Silent Storm engine, why not?

UFO: Extraterrestrials is a futuristic real-time/turn-based strategy blend set on the fictional planet of Esperanza in 2025. Having made a bloody first contact with a strange form of life from another planet, the player is thrust into the tough position of leading the defense of this isolated planet against the never-ending assault of these hostile invaders
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evilferretvictim
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Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by evilferretvictim »

To make it short: I don't understand why none of the *X-Com clone* developers have looked into using the Silent Storm engine. I really doubt Nival would charge too much for it, and it would be perfect for an X-Com remake. In CCs case, they could have saved themselves the trouble of creating an engine from scratch that had massive limitations...

I could only imagine shooting at an alien who was on the floor above me, sending him crashing down before he even knew what happened. Er shooting one next to a window and enjoying the show of him crashing through....I believe I read a few peoples comments here that suggest that they didn't enjoy Silent Storm for some reason. Personally I don't understand how you couldn't love the game....At the very least everyone has to admit the engine is sweet as hell. I'm still blown away by the amount of detail it can handle...

So, why isn't there a single dev/indie team working on this?




LarkinVB
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by LarkinVB »

Because the performace (FPS) of this engine was very bad even on decent systems ?
Because there was no support by Nival for third party devs ?
Because Nival never planned to give it away ?
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gunnergoz
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by gunnergoz »

I concur, the SS engine would have been perfect and I have said so several times on this forum and others.  Unfortunately, my opinion and $5.00 will buy a nice drink at Starbucks. [:(]
"Things are getting better!
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evilferretvictim
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by evilferretvictim »

ORIGINAL: LarkinVB

Because the performace (FPS) of this engine was very bad even on decent systems ?

Performance is bad? Huh? I run Silent Storm on a 1.6Ghz laptop with a 9600 Pro GPU and 4200RPM HDD. It will make the card run a little hot, but still plays very smoothly. Not too sure what your definition of *decent* is though... Although it may not be legacy hardware yet, it certainly is *extremely* low spec by todays standards.


PhoenixD
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by PhoenixD »

It makes the UFO: ET engine look like a fine-tuned beast. When I first got SS, it was COMPLETELY unplayable- the FPS was simply too low. (1700+ AMD, GeForce 4200, 512 RAM)

It also doesn't have any strategic aspects, so they would have had to do that from scratch anyway, along with almost all the tactical art. Along with coding out some of the more questionable design decisions (like the real-time aspect and squad-leader death meaning end of mission).

Besides, I don't think it was for sale.
LarkinVB
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by LarkinVB »

ORIGINAL: evilferretvictim

ORIGINAL: LarkinVB

Because the performace (FPS) of this engine was very bad even on decent systems ?

Performance is bad? Huh? I run Silent Storm on a 1.6Ghz laptop with a 9600 Pro GPU and 4200RPM HDD. It will make the card run a little hot, but still plays very smoothly. Not too sure what your definition of *decent* is though... Although it may not be legacy hardware yet, it certainly is *extremely* low spec by todays standards.

Well, on my 3500 Athlon 64 with ATI 800XT and 1GB RAM it is sluggish at good visual settings compared with other 3D engines.
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gunnergoz
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by gunnergoz »

Just to clarify things, I run SS fine on a P4 2.53 GHz system with 1 gig of ram and an Nvidia 5700 card with 256 MB of video ram.  No problems.
"Things are getting better!
...Well, maybe not as good as they were yesterday, but much better than they will be tomorrow!"
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LarkinVB
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by LarkinVB »

Fine for you. I beg to differ as do my friends who once had it installed on a variety of platforms. Same for lots of other on various forums. Same for some reviewers of the latest Nival games which were also based on the SS engine.

Whatever. Lets talk about UFO:ET. 
DiscoJer
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by DiscoJer »

Besides not everyone thinking the Silent Storm engine is that great, I'm sure money was a big factor. They basically financed the game on their own, I'm sure they couldn't afford to license an engine.
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Hertston
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by Hertston »

ORIGINAL: gunnergoz

I concur, the SS engine would have been perfect and I have said so several times on this forum and others.  Unfortunately, my opinion and $5.00 will buy a nice drink at Starbucks. [:(]

It would have been perfect if you wanted 'Silent Storm: X-Com'. The tactical game in ET is very, very close to that in the original game; the differences are relatively trivial and will probably end up patched or modded out anyway. Whether that resemblance is a plus or a minus is debatable, but using the SS engine would have lost much of it. It probably comes down to how big a factor nostalgia is in your purchasing decision.
Steel Angel
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by Steel Angel »

There's no easy way to know how easy the engine is modify. Since you'd have to add in the geoscape, research, base building, and alter soldier growth, trying to shoehorn all that into the engine may not be feasible.

A shame really. I too had no problems running the game and had a blast with the destructible terrain. Plus the ability to actually HEAR enemies coming up on you was a godsend. It also boasts the best system for sharpshooter weapons in a tactical strategy game I've ever seen and I'd love to see more games try something similar.
Faenaris
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by Faenaris »

I thought I had read somewhere that Nival was interested in making a x-com game (or a look-a-like). Don't know if that still stands true, but if it is, it must mean that Nival can change its code and engine to accomodate a geoscape.

Ah well, I'm getting bioshock, so that they can start working on another xcom-game. The more the merrier. [:)]
rich12545
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by rich12545 »

I was seriously considering ufo:et a few weeks ago.  But since there's no demo I posted a question with my system specs and asked how it would work.  My system isn't that great.  Well, nobody replied.  So I tried the Silent Storm demo and it worked fine.  I bought S2 and the Prima guide (all new) on ebay for a total of $16 including shipping.  It works great and I'm real happy with it.  There are mods to improve the original, like getting rid of the sci-fi stuff etc.  If it doesn't work well on your system, try running 1024x768x16 instead of 32.  I think the graphics look better that way and the game runs smoother.
PhoenixD
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by PhoenixD »

If S2 works, then UFO:ET should run fine as well.
rich12545
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by rich12545 »

Not true at all.  Minimum specs are way higher for ufo:et than for Silent Storm.  No comparison.  My machine is barely above the minimum for this game but way over S2.  Even so, I wouldn't have bought S2 without the demo.
Scott_WAR
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by Scott_WAR »

Have you played UFO:ET? If not, how can you say it wont run well on your machine.
 
Remember, some companies lie about system spec requirements, some dont. A lot of games I have oplayed in the past would run on a computer that met minimum specs, but not well enough actually enjoy. The games recomeded specs were really its minimum specs.
 
 But honestly, if your system specs barely meet the minimum requirments for this game, you are going to find it very difficult to find many new games you can play. Time to upgrade that calulator.
rich12545
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by rich12545 »

First, I never said it won't run well.  Please don't put words in my mouth.  What I said is I don't know if it will run well or not.  I posted a message a few weeks ago with my specs and asked if it would.  Nobody answered.  So I tried the S2 demo, found it ran well and I liked it, so I bought it.
 
If you want to send me the money to upgrade then I will.  In the meantime I can't afford it and will buy a game occasionally that I know it will run.
Scott_WAR
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by Scott_WAR »

ORIGINAL: PhoenixD

If S2 works, then UFO:ET should run fine as well.


ORIGINAL: rich12545

Not true at all.  Minimum specs are way higher for ufo:et than for Silent Storm.  No comparison.  My machine is barely above the minimum for this game but way over S2.  Even so, I wouldn't have bought S2 without the demo.

He told you if S2 worked, UFO:ET should as well, and you replied that that wasnt true at all. I was just saying without actually trying it to see you didnt know if it was not true at all.

I understand, the minimum specs say one thing but as I said, for a lot of games the minimum specs are usually wrong. I have seen games that were not playable at all on the minimum specs (mostly MMO's) and I have seen games that will run great on machines that are below minimum specs. Which is more reason for you to want a demo.

Yeah, I hear ya on upgrading. Some things can be very expensive. Video cards are getting ridiculous.
rich12545
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RE: Silent Storm engine, why not?

Post by rich12545 »

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR
ORIGINAL: PhoenixD

If S2 works, then UFO:ET should run fine as well.


ORIGINAL: rich12545

Not true at all.  Minimum specs are way higher for ufo:et than for Silent Storm.  No comparison.  My machine is barely above the minimum for this game but way over S2.  Even so, I wouldn't have bought S2 without the demo.

I understand, the minimum specs say one thing but as I said, for a lot of games the minimum specs are usually wrong. I have seen games that were not playable at all on the minimum specs (mostly MMO's) and I have seen games that will run great on machines that are below minimum specs. Which is more reason for you to want a demo.

Right. And there's no demo.

So what am I supposed to do? Pay $40 for the game and if it doesn't work very well then tough sh*t? This is one game where a demo is really necessary.
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