How hard of a mod would this be?

[BranDoom]

I'm currently working on a mod, and just for ****s and giggles, I was wondering how hard would it be to make a total conversion of UT3 into an RTS game with 4-5 races. I've done alot of the concept work and have to realy good modders, but no programers yet since we havent settled on what engine to make it for. Options so far are C&C3, Dawn Of War, Open Source engines and Unreal. I thought of Unreal because I remembered a mod for UT that tried to make an RTS mod for UT99. Well, any help is greatly appreciated and if you want to check out what we have so far you can read all about it and check out my concept work here

http://z3.invisionfree.com/The_Black_Beret/index.php?showforum=1

Thanks guys! -Bdoom :rockon:

[JoystickMonkey]

I would imagine there would be a few major scripting tasks ahead of you. This is based off of what I know about ut2004, as I haven't had a chance to really look into UT3's engine.

- Manipulating the camera: UT is primarily a first person game, but you may be able to find a decent camera solution. It would probably take a fair amount of tweaking and playtesting to make a high-up camera feel right.

- Scale: From a design standpoint, you may want to consider a non-standard scale for your units. I'm not sure how UT3 handles very large areas, but for a RTS-sized map you may run out of room. This is highly speculative as I don't know what UT3 engine is fully capable of yet.

- Online Replication: Make sure your scripters know how to make things work online as well as offline.

- AI: If you were able to infuse UT3's close combat AI capability into an RTS game, that would be quite impressive. It would take a little work to add RTS gameplay on top of it. Also, if you intend to allow large buildings to dynamically be made, the pathnodes will have to dynamically be able to change accordingly. This could prove a challenge.

- Game system: Your scripters would obviously have to be able to set up the rules of gameplay, resource management, how troops spawn, how to select large numbers of troops, interface, etc etc etc. This is no small task.


Those are just a few things off the top of my head that would have to be handled. It could come off as a very awesome mod, but it would take a lot of work and near-professional dedicated scripters. Also, how much art have you made for this? That will be very time consuming as well.

[Angel_Mapper]

I'm going to be honest with you, at least in the Unreal community what you're proposing would be impossible without you doing the programming yourself. Programmers are hard to find as it is, and most of them are working on their own projects, and those that aren't wouldn't be too eager to take orders from a mapper.

The absolute best way to ensure your mod's success would be to code it yourself, at least up to the demo point. Once you have a working, playable demo then searching for a programmer to bring on would have a much better chance.

Trust me, and don't take this the wrong way. I really don't want mod teams to fail, which is why it frustrates me to no end when they ignore my advice.

[SargeDavid]

i would love to help but i'm still a noob verson 0.5 on coding...mainly subclassing and editting default propperties....

so i wont be of much help, sorry.

[JoystickMonkey]

The absolute best way to ensure your mod's success would be to code it yourself.

^^^ Yes, that. The stark reality of being the head of a mod team is being able to do a little bit of everything with some amount of proficiency. You also have to be good at managing people, which is particularly difficult over the internet.

You could potentially get a scripter to help upgrade a specific system once you get it fleshed out, but for the initial parts either you'll find your modding soul mate to do all of this for you, or you'll end up doing it yourself.

[BranDoom]

I would imagine there would be a few major scripting tasks ahead of you. This is based off of what I know about ut2004, as I haven't had a chance to really look into UT3's engine.

- Manipulating the camera: UT is primarily a first person game, but you may be able to find a decent camera solution. It would probably take a fair amount of tweaking and playtesting to make a high-up camera feel right.

- Scale: From a design standpoint, you may want to consider a non-standard scale for your units. I'm not sure how UT3 handles very large areas, but for a RTS-sized map you may run out of room. This is highly speculative as I don't know what UT3 engine is fully capable of yet.

- Online Replication: Make sure your scripters know how to make things work online as well as offline.

- AI: If you were able to infuse UT3's close combat AI capability into an RTS game, that would be quite impressive. It would take a little work to add RTS gameplay on top of it. Also, if you intend to allow large buildings to dynamically be made, the pathnodes will have to dynamically be able to change accordingly. This could prove a challenge.

- Game system: Your scripters would obviously have to be able to set up the rules of gameplay, resource management, how troops spawn, how to select large numbers of troops, interface, etc etc etc. This is no small task.


Those are just a few things off the top of my head that would have to be handled. It could come off as a very awesome mod, but it would take a lot of work and near-professional dedicated scripters. Also, how much art have you made for this? That will be very time consuming as well.


Wow, thats like the best help Ive gotten so far. Thanks, Monkey. And Thanks AngelMapper, I can defenitly understand your points. I'd like to get in contact with the guy that programed Uskaarji, I recently checked out their site on Beyond unreal and was realy impressed. Anyways, I was just curious on what it would take to make it on Unreal, but getting a programer seems to be the hardest part about it.


As for artwork Ive compiled quiet a bit so far, most of it is on the forums in the link of my last post. Heres a pic of Psygoth, Hyperion Commander.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y246/BranDoom21/psygoth.jpg

Thanks for all the great support people, -Bdoom