CALLING ALL TALENTED PEOPLE!

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CALLING ALL TALENTED PEOPLE!

Postby Marder » Thu Nov 25, 10 3:35 pm

I wrote to Eidos and proposed a DXMP: HR project. It has been accepted. A project now exists between Eidos and FGS, who will form the hub of the project. It involves the community recreating as much as possible of Deus Ex 3 and hosting this on DXMP servers with full support from Eidos. The issue of exclusivity and when assets will be released is being discussed at the moment. Sorry I can not give a schedule at the moment. At the very least there will be some DXMP maps, mods and mutators. The pinnacle, a reasonable conversion of some augs and weps and the project being part of a DVD gift set, along with other important MP material.

The reasons are obvious, in the last few weeks numbers of players have risen back to 2008 levels at times, showing signs of achieving far more, even before the release of Deus Ex 3 is out. DXMP: HR Server will offer something exciting and new both to DX3 and DXMP players. Since Eidos will promote this project and are offering their full support, it has the potential to capitalize on the increasing numbers of DXMP players and for the first time since 2004, it is possible that this project could create demand for more servers even. It is also a fantastic step towards closer relations between the DXMP community and Eidos. You may have noticed that right now on sites like Facebook, DX: HR spams cut price offers of DX1 on Steam.

Schedule is subject to the release date of exclusivity on the assets of the game.
Benefits are to be announced, although Eidos guarantee full support including some PR.
Expenses of production/hosting have been mentioned but I can not be clear about any money right now, besides I don't want people whose main aim is to work part time for money on this, I want people who firstly believe in the project and its benefits for DXMP. I've mentioned money for expenses, that is all at the moment. One thing at a time. If a coder needs extra time, then we will look at that.
Team is to be finalized, although there are at least 2 Eidos members and 2 community members so far who will be lending time to the project it seems. We are seeking many more. It would be my wish that all corners of the community are represented, if they so wish, so that OTP members, Alpha members, DXMS members, FGS members, U members and so on will all be able to make a major impact on the project and benefit from what's on offer, including all usual blaggable freebies.

The Roles available within this project: Roles in bold need to be finalized as soon as possible.

Modellers/Animators - You have made a weapon before.
Coders who can spare any time at all - You can code.
Advanced Coders who can spare time to consult specifically regarding coding aspects
Mappers - you have made a hosted multiplayer map before that's played or was popular.
Public Relations/Community Managers - You visit all clan forums and love websites, Your English is good.

Administrators - You are a good forum administrator, Your English is reasonable. You make forums.
General Project Consultants
Deus Ex Officianados
"Office" Managers - You are good with people and getting things done smoothly. Problem solver
Artworkers/Designers - you have made a sig or logo before.
Forummaker - 1337 forum maker
Anybody who has worked on DXRV or Hejhuka's projects.

Thank you for reading about this exciting project.
Last edited by Marder on Thu Nov 25, 10 4:13 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Postby Alex » Thu Nov 25, 10 5:07 pm

If you're working with Eidos, does this mean you guys get DX3 material before the release? Or that you will get the game itself for free, so you can port it (because that is what you want to do, right?) to DX1? Or did they just say they support you so you would get off their back?

Just interested, mind you..

Also, what the hell are Deus Ex Officianados
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Postby Alex » Thu Nov 25, 10 5:09 pm

Also, does this mean you get access to SDK'ish tools of DX3? (So you can export things). Or will you have to remodel weapons based on screenshots? Because afaik there are no SDK tools available for the Crystal Dynamics engine.
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Postby Dae » Thu Nov 25, 10 5:33 pm

Have fun.

Although to my liking porting the DX3 concepts to DXMP is a boring, laborious and pointless initiative. It might, of course, bring another hundred of new people and some oldies to the game, but a much more valid reason to "call all talented people" could be porting DXMP to a modern engine—something that has always been desired in this community, and something that I would personally support.
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Postby James » Thu Nov 25, 10 6:56 pm

I'm glad to see they're accepting such a project. This is such an ambitious project Marder, I'm very impressed. The 'reasonable conversion' line is the part that has hit me with approval, depending on what gets made it may not be vapourware like a lot of projects started by this little community.

While this is a good idea it is crucial to realise that you'd create a conversion that will keep people attached to the title not to mention promote it. If this goes through, you'd hate for the project to fall into a day of play and that's it. Of course you already know this, but this is the main concern you should have with developing this project. Like Daedalus says, this will bring a concern from Square Enix and hopefully produce a modern faithful successor to DXMP.

I'd keep quiet about expenses mind you, but you should note that you should demand or ask for royalties if it becomes packaged as a retail product. There's a lot of community designs that have made it into Team Fortress 2 and they've received 20k in dollars for their content Valve have used and further royalties when purchased in their mini-transaction store. Do not expect payments otherwise. For anyone here reading this who will involve himself in this project, please keep content strictly your own works for a chance to receive endorsements.

As someone who has direct contact with René (over a similar proposal of content, exclusive community interview and information I've never proceeded because of poor reception and administration of a site, if I think I'm getting this topic correctly) and occasionally play TF2 with two of the staff, oddly enough they've kept this quiet to me... oh well!, must be a community manager's accepting. Can you provide the exchange of communication please?, just want to understand what's going on.

Also most importantly for me, please post any exclusive DX3 information. As far as I'm concerned this is priceless for the remaining 4 months for release.

I hope you accept this criticism, good luck with the projects.
Last edited by James on Thu Nov 25, 10 6:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby Marder » Fri Nov 26, 10 12:41 am

Thanks for reading a long topic and thanks for substantial feedback.
We are talking about a DX SDK production. DXMP maps and mods.

I agree with Dae and it's a shame that German port project didn't progress further.
For that reason I am very relaxed about a "port", I think it will be fun enough to play the maps in DXMP and all the best active coders are active and busy at the moment, so I am not holding my breath even on weapons, let alone augs. As James said, it's about bringing a few more players and giving oldies something new to enjoy. It is not intended to be a serious contender to anything that will almost certainly come later. Also it's about better links between Eidos and DXMP people.

Alex wrote:If you're working with Eidos, does this mean you guys get DX3 material before the release?

That is what is being discussed at the moment and I will give an answer as soon as possible. Not being games industry personnel, I wasn't really able to pre-empt or offer all solutions to possible issues, unfortunately this one at the moment is very much in the hands of the directors and community managers. They know however that time, especially for coders and modellers will be very limited and that this project is time-sensitive from our point of view for maximum impact.


To answer your questions James, Rene Valen does not work on DX3 anymore. He is consulting me about this and other matters, incredibly generous and kind person. I do have various e-mails between myself and Sebastian and more recently Kyle. This is what happened. I proposed to Sebastian, who liked it and asked me to write to Kyle. I decided not to, believing I had failed to make the correct approach, but I was very surprised to receive a letter from Kyle, introducing himself, indicating that if I decide to go ahead, he will fight for "exclusivity" on the assets and that he currently couldn't say when they would be released to us. He also stated that if I decide to go ahead Eidos will offer their "full support" for the project.

The support I asked for was mainly assets, a point of contact, and use of their giant PR machine. I did mention retail, but again the issue there is that many people who have created improvements on DXMP are not around anymore so the idea of a MP DVD set with GOTY, DX2 and DX3 is not something I was chasing up, it could be a minefield. I've achieved target though, which was to have Eidos/DX3 agree to promote DXMP servers :) to DX3 players. There's nothing further I can tell you or show you, as his letter was an offer rather than an agreement, it was a short one. I will check my letters though and see exactly what it is I have asked for.

The fact that it was Kyle who wrote to us, and not us writing to Kyle, gives me a lot of confidence that Eidos is genuinely keen to support this project.

There are now six people on board. And Alex, you would be very welcome indeed. This is the weakness of the project at the moment, that until firmer committments from coders come, we can not guarantee weapons or augs to people.

I will say though, my proposal outlined the reasons and benefits and I gave professional references and links to work with other famous companies and stressed my experience in media project management.

off-topic, I meant to say "legally" to Tejas, but I'm glad you locked it, we've been reading these topics for years.
Last edited by Marder on Fri Nov 26, 10 12:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby ynnaD » Fri Nov 26, 10 12:50 am

I really hope this project succeeds, good luck with everything, its great to see such work still being pt into DX!
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Postby Marder » Fri Nov 26, 10 3:27 am

Thx, I really hope enough coders can spare the time, we have four decent mappers already.
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Postby Marder » Fri Nov 26, 10 10:31 am

update: Confirmed 6 mappers, one modeller and Tonnochi, who has visited Eidos and is expert in both games will be our Deus Ex Officianado (Officianado means expert, he likes the title :) )

Temporarily we will base ourselves at http://www.deusexmultiplayer.freeforums.org in the DXMP: HR section (which I'm sure I'm going to have to rename). We welcome anyone there, you don't have to be a worker to participate, brains and experience or even a player's point of view will be useful to us.

Any advice on how to relax Eidos about giving assets other than textures.
Last edited by Marder on Fri Nov 26, 10 10:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby James » Fri Nov 26, 10 6:32 pm

Just had a (cryptic) quick word with Kyle, you have my approval.
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Postby Hanover Fist » Fri Nov 26, 10 10:27 pm

This sounds like a project worth pursuing and grabs the attention of the DXMP die-hards who, for the past seven and a half years, have been looking for a way to stimulate the servers and player traffic. This is the first proposal I've ever heard that has tangible prospects. What I mean is, this appears to me to have the altogether likelihood of achieving what it embarks on... but only if it has the best possible people to work with and the proper support.

There is a multitude of uncredited coders who are qualified to model for this project. I'm not one, nor am I someone who knows them. But I can say that if there was an appropriate PR person for this project to help spread the word and intrigue the Deus Ex enthusiasts we already know are out there, then -- as you said -- we can begin to garner enough talent to make this proposal take shape as an active project. However, although this proposal has solid backing as well as solid potential to succeed, it is not unprecedented for a project to fall through and become an abandoned good idea... and nothing more.

With a project like this it has the structure and the resources to succeed, but with four months until release of DX3; the ideas of porting to DXMP, to doing all the the aforementioned ideas that Marder suggests, would require a rapid succession of "word of mouth" to bring the most people to the table. Fortunately, given DX's almost cult following, the few (but extensive few) who would be willing to offer their expertise to this project would be of course the most qualified.

There is, and I say this with confidence, no practical enthusiast of Deus Ex that would not support this project. If this information is spread to the right places it would immediately take, but it needs constantly growing support and activity to keep the project going to the end. With this support it will happen. It will because it has already been stated that it very well can.

As another supporter of this project I can only offer whatever help I can give to bring this proposal closer to results. But I'm not a coder, nor a mapper. I can read, write, and speak English very well so my only usefulness to this project would be spreading "word of mouth" and fostering a vision of inevitable success to prospective supporters (enthusiasts as I said), and can redirect more of them to the project. With Marder's vision made clear, every enthusiast out there can empathize, for as I said before, there are many die-hards out there who have tried to achieve smaller scaled projects to stimulate DX, and their visions, although not as broad or as solidly backed, are still motivated to the same ends as this proposal which does retain the solidarity of possible endorsement.
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Postby Hanover Fist » Fri Nov 26, 10 10:38 pm

If Eidos can see this project erupt with productivity within a short amount of time (weeks after its been proposed and months before DX3's release), they will feel it is more than just a good idea or a commendable effort. From what Marder has shared I think Eidos may already be mostly sold which means bringing productivity to them as soon as possible will seal the deal. Already with great mappers, (with an understood concept of Clay Hoffman's artistry mixed with Warren Specter's tone) there should be a bit of something impressive that can be presented.
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Postby Marder » Fri Nov 26, 10 11:34 pm

James wrote:...you have my approval

Well it's taken five years so I shall savour this moment of approval. :D

I'm much more confident about achieving this now that Protocol is on board. Also take a look at the augmentations in Deus Ex 3. One or two might cause a coder some pain and a couple seem semi-achievable although the visual aspects may be amusing, but in general, a lot of the augs already seem to exist or seem very easy to make in comparison to what we expected:

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=114908

Based on that review, do you think it is feasible to produce a playable number of augmentations?

And Reclaimer, you aren't wrong there, I am looking at the Hive Bar as a demonstration level. There are several areas of the Hive Bar we have already seen, the main bar, the front door, Tong's office, the vents, the upstairs gallery, while it would be incomplete, I think it would be worth replicating as soon as possible as a testbed level for the project to work with, once the project actually exists in this way it will be a lot easier for people to understand it and approve of it perhaps. While the gameplay vids show more of the Dockside, the dockside seemed nothing new, but the Hive Bar is unmistakeable as a Deus Ex 3 location.

Hacking obviously is far more advanced in Deus Ex 3. The only thing I could compare, is that keypads need more than one tool sometimes. Also security cameras in DXMP have 3 screens, maybe player has to bypass first camera, before he can bypass second camera etc.
Last edited by Marder on Fri Nov 26, 10 11:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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