Looking for anything in particular?

The current plans cover a lot of different possibilities for the project itself, this community, our sister projects, and other stuff. Beyond that, its just rosy “if then” and gloomy “if not then” rhetoric.

In general, I predict a lot of people will put a lot of time into this project, most will have a lot of fun in the process, some will learn something useful along the way, and but a few will use it as a catalyst to move on to bigger better things that shape their careers.


-Burn

Lead Designer and Webmaster,
Openlancer Project

Perfection at its best.... i cant predict much but at the very least its going to be one "hell" of a ride.

i hope it turns out a excellent triumph i wanan see my jump gate in all its glory

www.mod.pff-clan.us

Openlancer

Will it be possible to fly around down on a planets surface like you do in one or two of Darkstar One´s missions?

Sorry, I need to check this forum more often...

Yes, atmospheric flight will be supported via dynamic LOD, and planets are procedurally generated, so no loading zones. Ships will need engines/thrusters configured for atmospheric flight or its a one way trip to the surface. Heat shields also help for faster and safer entry. Larger ships have to dock at a station in orbit for shuttle or elevator access to the surface. Atmospheric speeds are limited by hull stress and temperature tolerance, and engine thrust. Pod craft can also be "fired" down to the surface but its normally a one way trip. Weapon fire is the same, if a projectile survives atmospheric entry then it'll hit the surface normally (missile/torp), or with reduced energy (everything else). That much is finalized.

Not finalized: Atmospheric properties, atmosphere generation algorithms, realistic weather handling, and semi-realistic global atmospheric energy tracking, is all still being designed. Conventional aircraft handling is planned but not in detail, just VTOL ground units. Traditional fixed-wing aircraft and flying critters are looking less likely. The entire ground warfare aspect of OL is still being designed (roughly a hybrid between BF2/2142, MW3/4, OFP).

This hasn't been implemented yet. Our former lead programmer had planet generation and dynamic LOD working in an old test framework. Unfortunately all we got to see was screenshots, he completely disappeared before posting the code to CVS. The screenshots are still on the OL forums...somewhere.


-Burn

Lead Designer and Webmaster,
Openlancer Project

Can you make any prediction on when it will be finished? And whne it is, how will we get it?

Short answer: I really have no idea when Openlancer 1.0 will be released, but when it is you can download it for free (GPL).

Long answer: Both the game itself and the overall project are designed as a large scale community effort with a sheer volume of work on par with a large RPG but at the same time tries to maximize the use of third party middleware and various free digital assets. With a large influx of programmers (dozens) and major community support (hundreds) we might be able to finish it within two years, or less. The way things are going now, with about a dozen active developers, maybe a decade, maybe never.

That said, recently we started several measures to split up the game "sub-engines" into multiple semi-independent middleware projects (AI, economy, procedural content generation, etc). This should help by splitting the development workload with other game projects. We also have the forge site, which may attract more attention, but its currently onhold due to a sudden lapse in general interest among other projects. Finally, the first playable build is underway now, the plan is for something similar to the Infinity Combat Prototype, with team death match or similar.

OL will always be available as a free download via Source Forge and probably other mirrors. For that matter you can download the current code from CVS now or the latest release build. Its pre-alpha and is not playable in any sense of the term, but you can get a good sense for the core engine structure. Beyond that, we hope gaming and general PC magazines will release it via their normal demo/utility discs. An at-cost or near-cost DVD release might be possible if the final release is popular enough.


-Burn