Thanks for your responses. Pretty incredible that its capable of being so flexible and still be a coherent game. The community behind it must be amazingly passionate about it.
Thanks! Yea everything shown in that trailer is in UnrealScript aside from the creation of the mirrored map files, and the installer obviously, both of those were done in Python. The death markers and other online features (which are all optional and opt-in, disabled by default) use a TCP connection in the game written in UnrealScript to make HTTP requests, the backend is a Python Flask server. We even wrote our own JSON parser inside of UnrealScript (it’s not perfect but it does enough for us). Technically it’s possible to add a DLL module to the game for stuff like JSON parsing but we haven’t needed to, and technically this keeps it more easily portable (like if SurrealEngine even gets to a more completed state).
We had to write our own PRNG function to work inside UnrealScript, because the provided one doesn’t allow seeding.
This is Unreal Engine 1, which used UnrealScript programming language. It was extremely flexible, and you can extract the original UnrealScript code (including comments) from the game. This means it’s nearly an open source game, except for the native code. But pretty much everything is controlled by the UnrealScript anyways. Including the GUIs, HUDs, conversations, most of the AI stuff, damage calculations, keyboard key bindings, etc.
On top of this, Deus Ex released their SDK tools (I think in 2001, around the time of the multiplayer patch). Which is their version of the UnrealEd map editor, conversation file editor, and UnrealScript compiler/extractor.
This game is really open, there are many approaches to every situation. Which means when things get randomized, it tips the scales of balance and you have to reconsider every option for every seed.
Even just choosing a melee weapon, you’re thinking about knife vs baton vs crowbar vs sword vs eventually the dragon’s tooth sword. On some seeds the knife does a bit extra damage and then you gotta think if it’s better than the baton and crowbar because of its speed, and it only uses a single inventory space. On some seeds you might get a weak and slow dragon’s tooth sword and it might not even be worth keeping!
And then you’ve got all the different paths through the levels, and you’ll be rethinking routes based on random start locations, random goal locations, or random enemies in different spots, or items or medical bots. Or maybe a door was randomized to need more lockpicks and your lockpicking skill is worse than vanilla, maybe you need another way around or you choose to find the key to save lockpicks for later. You won’t be doing the same thing every playthrough like vanilla where eventually you figure out which approaches you like best for each spot. The randomizer gets you to rethink it all and adapt.
The ability to do anything also means you can always progress, you don’t get stuck just because you’re missing a password or low on multitools, there’s always another way. The randomizer really forces you to adapt.
I think any game with good replayability is a good target for a randomizer, it just amplifies that replayability.
The accompanying Dragon Quest I & II announcement was a surprise. DQIII is the kind of game that could sell massively in Japan, so this is likely not the last we’ll see of HD-2D remakes.
honestly I wasn’t going to watch these and then I started to and now I have to watch all of them. Jauwn is genuinely entertaining and that’s always a nice find for me.
It can be played almost entirely single player from the beginning now, and the story is really good after ARR (which is serviceable for setting up the world).
There is also a free trial that goes through Stormblood (the second expansion) so you can try without paying anything
It depends what you’re looking for. If you don’t care about story and community, you can purchase a boost right to the endgame (or I guess, start-game of this expansion) and start playing the latest content almost immediately. It’s really not a hard game even at the 2nd hardest content tier. I could regularly out-DPS the DPS players as a healer in pugs.
However, FF14 also famously has some of the best storytelling and communities in the genre. Even catching up to Stormblood would take hundreds of hours and there are like 3 new expansions since then.
Personally the appeal to me was the immersion, working through the story from the start, making bonds and connections with other players and your guild. This takes time and if you have it, the game will show you plenty to do.
I started playing in August of last year and finished endwalker (the last expansion before dawntrail) in January. It’s very “easy to get into” imo but the base game is a slog for sure. If you don’t mind putting in time (or as the other comment suggests, money) then yes, it’s a very easy game to get into. It’s my first mmo btw.
Same thing happened with Trials of Mana unfortunately,the remake is good and I liked it but losing co-op is like losing half of the game in this series. I still remember how fun it was playing the original with my brother years ago (had to patch the ROM cause there wasn’t an english release)
Someone pointed out that there’s quite a few MC voice lines here, and that’s a big wildcard for me. I thought Alix Wilton Regan absolutely knocked it out of the park as my Inquisitor, so that’s a high bar to clear.
Ultimately it’s going to come down to the cast, though. Won’t know until I get my hands on it.
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