There are a lot of valuable points here at least from active users and we cant speak for others of course. It seems that generally speaking users can see clearly the main issues they themselves find of general concern and that at least broadly speaking there is some consistency.
Apart from the obvious fact that as TGC point out and users too often which we all accept that Reloaded is in Beta we can expect that of course there will be glitches, issues and bugs creep in to the development and there may also be times when the engine direction may have to change and sometimes things be changed quite drastically to re-write things or update them in a major way and so on. Things added may even need to be dropped out completely as we have seen. All things seen to be part of games engines development perhaps. I am no expert and know little of the day to day back end stuff I am afraid.
A lot of things that seem to be issues that crop up and or exist may well of course be things which can be easily corrected and put to rights. Things that are not show stoppers. There will no doubt be a lot of them throughout development. Not sure why there always need be so many that always seem to exist and keep creeping in constantly even when apparently have been attended to sometimes and more each and every release much like a classic repeat with endless numbers forever. Often things that seem to be well done and working correctly and to a good standard which one may be happy with are updated next version and the result is not so good. Some of those things may be personal preferences like water reflections, player movement and so on which have to be set somewhere. If they work or are at acceptable levels that's the main thing. All in all, these could be said to be minor things though at the end of the day some or an accumulation of these things can have a major impact on a quality of game overall perhaps. A large number of issues or poor quality game content items could impact quite adversely on a game. (presuming these are not solely of user item included relevance). All of those things may be part and parcel of making a game engine and main things are clearly of greater importance in the first instance with details perhaps being subjective and secondary concerns.
Certainly I presume that when making a game engine as with any other product there is a plan and you make one before you start so you know what you will do and how you will do it. Then you start at the beginning and work you way to the end doing the first things first on your plan and so on. Ticking off the first thing and move onto the next in some sort of sensible logical order presuming that the first thing is required to be done before you can do the second? Makes sense to me but maybe its not. I understand that things don't always go to plan of course as we all do so variation in the light of reality may be needed, whilst keeping an eye on the overall plan and objectives and that the targets are being reached along the way if there are any in the first place of course.
All in all core plan features and targets would I imagine be the ultimate priorities to adhere to and achieve and the finer details added when they are in place ready to add whatever additional features, functions and non essential extras can be to make further enhancements if capability and other potential restraints allow when that can be confirmed.
The main issues and not ignoring all users stated concerns above of course at all I would think most viewpoints either agree on or would be required to support them further are as DVader has listed are the three points he has made to list a bare minimum set of core pre-requisites relevant to any engine and an FPS shooter engine in particular.
1. Performance. Arguably insufficient to support the product into the future to allow for addition of envisaged feature set and aspirations for the product even given some small improvements and high end - end user software/hardware technologies. Ideally one would I presume like to see a high level of spare capacity to allow game makers to create game levels and potentially large complex and complete games of a high quality nature to achieve the said objectives as the product aspires to achieve.
2. Memmory. Same as above.
3. AI. As in the first instance being an FP Shooter AI should be the priority of being at the peak of a Reloaded games features. AI should be at least at a level of quality minimum to support and in balance with the quality of the rest of the engine or exceed it if possible.
We are all ware that creating a decent AI system for in game play and user interaction with Characters whether enemies, player allies and teams or no combatant civilian or other type AI's as well as other types of dynamic world object entities, machines, birds, vehicles and so on is a difficult task and not easy to achieve at any game engine level to say the least. Hopefully however we will see a reasonable attempt at somewhat decent enemy AI and their behaviors at least.
Such would be a big boost to Reloaded and its promotion too if achieved. The hype as being a good thing? as someone mentioned will do no good but more harm in the long time unless you can substantiate it and if not will be extremely detrimental if not so already.
When looking for an FP Shooter game engine to me at least I don't mind at all looking at all of the nice eye candy just like anyone else - I love it - but having the ability to look beyond that I am really more interested in checking out how many real games are made with an engine that include enemy or other Characters, how good are they and their behaviours that I can see in practical application and importantly will I be able to make use of them and actually make a game with the engine including the same. If not its not much use to me if I want to make an FP Shooter game is it.
As far as Reloaded goes to date its not too bad except for the level of performance and fps which wont let me do anything much more complicated. I can make some lovely outdoor Terrains which I am very happy about that is if I could extend them to complete them as it were but wont be able to do so by adding much more content than I have now in them.
Not considering the addition of buildings ad so on and the Content Creator feature for the moment. I have an outdoors environment and I have enemies. I have weapons and have some building entities and so on I can add an use so I have all the basic elements I need to make an fps game, Yes?
In its basic form I don't need anything else to make an FP Shooter Game. Though I can see numerous things and perhaps everything can do with some improvement I am reasonably happy with the general level of quality game level at this stage which is acceptable to date given improvements can be made wherever possible. Water for example.
What is not at an acceptable level in the main is the above things.
Now when as said it comes to AI we all know that unless anything has changed that AI and dynamic objects, AI in particular if it is to be of anything other than a very, very basic level of AI is by tradition a very complicated feature and that AI behaviors, thinking, obstacle avoidance, pathfinding, physics and so on is likely to be a very heavy burden on any game engine and its efficiency requiring a lot of processing power and eating up much resources especially if heavy use of AI is apparent in a level.
It follows therefore that including anything other than very basic AI may well require some considerable improvement in the other two mentioned above points at issue. Again generally speaking by experience we know that low performance, poor engine efficiency and lack of or poor memory management can result in very poor AI performance and instabilities and bad behaviours. Not being aware of the player, collision issues, getting totally confused when too many AI enemies are active at once in a level and so on. Such can affect other dynamic entities and even of course the player movement, physics and collision and so on.
I understand that the AI is currently being worked on and improvements are likely to be forthcoming perhaps which would be most welcome. As a Pre-requisuite as far as I would understand it in an FPS game I am keen to see what kind of AI we can have and achieve from the outset. What Reloaded is capable of delivering in this feature first as last.
Earlier, much earlier we had heard of AI having quite advanced features and allied to some of their internal character animation sets. For example, jumping over boxes, hiding behind boxes, shooting out from behind boxes or hiding and peeking while shooting from behind buildings, walls or other obstacles, staffing while shooting, moving backwards while shooting, climbing ladders and more. If that's going to be the case then lets have it - while other things like the Constriction Kit are being developed by others.
Apart from Performance and Memory, AI is core so lets see it and have it first as last ready to use when the construction kit gets here. Then you have if any good an engine to show off never mind the hype lets see the real deal. Nothing can be lost by that and only good to be gained.
I have attached a screen shot of a very, very simple level I created a while ago to test AI. You can see this is very basic but also as far as AI is concerned very complex. Why?
Well nothing difficult for AI - just me - them (Two enemies)and some boxes on a completely flat terrain - lets not make it too complicated in construction at least eh!
Of course it is very complicated for enemies behaviour stand alone at the moment as there are no paths and so on and they don't have a lot of brains and or what they may have is being confused by other issues.
Now here I have the makings of all that's needed to make a good FPS game.
The objective - well stay alive, kill the enemies and have a good fun time whilst doing it. i.e. make a good enjoyable fps game.
If you can do that with what I have in the level then I have the makings of good AI and a good fps game. Just think what we can then do with a little effort and some decent AI enemies.
All it requires is some basic and reasonable and fair AI intelligence and behaviours :
Are they aware of the player?
If so at what distance?
Can they see or hear the player.
Do they react when they see the player?
Can they track the player when he moves around and hides?
Can they shoot the player?
If hurt do they run away or hide?
Can they seek help from other enemies?
Work s a team?
Go find health and replenish their heath if weak or call support from other enemies and attack in a groups even if each has low health? Are they aware of how much health another enemy in a group has?
Can they go look for a more powerful or appropriate weapon if they need one to defeat the player?
In a fair fight all being equal can they defeat the player? ever? without giving them to much strength or alike of course.
Do they have varying tactics and do they have different animation sets they call when doing their thing?
Can they access the player position and movement and strength and react variably to it to their best advantage.
Can they behave similarly if the player has allies and other team members to consider?
Most of the above of course is advanced AI so in the main some basic Yes answers would be initially helpful. Advanced AI of any value may never happen but some basics would be nice to have or get fixed. Looking forward to it.
Currently AI can really answer no to all of the above in my level example so improvement would be very helpful. First off they are simply unaware of the player at distance so can't respond. The player can of course kill them without taking any hit at all as he has a sniper rifle. Not fair you say. Well sorry as far as I am aware I cant give them a sniper rifle. Anyway don't expect me to be fair and use a colt do you? - they have to be clever and at least try and be a bit smarter, not me be fair. That's the whole point
Well the real point is they are oblivious to the player at range. May be suitable for an indoor dungeon crawler but not necessarily outdoors/indoors games.
