Announcing New Horizons Remastered - Bringing our best work to Unity

[Captain Murphy]

Thanks, @Captain Murphy.

Then some more questions:
1. How easy/hard is it to add "modding support" to the 'official' version? How much modding would be possible?
2. How much extra work would it be to maintain two code bases at the same time, one "open source" and one "'official' closed source"?
3. For "closed source", how would it be decided who gets access and who does not?

You definitely have a lot of very valid points there.
It actually matches relatively well with what I had hoped to get going with PotC:NH,
to have one person in charge of sticking all experimental code into an "alpha" mod
and have another person in charge of a more polished official version.
I do believe that could make for a very workable situation, but does rely on having the manpower to pull it off.

To clarify on my other question: If I read your answer correctly, "closed source" has nothing to do with "commercial/pay-for-play".

1. Mods would be serialized asset bundles that can be 'picked up' on by the core code on startup or on a demand (i.e we could have a web based mod downloader that adds the mod to the game). Modders would use a toolset that we provide to build their mod. It could be as simple as adding a ship (serialized code file and model file) to including a new character controller (managed code that extends or overrides the current classes).
2. The code could be abstracted out so that the second code base simply extends or overrides the open source code instead of trying to replace it.
3. Based on the same type of control we currently use for almost all other code that PA! controls.

Correct, closed source does not mean a paid version, simply a version that is more accepted and supported by the PA! staff directly with some unique added features.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. Mods would be serialized asset bundles that can be 'picked up' on by the core code on startup or on a demand (i.e we could have a web based mod downloader that adds the mod to the game). Modders would use a toolset that we provide to build their mod. It could be as simple as adding a ship (serialized code file and model file) to including a new character controller (managed code that extends or overrides the current classes).

How much extra work would it be to create that required toolset?

2. The code could be abstracted out so that the second code base simply extends or overrides the open source code instead of trying to replace it.

Cool!

3. Based on the same type of control we currently use for almost all other code that PA! controls.

PotC:NH has "everything available for everyone".
But the "CoAS Source Code" has been kept within a small group of people.
HoO was different again.

My main question is: If there is a closed source, how would we determine who to trust with it?
Would we need to set some requirements for people to fill in order to gain access?
For example, for them to have substantially contributed to the open source version first?
If so, what is "substantially"?

Correct, closed source does not mean a paid version, simply a version that is more accepted and supported by the PA! staff directly with some unique added features.

Well, I personally am not opposed to the concept, that's for sure.

 

[Jack Rackham]

Looks very good in Unity!

 

[Carl]

I tried the demo today, and I am simply wowed. Cool graphics, very good lighting. Someone else stated, that it is nice to be able to leave the paths and go over the greens - and yes, this is a feature, that should be expanded.
Sadly I wasn´t able to find the button to sail around, did read it later here. But hopefully tomorrow I´ll have some time to sail around the island.

In short: the demo hooks!

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Really really thrilled to see this come to fruition! I can't wait to try the demo once I'm back from vacation

The graphical difference (and potential) in the screens between this and potc New Horizons is very apparent!
I'm happy to help with testing and assets, and I'll get an inventory of what I might have ready to be ported over.

For now though, I'll test the demo, and see what feedback I can give!

 

[Peter Willemoes]

Sink me if this demo is not the best loot I've tailed aboard in a long time!
A good crew built this. With a good captain at the wheel, aye Armada.
It looks like the good ol' ship "New Horizons" is coming about once again.
Oh well, she might still be a bit loose on the stays, but the timbers seem solid - sailing feels more natural than ever and the character control is logic and intuitive.
And somebody listened to the old bilge rats and our prayers about not taking on too big a mouthful.
Putting a small amount of toys in a small sandbox was a wise decision.
Like every great story have humble beginnings and a small cargo hold won't wear down the crew or sink the ship in a storm
I have no doubt this crew can do it have fun and wish ya'll the best!
And nice to see you're still in here, Pieter and Rackham mateys

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Good to see you in these waters again and thanks for the kind words, @Peter Willemoes!
They're much appreciated, I'm sure.

 

[Peter Willemoes]

Yeah Pieter I hope so, afterall they are almost starting from scratch.
Remember how you started modding an (un)finished game in 2003 and eight years later a huge crowd were still on it? Must be a Guiness Book of Records "longest modding marathon" record, I am sure

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yeah Pieter I hope so, afterall they are almost starting from scratch.

Definitely!

Remember how you started modding an (un)finished game in 2003 and eight years later a huge crowd were still on it? Must be a Guiness Book of Records "longest modding marathon" record, I am sure

How could I forget?
And we're still going now, 14 years later, though that's largely thanks to @Grey Roger and @Jack Rackham as well.
I myself didn't join until 2004 though, so I missed the really early bit.

 

[sixthrate]

Sad that HoO won't see the light of day, but this is the next best thing. I'm very much looking forward to it.

Great work with the demo, especially the ships. The gentle rocking/swaying makes them really come alive. And I absolutely love the seamless transition between the deck and cabin. Makes me want to start unpacking my sea chest.

A few questions:

1. Is it in the cards for the player to eventually be able to walk around the ship while controlling/sailing it? (PotC/CoAS mods have spoiled me in that regard)

2. Any chance you can widen the aft hatch? The player avatar currently can't squeeze through to access the lower decks.

3. Is there a first-person player camera? (Can't remember if PotC had that)


Thanks.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. Is it in the cards for the player to eventually be able to walk around the ship while controlling/sailing it? (PotC/CoAS mods have spoiled me in that regard)

You mean in 3D Sailing Mode? Indeed I imagine that will eventually be included.

What I personally wonder about is whether it is feasible to have you control your player character on deck while the ship sails.
That's one thing PotC/CoAS doesn't do and would be a huge step up in my book.

3. Is there a first-person player camera? (Can't remember if PotC had that)

You mean while controlling your player character ashore?
PotC does have one, but I'm not convinced it is particularly useful/playable with that.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Hey, you modeled the entire island! It took 2:40 to circumnavigate it. This could get interesting later.

 

[Armada]

I'm happy to help with testing and assets, and I'll get an inventory of what I might have ready to be ported over.

Thanks! You've probably got enough ships to make up a large chunk of the Napoleonic fleet alone, which will be useful.

A few questions:

1. Is it in the cards for the player to eventually be able to walk around the ship while controlling/sailing it? (PotC/CoAS mods have spoiled me in that regard)

2. Any chance you can widen the aft hatch? The player avatar currently can't squeeze through to access the lower decks.

3. Is there a first-person player camera? (Can't remember if PotC had that)

1. Yes, I'd like to add an on-deck camera of some sort for manually aiming the guns and using a spyglass.

2. This is a tricky one. I think we'll either need to add a teleport between decks, or create an animation for seamlessly climbing up and down ladders with the character collider disabled so it can fit through. The latter would be preferable, but the former is probably a good short-term solution.

3. There's no first-person camera yet, but it's fairly straightforward to implement. I don't think we'll want that for combat, but we could have one for exploration like PotC does.

What I personally wonder about is whether it is feasible to have you control your player character on deck while the ship sails.
That's one thing PotC/CoAS doesn't do and would be a huge step up in my book.

In theory, that's also doable, so long as we keep the player firmly glued to the deck so you can't fall off the ship.

This would have some implications for the typical functions you perform on deck, such as visiting your cabin, since the ship would still be moving and potentially being fired at. We'll probably have to keep using static decks until we can work this out properly.

Either way, I'm fairly confident we can ditch the old static deck models from PotC and CoAS and just use the ships themselves from now on. I know this leaves us without boarding locations with two ships, but I reckon we can combine two static ships into a single scene and add boarding ramps for this purpose.

 

[Homo eructus]

All of this is sounding better and better, and looking amazing. I took a couple of screenshots from the demo and the ships look stunning even up close. Truly , the Storm engine, God bless it, didn't do them justice.

 

[MrMundy]

Goodness me this looks absolutly fantastic!
I am in deep love with you guys now; it's time to pirate!
I believe I said this before, but you guys really deserve money for this. Would donate if you gave us the option.

 

[SuperCrumpets]

Omg this is amazing, just thinking of the possibilities is already too much.
without the limits of the old engine you could literally turn NH into my ultimate dream game :O :O :O :O

 

[jaco]

Wow! This is the news we've been waiting for.

I sailed right around the island. It took hours. I like realistic sailing, but time compression option would take some of the tedium out of it. The new music is great, but I missed all the familiar sfx from the Build mod - wind, crew chatter etc. Had to do a lot of tacking to get around the island and noticed that turning the ship is quite arcade-y. It seems to pivot without moving forward.

The combat practice was fun. Looking forward to seeing how these develop!

A really outstanding demo -- thanks guys.

 

[Sherlockzor]

Hey guys,

Is it okay to assume the hearts of oak forum will become the forum for this game or will there be a new forum for New Horizon standalone?
I've got some questions and points I'd like to address and I would love to get involved into the team working on this.

 

[Captain Murphy]

Hey guys,

Is it okay to assume the hearts of oak forum will become the forum for this game or will there be a new forum for New Horizon standalone?
I've got some questions and points I'd like to address and I would love to get involved into the team working on this.

We will be creating a new forum for the game. We don't want to confuse any of the older posts and mechanics with this game. We also want to make a clear line between the two projects so as to minimize future issues.

 

[Armada]

For those asking about a forum: I've now set up a new category for New Horizons Remastered, which you'll see in the forum list.
You can discuss anything about its development (e.g. gameplay mechanics) in the Development sub-forum, and if you want to make a model or port a model for the game, you can post about that in the Assets sub-forum.

It will be a bit of a free-for-all to start with, but we'll add some guidelines to keep things organised later on.