BZFlag is a lot worse than I thought it was. Its complete horribleness.

I could've told you that...

I just downlaoded a bunch of level packs. I should now have most popular net levels. I'm working through learning the maps in single-player mode. I downloaded the highest-rated and most-downloaded packs, guessing that those are the most often-played.

Man, VoodooChild and I were just recalling some of the great memories we had in Showdown. No matter how NEXTGEN!@@!# everything gets, some of the best multiplayer battles ever were in that map.

I hereby petition Ambrosia to bring Avara back, true to form! In fact, I would LOVE to see it on Xbox Live Arcade for 400pts!

Every couple of months there seems to be a reminiscing post on Avara...How quaint.

Once upon a time, I whooped on a lot of your asses, played all broadband AA games, and got whooped upon by Malkavian, generally in his own levels.

It was fun, and there's a reason why my college GPA was near 2....

So what programming issues stand in the way of porting Avara to OSX and/or Intel Mac?

The compiler for the code no longer exists, and implementing things such as OpenGL and accelerator could not be implemented without rewriting the game from the ground up.

But aside from that it would be a breeze.

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The compiler for the code no longer exists, and implementing things such as OpenGL and accelerator could not be implemented without rewriting the game from the ground up.

But aside from that it would be a breeze.

I don't know where anyone got the notion that it would be possible to port Avara. It's clear as day that ship has sailed. I also don't know why Ambrosia seems to think there is no audience for a new Avara. There will always be demand for good online multiplayer first person shooters. Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

We want a rewrite from the ground up. We want a new game that's shiny and OS X compatible.

This post has been edited by Groove : 06 May 2007 - 10:50 AM

Grunk, have you ever written a program? People who do not know how to write programs should not complain about the slowness of development/etc.

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Grunk, have you ever written a program? People who do not know how to write programs should not complain about the slowness of development/etc.

I'm not complaining about slowness of development. There is no development. And if there was any trace of development for a new Avara announced, I would be overjoyed.

Mmm Avara 2 :wub:

@embryo-a-go-go, on Mar 20 2007, 11:38 PM, said in A Momentary Lapse of Resuscitation...:

I hereby petition Ambrosia to bring Avara back, true to form! In fact, I would LOVE to see it on Xbox Live Arcade for 400pts!

I don't think Avara could be played well with a thumbsitck.

As for the possibility of an Avara port, well, it's possible. 3 or 4 experienced and focused programmers, staying out of each others' way, using open-source libraries, could easily get it done in a year, if not a summer.

Problem is, I don't know four experienced programmers in the Avara community who could stay focused and out of each others' way -- which is why an OS X Avara isn't likely to come out of the Avara community. I certainly can't commit to it right now, games distract people from eternity, so I can't justify the work to myself.

You could petition Ambrosia, but remember that Ambrosia is more of a publishing house and close developer support and quality control than an actual full development company (they do blur the line, however). Someone from outside would have to bring the idea in with experience and commitment.

This post has been edited by Plastic Chicken : 09 April 2007 - 12:33 AM

Avara is too complicated for an xbox controller. I'm sure there are other games similar to it on xbox.

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Avara is too complicated for an xbox controller. I'm sure there are other games similar to it on xbox.

It wouldn't be popular enough to justify porting it. Even though the idea is just a dream, here's one controller layout I think could work.

Left Analog Stick: Move
Right Analog Stick: Look
A: Crouch/Jump
Y: Arm missile
Right Shoulder Button: Fire grenade or fire missile if missile is armed
Black: Call scout
White: Lock scout

It would have to make superjumping impossible, because you don't have a bajillion jump keys.

While we're on the subject of ports, who else thinks EV on the DS is an amazingly good idea?

This post has been edited by Groove : 07 April 2007 - 03:10 PM

Ah how I miss this game. Avara would next work on a dual-thumbstick setup. It's a keyboard/mouse game only.

Halo wouldn't work on a dual thumbstick setup either. Wait, they did that anyway...

@groove, on Apr 7 2007, 11:11 AM, said in A Momentary Lapse of Resuscitation...:

While we're on the subject of ports, who else thinks EV on the DS is an amazingly good idea?

:sigh:

Please don't go there.

I currently do not see a new version of Avara coming from either Ambrosia Software nor the Avara "community" (what's left of it). I know a small shareware company that was planning to do a similar game, obviously with a different name as to not infringe on any copyrights Ambrosia may hold, however this has since been put on the back burner due to a new project which has major funding behind it, incidentally also one which will have online gameplay. Unless someone wants to drop a few hundred thousand on "Avara 2.0".

Incidentally the engine would be adaptable for an Avara like game, but this is not something that will happen any time soon. Outlook not so good.

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I currently do not see a new version of Avara coming from either Ambrosia Software nor the Avara "community" (what's left of it). I know a small shareware company that was planning to do a similar game, obviously with a different name as to not infringe on any copyrights Ambrosia may hold, however this has since been put on the back burner due to a new project which has major funding behind it, incidentally also one which will have online gameplay. Unless someone wants to drop a few hundred thousand on "Avara 2.0".

Incidentally the engine would be adaptable for an Avara like game, but this is not something that will happen any time soon. Outlook not so good.

Robin Hood! Didn't expect to see you. I also know of a shareware company that was planning on something like an Avara 2.0. They did a game called Black Shades. May be the same place.

Would the engine be adaptable? The thing I have found is that almost no engine is adaptable to Avara. Avara uses specific controls and physics that are impossibly difficult to replicate on other game engines. I'm sure if it was portable to UT or Quake someone would have taken up the task of doing so.

P.S. What ever happened to avara.org? It was such a great archive of information for the (now non-existant) community and it is gone. Did it get haxxored? Did you take it down?

@groove, on Apr 19 2007, 09:33 AM, said in A Momentary Lapse of Resuscitation...:

P.S. What ever happened to avara.org? It was such a great archive of information for the (now non-existant) community and it is gone. Did it get haxxored? Did you take it down?

I noticed it went down a few months ago. Too bad

It seems like it would be pretty much impossible to get your canons caught on a ledge in any other engine currently available, let alone superjumps.