Announcing New Horizons Remastered - Bringing our best work to Unity

[Captain Murphy]

I will bet that the physics are set to a frame dependant speed instead of frame limited. We saw that issue with the ToW physics as well when folks with powerhouse machines would play. It would do certain calculations more often than things like gravity and stuff went bonkers a few seconds. If I get a chance I will look into porting an older ToW buoyancy over.

 

[Sharlatan]

Tested time compression on the x64 build. Worked for me. But had to remap it; it wasn't +/- for me .. maybe because of region settings?

 

[Carl]

I tried the x64 version today, first time under sails. What I really like is the water, and that one can see the ground. I directly started looking for fish!

And the ship... Splendid, especially, that I can walk inside the captains quarter through an open door.

Also very nice was a trip inside the town. DId you remove the loading part between entrance and Mayor Home/Inn/Seller? I definatley would love to walk in one town instead of all the loading screens between parts of it.

Thanks, and keep it on, you´re doing a simply fantastic job here!

 

[jaco]

Time compression worked fine for me on x64. Could speed it up or slow right down. I noticed it works for Nat walking around town as well. Could do with a notification of how fast or slow it's running.

The new sinking mechanic looks good. I sank the ship twice, and it went down differently each time! The health bar seems to stay put even when the ship is sunk.

The only thing I don't like is the way the ship pivots when you turn her while hardly moving forward. I can spin her right around in a circle virtually on the spot, but I guess all this will be adjusted later.

This is really great, and it looks gorgeous!

 

[Captain Murphy]

I tried the x64 version today, first time under sails. What I really like is the water, and that one can see the ground. I directly started looking for fish!

And the ship... Splendid, especially, that I can walk inside the captains quarter through an open door.

Also very nice was a trip inside the town. DId you remove the loading part between entrance and Mayor Home/Inn/Seller? I definatley would love to walk in one town instead of all the loading screens between parts of it.

Thanks, and keep it on, you´re doing a simply fantastic job here!

We are currently going to follow the same flow as the Akella games use with each location being a separate scene that we can serialize the data from individually (helps with save files and abse scripting). We will be keeping the loading screen between scene changes just like the original until new towns can be made that are all one larger scene without the breaks.

 

[Ketchup]

Looks fabulous chaps! Couple quick questions: will there be PotC characters like Danielle and Rhys Bloom in the "finished" version? The Starting Up text when you load the game seems a bit odd. Something simple like just "Loading" would make more sense and be better aesthetically. Also is there hopes for all the islands to be added in including story specific such as Khael Roa/Cozumel? Anyway, great start and hope it all goes well

 

[con20or]

This is great news - good luck with the project!

 

[Jack Rackham]

I have to ask too, even if it may be too early: do you plan to import the storylines too?
Or will it be a complete new game starting from the old POTC/NH?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have to ask too, even if it may be too early: do you plan to import the storylines too?

At the moment, there is no dialog, nor quest system at all.

Technically it will be a completely new game; not a port.
Eventually, @Armada does intend to allow for an easy way to port quests from PotC to NHR:

A Renewed Focus on Storytelling
The aim is for quest writers to have an easy way to port their quests from PotC or CoAS, opening up new possibilities for storytelling. With the freedom provided by the Unity engine, old quests can take advantage of far more powerful features including in-game cutscenes, dynamic events and custom gameplay mechanics and animations.

I don't know yet what that will end up looking like though. There is no guarantee we'll end up with the same worldmap as PotC, or even the same locations.
Eventually all of the 3D assets are supposed to be replaced with our own custom material.

Also not sure how such special storylines like Woodes Rogers and The Gold-Bug would end up functioning.
But I assume there must be a way of implementing your style of puzzles as well and probably much smoother than the Storm 2 engine allows.

 

[Armada]

WOW! Just wanted to congrats to all the crew for this awesome venture you mates started.
I would be really honored if some of my tracks could be part of the soundtrack too
Anyway, can´t wait to keep trying the upcoming builds!

I've listened to your tracks, as well as all the others Pieter gathered into the Hearts of Oak soundtrack, and I've given some thought to how all of them can fit into the game, so yours will find their way into a future build.
That was part of the reason I decided to scrap the old PotC music, as we've already got enough original music (of a very high quality!) to fill most of the game.

For everyone's reference, these are the tracks currently used in the demo:

• Main menu: "Hearts of Oak" by @Flannery
• Port, town and ship deck: "The Dock" by @J. Cava
• Tavern: "Pirate Tavern" by J. Cava
• Sailing: "Far Away" by Flannery

Tested time compression on the x64 build. Worked for me. But had to remap it; it wasn't +/- for me .. maybe because of region settings?

For me, it's = to increase and - to decrease time compression, by default. It might depend on your keyboard layout.

Also very nice was a trip inside the town. DId you remove the loading part between entrance and Mayor Home/Inn/Seller? I definatley would love to walk in one town instead of all the loading screens between parts of it.

As Captain Murphy says, we're keeping the individual town locations with loading between them for now.

Fun fact: although we've blocked it off in the demo, the left side of the town (as you enter from the port) is partially modelled, so you could walk around it and end up back in the main town square. Obviously, quite a lot of that location is missing as it's meant to be a separate model, but it suggests the town was originally built as one model and then split up.

Could do with a notification of how fast or slow it's running.

Agreed, I'll look into that. I think we'll need to limit it to a minimum of 1x speed to prevent slow motion, too.

The only thing I don't like is the way the ship pivots when you turn her while hardly moving forward. I can spin her right around in a circle virtually on the spot, but I guess all this will be adjusted later.

Yeah, it's not perfect at the moment. This will be adjusted iteratively until it feels about right.

Also is there hopes for all the islands to be added in including story specific such as Khael Roa/Cozumel?

Possibly. All the islands will eventually need to be replaced with new models, but we'll use the old ones as placeholders for now.

I have to ask too, even if it may be too early: do you plan to import the storylines too?
Or will it be a complete new game starting from the old POTC/NH?

We'd like to import as many of the storylines as possible. The only exceptions will be those that use copyrighted material, such as the Jack Sparrow and Hornblower stories.

I'm hoping to have a basic dialogue and quest system implemented fairly soon, and at that point, I'll try to port something simple like the Rhys Bloom quest to demonstrate it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Agreed, I'll look into that. I think we'll need to limit it to a minimum of 1x speed to prevent slow motion, too.

On the other hand, some slow motion ship battles could look pretty epic in video trailers.

 

[Cheeki]

Will it be possible to travel between the islands and meet other vessels in the high seas without going to the map of the world? Sorta like with 'Direct Sail' from the New Horizons.

EDIT: Also which age the game will be represent? 1660-something like the COAS or 1750?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Also which age the game will be represent? 1660-something like the COAS or 1750?

Eventually this is intended to be an improved version of the New Horizons mod, so I imagine it'll aim to replicate the "Periods" functionality.
That means it'll have several different ages included, spanning the range from Early Explorers to Napoleonic.

So short answer: ALL of them.

 

[con20or]

am i doing something wrong? i cant seem to get onto the ship - ive tried running in window and full mode, walking down every pier - i dont see any way of getting on or an anchor icon, etc. My version is 32 bit when i run it, i dont see a way of running 64bit?

Edit - never mind see the comments about itch now

 

[Armada]

Will it be possible to travel between the islands and meet other vessels in the high seas without going to the map of the world? Sorta like with 'Direct Sail' from the New Horizons.

EDIT: Also which age the game will be represent? 1660-something like the COAS or 1750?

We'd like to have a direct sail system, yes. It should be possible to do this without any loading screens between islands.

The demo doesn't have a strict time period set yet, as it's basically a case of porting whatever we can to prototype the game systems first. The date is set to 1750, but this may change once we start adding storylines. Full support for multiple periods is the end goal, but we'll aim to get just one period implemented first (likely the mid-18th century).

 

[Armada]

Regarding open versus closed source:

We have decided to remain closed source to allow use of additional assets from the Unity Store to speed up development.

There will be a short initial period to set up the basic framework of the game using pre-made assets where applicable. After this period, we will open applications for developers to be granted access to the code to contribute to the game. We will outline the criteria for this process once they're finalised.

This decision does not affect artists who wish to add their assets to the game. For now, you can submit FBX model files and PNG texture files if you want them to be added. Later on, we will provide a small Unity project to allow you to set up and submit game-ready assets to make the pipeline more efficient.

 

[ptisinge]

This sounds awesome, looking forward to see where this will go.

Using Unity might be good news for the part that interests me the most: it's very easy to implement VR support using Unity. If I was not busy parenting with a 2 months old daughter I would have raised my hand to experiment with that (C/C++ coder, have played with VR in Unity to test that with my HTC Vive) as New Horizon in VR is a thing I've been dreaming to see since I first put my hands on VR headsets (and I'm pretty much immune to VR sickness, so I'm not afraid of VR sailing in a storm, bring it on!)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

We have decided to remain closed source to allow use of additional assets from the Unity Store to speed up development.

That's a big decision right there! Probably a wise one too.

 

[Captain Murphy]

This sounds awesome, looking forward to see where this will go.

Using Unity might be good news for the part that interests me the most: it's very easy to implement VR support using Unity. If I was not busy parenting with a 2 months old daughter I would have raised my hand to experiment with that (C/C++ coder, have played with VR in Unity to test that with my HTC Vive) as New Horizon in VR is a thing I've been dreaming to see since I first put my hands on VR headsets (and I'm pretty much immune to VR sickness, so I'm not afraid of VR sailing in a storm, bring it on!)

Honestly, just adding VR is easy. The UI part is the complete and utter nightmare trying to build everything in world space and make it functional.

 

[Grey Roger]

We'd like to import as many of the storylines as possible. The only exceptions will be those that use copyrighted material, such as the Jack Sparrow and Hornblower stories.

How sensitive are you to copyright? If it's just the videos which are the issue, both storylines would work without them.

If it's all material with copyright issues, would ships from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise (Black Pearl, Flying Dutchman, Queen Anne's Revenge) be left out? If so, that has implications for "Tales of a Sea Hawk" and the "Elizabeth Shaw" sidequest.

Or are "Jack Sparrow" and "Hornblower" at risk because their plots are partly derived from their respective film and TV sources? In that case, anyone writing new storylines will need to be careful to write original stories not based on any existing film, TV or book.