Hostile Waters

[Varsity]

​

I'm looking to form a team to recreate Hostile Waters, the stripped down and sexed up reworking of 1988 classic Carrier Command, in Source.

While HW might have been the single-player game of 2000 it lacked any form of customisability or multi-player - and thus longevity. By porting the game to the Source engine and platform both problems are solved at a stroke and today's player base is reintroduced to an actual GAME.

I have full and enthusiastic permission to carry out the conversion from both developer (RIP Rage: now Swordfish Studios) and publisher.

DETAILS

My personal, rough, initial ideas are:

• Huge graphical, AI, physics and animation improvements while keeping the same visual style
• The ability to create custom content including vehicles and islands
• The full single-player game with minimal gameplay alterations
• An expansive multi-player element including:
  - A Halo 2-style team/clan-centred 'join game' interface alongside the more traditional server list method
  - Multiple gametypes, for instance, deathmatch, carrier/team deathmatch, assault, etc.
  - Customisable vehicles, from weaponry and armour to colours and decals
  - Co-op mode against the computer both on the singleplayer islands and dedicated islands created purely for co-op

Please send me a PM or e-mail me at [email protected] if you want to know more or are interested in any way!

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Me! Me! Me!

I should also point out that it did have multiplayer, but it was removed.

 

[Varsity]

Yeah, that's one of the interesting things I was told by Swordfish. I've PMed you.

 

[Parias]

I'm definately in support of this project, even if I sadly don't have much to offer aside from a crazed fanboy love of the original game. But given how you've been in contact with the developers, have you got any leads on potential tools for unpacking the game's data files? Having access to textures, sounds, and possibly even model information might help loads in bringing this mod to light - I've seen a few wannabe programs that claim to be able to get into the original game's pants, but ultimately failed to do anything useful.

This is definately something I've wanted to see happen for a long time, but because I lack any kind of significant modding experience beyond basic map designing, I wasn't sure how it could be done. Really awesome to see that somebody else out there had similar ideas - Hostile Waters was really underrated for its time, and I hope this can help get the game some more exposure.

 

[Varsity]

I sent an e-mail about unpacking tools to Swordfish last night. Although I'd personally like to see a fresh start on the game's resources, it's foolish to think the audio could be bettered by a mere mod team. Thanks for the support!

 

[Kyorisu]

Wow the first mod to actually appeal to me in the right light. I loved the original game it kept you interested in the most difficult of situations. Those "Disasemblers" where a good laugh.

Well if the mod gets of the ground I'd help. My field of genius lies within mapping and partially modelling.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

The original assets would be a very good starting point. Obviously, they'd all need to be remade.

 

[Varsity]

I've got some music extracted for anyone who wants to listen. Sound effects, voices and cinematics won't be so easy, though.

 

[Parias]

I've got some music extracted for anyone who wants to listen. Sound effects, voices and cinematics won't be so easy, though.

Voices in particular are important to get ahold of - given the wide degree of character interaction and randomness of the exact commentary used (the way the different characters applauded or insulted one another, in particular), trying to get samples of the audio through indirect means could be difficult. Here's hoping some manner of unlocking tools can be provided.

I agree that a lot of other details may have to be recreated... so long as the voices, music, and sound effects can at least be copied then you'd have a strong base to recreate the game from in an accurate fashion, but everything else would indeed most likely have to be remade. Since you're updating to the Source engine anyways however, it would offer a good chance to get the game looking better than ever. My only other concern is within map size - some of the levels in Hostile Waters were pretty damn huge and complex, and you might have to deal with the issue of trying to play with the scaling options to get something satisfactory that won't totally kill the game engine

 

[Varsity]

If we make the Scarab a similar size to the recon buggy it should be OK. Source can do some fairly large maps - I think the figure is 16x HL1 maps in all directions.

 

[Parias]

If we make the Scarab a similar size to the recon buggy it should be OK. Source can do some fairly large maps - I think the figure is 16x HL1 maps in all directions.

Which is pretty large, I'll certainly admit, but I think one of the biggest missions in Hostile Waters was the one where you had to rescue the Cabal scientists, and the escort the truck convoy to the docks - the size of that island was really, really large and took some time to cross, even with an aircraft, and it'll be interesting to see if the HL2 engine can actually handle a map of that size. Trying to replicate the actual terrain on a map like that will also take quite a bit of hard effort...

 

[Kyorisu]

Some of the levels in Hostile Waters were pretty damn huge and complex, and you might have to deal with the issue of trying to play with the scaling options to get something satisfactory that won't totally kill the game engine

Your view distance ingame compared to the entire map size is pretty small. Dealing with the common rendering whats offscreen, fiddling around enough with visportals will help.

As you'll remember yes those maps where pretty damn big. I'm sure this isn't much of a set back, but not every part of those islands where densley populated with foliage or military bases.

On the scale note look what HL Rally did.

 

[Gray Fox]

Damn, this is sooo cool, I thought I was the only one who liked this game, I mean damn I still have it on my pc, I just like it so much. If I had any skills exept posting useless spam I would definatly help out , or do you want me to spread the word, I can do that. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

 

[Varsity]

If you could in a (and I don't mean to be rude) completely non-trolling, non-spamming, non-off topic way that would be great.

 

[Varsity]

http://mods.moddb.com/4287/