Why no free/open source FPRPG's?

[taknamay]

So, one of the reasons I have started following OpenMW is because I had noticed that the FOSS game community was bare from first person RPG's, as far as I could tell. I think of OpenMW as possibly being a good engine for doing a total conversion. However, I recently discovered that Arx Fatalis, another first person RPG, had released their engine two years ago (with similar requirements to OpenMW, you must have the original game to get the data files). But I do not see any attempt to reuse the engine to create a new game with free content for data files. Is there a reason for this? Is it difficult writing data files for the engine? Is there not enough interest?

If I discover there is very little possibility of the OpenMW engine being reused for a free content game, I think I will likely lose one of the main incentives I had for following this project.

[Rhys]

To make content for an immersive RPG is huge (and can get tedious), this is why people don't do it for free.

[Zini]

I guess there is just not as much interest in Arx Fatalis as in MW.

btw. OpenMW is totally usable as an engine for a TC or even a complete new game. But as Rhys wrote, the later would be a massive undertaking, because you can not use any of the original assets and have to produce them all yourself.

[Tarius]

This is also the fact that so much original content has been produced that its likely if you were to look hard enough, you could find a replacement for(almost) everything in MW.

[sirherrbatka]

But I do not see any attempt to reuse the engine to create a new game with free content for data files. Is there a reason for this?

Arx fatalis never had modding scene such big as morrowind have… even today. Currently they are planing to get mod support like in TES games. Also: Arx libertatis is not any engine done from scratch, it is just opened and upgraded a little Arx Fatalis engine. You won't see modern features like normal mapping, physics engine etc. and this makes it less atractive.

Morrowind is completly different culture, after years there is a demand to give more freedom in modding, even to the level when nothing should be "hardcoded".

OpenMW is not going to become universal engine for everything anytime soon, but it can be a good choice for most of FPP RPG games in the future.

PS
@Zini, OpenMW in google: 106 000. Arx libertatis 89 800. But we are working on getting more hype.

[taknamay]

Ah, I see then. I am glad to hear OpenMW has more potential for reuse than Arx Fatalis

OpenMW is not going to become universal engine for everything anytime soon, but it can be a good choice for most of FPP RPG games in the future.

Hehe, I know, it does not even have combat implemented yet!

EDIT: And apparently that is changing very soon OwO

[maqifrnswa]

Here an FOSS one, I haven't played in 2-3 years but i was impressed even back then
http://www.planeshift.it/

[taknamay]

Oh, that does look interesting, although I was more thinking about single player RPG's. Could the source code be modified to accommodate a more plot-oriented single player game, similar to TES?

EDIT: Is this even meant to be played in first-person? This looks like it's oriented for third-person. Also, when I say "free content", I meant distributable. This has proprietary artwork, making it little better than Arx Fatalis as far as I can tell.

EDIT: I just hit gold! I found a FPRPG that is being written from scratch. Apparently there are quite a few features already implemented! http://dungeonhack.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

According to the SourceForge page, this was last updated 2013-04-24, so it's at least moderately active

EDIT: Actually, it's not as active as I thought. Definitely not as much as OpenMW. Maybe I should place my bets here.

[Br0ken]

I look forward to the post-1.0 development. It's very exciting! I hope that the OpenMW will become a powerful open-source engine for FPRPG. Fast enough, with modern features etc.
Positioning of OpenMW 1.x not only as a Morrowind engine reimplementation, but as the game engine, broaden potential audience of the project.

[Lano]

While I agree Arx Fatalis was a good game on its own terms . I dont believe they are the same weight, or even in the same league with Morrowind. See, TES has more history, and developed lore. It is still updated, new games are released in the series. (Skyrim). And the modding community is really one of the strongest I have ever met.

The level of interest is pretty high even after a decade. Some people play Skyrim the first time, then they look for the predecessors and of course they want to maximize their experience index. So they look for more mods and tools to achieve that.

My experience with Morrowind is a little bitter, when it came out, I could not afford a system that played it even halfway decent. Now when I could easily play it on a stronger APU, the modern OS, lack of Hardware support, and other technical glitches stand in the way to enjoy the game in its full glory.

So, Go OpenMW Go'!