Infinity Engine Toolset / Open Source IE
Sar_Yehudah
Member Posts: 135
I’m not sure the best place to ask, and I suspect it’s unlikely to ever happen, but I want to request that the Infinity Engine and associated Toolsets be released publicly and/or opensource.
I ask this because IE is the most underrated development kit for building ADnD adventures. It could be used to develop games based on other rulesets as well.
This is a plea for access to the engine. So many amazing products could be made with these tools.
I ask this because IE is the most underrated development kit for building ADnD adventures. It could be used to develop games based on other rulesets as well.
This is a plea for access to the engine. So many amazing products could be made with these tools.
1
Comments
YES PLEASE GOD IN HEAVEN!
Come on Beamdog! Do it! We'll LOVE YOU FOREVER.
not really. it's making little progress. it can be solved overnight by beamdog.
People could develop their own campaigns possibly changing the core mechanics somewhat too. Open source = freedom for everyone to do what they want.
The engine can entertain a fair amount of hackery IMO (e.g. I can emulate something very similar to an advantage/disadvantage system with only about 40 layered spell triggers and some clever scripting/state checks), but it is not the most... friendly and I think that's where the problem lies. As charming and old-timey as the IE is, it is generally easier to generate your own isometric engine via Unity/Unreal/whatever than it is to mess with the IE source code to make it more accessible for customization.
Also just because something is open-source does not mean that it is stable, robust, or accessible. Given enough time and effort, yes, those problems could be resolved, but it would probably be a more productive approach to start from scratch than to tear it apart and put it back together. Just some random 6am thoughts.
Thanks. Me too.
I'd like to see the source code released but it won't solve this problem. The devs have said multiple times that they won't do new games based on the IE engine because it's too hard to create new content and they have the source code. The big problem is that I don't think they have a toolset.
Source code access would enable the community to keep fixing engine bugs and add features, though it would take programmers (but I can think of at least four that would be all hands on deck if the source code were released.)
Anyway, i freely admit i'm not technically adept enough to comment with authority. However if they released the sourcecode, I imagine it would be possible for a community created toolset to be made, considering there's multiple editing and hacking tools without the sourcecode.
Because of the absurd amount of loot i've collected over time just in BG1 (and I need to go back and complete all of the dungeons in it too, I didn't know it would force me directly into a linear Dragonspear) and part way through Dragonspear, I've felt the nesting compulsion to hand over munitions to an army I don't have, along with armor, weapons, and supplies. I don't know how silly this sounds, but I wish I had my own little city state, with an army, that I can send on missions of my choosing with the horde of goodies I've collected.
Anyway, the battle with the crusader camp made me think of an adventure which features either A) a lot of pitched battles like the one mentioned, or B ) one which involves my own army of npcs which improve over time.
Thanks. I'll be okay. I don't think it'll come to having to live with a shit bag.
Please Julius relay my request to Beamdog. I don't think it benefits them to sit on IE sourcecode indefinitely unless they actually are going to make new games with it.
I see. I was worried that was the case. Is it true there is no toolset?
Yes. I can think of only one bespoke tool--a command-line utility that builds BAMs from PNGs during the build process. Otherwise, everything we use is the same that modders use: WeiDU, Near Infinity, DLTCEP, etc.
The problem with large-scale projects has never been the tools, but the time.
THIS
@JuliusBorisov
if you guys released the IE source code, you should realize that sales are likely to skyrocket due to the modding / content creation potential. For example, Jedi Academy has its source code released, and will be supported, with custom content, untl the end of time. But Lucasarts (or Disney a this point) still makes money off of every sale.