Alfred
Posts: 6685
Joined: 9/28/2006
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Moltrey
What's next?
Nothing.
Nada, zip, zilch... based on this thread and the last to broach the subject and the attitude of the two people left that are close enough to Matrix and the (defunct) Henderson Field Design devs, Alfred and the Moderator(s).
This is just my "reading of the room" if you will. But the door appears to be permanently closed on such initiatives. Alfred seems rather put out that he had to (once again) deny any outside inquiry through channels would change matters and then the thread was promptly locked by a Moderator. That should tell all of us who would believe otherwise that hope is misguided at best, perhaps foolish.
Sad, yes; but not altogether surprising. The game obviously still has "legs", which in my opinion is part of the problem. Regardless of the 30500+ threads on the forums that dwarf the next most popular game, they have apparently made the final determination that due to whatever reasons, War in the Pacific: Admirals Edition will not see the development que.
So, to wrap, that tells me that no one capable is interested in revisiting the game, not even Michael.
We will have to rely on what can be accomplished with mods.
Never say never- a future game of some type might appear, but I doubt it would be a Grigsby-style game, which would disappoint loads of grognards here due to the lack of detail, mostly b/c they aren't Grigsby.
Matrix would be interested in a properly structured development proposal. It is just that in all the many threads opened since AE was released, not a single one has shown a skerrick of evidence that the agitators had any idea of how to go about it. The context is never taken into account in these threads.
AE was in development for 4 years before release and received full support for another 2 years post release. Limited support was still provided for another 3 years subsequently. Excluding testers, some 18 people were closely involved in the development. A minimum of 4 coders at any one time were involved. All under the direction of an experienced IT industry team leader who had the track record in bringing IT projects to a successful conclusion. All done for basically zero remuneration.
None of the experience built up in developing AE would be available for a new game. Well maybe a little might be salvaged but essentially there would be no useful project history retained. That in itself is a huge hindrance to using the current game engine as the basis for a new game, for you would be all completely wrong if you believe the current game code is well documented. That is before you even get to copyright considerations.
That a Mediterranean version is raised again as a viable option once again demonstrates the sheer vanity of the proponents who can't see the "bleedin' obvious" limitations of the existing AE engine. To name only some; where is the support for CAS, where is the depth for ASW, where is ULTRA, how can more than 2 sides be accommodated, how can neutrals be incorporated, how can devices switch over to undertake cross missions, how can water plus fuel be handled, how can a 2-3 hex limiting front be made interesting. These, and many others, are all issues obvious (or should be) to any experienced AE player. Not being raised in these threads reveals a lot about the unsuitability for the task of the proponents.
A combination of copyright, documentation and legacy limitations mean that it would be far easier and quicker to start from scratch. That is if you want to produce a game of similar standard. Still would need a large team and a development period measured in years, not weeks. A team able to work under and abide fully to the team leader's directives. All for uncertain remuneration. Think of that for a moment, if involved the individual would have no time to play AE (or any other game) whilst developing the new game ... for some years.
Plus the killer issue, which I always point out and is always disregarded, the sine qua non for a new game, viz a viable AI for solo play. Ten years of AE has seen many mods developed but not a single new AI script from the modders. They can't produce a single script for their own developed scenario. In part this is the result of all the modders being only data manipulators using the game database editor, none of them being actual coders; even their knowledge of the existing publicly documented game rules application to their mod being deficient. What makes anyone believe there is someone out there waiting to step forward to develop a new script, let alone a new AI module not so heavily dependent on scripts.
Alfred
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