Why not a medieval theme game from BIS?

[laggy 0]

Hello all,

I have enjoyed many years of OFP and Arma by now, both as a player and mission designer.

What I wonder is why BIS (afaik) never has concidered to make a game similar to OFP/ArmA in terms of engine/concept, but in a completly different time setting.

I would run to the store to buy a medieval or renaissance "ArmA" where you could experience huge battles and sieges from a 1:st person perspective. Games like Medieval Total War are never really immersive enough, just tactical and strategic.

Medieval times is a classic and popular subject and probably less demanding on your PC, due to the low firing rates of the weapons. Designing a function for hand to hand combat and horses is basically the only thing that's needed to make it work.

Maybe I'm the only one wishing for this, but I just had to bring it up since I've been wondering for quite a while.

Laggy

[sparks50 0]

That game has already been made, Mount and Blade

But yes I agree, the game engine seems to have a big potential to portray realistic warfare in pretty much any time period.

[JdB 151]

Medieval times is a classic and popular subject and probably less demanding on your PC, due to the low firing rates of the weapons. Designing a function for hand to hand combat and horses is basically the only thing that's needed to make it work.

Hundreds if not thousands of combatants all wielding at least one weapon, and probably also a shield, hacking into each other, requires quite a lot of processing power for animations and scripting. Games like the Total War series use less detailed models, and far less animations than an FPS-type game would require.

Different eras are interesting to think about, but you pretty rapidly run into major show stoppers. For example, the early days of guns has two major problem that I thought of without even trying:

-Long reload time (approx. 20 sec. for 18th century muskets), leaving you defenseless;

-Tactics of the time, being stuck in a battle line and being shot while not being able to do much about it, no matter how realistic, quickly takes the fun out of the game.

This era is just so much easier to translate into a game. Game design is not just a matter of "Can it be done?", but rather "Can it be done while keeping it enjoyable?".

[max power 21]

Well, they're doing a future one.. if that counts.

[sparks50 0]

Thats with another engine though if I remember correct.

[laggy 0]

"Mount and Blade" was the right idea, but not visual enough I'm afraid. My personal opinion.

Quote[/b] ]Hundreds if not thousands of combatants all wielding at least one weapon, and probably also a shield, hacking into each other, requires quite a lot of processing power for animations and scripting. Games like the Total War series use less detailed models, and far less animations than an FPS-type game would require.

Don't understand how that would differ from the massive amount of standard animations (not playmoves or switchmoves for cutscenes) in ArmA.

Isn't there tons of different ones already that are actually used in any mission/fight by the "default game engine"?

Multiple dying variations, standing, crouching, going prone, running, aiming, entering vehicles, throwing grenades, using RPG/M136 etc.

Thousands of units is maybe asking to much, but 100+ within view distance is already possible and working well in ArmA.

Laggy

[Commando84 0]

the thing is all Fps games have very few animations, sure there are many that can be activated for cutscenes ect.. but making a game with swords and stuff in it, weapon animations for the game gonna skyrocket 10 fold.

Like doing animations for getting chopped with a sword or hit by a arrow and all kinds of stuff, but hey maybe one day.

I remember once Bis devs said they wanted to make a medeival rpg once a couple of years ago.

Rpg's aren't my genre at all but I think they got the engine, they just need to tune it a bit, the art guys would get bucket loads of work cause not much of the art could be reused from Arma, possibly some wooden , stone sheds or small cottages and landscape probably.

[icebreakr 3159]

I don't touch Mount and Blade because of missing multiplayer component. And MP is what ArmA is all about

[sparks50 0]

(offtopic)They did actually announce a multiplayer component to Mount and Blade some days ago.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

I agree the fights we saw in Mel Gibson's Pioneer would be pretty pointless to be played in 1st person.

Switch the scenario over to the Roman Empire period (what we saw in Gladiator) and you have a winner i guess.

About animations:

The way the LoD system works in ArmA could also be used for a LoA system (Level of Animation) i guess. If you see 100 fighters around you you won't notice the 30 ppl in the distance don't play HQ animations, a simpler attack & parry loop would work because you're mostly paying attention to your closest enemies.

God, i'd love to race across a battlefield with a horse lol

[jakerod 254]

I would much rather have a World War II one. I know the market has tons of WWII FPS's already but I think OFP/ArmA in WWII would be perfect. The engine is almost perfectly suited for it.

[mr.g-c 6]

I would much rather have a World War II one. I know the market has tons of WWII FPS's already but I think OFP/ArmA in WWII would be perfect. The engine is almost perfectly suited for it.

With that new A2 island and its scheme, i'm pretty sure that there will be some nice WW2 mods for Arma2.

[Placebo 29]

The choice was close or OT, so I went with OT, I appreciate the suggestion but I'm sure if Mr and Mr Spanel want to move into areas away from modern military simulation they have millions of ideas buzzing around in their heads

[Daddl 10]

I think Taleworlds did quite a good job with Mount & Blade. With the recently announced expansion (adding multiplayer and decent graphics) it'll be the reference for medival warfare action games for quite some time. What I'd rather see than BIS diverting resources to this genre would be Taleworlds teaming up with some experienced rpg developers and good story writers. Their problem is mainly the lack of a compelling story and the rather repetitive gameplay (tho it's quite fun anyways).

Let BIS do what they're good at: modern (or futuristic) warfare, and leave the medieval stuff to others with more experience in those areas.

[Sennacherib 0]

Quote[/b] ]Let BIS do what they're good at: modern (or futuristic) warfare, and leave the medieval stuff to others with more experience in those areas.

I agree with this sentence full of common sense but the question is very interesting

[Lepardi 0]

Go play Age of Chivalry (source mod) or Mount and blade if you want medieval.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

... or just follow the link in my sig. ARRRR!

[TheRookie 0]

And for Mel Gibson play Battlegrounds:Source. There are some 64 slot servers with linebattle running.

Actually i hope they will do some day some kind of MMO with all the great experiences of ArmA/OFP.

[icewindo 29]

OFP had pretty good melee addons (that star wars lightsaber addon e.g.) and some mods even working cavalry attacks, sadly ArmA doesn't have any kind of these mods, I worked on some medieval buildings ( http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6094/arma2008051223030993hk1.jpg , http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1508/arma2008051223033906zc0.jpg  and (with less succes) on units,  but didn't see anything else aside from the ported civil war stuff.

Yeah I know Mount&Blade, but ArmA/OFP has this really cool editor, allowing a broad range of missions, plus it has MP, anybody remember the BF1942 Siege mod? It was a medieval mod with battering rams, ladders, working shields and more stuff, we had much fun in LAN with it back then.

An ArmA2 medieval mod? I would die for it    .

[NeMeSiS 11]

OFP had pretty good melee addons (that star wars lightsaber addon e.g.) and some mods even working cavalry attacks, sadly ArmA doesn't have any kind of these mods, I worked on some medieval buildings ( http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6094/arma2008051223030993hk1.jpg , http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1508/arma2008051223033906zc0.jpg  and (with less succes) on units,  but didn't see anything else aside from the ported civil war stuff.

I think it was Philcommando who made some swordfighting units (Gladiator style, sort of..), it was AI compitable and you could even chop your sword while running. It was actually a lot of fun although it was quite simple. (He did think of some great workarounds though )

[DespairsRay 0]

They have mods in Mount & Blade also, Roman/Pirates/Civil War/ Nordic battles/ Lord of the Rings/ Feudal Japan etc.... (no idea why people bash the graphics, you're all spoiled)

Think of the games more like paper with the right pen and pencil...

Because in Arma and OFP WW2 was probably the time period most people did addons for. We even do have napoleonic and civil war stuff in ofp.

I mean like I said, out of the box the games might not encompass that time period but certainly with the humble way these game creators put their games together unlike many others, they give players a fantastic piece of paper and pen/pencil so the communities around them can expand on the vanilla products.

[POPKA 0]

I find with mount and blade once you play through the game once it's incredably difficult to do so again, I just found it really tedeous after a while. The mods didn't really appeal to me that much either as I found most of them felt exactly like the Native version in terms of gameplay and the same sense of tedium set in. Even with the more creative mods like the star wars one riding one of the speeder things just felt exactly like a horse with no legs. And sometimes I've found it can turn into a bit of a click fest.

[dentist guba 0]

i would definitely like to play a ww2 game made by bohemia, it would be reasonably easy to make as it would mostly be ARMA 2 without the uav's (and maybe some tank targeting changes).