3D RTS Dune - Nothing good so far ?

[Elemenz]

I posted about the same thingy about 6 months ago, now I just blow some dust off it.

I think there should be a 3D Dune MORTS (massive online real time strategy) game.

Damnit, why ISN'T THERE ONE ?

In my opinion:

It would focus on the action instead of the storyline, but, the story would come with the game. This way all the young kids (who are the target group of most FPS shooters and likewise games)

would be given an enjoyable optional way to have themselves introduced to the duniverse. Heck, maybe some of them even go and BUY THE BOOK ! :O

The basic core of the game would be simplicity. This core could then be easily modded to fit all kinds of players needs; hardcore real damage, hardcore true story line events, etc...

Or just keep it simple and fun, like I had it in mind (to start with):

3 houses with 3 allies:

Harkonnen - Sardaukar

Atreides - Fremen

Ordos - Merchants

- Each realm is a new Arrakis, randomly generated terrain (rock,sand,spicefields), holding up to

50-100 players, or just as much as possible (I'm not a tech guy, so I don't really know how many players a server like this could possibly kept running smoothly).

- Game winning/ending conditions are set by the server/admins, like spice/credit quota or deathmatch (total victory), etc.

- Playable area is the north side of Arrakis. 2 areas have strong sandstorms and "God-mode-sandworms" to prevent players from abusing areas as shortcut across the map to attack another base (1.most northern area, "northpole") and stop adventurer fanatics from unnecessarily scout the south of the "equador" (2.where the fremen sietches are located).

- Game starts from your house Palace, which randomly generates on any available and possible (rock) area on Arrakis. Players spawn at the palace barracks and can help the palace (AI) to scout, harvest, fight scavenging raiders, or use given credits to purchase a MCV and build a base further away.

- Spice is harvested, refined and packed into silos which need to be transported by land or air to the palace. Then the player is given credits which he can use to purchase crates to build structures at his base. Plain credits only be used to buy vehicles from the palaces stargate (order ready built vehicles from the merchants which orbit Arrakis) and purchase crew and soldiers.

- The game engine is very much like OFP (operation flashpoint), with quite realistic physic behaviour. Playing creatures behave also realistic, so no "10 times crouching up and down per second" (like in soldier of fortune 2) or jumping up 5 feet while carrying gear.

- Playable classes are classic: medic, grunt, trooper, sniper, thumper, engineer, etc.

Since vehicles play a great role and should be valued, I'd like to have players to create an account, this would count the players score equal to experience (kills, deaths, teamkills, time spent in combat and action, small quests like escorts/scout missions/target eliminations,etc)

and allow him to get promotions, get a higher rank and this allowing him to take piloting/driving lessons and the permition to use more and more vehicles. I really want this to be a good teamplay game with a intense, ANTI-ARCADE, survivor feeling

(players should spawn max.1 time/10-20 minutes).

Not like some "die-spawn-die-spawn-die-spawn-frenzy"

- Uhm... I kinda failed keeping this a clear package and I don't have time for the tons of details I thought of so far... so, what do you guys think? Would you play something like this ?

Ask questions, suggest stuff, just talk if there's anything on your mind REGARDING THIS VERY POST  ;D and its direct content, thanks ! (No, I don't wanna hear about how this reminds you about how your cat got stuck up the tree last week...)  ???

[Timenn]

Such an RTS game would seem nice. Although you mainly mentioned all kinds of details.

There was a real attempt at such a massive online RTS game, named Dune Generations (check the "Other Dune Games" board on this forum, for more topics about this) But the game was aborted because Cryo (the creators) were declared bankrupt.

[Elemenz]

...But the game was aborted because Cryo (the creators) were declared bankrupt.

"OMG... those Cryo-noobs actually forgot to harvest spice and went bankrupt ?"

LoL... ^_^

Thanks Timenn for the info about these relevant things !

[Mahdi]

It was looking pretty freakin cool too.

[Elemenz]

After Timenns reply I went looking for other topics about it and found this pic:

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/gs/feature_previews/dune/1/dune_screen009.jpg

And yeah, if THAT is what the ingame would've looked like, then yes, it would've been VERY neat...

but I'm just worried about technical issues like the distance (range of fire) and the capacity of handling those waste masses of units (like seen on this links pic, there are like a couple of houndreds of NPCs/players roaming the desert).

Maybe that is just why noone hasnt dared to do that kinda game so far. But now those issues seem to fade away, demanding hardware for such a game is found more often in every home. That's why I believe (more like "hope" [no wait, "pray"?])  ;D  that some studio is going to make this game happen, since they finally notice the theme to be popular, and therefor profitable enough.

Till then, clickety-click, back to Dune II  :O LoL...

(Wow... I still find it so hilarious that recalling myself actually playing that game MANY hours, in spite of the fact that one could only move 1 unit at the time, the was no mass-grabbing option... this is a kind of reminder for the current pre-teen generation of RTS players  ::) 

[Timenn]

You may like this:

http://www.dune2k.com/download.php?cid=46

Those are parts of a demo video, which was created short before the game was aborted.

[Mahdi]

Actually, they were created after the game was aborted.  The makers just wanted people to see what they were making.

[Timenn]

Spending your last evening here nitpicking people?

;)

[Mahdi]

I ahve one more evening.  Right now I'm spending time procrastinating.

[bryorama]

It was looking pretty freakin cool too.

/Agree

It would be nice to have.. Might raise the popularity of dune.