 

Offline CountBuggula

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Re: Could this be the year?
Actually there is another SW space combat game being worked on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKjkD6_PS7M

Yep, we're very aware of the XWVM project and salute their efforts.  I've personally been fairly active in communication with their team and where possible have collaborated on efforts with them where our goals align.  That said, their vision is very different from ours - XWVM is a faithful re-implementation of the Totally Games X-Wing series (currently just the original X-Wing), going as far as using the original mission files.  Having been a huge fan of those games when I was growing up, I'm definitely looking forward to trying it and reliving some of those campaigns with a modern engine.

Fate of the Galaxy intends to more closely match the space battles depicted in the movies of Star Wars Episodes IV-VI, ignoring much of what has been established in the EU (or Legacy canon) and previous games.  We have a friendly relationship between the projects and there is definitely room for both of us to exist side by side, and we wish them luck in their development.

 

Offline TopAce

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Re: Could this be the year?
Holy cow, their video has 39k views. There's a 2016 December video of theirs with 223k views. Paint me green.
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Offline CountBuggula

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Re: Could this be the year?
Holy cow, their video has 39k views. There's a 2016 December video of theirs with 223k views. Paint me green.

I've been wanting to put together a FotG trailer video for years but have been stymied by the fact that FSO doesn't have a mission recorder, making the whole process WAY more difficult.  I'm not nearly as good at cinematography when I have to think about it as I'm flying.

 

Offline wookieejedi

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Re: Could this be the year?
Do you have Windows? I actually have found the new updated, Windows game recorder to be quite convenient and useful.

 
Re: Could this be the year?
I don't think capturing footage is the issue here. It's getting that footage in the first place. Since FSO doesn't have a mission instant replay or record option you have to capture everything on-the-fly or design and FRED a cinematic trailer.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline CountBuggula

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Re: Could this be the year?
I don't think capturing footage is the issue here. It's getting that footage in the first place. Since FSO doesn't have a mission instant replay or record option you have to capture everything on-the-fly or design and FRED a cinematic trailer.

Exactly.  To really get proper footage, I have to fly with a non-standard external view and HUD turned off and manipulate the camera controls all while trying to fly the craft.  It's much easier in games that have a mission recorder where you can do the flying first, then go back and get shots from various other ships, cameras and angles.  That's the part you record into FRAPS or whatever capture tool you're using, which you can then stitch together into a proper trailer.

 

Offline wookieejedi

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Re: Could this be the year?
Silly me, that makes much more sense. I have spent too long in only FRED/lua script land.