SST RPG on the PC?

[veon]

ok.... this all does sound really cool gamewise, but there is a huge problem here.

mainly that you are requesting to Mongoose Publishing to make a video game. Now even a mod of NVN or IWD (especially of the quality you would expect commercially) would require a good team of programmers, designers, artists, etc. Mongoose is not a video game design company, they make tabletop games, pen and paper RPG's, etc. No video games.

Now this whole SST RPG does sound like an AWESOME idea, I for one would totally pick up the game, but personally I don't think it belongs in the "What Should Mongoose Publish Next?" section (although I have no problem with this discussion, I just want to point out that Mongoose is pretty much incapable of publishing this).

 

[Makoto]

There's the question of what do we actually want - does it really must be a FPP shooter (true, expensive in making and demanding for PC) or much simplier tactical game - think in the cathegories of ie. Six Gun Shootout (precursor to Laser Squad, would need only slightly better graphics, character development section (fights were one-offs) and slight upgrade of character generation to include STT rules.
Or (going completely radical) sth in the likes of the Emperor of Fading Suns - that's a completely ready system, just talk up the mechanics licence, change icons for STT universe and voila, it already has a beast-like race (Symbiots), modern units (infantry, powerarmour, spaceships, air assets and vehicles) and startravel included. Ok, star travel would need some smoothing, so jumps wouldn't take the entire turn.
Plus it'd allow to add any number of alien races/human fractions in the future.

Still I see Your point.

 

[LtLeonJonson]

well, as Mongoose hold the licence i need to approach them first as the holders, they would then go to Tristar, who are the owners then Mongoose as the holder, if a go-ahead was recieved, then get a studio to do the programming etc, now while i would wish Mongoose to give me a formal go-ahead to contact some companies on their behalf(namely Black Isle Studios, i would like, no , love to get my hands on their Infinity Engine), i doubt i will, but i still can hope, any way i'd like to see it.

The fact is the SST RPG is as good and better in some ways over the traditional D&D systems, and the way you could work it into a game such as IWD 2(Icewind Dale 2) would make the series more popular, those of us who RPG on the PC tend to more to at least looking at the Pen and Paper for the reason you want to go out and play the for real thing.

Okay, i know Mongoose is incapable of producing the game, but if i got that go ahead, as it is well, wholey my ideas at this point in time, if it was ever to be published it should be a good game, if not one that actually builds on the Pen and Paper based PC RPG genre as a whole and might inspire some more games of that type, now I'll leave that thought there for the minute, that's for a whole different forum.

Back to the point, I am going to clean up my ideas and submit them to matt sprange for an idea, if he wishes to, bounce on up to the Tristar people, and i suppose it might be held in some decent esteam up their on a marketting level, if not a income level for the next three to five years for development and building.

 

[frobisher]

Not to rain too hard on your parade, but Sony have already licensed one Starship Troopers computer game, they're not likely to want the license further diluted there (regardless of the fact that your idea isn't the FPS that the one published late last year was).

Oh and the costs involved... Do you have a spare £250,000 to throw at the project..?

 

[Anvil]

250, 000 dollars.......

How many people that use this forum, would be capable of sparing anything like fifty to hundred dollars towards the project. What I am really asking is how many people use this forum. Must be quite a few.

How peole who don't use this forum, people that would still be interested in this type of game, people that you know would spare that same amount of money ( Anything from a dollar upwards.) toward this endeavour.

Sounds easy when I think about it.

But I do understand there are many other variables that I should consider also.

Still, think about your idea and my idea as well.

 

[frobisher]

250, 000 dollars.......

No, pounds... Real money

 

[mthomason]

Not to rain too hard on your parade, but Sony have already licensed one Starship Troopers computer game, they're not likely to want the license further diluted there (regardless of the fact that your idea isn't the FPS that the one published late last year was).

Yup, plus there's also the problem that a "computer game license" for an intellectual property is often exclusive - the license often precludes any other company from producing a computer game based upon the same I.P. for a duration of time. These things are often drawn up by legal bods with no idea what the difference is between RTS, FPS, and RPG - all they see are the words "computer game".

If a company is especially interested in a particular I.P. they may take out a long-term license (such as Atari did with the D&D license - nobody else is allowed to touch a D&D computer game nowadays except Atari because of that license, it was worded by the Atari/Hasbro legal geniuses in such a way that WotC themselves couldn't even release the full version of their own D&D toolkit because Hasbro had "given everything away" and had to bash some evil-looking thing together in MS Access to take it's place).

Finally there's a rather interesting and nasty clause in the OGL that is very tricky to get around in computer game terms - if you create *anything* based upon OGL you have to declare a portion of it as open content. As said computer game will contain d20 rules licensed under the OGL there has to be a way to open that up to be used in other products (creating an editor for the game isn't enough as that would only allow the content to be used in that game itself), It *can* be done - for example by giving away some source code for a part of the game, by putting character/creature stats into a human-readable text file, etc.

Interesting enough, because the Mongoose SST rules are OGL and all rules (but not I.P.) is declared open content, there is a chance you may not even need a license from them to create a computer game if you have the rights to the Starship Troopers I.P. direct from the owners... However you'd have to be very very careful in your use of their OGL material (and get a lawyer to go through the Product Identity clause in the OGL) if you did this so it'd be a lot easier to work with them

(BTW - I voted yes, I'd love to see it done!)

 

[LtLeonJonson]

well, two things, as Mongoose did develop the Pen and Paper RPG on the SST universe I would have to go through em any way(whether to be nice and legal even if OGL, which is still not the same as Public Record) not to mention the fact i was trying to avoid a SST:"Insert Ttile here" type of game, i was thinking "Road to Victory" or some other title of that name.

As for cost, well let me see, we have the licence fees, the programmers, artists and designers, after all i am only the Lead Designer or ideas man, writers, Q&A team, organising a Beta test, press releases etc, its sometimes a wonder that people can make any money for making a PC game, at least in the niche market.

I was hoping Mongoose could at least put the idea down on the books as something for "Later" how much later is their call, but with that in mind it was a hope for an idea they just might say yes to be involved with.

As for the OGl part, that's the complex thing, you either do the source code and make it very mod-able or something else, now in this reguard i was thinking let people be able to get a print out of their character, in terms of stats, feats, skills and equipment so that there is some decent cross over with the Pen and Paper version.

 

[mthomason]

As for the OGl part, that's the complex thing, you either do the source code and make it very mod-able or something else, now in this reguard i was thinking let people be able to get a print out of their character, in terms of stats, feats, skills and equipment so that there is some decent cross over with the Pen and Paper version.

If you put the entire text of the feats, skills, etc in that printout I think that should cover it. To be 100% certain of complying I'd stick the entire skills/feat/etc list with all associated text into text files that were read into the game, that way someone can use the text without constructing a character (if you have to "do" something in order to get to the text it could possibly be seen as a license violation, I think you have to make it as easy as browsing through a printed book)

 

[LtLeonJonson]

possibly, again i'd like this to be licenced over non-licenced, especially since i'd like some(read all) of the Mongoose Design team who did the SST RPG Pen and Paper in on the design of the PC version of their excellent work.

Perhaps a character generator out of game for the pen and paper as part and parcel of the game, but spearate to with full text discriptions of the Skills and Feats?

this way you can build the character, get full text descriptions of the Skills etc and then print out with or wtihout skills, up to you.

If a Mongoose could reply with a yes or no it would be nice.

 

[Kristovich]

250, 000 dollars.......

How many people that use this forum, would be capable of sparing anything like fifty to hundred dollars towards the project. What I am really asking is how many people use this forum. Must be quite a few.

How peole who don't use this forum, people that would still be interested in this type of game, people that you know would spare that same amount of money ( Anything from a dollar upwards.) toward this endeavour.

Sounds easy when I think about it.

But I do understand there are many other variables that I should consider also.

Still, think about your idea and my idea as well.

Yeah, there's quit a lot who use these forums and could contribute a small amount of money.
I could (or maybe not, but I would really want to!)

 

[LtLeonJonson]

in all honesty, i woudl only accept it if it was going to be produced, but as it appears it won't be yet, I would not touch the stuff.

However, again I would like a Mongoose to say something about the idea so i know whether to continue for the minute it would be appreciated.

 

[LtLeonJonson]

Mission Ideas

Rescue the General: His ship crashes in Bug territory, you go and rescue him.

Secure the outpost: Basically waht happens in the SST movie, brains sucked and left for carrion you find out and have to hold.

Patrol the Sector: Obvious one their.

Ambush the Tankers: You get to kill lots of tankers, lots of em, and they can touch you, barely.

Recon: go deep into the bug territory and scout around to find numbers.

Assasinate the Brains: Go brain hunting.

 

[Anvil]

How many people do use these forums.

 

[LtLeonJonson]

circa 5552, now i would drop that to about 2500 'regular users, like LBH kinda regular user.

 

[Hiromoon]

On a semi-replated note I've been writing up designs for a SST RTS based off the RPG and Miniatures game. Currently I'm torn between Dawn of War style and CnC style.

And back to a RPG on the PC, heck yes I would play this! Maybe in a Fallout perspective? Maybe that one that had the turn based/real time fuction (Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel)

 

[Kristovich]

And back to a RPG on the PC, heck yes I would play this! Maybe in a Fallout perspective? Maybe that one that had the turn based/real time fuction (Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel)

Hell yes! One of the best games I ever played.
How come I didn't think of that before?

 

[lastbesthope]

circa 5552, now i would drop that to about 2500 'regular users, like LBH kinda regular user.

Hey, noone even comes close to me on these forums!

:lol:

LBH

 

[Hiromoon]

And back to a RPG on the PC, heck yes I would play this! Maybe in a Fallout perspective? Maybe that one that had the turn based/real time fuction (Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel)

Hell yes! One of the best games I ever played.
How come I didn't think of that before?

Maybe because you're swedish and if there's not a group of happy germans helping your country make decisions, you muddle through it? :wink:

*psst* it's a joke...

 

[LtLeonJonson]

having never played any fallout games i can not make a comment on the type of engine I can't really comment, so i'll stick with the Icewind Dale 2 engine for the sack simply that i know and it is D&D 3.0, which is what i have the feeling that the RPG is based on.

However if some would explain how the game works and what type of engine it has I am sure it is another posibility.