Modding Spring vs (Mega)Glest vs Warzone 2100

[gnola14]

I've been wanting to make a Frank Herbert's Dune mod for a while, just for the sake of it. I'm not planning to do the next "Emperor: Battle for Dune", but it would be nice to see how far I can get doing it.

Sooo, my question is: have you modded any of the above RTS? If so, how was your experience?

I'm looking for good code, preferably well documented. Having scripting would be a plus.

Thanks in advance!

[TheAncientGoat]

I haven't had any experience in modding any of the above engines; but I think Spring is the way to go. It has a richer featureset and isn't predisposed to a particular type of gameplay; and the best part is that there have already been quite a few attempts at creating a Spring Dune game

[Julius]

Can't give you in depth insight into the code, but some general observations and what I found when playing with the idea of an Tremolous RTS some months ago.

Warzone: Probably overall the most complete game, and thus the most reusable code for general purposes and the most stable platform. With the recent graphics engine upgrade also capable of doing some nice modern effects. Model and especially animation code is very limited however, thus it is currently not advisable to do much else than tanks with it. Also besides the main development crew there isn't much of a modding scene.

Megaglest: Most easy to mod by far (all controlled by xml files with embedded lua script), due to the way the levels and the editor are set up it is not really possible to do anything else than warcraft/starcraft style games (tile based and with discrete levels of terrain only). And the multiplayer features where just recently added and are thus still very much a work in progress. Pretty lively modding community though... but focused more on addons and not total conversions.

Spring: By far the most lively modding community, the way the engine and all it's part are set up it is not very user friendly however. Also there is a lot of un-free and even semi-legal stuff flying around that community based on old Total Annilation stuff ripped from the game.
Personally I have the feeling it is very difficult to set up a game with that engine that does not feel like a TA clone, and as I never was a big fan of that game, I might be a bit predejuced against using that engine. Last but not least I think the model animation code it pretty limited too (last time I checked), but that might have been changed since some time already.

One general remark however: Dune is still copyrighted and also actively used as a franchise for games, so it will not be unlikely that the rights-holder will approach you and ask you to stop developing a game based on their intellectual property (I hate that word ). Of course every one likes to work with their favorite story, but I would advise you to go for your own design and story instead.

[gnola14]

Thanks tAG & Julius! I think I'll take my chances with Spring I guess.

Glest: At one point I fiddled with it and thought it was easy, but as you pointed out, it's to Warcraft-ish (dunno, maybe it would be OK for an Ants vs Thermites -pretty cool actually- RTS, but not much outside of that I think).

Warzone: I've just played it, but I loved the way you could zoom, rotate, etc the camera; it added a whole new level of interactivity. I thought it was the safest choice, but that if the animation code is indeed just targeted at tanks, that's a huge turn-off (I mean, that would rule out Fremens, Sardaukars and Bene Gesserits).

Spring: I thought it was pretty cool, but I thought the documentation/tuts where kind of messy. Regarding the semi-legal stuff, I guess you're talking about the assets, aren't you? That wouldn't be a problem since a friend of mine would be modelling the units (I would ocasionally jump in, though my skills with Blender are quite limited ).

I know Dune is an active franchise (God damn that Brian Herbert guy!), but -disclaimer: IANAL- a non-commercial game would fall under the fair-use I think. Still, I know one should try to make its own universe, but Dune is the only book that makes me think that I couldn't come up with anything cooler than that (I mean, common! Every faction is as cool as it gets: Mentats, Bene Gesserits, Sardaukars, Space Guild)

[Gallaecio]

You should probably check 0 A.D. out. It's still in alpha stage, but is a game made by modders. They say they want it to be easily moddable, and there's already a non-FOSS mod of it

PS: It's a pity you won't work in your own history New FOSS content (not just graphical, but histories and such) is always great. I love Wesnoth for that, it could replace any Lord of the Rings content

[Julius]

Ahh yes, 0AD totally missed that in this tread... definitly the coolest engine and editor out there right now... but maybe still a bit too much under active development.

Personally I wouldn't go for Spring, but rather Warzone2100... for a dune game the animation code is probably fine, and during the time your development takes they will probably long have fixed the issue. The rest of the game is really ready to be finally taken up by modders.

But what about a parody, or a really similar copy? Call it "Sandwave" or something like that
Btw you are mistaken that non-comercial falls under fair use... if you are lucky the rights owner doesn't complain... but I wouldn't count on that (has happened way too often in my memory).

[gnola14]

@Gallaecio: Funny, when I was writing this post, I was checking some vids about 0 AD...don't know why I didn't think about it! It looks really neat indeed.
@Julius: You mean something like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lampoon%27s_Doon?

But to be honest, I'm getting a little bit disenchanted; now that Julius brought up the thing about Dune's right owners not complaining, I remember a group (of spanish?) people that had to cancell an fan film because of a C&D letter.

Anyway, that's not an impediment for modding any of the above engines, I'll just have to flesh out a setting

[Julius]

Yeah something like that... if fact in many countries there are special laws protecting parodies even when they are very close to the original, so with that you would probably have a pretty save bet. It's just that RTS don't lend themselves very well to parodies