The Future for Storm-Engine Based Pirate Games

[Pieter Boelen]

[imgleft]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cQOyQjTP3GY/SzdzZcJpthI/AAAAAAAAAIU/lTv6nE8qBxo/pa-logo.gif[/imgleft]What do Pirates of the Caribbean, Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales and Age of Pirates II: City of Abandoned Ships all have in common? Well, they're all based on the Storm engine, of course! This has meant in the past that it's been easy for us to take content from one game and put it into modpacks for the others. However, as indicated last Christmas, there might be some additional value in this for us. Some serious value. Some VERY serious value!

Seaward.ru, the development team behind CoAS, has been supporting us for quite some time. They have shared with us their tools and help files, resulting in more modeling for these games than ever before. Their support has been great news for PiratesAhoy! in and of itself, but I am pleased to announce (for all those who STILL didn't notice!) something that has to qualify as:
THE BIGGEST NEWS IN THE HISTORY OF PIRATESAHOY!

Seaward.ru have granted us the SOURCE CODE for the Storm 2.8 engine. This means that at long last, we have ALL tools and ALL files available to us to do ANYTHING that the official game developers could do themselves! It is now up to US to take this very generous gift and milk it for all it's worth!

At the moment, modding for Storm engine based games is rather fragmented, with different groups working seperately on different games. Eg. the "old" modders remain working on the PotC Build Mod, while we've got a new modding team working on the Combined Modpack for CoAS.

Now I don't know about you people, but me this strikes as really counterproductive. More than ever before, we are now in a position to do things that we didn't dare dream of in the past. So I really think that we should start thinking of what it is that we DO actually want to do.
Without a common goal, there can be no common effort, so let's get our gears in motion and try to decide on one!
Join the discussion and let's see where our interests lie!

 

[The Diamond]

Well, there's been a number of good ideas I've seen met with: "Can't be done, I'm afraid...we'd need the source code" - so this is absolutely fantastic news on all fronts.

I'm not yet sure what the best route ahead is, but this "old" modder is looking forward to finding out.

 

[FireBat]

Until this point, I have kept relatively silent in the topic of the source code being released, perfectly content on reading the various posts that pop up, and not saying much as my coding experience lies within 2 basic mods made for COAS. But after Pieter's post basically egging on my loud mouth to say something...I will. Some of what I am about to say may be hard to swallow, but I will do my best to explain myself, and hopefully it will not result in me being marooned at the nearest uninhabited island.

We all know that the Storm 2.8 engine is the future for us, and since COAS is hard enough to find, (I have still yet to find it in any store way out here in the booney's...resulting in me using...othermeans) Nevermind trying to find PotC this kinda renders Build 14 obsolete. The audience for this game is becoming smaller and smaller. Don't get me wrong here, build 14 is a magnificant piece of work, and I along with the rest of the players of this mod are eternally grateful for this. But lets face it, most gamers are very willing to hop on the next bandwagon that comes along, and COAS is it, but we are already running out of time. There is a new game coming out soon enough (Armada of the Damned) and gamers will jump on that, and if it is good enough, COAS will be collecting dust.

I have also noticed that we have a limited number of coders (real coders...not someone like me who knows next to squat) I know at one point there was a coding army, but as time goes along, they are dissapearing into the abyss. This is why I feel we must concentrate our efforts.

This doesnt mean that build 14 has to completly abandoned, I feel we should bring most of it with us. All the great variaties of weapons, the beautiful characters (except the crew in sail mode, they are kind wierd lookin, maybe they all have leprosy) the story lines, the unique looking towns, the fact that there is more than one town on a lot of the islands, the larger number of playable factions and countries, the fire drills...we take all that with us. There is not one improvement that was made to the stock version of PotC that I feel should be left behind.

But here is the point, moving all of these additions to COAS is going to be hard enough to do, nevermind the fact that we have the source code now, and all the fantastic changes that could be in store (someone mentioned players being able to build their own custom characters, like different heads, hats, beards, whatever, and my eyes welled up) But if we wait too long, and keep what little resources we have divided over 2 projects, we will lose them both. To continue putting resources into build 14 is like shining brass on a sinking ship, no matter how beautiful she is.

Not only do we have the chance here to make COAS the best damn video game out there, but we also have the chance to immortalize the work done on build 14 by bringing it forward into COAS. The only way we can save it however, is if we leave it behind.

 

[Captain Maggee]

The plan is FireBat to release a stable Build 14 Final and then port it over to CoAS along with things from CM. There is no point in doing the port now cause we will probably make bad bugs worse by doing it now

 

[FireBat]

I understand that build 14 has to be finalized. Im am sure that there arnt all that many bugs, and that some areas of the code are probably bug free. The issue is that if work continues beyond build 14. I have heard rumours of a build 15, and that, in my mind, is fool hardy.

I suppose I should have made that point clear. I do appologize for my little rant.

 

[Captain Maggee]

Build 15 if you look around, is the plan of moving it from PotC to CoAS...

Someone suggested something for Build 15 and I told them the same thing

 

[FireBat]

Build 15 if you look around, is the plan of moving it from PotC to CoAS...

Someone suggested something for Build 15 and I told them the same thing

Ah, it may be that then. I must have missed the point. Well then...erm

ops2:


at least we are on the same page, I just explained why were doing what were doin...yea...thats it... (just doin my part to further the discussion..ya..thats it)

i will go back to hiding

 

[Jack Rackham]

To continue putting resources into build 14 is like shining brass on a sinking ship, no matter how beautiful she is.

Is the plan to move the storylines as well to COAS in the future? If not maybe I shouldn't finish this quest of mine?

 

[Captain Maggee]

Yep quests and all

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yes, you SHOULD finish your quest. I'd love to include it in Build 14!!!

I do see what FireBat means, though as Captain Maggee says and I have been saying also:
Porting characters and ships to CoAS is quite easily done and can be done by the CoAS modders right now.
In fact, it already IS being done by them.
However, the more complex gameplay-changing mods are not so easily ported.
Especially not since the Build 14 code is not yet fully finished and stabilized.
For that reason, I think it is better to finish Build 14 first and then do the port.

And as said before, indeed the intention is that Build 15 will be a CoAS modpack.

When it comes to the availability of the game,
I think there's various places where you can legally buy CoAS and download it straight away.
This means that CoAS should remain properly available for a long, long time to come,
which means we've got close to all the time in the world (I'm exaggerating, I know...).

PotC, admittedly, is another story. It's harder than ever to get
and soon we're going to have no choice than to move elsewhere.
As much as I would love being able to stick with PotC, it's just not reasonable.

What we definitly DO need are coders. REAL ones.
At the moment, we've got Pirate_KK and close to nobody else.
One person for two games? That really will not do.
Without coders, basically we're stuck.

 

[FireBat]

is it possible to attract the old coders back by sending them all emails with this ground breaking news, as a matter of fact, the entire members list could be contacted with this news as it is big big big

 

[Stallion]

If anybody's still looking for a new copy of POTC, NWS has it: http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/piofca.html .

They've also got AOP: http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/ageofpicata.html

and COAS: http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/ageofpi2ciof.html

 

[marbatico]

thanks stallion, a forum mate of mine down at biowares had POTC, but broke his disc before i told him about the built mod. now he has a chance to check it out!

 

[FireBat]

If anybody's still looking for a new copy of POTC, NWS has it: http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/piofca.html .

They've also got AOP: http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/ageofpicata.html

and COAS: http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/ageofpi2ciof.html

Right on! Thanks a bunch. For those who dont have a credit card, shopping online can be a daunting process. However, it seems that this site also allows for other payment methods. Unfortunatly, its also a pain in the arse.
Anyone wanna loan me a credit card?..:

 

[Stallion]

They take Canada Post International Money Orders in US dollars - that's what I pay them with. Make sure you check their ebay listings before you buy - sometimes POTC and the other two are on sale on there, and they'll let you have them for that price if you ask through ebay about paying with a money order. You can't actually "buy" it through ebay though (it's an "instant payment required" listing), so you just send them the money order and they send the game(s). That's what I did, and I had my copy of POTC in about a week and a half.

They've got Burnout: Paradise for a measly 10 bucks. :urgh I paid something like 40 back in January for it. :

 

[FireBat]

Yea, i noticed that and probably will go out there after the long weekend. I need to get another copy of COAS...and my PotC cd was lost ages ago..

 

[Pieter Boelen]

From the PotC Build Mod FAQ:

2. Where can I get the game?
The game seems rather hard-to-find these days. Try Amazon.com, eBay.com or the Yahoo Store

is it possible to attract the old coders back by sending them all emails with this ground breaking news, as a matter of fact, the entire members list could be contacted with this news as it is big big big

Definitly worth a try and I think I'll do that quite soon.
Possibly after we posted a proper announcement on the ModDB,
so we can show them that one as well.
I could use a small hand before making that announcement though. See here:
http://forum.piratesahoy.net//source-code-and-modding-efforts-t15938.html/page__view__findpost__p__367766

 

[guenthar]

Most debit cards can be used as credit cards so as long as your debit card says Visa, Mastercard, or other major credit card companies you can buy stuff online with it.