9 replies to this topic

[LavaBall]

Hi are there any free FPS Game makers or engines designed specifically for SP Mode?

Most of the moddable FPS Games are for multiplayer and SauerBraten SP Isn't very good to create a storyline with so I am asking if someone knows a moddable FPS Game/engine that has a descent SP Mode with cutscene support and SP Elements to create a good SP FPS Game.

Thanks in advance.

[Jeigh]

I don't know about open source or other free FPS games as most I've seen that were free were pretty crappy games (solely due to lack of resources during creation). That said games like Half-life and half-life 2 both can be modded for single player campaigns, I know I've downloaded single player mods for both of them. "They Hunger" comes to mind for half life, which was a zombie survival horror style fps single player mod for the original half life engine. I'm sure half life 2 can be modded similarly for single or multiplayer so those would be worth checking out. Valve is great about providing the community with user tools for creating user made content.

Past that, any game that is moddable and has a single player game probably allows for single player mods. The games may FOCUS on multiplayer themselves, but if they have any capacity for single player I'm sure that you could create a mod that has a larger single player scope then the developers chose to pursue. Multiplayer only games may be able to be modded into a single player excursion but you'd want to check specific games.

If you have limited experience I'd say stick with the big names, going with open source games would require actually knowing the coding languages involved as an open source game is unlikely to provide tools for easy game modifications. Also the bigger the game, and bigger the toolset, the bigger the community support will be and therefor you can find lots of help if you get stuck on the way.

[LavaBall]

Oh OK Thanks, So I guess I should pick HL1 For that as it includes alot of SP Elements right, I don't pick HL2 Yet is because my modelling skills haven't reached that far to make nextgen models yet so I take your advice to pick HL1 For now and start with it, I can easily buy it from Ebay and is the toolset for HL1 downloadable or do I have to buy it seperately too?

[Jeigh]

I'm confident it's free. Just check out the website for the game or look up half life modding and you'll get tons of information. I know stuff like counter strike started as free mods so I imagine the toolset is all freely availible from somewhere. You might need to find your own 3d modeling software or whatever but I'm sure they point you to everything you'll need to get started.

[Darasen]

Ghost Recon is very mod-able and has a decent modding community though the game is a bit old. Despite it's age the game is still rather fun to play and the vast majority of the mods I have seen for it focus on single player missions or campaigns. Ghost recon also includes tools for modifying and creating missions as well as plugins for 3d Studio Max and Photoshop to save files as types used by the games engine.

The game being older does actually have some advantages as well: It is cheap, you can get the original game on both of it's expansions for less than twenty dollars U.S. From a modding stand point if you desire tore skin any of the models or create your own models they could be far less complex (lower polygon count) then higher end graphics require.

[adavak]

The Retribution Engine on Sourceforge.net is an open-source FPS platform that works decently. Its very UT2004 like, but it works pretty well if you put the time into it. Theres also BZFlag, but i haven't used it. I think I'll download it now and try it. You can use Blender and a lot of other 3d modelers for Retribution, making it very easy to design levels for it.

[adavak]

Also you can try the Halo Custom Edition and Map editor for HALO PC. Ive never gotten it to work before though and Halo 1 is more than a little outdated.

[adavak]

BZFlag, although designed for multiplayer, is a very powerful tank simulation capture-the-flag game. There's probably a mod somewhere for artificial intelligence bots. it has a good dedicated file editor and is really easy to use.

[LavaBall]

Retribution engine sounds good, I see there is ally support and camera's so I think I would give it a try.