I've posted this before, Matrix tried very hard to get the rights to Age of Rifles but no success.

I'll second remakes of Imperialism II, Emperor of the Fading Suns, and Star Wars Rebellion/Supremacy. 

In addition, I'll put in my usual request for a redone Star Trek TNG: Birth of the Federation. 

Another vote for Steel Panthers!

For some reason I never got to try Age of Rifles, don't know why I missed that one, due to the fact, that it was loved by many, I guess back then there wasn't any Wargamer Forum to spread the news of good games!

Damn I just spotted the release announcement of XCOM- it's going to be on consoles. This is very bad news as it's even slated for the PS3. The A.I. is going to suck. It is impossible to do Strategic A.I. programming on either the 360 or the ps3- the latter only supports 256k of memory and even the shared memory of the 360 is just 512k. They are likely also choosing a libraryless low overhead script language like lua- further garanteeing a horrible A.I.. low rez textures and tiny maps. Why do devs shoot themselves in the foot by deving to hardware that is anciently outdated and old and cannot support what is needed to do what they say are doing?

Just get Xenonauts instead of X-com

Originally Posted By ghostryder (12 JUL 2012 5:56am)

Damn I just spotted the release announcement of XCOM- it's going to be on consoles. This is very bad news as it's even slated for the PS3. The A.I. is going to suck. It is impossible to do Strategic A.I. programming on either the 360 or the ps3- the latter only supports 256k of memory and even the shared memory of the 360 is just 512k. They are likely also choosing a libraryless low overhead script language like lua- further garanteeing a horrible A.I.. low rez textures and tiny maps. Why do devs shoot themselves in the foot by deving to hardware that is anciently outdated and old and cannot support what is needed to do what they say are doing?

I think you mean 256Mb and 512Mb...

It's not as if there are any other games out there using CUDA or multithreading their AI and requiring top end PCs.

Cheers

Pip

Originally Posted By cmurphy (12 JUL 2012 5:18am)

Another vote for Steel Panthers!

 

For some reason I never got to try Age of Rifles, don't know why I missed that one, due to the fact, that it was loved by many, I guess back then there wasn't any Wargamer Forum to spread the news of good games!

If you can find the DOS version you can still try it out with DosBox or D-fend Reloaded. I still play it using DR and it was so easy to setup with the DR wizard I couldn't believe it.

No-One's mentioned "Tanks", ....  or the excellent "V for Victory" series.

and Wooden Ships & Iron Men

I play all of these via DOSBOX but decent windows versions with graphical updates would be excellent.

I was going to mention V4V but you kind of already have a lot of similar systems today.  WSIM would be good.  I loved the boardgame but never owned the computer version.

I'd love to see Empire of the Fading Suns, The Great Battles series--Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar--and Man of War 2.  Great Battles and MoW2 constitute the entirety of my online play, and I really enjoyed them.  The Wargamer had pages for both, and I participated in GB tournaments and MoW2 group sessions which were a blast.

I think you mean 256Mb and 512Mb...

.  Given that is, what, 128 times the RAM the original required, I think the AI will probably manage.

It's not as if there are any other games out there using CUDA or multithreading their AI and requiring top end PCs.

Cheers

Pip

The original was released during the late DOS and early windows 95 days-the base being a 386 as a minimum requirement with 4mb of ram. It managed then because of two things. Page filing (using the HD as memory) and the fact the game only ported 640 x 480 graphics.If they are releasing on consoles then they are absolutely limited to the lowest common system-which is the PS3.

The main reason you see an abundance of shooters on the console is they work fine with limited A.I.- but todays consoles are using almost all of the 256 mb for the graphics. They usually then script with LUA because of the little overhead-it's about the only reason such an old industrial era language such as that is still used.There's no page filing on consoles. There's no room for any meaningful A.I. coding and it cannot be done with such a poor language as LUA.

The A.I. is going to suck.

When I did the A.I. for MJ-12-which was exactly the same type of squade based game- that A.I. tool nearly a 700mb overhead. Approacing that project I decided NPCs must be aware of their environment. NPCs must be able to make decisions depending on the current situation. NPCs must be able to formulate plans in order to accomplish a task. NPCs must be able to move and animate autonomously. NPCs must move intelligently around obstacles and complex environments. NPCs must have memory. NPCs must have at least three senses (sight, hearing, touch) to perceive their environment. NPCs must be able to interact with each other in a convincing manner. NPCs must have personalities (20) that give weight to thier decision making. I must be able to author my own actions for the NPCs as I build the levels. I must be able to author my own potential Goals and Desires for the NPCs or customize the existing ones as I build the levels. I must be able to author or customize the NPC's final behavior. I must be able to script an NPC to follow a pre-planned series of actions.

A*, stack based FSMs and Goal Oriented Action Planning; these proven algorithms need overhead and they need something other than LUA and about 7 mb that will be allotted for it on the PS3 after the graphics are loaded. For one the world representation’s primary function is to maintain a list of NPCs and objects and to act as an event blackboard for the posting and distribution of world events. LUA does databases about as good as I do brain surgery. There's about 8 other layers the A.I. loop goes through but the PS3 couldn't manage even the first.

I would LOVE to see the X-Wing/Tie Fighter series re-made..although I had always envisioned nowadays it would be a massive multiplayer battle, where players get to control Mon Calamari cruisers and Star Destroyers.

Would also love to see MoO2 remade, having logged more hours in that game than any game since.

Anyone remember this gem? Reunion

Originally Posted By ghostryder (12 JUL 2012 5:05pm)

I think you mean 256Mb and 512Mb...

.  Given that is, what, 128 times the RAM the original required, I think the AI will probably manage.

 

It's not as if there are any other games out there using CUDA or multithreading their AI and requiring top end PCs.

 

Cheers

 

Pip

The original was released during the late DOS and early windows 95 days-the base being a 386 as a minimum requirement with 4mb of ram. It managed then because of two things. Page filing (using the HD as memory) and the fact the game only ported 640 x 480 graphics.If they are releasing on consoles then they are absolutely limited to the lowest common system-which is the PS3.

The main reason you see an abundance of shooters on the console is they work fine with limited A.I.- but todays consoles are using almost all of the 256 mb for the graphics. They usually then script with LUA because of the little overhead-it's about the only reason such an old industrial era language such as that is still used.There's no page filing on consoles. There's no room for any meaningful A.I. coding and it cannot be done with such a poor language as LUA.

The A.I. is going to suck.

When I did the A.I. for MJ-12-which was exactly the same type of squade based game- that A.I. tool nearly a 700mb overhead. Approacing that project I decided NPCs must be aware of their environment. NPCs must be able to make decisions depending on the current situation. NPCs must be able to formulate plans in order to accomplish a task. NPCs must be able to move and animate autonomously. NPCs must move intelligently around obstacles and complex environments. NPCs must have memory. NPCs must have at least three senses (sight, hearing, touch) to perceive their environment. NPCs must be able to interact with each other in a convincing manner. NPCs must have personalities (20) that give weight to thier decision making. I must be able to author my own actions for the NPCs as I build the levels. I must be able to author my own potential Goals and Desires for the NPCs or customize the existing ones as I build the levels. I must be able to author or customize the NPC's final behavior. I must be able to script an NPC to follow a pre-planned series of actions.

 

A*, stack based FSMs and Goal Oriented Action Planning; these proven algorithms need overhead and they need something other than LUA and about 7 mb that will be allotted for it on the PS3 after the graphics are loaded. For one the world representation’s primary function is to maintain a list of NPCs and objects and to act as an event blackboard for the posting and distribution of world events. LUA does databases about as good as I do brain surgery. There's about 8 other layers the A.I. loop goes through but the PS3 couldn't manage even the first.

You make an awful lot of assumptions - that the AI will be in Lua for example.  I'm just going to say that neither of us has enough information to make sweeping statements about the AI.

Bear in mind the PS3 has another 256Mb of dedicated video RAM, where most of the textures live.  The 360 uses a unified architecture which is why it seems to have more, but they basically have the same amount.  I don't buy the assertion that shooters abound because they can't do AI either - it's overwhelmingly a commercial decision.

Anyway - here's hoping that XCom has decent AI, however they decide to implement it... 

Cheers

Pip

Originally Posted By Greybriar (11 JUL 2012 8:57pm)

Originally Posted By Swatter (11 JUL 2012 8:45pm)

Oh and someone said X-COM is being re-made....

 

Here

I really don't like the looks of it. The site spoke of 70 unique missions: does this mean a linear game experience? If so, that is lame to the extreme. In addition, X-COM soldiers look more like they belong in a kiddie sci-fi shooter the consoles are famous for. Im not ready to crap all over it yet, but I will be reading many reviews before I even consider buying it.

Well, I guess I'll say it: Empire: Total War 2

The PS3 has a devided memory pool that CANNOT be shared. Remember the save game problem in Fallout:NV?

"It's not like someone wrote a function and put a decimal point in the wrong place or declared something as a float when it should have been an int. We're talking about how the engine fundamentally saves off and references data at run time. Restructuring how that works would require a large time commitment. Obsidian also only had that engine for a total of 18 months prior to F:NV being released, which is a relatively short time to understand all of the details of how the technology works."

Asked why the Fallout NV lag issue impacts the PlayStation 3 more severely than other platforms, Sawyer noted the differences in the memory set-up of the respective consoles.

"The Xbox 360 has a unified memory pool: 512 megs of RAM usable as system memory or graphics memory," he said. "The PS3 has a divided memory pool: 256 megs for system, 256 for graphics. It's the same total amount of memory, but not as flexible for a developer to make use of."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-does-fallout-nv-lag-explain-skyrim-issues

They literally removed content before releasing DLC as well, if you weren't aware because of the very same memory limitation. It urks me to no end the industry devs to such outdated consoles that have hardware that wouldn't even appear on a Walmart bottom shelf computer even 5 years ago.

Also this is the Civ 5 engine...and yes that game used LUA. i'd love to be wrong on this, but i just do not see them pulling it off given they got to get it to run on a PS3.

Lords of Midnight/Sword of Aragon different games but could probably both be redone on a variant of the upcoming Rome 2 engine

Star Defence on Vic 20 (Defender clone)

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on Wargamer and I must say you guys are old! But, I am too. Each one of the games you are talking about I have played or heard about so I feel I am in good company.

A remake of Empire of the Fading Suns and Darklands would be great, but do you remember the series "Myth", I loved that series and would like for it to be remade. Also the steampunk classic, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

It would even be nice if "Zork" was brought to life again with the new technology. Glad to see "Shadowruns Returns" and "Wasteland 2" are being made.

DivineT

Welcome, DivineT! 

I've not played Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, but I remember hearing good things about it.  Would definitely be interested in a remake. 

elite frontier 3 on the PC wiould be nice, I know there is a v2 and a simular game being made somewhere(but its far from finished)

I would love to see wing commander Privateer (NOT WCP2, as it had no random missions)

 steel panthers is a great game too

I remember seeing a ww2 version of john tillers early games with realy nice icons for units

a boulders gate with turn based combat

Rome Total War .....oh wait! hehe

Originally Posted By DivineT (15 JUL 2012 12:50am)

Hello everyone,

 

This is my first post on Wargamer and I must say you guys are old! But, I am too. Each one of the games you are talking about I have played or heard about so I feel I am in good company.

 

A remake of Empire of the Fading Suns and Darklands would be great, but do you remember the series "Myth", I loved that series and would like for it to be remade. Also the steampunk classic, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

 

It would even be nice if "Zork" was brought to life again with the new technology. Glad to see "Shadowruns Returns" and "Wasteland 2" are being made.

 

DivineT

 

 

 

 

Welcome to The Wargamer forums!

Love to see a remake of "Myth: The Fallen Lords".  One of the hardest, best strategy games I ever played.

Really looking forward to XCOM.