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Watcher

MARS 2000

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Hello everyone!

Some of you probably remember the veeeeery old mod Dune: Evolution, which has been developed for many years, but was frozen a few years ago. In fact, the team was divided into two parts with own projects. One of them with their content (eg models) has decided not to set ambitious goals and did the generic and simple RTS. Not so primitive as 8-bit Armies, but very old-school and simple in general mechanics.


As originally designed mod, too, the early content have been realized, which has long been possible to play.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dune20xx - their mod page and source for last version of mod.


But a little later the stakes were raised, and with the advent of the programmer went to work on a self-made engine and stand-alone game. Yes, these guys are very serious. I am personally acquainted with the developer, and for a long time watching the development. It is impressive.


You can find more videos on their channel.

As a source of inspiration and ideas all games Dune series are used for design (such as Dune 2, Dune 2000, Emperor: Battle for Dune). In view of the obvious legal problems, all links to this franchise will be removed at a late stage of development. Own background is very simple at this moment:
- Alternative History of the 2000s. Mars colonized, start terraforming.
- Due to the terrible working conditions and bureaucratic problems, miners and many other workers Mars rebelling against corporate control.
- From the Earth sent a punitive fleet with PMCs.
- At the beginning of the devastating conflict destroyed many livelihoods and terraforming devices. Almost all the cattle is eaten or killed. Martians have only genetically modified wheat, which is the source for food and bio-fuel for local vehicles.
- Meanwhile, the robots of mysterious origin awakened and they are clearly self-aware. They seek to preserve the status quo of the planet and there is a third party to the conflict...
No, it is not known yet what will replace the sandworms, but fans proposed a lot of ideas, and some of them have already been sketched by the artist.


There are already more than 200 sketches and about 40 3d models. Already, they have about 55-65% of all planned models. Development based on their own funds and donations from some Russian fans (the developers completely from the post-Soviet space + a few english-speaking assistants). Instead, some of the units can be used an alternative - other skin or even another unit (some of them was proposed by fans as their rewards for donations). Such as Devastator can be replaced with its Tesla version.

And now they are working on side project, which I can discibe as promo-game and techdemo for their own engine. This is their first attempt to test the audience.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729817689

Since this project is very poorly lit in the English-speaking C&C community, I decided to create this topic and translate news about him. Along with others, this is also the brainchild of whole community and based on our common great heritage from our favored game and franchise that is alive in our hearts.


If you like truly remake of old Dune strategies, probably you will interested in this project.

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and with the advent of the programmer went to work on a self-made engine and stand-alone game.

 

Making a 3D RTS in a custom engine. Just... Whoa. :o

 

As a source of inspiration and ideas all games Dune series are used for design (such as Dune 2, Dune 2000, Emperor: Battle for Dune). In view of the obvious legal problems, all links to this franchise will be removed at a late stage of development. Own background is very simple at this moment:

- Alternative History of the 2000s. Mars colonized, start terraforming.

- Due to the terrible working conditions and bureaucratic problems, miners and many other workers Mars rebelling against corporate control.

- From the Earth sent a punitive fleet with PMCs.

- At the beginning of the devastating conflict destroyed many livelihoods and terraforming devices. Almost all the cattle is eaten or killed. Martians have only genetically modified wheat, which is the source for food and bio-fuel for local vehicles.

- Meanwhile, the robots of mysterious origin awakened and they are clearly self-aware. They seek to preserve the status quo of the planet and there is a third party to the conflict...

No, it is not known yet what will replace the sandworms, but fans proposed a lot of ideas, and some of them have already been sketched by the artist.

 

It's not a bad premise, but the gameplay appears to be pretty much a carbon copy of the Dune series from what I can see in the YouTube video (which was uploaded fairly recently), so I wonder, was the change to the Mars setting instead of Arrakis made recently, or was it known from the get-go? Simply renaming and remodeling things won't quite change what's under the hood. Taking inspiration is not bad per se, and doing so from the progenitors is a good move, but creating some differences in the gameplay would be in the best interest of the project, IMHO (like C&C removed the worm-safe hill mechanic, for example, or how WarCraft included multiple resources), particularly to evade the copyright crowd.

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Well, originally it was Dune Evolution mod. When his team fell apart, the main 3d artist decided to use own models again in a new mod, and later in a small independent game (why not with such a large number of ready content?).
Therefore, revamp for Mars setting was not planned, but there was almost painless. Also, I believe that it's even better, it is a more brutal and interesting setting than Dune.

In terms of game mechanics, yet it is a copy of Dune 2000 (worm-safe hills, worm-like beast, growing resource fields, harvesters, spaceport-market and superweapons).

While the goal of development - make a simple nostalgic strategy like Dune 2000, but not so minimalist as the 8-bit Armies. Later, perhaps, the new features will appear. You have to understand that the game is being developed exclusively by a very small team (5 people + two composers, may freelancers). Via donations collected about $ 800 (right, 800 or even lesser), plus a bit more invested own money. Not too many resources for such good progress, right? I am glad that the guys do not run for the ambitions and make the game easy.

Edited by Watcher

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You have to understand that the game is being developed exclusively by a very small team (5 people + two composers, may freelancers).

 

True, and their progress is quite good from what I can see. For that reason alone, it would be a pity if they were marked as copycats instead of developers of a cool game.

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