Re: Direction of Linux games...

[Veljko Krunic <krunic@platte.com>]

Steve Baker wrote:
> 
> > 1. Space combat hard-core simulation: BC3000AD > 
>
> I believe there are a couple of these in process - the problem is that
> the more realistic you make a space combat game, the more you realise
> that actual combat in space would be VERY, VERY BORING!
> 

Steve, you are right on point - the project in the niche market should
be started by the someone who likes that kind of games - after all, why
should anyone make for free game that is boring to him. 

But that is exactly the definition of the niche market - that many
people think that it is interesting, it would not be niche market. But
there are people who like realism in space combat a lot (I am not one of
them). Is this market niche bigger or smaller than number of people who
like hard-core flight simulators, I don't have any data at all. But
based on number of downloads of free version and discussions on the
BC3000AD web site, there are definitely people out there who like it.

> > 2. Hard-core military flight simulator: Flanker 4.0
>
> 
> Well - this is something I know a LOT about.  I design (real) military
> flight simulators in my 'day job'.  A typical flight simulator would
> contain at least a million lines of code - maybe two million.  Ironically,
> a 'game' would probably be even more complex than that.
> 
> The FlightGear flight sim for Linux (www.flightgear.org) is slowly working
> towards a truly awesome effort...however, it's a HUGE task.  They are
> doing the smart thing which is to learn to walk before they try to run.
> They will start with simulating simple civilian light aircraft like
> Cessna's and such - and perhaps later work up to more sophisticated
> aircraft, add combat routines, enemy plane AI, missions, etc, etc.
> 
> But that is a MASSIVE amount of work...I'd be very suprised if anyone
> else will attempt a credible simulator without relying on the FGFS
> code-base.
> 

Ups, I made a mistake... it should be Falcon 4, not Flanker 4... 

On your point: like I said in my message, I don't expect to see Falcon 4
done by the Linux community, although I would like to be proven wrong. I
more talk about simpler games like is Fighting Steel.

But I was trying to put other point, maybe without success: niche gamers
are forgotten by the industry, technically more literate and probably
more ready to help to the open source developer (this guys know what
they want, and what they won't is not cool gfx + cool sound + <that is
enough>). 

My question was does anyone see that niche market could potentially
include players in the development process, and provide more feedback
and work between developers and players, or this is just my wrong
impression (maybe it is)? And that this is one place where Open Source
developer, who works for free, has advantage over the game company who
calculates that market is not big enough to justify cost of this extra
feature?

Extra programmers would not heart, but Linux games have more problems
with the data and graphics - many people could write good naval strategy
game, but do you want to type 50K of data about all weapons used by the
Island's army? In niche markets, there could be fanatics that will do
this for you (harpoon 2 had databases corrected and updated by the
players). 

Veljko Krunic

---
All opinions in this message are my own, and don't necessary reflect
opinions of my employer.