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Login: greenmarine Name: Brandon Reinhart
2 hours 52 minutes idle
Mail forwarded to brandon@epicgames.com
Project:
Unreal Tournament
Plan:
December 20, 1999
Happy birthday to Blake Reinhart, after whom the first
bot in Unreal Tournament is named. Boom chik chak.
--
As you know, I am working with CRT on Rocket Arena for UT.
I'm the lead programmer on the project along with c0mpile
from Unloaded. CRT is in charge of design, management, and
getting level designers. I'm leaving for Christmas tomorrow
but I'll be taking the Rocket Arena code with me.
I am collaborating with CRT because he felt he really wanted
to develop a Rocket Arena for UT, but was very stressed with
work and the Quake3 version of the mod. Epic feels it is
very important that UT develop a strong mod community, so I am
able to contribute my time to the project.
Hopefully, the first release of RA:UT will be in early or mid
January. The game will include full bot support, all the classic
RA gametypes, and some new stuff to boot. In addition, Epic will
be adding some professional quality visual and audio content.
--
I still plan to open source the Linux port. I was looking into
setting up a Linux UT bugzilla, but have not had time. I would
also like to set up a public RCS of some sort, instead of
releasing a tarball. Perhaps I should just release the tarball
and then worry about the fancy stuff. Either way, I won't be
able to look into this until after Christmas. I get back from
visting my parents on the 27th.
--
I finished Planescape: Torment. This is one of the best RPGs
I have ever played. It took me somewhere in the vicinity of
45 hours to complete. This game has some incredible character
development and party interaction. I would easily rate it
above Baldur's Gate and Fallout. The Black Isle/Bioware collaboration
in the best thing to happen to role playing games.
The Planescape setting is excellent, the story telling top notch.
My only complaint is the ending: perhaps I missed something, but
I never found out who the Nameless One really was. I was never
able to activate the burnt out Sensory Stone and I do not
understand the final movie. Did the Nameless One regain his
mortality? Did he run off to join the Blood War, perhaps to die?
Perhaps most frustrating was the fact that I was only allowed to save
the life of one companion and that there was no heart wrenching
interaction resulting from the choice. (As was the case with many
other critical decisions during the course of the game).
Either way, I am very pleased with the experience the game had to
offer.
The role of the character was unique and a hell of a lot of fun. Instead
of being some annoying kid on a quest to ride dragons and save the
princess, I was a tormented soul seeking only death...only release.
I wish more role playing games would experiment with tragic,
Moorcockian characters like this. In addition, the companions were
excellent...these weren't a happy band of friendly bards and
enlightened wizards. These were daemons, fiends, undead, and the
forsaken. Each drawn to follow you because of their own torments.
Each hoping that through you they might shed some of their own
pain.
I can't wait for the next game to come from Black Isle and Bioware.
Neverwinter Nights, Shadows of Amn, and Icewind Dale. What a revolution
in AD&D! I can easily say that Planescape: Torment is the best
and most enthralling AD&D campaign I've ever played. All due
props to the old school, but this is the way to play. I can't wait
for Neverwinter Nights, when I will be able to create my own
campaigns.
TSR really needs to focus on this. There is so much more market
potential for a generic computerized AD&D rules set than any
fourth edition. They should release an online gaming kit for
managing and running campaigns with terrain editors, full rules
support, map editors, rules editors and the works. Then focus
their design team on releasing modules, new monsters, and all
sorts of low cost expansions. That would kick ass. Imagine,
you buy an insert to your monstrous manual and get a CD with all
those monsters ready to be added to your dungeon.
Well...its a dream. But perhaps closer than you think? Massively
multiplayer gaming is cool and all, but what about focusing on
small groups of cooperative players?
WotC/TSR has definitely made some smart choices with this game
series and Black Isle/Bioware have the elite talent to pull it off.
Maybe WotC/TSR will get smart and focus their money on electronic
gaming instead of dumping it into the blind ally that has become
Magic the Gathering.
Anyway, I really hope that somebody picks up on the roleplaying
game with periodic expansion sets idea. With a smart object
oriented engine you could easily release next generation tech
that still supported the old content (after the existing tech
become outdated).
Enough rambling though, I gotta go do some laundry.
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