My Opinion

[EvilIguana966]

Disclaimer: The following post is simply my opinion of the mod and does not represent anyone officisl etc etc don't be offended...

 

The mod is excellent. Everything is well polished and a perfect recreation of the origional. However, this perfect recreation leaves some things to be desired. The Origional DF was made with an engine that among other things could not render a two story building. You'll notice that you cannot walk under catwalks or anything, they are always solid. This and other limitations led the game to be somewhat unrealistic by current standards. The nostalgia value is great, but i think some of the strict adherance to the origional takes away from the total package. The textures are very well done exact high res recreations of DF, but they are just not what you'd expect with this engine. The architecture is a nearly exact copy of the origional and IMO looks a bit bland by todays standards.

 

What I was hoping for was a mod that takes the origional story, and expands upon it. I think you should use some creative liscence to bring DF up to date, add in more realistic levels, make things more believeable, and take advantage of the QIII engine you have.

 

That said the mod is still quite fun and shows an excellent amount of workmanship and a proffensional polish. Either way i'll still ne playing it)

 

GJ and thx for letting me place my input here)

[The_One]

Originally posted by EvilIguana966

What I was hoping for was a mod that takes the origional story, and expands upon it. I think you should use some creative liscence to bring DF up to date, add in more realistic levels, make things more believeable, and take advantage of the QIII engine you have.

 

That is one of the main intentions of this MOD. But, as this has been in production for many months now, we knew from previous modding experience we had to get something out there as soon as possible. Because of this some sacrifices had to be made, and our task right after the little break will be to polish Secbase off.

 

I'm sure you will be impressed with the final mod as we will be taking full advantage of the Quake 3 engine and expanding the Dark Forces architecture.

 

Remember, to quote the readme, which does, believe it or not speak the truth "This is a demo! This does not neccessarily reflect the final version of the MOD!"

 

[ImmolatedYoda]

i believe you are wrong iguana, if youre talking about not being able to walk under things in DF.

[EvilIguana966]

Your work is impressive. I look forward to seeing more of it.

 

On the subject of 2 story buildings, i mentally went through DF again and i can't think of where they might have done it like that. Might have happened though. Possibly it was more of a choice for performance to render it like that in most places rather than an issue of impossibility. I'm not a coder but i imagine its a bit more complex to have a scene made where you have to define several hights rather than just floor and cieling.

 

Maybe i'll boot up on win 98 and do some DOS DF again, on xp now and xp doesnt play well with DOS games

[ImmolatedYoda]

well, you certainly can walk under things, like doorways (duh) but i know on level 4 (the military base where you get the metal) there are some catwalks and stuff. heh, maybe youre talking about something different, but oh well. yeah, i have XP and my sound doesnt work for DF, it sucks. i think ive only played it once through the entire game with sound in all the time ive had DF (sound didnt work in years past i think too).

[Geoffrey S]

Just a quick note on DFs 3D. You can walk under walls and doors and stuff, also jump over things. These connected walls are adjoins. You can't adjoin more than one wall to another wall. So a window in a wall is possible, but another window directly above it (or a ledge, for that matter) is impossible. The 3d bridges seen in the original DF are actually 3d objects. You have to create a new sector (area enclosed by the walls) and adjoin it to the surroundings. You then give the sector a second altitude. Say, the floor is at 0 DFU (Dark Forces Units, measuring units) and you have two doorways 16 DFU above that floor. You create a new sector between the two doorways, and give it a second altitude of -16 DFU. The game then adds an invisable floor 16 DFU above the floor, effectively connecting the two doors.

However, as it's invisable, it isn't complete just yet. You have to add a 3d object of a bridge between the two doors in the middle of the second altitude sector, with the exact measurements of the sector it's placed in. If it's too big, it tends to flicker because 3dos react strangely when placed over adjoins. If it's too small, the player can walk in space a little.

 

I agree about the architecture, Iguana. The stuff outside is fine, with nicely broken ground. However, in the base itself there are virtually no sloped brushes. That was too retro for my tastes.

[Bandito]

Absolutely loved the Mod!!! With these comments in mind, I see that there is a balance to be seen with adding what JO brings to the table into what was a very entertaining Dark Forces. What is the point of remaking DF purely? Just to have DF with better graphics? I say no.

 

Example: Kyle goes to a console and operates a mouse bot or R5 unit to explore and achieve objectives -- a creative spice that the original DF couldn't add. I'm sure that you guys at the DF TC will achieve this balance and we all will be very impressed (no pressure).