Why did they even pick Hero Engine in the first place?! After SWTOR I would have thought it was public knowledge that that engine is absolutely awful for use in MMORPGs! Horrible, horrible choice right out the gate!
Me. I think your time line is quite a bit long. I doubt it would take that long to re-write. The Repopulation was looking at a 2016 launch, so it didn't need another year of development, it does need some work but it was (is) easily playable.
You know they were using Hero Engine because its "Ready MMO" engine with all backed already written in. Unreal engine is just blank slate. Think of it only as "visuals ready" engine
They were using Hero Engine because they didnt want to write backend. So now they will not only have to RECODE all the game completely - that will take them exactly the same time as first time, because its completely new language. But they will also need to CODE all the things they wanted to avoid coding by using hero engine.
So in the end only logical estimate is : the time they needed for coding current version + time needed to code whole MMO backend = Development time needed for Unreal version
I think 2 years is actually quite generous estimate.
Lobotomist had already answered this question for you.
Why did they even pick Hero Engine in the first place?! After SWTOR I would have thought it was public knowledge that that engine is absolutely awful for use in MMORPGs! Horrible, horrible choice right out the gate!
They were working on this game before SWTOR was released
Sorry RP dev's, but Ark is already well on its way to becoming the WOW factor of survival games. Maybe you'll find a balance which gains the game popularity, but I doubt it. We're now seeing a repeat of the WOW era, everybody scrambling to copy the successful survival games. In this case now,everybody wants to make an Ark or the next minecraft.
Me. I think your time line is quite a bit long. I doubt it would take that long to re-write. The Repopulation was looking at a 2016 launch, so it didn't need another year of development, it does need some work but it was (is) easily playable.
You know they were using Hero Engine because its "Ready MMO" engine with all backed already written in. Unreal engine is just blank slate. Think of it only as "visuals ready" engine
They were using Hero Engine because they didnt want to write backend. So now they will not only have to RECODE all the game completely - that will take them exactly the same time as first time, because its completely new language. But they will also need to CODE all the things they wanted to avoid coding by using hero engine.
So in the end only logical estimate is : the time they needed for coding current version + time needed to code whole MMO backend = Development time needed for Unreal version
I think 2 years is actually quite generous estimate.
Unreal Engine 4 is not just a "Visual Ready" Engine. It's a complete game engine, It comes with lots of tools integrated outside of the rendering pipeline.
A game engine is supposed to accelerate the development process. If they take two years for that they are probably not doing it correctly.
I didn't want to explain all that, thank you.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Me. I think your time line is quite a bit long. I doubt it would take that long to re-write. The Repopulation was looking at a 2016 launch, so it didn't need another year of development, it does need some work but it was (is) easily playable.
Agreed. Especially with an approach to roll it out by module and allow people to host it themselves. I think the only barrier to quick development is if Fragmented fails to gain traction and revenue isn't there.
Comments
They were working on this game before SWTOR was released
I didn't want to explain all that, thank you.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Agreed. Especially with an approach to roll it out by module and allow people to host it themselves. I think the only barrier to quick development is if Fragmented fails to gain traction and revenue isn't there.