"What if..." Thread

[Intranetusa]

What if the Europa Barbarorum team suddenly decided to ditch the RTW/MTW engine and create their own game engine?

[Onehandstan]

What if... The CA hired the whole EB team to make R2TW? They would get really rich and then they would forget all about us...

[anubis88]

What if this thread wasn't posted??? I wouldn't want to live in such a world

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

What if... The CA hired the whole EB team to make R2TW? They would get really rich and then they would forget all about us...

- "Boss, look what we did, we created that late Indo-Saka levy spearmen. The difference between this unit and the early Saka levy spearmen is..."

- "I said I want YUBTSEB ELEPHANTS LORICA SEGMENTATA!!!"

[SwissBarbar]

What if EB II becomes as awesome as I think?

- How would I spend the remaining 2-3 hours in which I don't play or sleep?
- Would my boss allow me to install EB II on my PC in the office? Will I have to call him Basileus if he did?

[Aemilius Paulus]

What if the Europa Barbarorum team suddenly decided to ditch the RTW/MTW engine and create their own game engine?

Nothing shocking or unheard of here. 0 AD. These chaps wanted to mod Age of Empires II, but then after getting frustrated by the limitations and harcodings of the engine, they went on to create their own game, from scratch. And the game is going to be entirely freeware.

Funny lads those are. I mean, I am just as glad that the game is going to be free as the next guy, but how is their project going to sustain itself?? Money would definitely help. Who knows, they might yet change... But fact is fact. Check out the Wikipedia link and perhaps do a Google Image search for the game. Very interesting.

[Aurgelmir]

Nothing shocking or unheard of here. 0 AD. These chaps wanted to mod Age of Empires II, but then after getting frustrated by the limitations and harcodings of the engine, they went on to create their own game, from scratch. And the game is going to be entirely freeware.

Funny lads those are. I mean, I am just as glad that the game is going to be free as the next guy, but how is their project going to sustain itself?? Money would definitely help. Who knows, they might yet change... But fact is fact. Check out the Wikipedia link and perhaps do a Google Image search for the game. Very interesting.

Lol i checked the site....but when does it come out?lol i have found it

Any of have played Grand ages of rome?

[Aemilius Paulus]

Lol i checked the site....but when does it come out?

Hehehe. That is the great mystery. They have decided to take the Blizzard path of "it comes out when it comes out". Very wisely too. Deadlines are rotten. They have degraded the quality of innumerable games. Plus, this thing is freeware. People are not paid for it. They just get together and work whenever they can/feel like it.

Here is their official site. If you look at the screenshots of the units, they are almost as accurate as EB. Pretty splendid if you ask me.

EDIT: Oh, and here is their screenshot catalogue. Most impressive.

[A Very Super Market]

Cool link!

As for money, I highly doubt that these guys don't have a job or something. Making a game engine from scratch is some pretty ballsy stuff, so I would expect at least a few of them would be programmers or something.

[satalexton]

perhaps in the (far) future they should world with the EB team to create the ultimate historically accurate game .-.
Their engine making specialties+EB historians and skinners=WIN

[Silence Hunter]

The largest problem I see in the gaming industry at the moment is oversiplifying and making "cool" games, instead of focusing on good and enjoyable gameplay, balance, historical accuracy and loads of other things which make a more mature gamer satisfied. Now their primary focus is to create cool game with uber graphics and sell it to 14 year olds (no offence here) to maximise their profits. More and more games are more like public betas after the release rather than a complete game. What is even more annoying that these "fixes" of the game are sold as expansion packs! And again everything is done for more money...

The only two companies I know off which doesn't follow this pattern are Blizzard and Bethesda. They have their large fan base and make games for them which take long to make, but are good and enjoyable to play.

This is why I think that the thing like merge of EB team into CA is as likely as the end of the world tomorrow... I just hope, well I know, that EBII will be awesome and worht waiting. Because EB team are even better then Blizzard or Bethesda as they don't seek any profit from what they are doing.

[Megas Methuselah]

What if I answer before Aemilius Paulus? It is a likely possibility, after all; he types so slow.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Well, it is true that Blizzard is indeed unique, as witnessed by their marvellous games (none of which I play, sadly) and the lack of deadlines in Blizzard.

But seriously guys, check out that 0 AD game. They are very concerned about their historical realism. They also use numerous sources for their units skins, including Osprey books, and their units resemble the EB ones greatly. Their Roman units all have lorica hamata (no LS in the game!). There are Hastati, Principes, Triarii, Pedites Extraordinarii, Velites, and numerous other historical Roman units in the game. The game developers also made note of the fact that the Carthiginian elephants will not have mahouts, as historically, they did not, because of their rather small size. Now that is historical realism!

They are indeed serious. Their game is an RTS equivalent to EB, and it is going to be open-source, with no unbreakable hardcodings. The game is also freeware. It is basically anyone's dream, especially for modders. Also, the developers are also planning the release of another RTS, plus an expansion to 0 AD.

Seeing what they have done, it does not seem unrealistic to me that the EB team might do the same. The two teams might even consider merging. Now, that would be splendid.

[Aemilius Paulus]

What if I answer before Aemilius Paulus? It is a likely possibility, after all; he types so slow.

Heh. You were pretty close there. Too close for comfort I daresay.

But anyway, lay off your humour. I am once again considering reporting your post. If you get another infraction, I know you will be banned. I have heard you yourself state that. Oh, and I type very quickly. My GWAM is over a 100. It is just that my posts are actually long and informative, unlike yours.

Well, I just had to respond, despite the fact that ignoring Micro Meth would have been wiser...

[Megas Methuselah]

Well, I just had to respond, despite the fact that ignoring Micro Meth would have been wiser...

You're such a spammer. Now, to bring us all back to the topic from which you so deliberately dragged us away:

It would be awesome to see the EB Team professionalized in such a way as Onehandstan describes. However, would not their skill be watered down by deadlines, in much the same way as ETW was? Be careful what you wish for, guys.

[Aemilius Paulus]

It would be awesome to see the EB Team professionalized in such a way as Intranetusa describes. However, would not their skill be watered down by deadlines, in much the same way as ETW was? Be careful what you wish for, guys.

Well, that is precisely why I praise Blizzard. *Hint, hint* EB team could follow the same code, by not releasing any deadlines or release dates.

[Megas Methuselah]

Well, that is precisely why I praise Blizzard. *Hint, hint* EB team could follow the same code, by not releasing any deadlines or release dates.

I agree, AP. However, I edited my post a bit, so it looks kind of odd misquoting me.

[Macilrille]

What if... World in Flames for Computers, which was first announced 13 years ago, finally keeps its deadline of July 2009...

[Macilrille]

The largest problem I see in the gaming industry at the moment is oversiplifying and making "cool" games, instead of focusing on good and enjoyable gameplay, balance, historical accuracy and loads of other things which make a more mature gamer satisfied. Now their primary focus is to create cool game with uber graphics and sell it to 14 year olds (no offence here) to maximise their profits. More and more games are more like public betas after the release rather than a complete game. What is even more annoying that these "fixes" of the game are sold as expansion packs! And again everything is done for more money...

Sounds familiar, can we say... "Windows"?

[Aemilius Paulus]

Sounds familiar, can we say... "Windows"?

Nah, their problem is that of bloatware. Basically, to earn profit, they always have to release an OS, for instance, every 2-4 years. So, to make something that is different they add better, RAM-draining graphics, as Silence Hunter said, but then they also add a hundred new features that only 1% of the computer users will ever use. Vista was a good example of this. Windows 7 is different. It actually has quite a bit of useful features. But still, Microsoft is running out of features. IE is encountering similar problems, but it is not so bad, as IE still has parsecs to go before it will reach the security of Firefox or Chrome.

[Rilder]

Funny lads those are. I mean, I am just as glad that the game is going to be free as the next guy, but how is their project going to sustain itself??

If you make a good game people will pay for it even if its free.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Well, that is precisely why I praise Blizzard. *Hint, hint* EB team could follow the same code, by not releasing any deadlines or release dates.

I simply CANNOT agree with this statement. Blizzard is doing nothing but feeding money into a walking corpse of a game. Theyve even abandoned Starcraft and Diablo for WoW.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Starcraft II is not abandoned. They are working on it. They are sensible people. WoW brings them money. Metric tonnes of it, since you have to pay monthly fee for WoW.

So Blizzard puts more effort into WoW. It brings profit after all. Compared to WoW, Starcraft II will bring them 1/200 of the profits. Seriously, a WoW user basically pays an equivalent of a new copy of WoW every two months. But with Starcraft, you buy once, and enjoy it for the rest of your life.

So they laid off Starcraft II for some WoW work. But now, Starcraft II is soon to be released. What is your problem then?

[Macilrille]

If you make a good game people will pay for it even if its free.

Shrapnel Games, who is the latest developer of WiF for computers, has an excellent free Advanced Squad Leader level/complexity game called Steel Panthers (another company does as well, bot continued development on a framework provided by someone else for this free game), people still pay for the CD version and people still buy their other games.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Well after i had heard that the axed or at least SIGNIFICANTLY slowed the development of Diablo 3, i assumed that Starcraft II got the same treatment.
Personally i have little against Blizzard. Its WoW that i hate with a passion. Its a lifeless corpse of a games that had destabilized the entire MMO genera. The games that are coming out of it now are either WoW clones, or from the few indie developers, an occasional great idea that is strangled to death by the "demand" for WoW clones.
Hell ive been able to play by ROLLING MY FACE ON THE KEYBOARD. Im NOT joking about that.
I HATE WoW!!!!!

[athanaric]

I HATE WoW!!!!!

I couldn't agree more.


I'd love to see EB as an independent game (and I'd pay for it).

[satalexton]

same here, both quote and above poster.

[Aemilius Paulus]

same here, both quote and above poster.

Well, I disagree. I actually like WoW. Now, I have never played it, but I have read so many guides and descriptions of it, including the WoW Wiki, that I am certain I will become instantly addicted to it the moment I start playing. Which is why I have never started playing it. And seriously, Olaf, lay off your smilies. The majority of your posts make you look/sound like a 14 year-old with difficulty controlling his emotions. One angry smilie is enough.

Not to mention, I do not have any time for MP/online playing in general. My gaming schedule is very fragmented and it for instance, just yesterday, I got two hours of EB, the first time I played it since Winter Break. I always wanted to do vanilla RTW MP, but never had time.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Some things just inspire THAT kind of hate in me. WoW is one of them.
Yes it is addictive until your get your first character to the max lvl. I spent nearly a year getting to chars at once to lvl 70 (This was b4 WotLK).
Everyone kept telling me that once i hit 70 the boring part of the game (lvl grinding) would stop, hey ALWAYS said that. Once i finally got to 70, any actual POINT that the game had died. The Max lvl PvP is cheesy and lame, PvE is nothing but more grinding/pattern learning in the max lvl raid dungeons. City chat was a pure troll fest, RP was nonexistent, the guilds were full of ***holes and jerks, three of the one i joined were worthless or full of alts. Plus the gold-buying and power lvling offers were getting insane at that time on my server as well. And Blizz began to whore out their lore in order to increase content. It got old, FAST.
I quit a month after hitting the max. However i noticed something. Almost all of the other games out there were the SAME as WoW. This one game has been so successful that it has killed off all creativity and though processes within the MMORPG genera. Its really sad.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Did you at least sell your character and make tons of money ? Did you??

I like the grind and the money gaining. I like all those features in world of warcraft such as professions. The fighting, meh, but the rest is very much enticing. Especially the fact that money is so valuable in WoW.