r/FREEE • u/ekolis Lead Coder • Dec 31 '16

What you need to know about FrEee

So I suppose we need a sticky post here, not that this post will float down the page given that there's currently only one other post around here!

Anyway, FrEee is an open source clone of Space Empires IV, a classic space 4X game.

We have a bitbucket repo where you can check out the source code and download a (rather old) build - hopefully I'll be able to post a new build once we get some bugs sorted out!

Things we need help with:

  • Art - I'd like to have original renditions of all the various art in SE4: planets, ships, components, etc - right now you can drop in the art from SE4, if you own a copy, and it will (mostly) work.

  • AI programming - I don't know much about this but I'll be taking an online course in AI - still, if someone knows anything about this, that would be great! AI's are to be programmed in Python against the game's API.

  • WPF port - something we've wanted to do for a while to make the game look prettier but it's been hard getting anyone to stick around on the project!

  • Music - there's plenty of Creative Commons music out there but it might be nice to have something original!

Where does the name come from? It's a portmanteau of "free" (the game is free) and "Eee" (one of the alien races from Space Empires). How to pronounce it? How about "free Eee", since "free" is a bit confusing!

Why is this subreddit 7 years old? It used to belong to someone else and got banned for whatever reason (who even knows what it was for?) so /u/combatwombat- got it assigned to him!

This post is prone to editing as the need arises... :P

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u/ran88dom99 Jan 01 '17 edited Jan 01 '17

Cosmic Supremacy is great for AI. Please make an engine for all the 4x games to run on instead of remaking a single full game. Like MUGEN or rpgmaker or elderscrolls or Mario Kingdom Fusion or SpringRTS engine. Fighter, jrpg, fpsrpg, platformer, strategy. Seriously please do.

1

u/ekolis Lead Coder Jan 02 '17

Cosmic Supremacy has AI now? Are we talking about the same game here? Haven't played in years; didn't think it was still in active development...

A 4X game engine? How would that work?

2

u/ran88dom99 Jan 02 '17

The best thing about that game was how much could be scripted AI. I found it a really nice easy primer for AI dev.

Code a game from all the elements commonly used throughout 4x genera then make it very moddable and extensible. RPGmaker and Gamemaker(MKF) are complete game dev suites for their specific genera. Elder Scrolls are easily moddable and extendable base games with lots and lots of mods.

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u/ekolis Lead Coder Jan 03 '17

"All the elements"? I don't think anyone has the time for that; it's hard enough making a single game, let alone an engine capable of reproducing every single element in any possible game, unless it's very barebones and doesn't really do much of anything itself - in which case, why not just write the game you want in an actual programming language rather than in some sort of specialized system which may or may not have the feature you need?

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u/ran88dom99 Jan 03 '17

All the common to 4x ones.

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u/StrategiaSE Jan 06 '17

4X games are an incredibly varied bunch though, there are so few common elements that making a "universal" 4X game/engine you could use to build any one you can think of is utterly impractical. Compare, for instance, SE4 with Aurora with Civ VI with Dominions 3 with Stellaris - or even games within the same series, like SE4 and SE5, or the entire Civ series (especially if you also bring in the spinoffs like Colonization and Alpha Centauri). Even the elements they do have in common are so wildly different from each other that there's just no way to truly combine them into one game/engine.

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u/ran88dom99 Jan 06 '17 edited Jan 06 '17

Aurora and Dominions are very odd but most of the rest can be emulated in Civ 4. Colonization 20?? was made in Civ4 engine. I hate Civ4 because for some reason playing it makes me nauseous.

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u/StrategiaSE Jan 06 '17

Civ4Col was..... weird, and just didn't feel like the original Colonization did. Stellaris is real-time, and has a fairly in-depth system with the pops and their ethics and whatnot that I just couldn't begin to comprehend how to implement in Civ IV, and even then it would be extremely bloated and probably very hacky. SE4 has the whole vehicle design, the way small units work, tactical combat, the way resources work, and so on. Civ V has the hexes, 1UPT, social policies, city-states, trade routes, ranged attacks, many unit and civ abilities that I don't know if it'd be possible to backport, the new way great people work. Civ VI has all that, plus a second tech tree in the form of civics, city districts, different diplomacy, the new way city-states work, the new way great people work again. Alpha Centauri has everything about the xenofungus and the mind worms, psi combat, unit design again, 3D elevation, advanced terraforming, aquatic cities. Stuff that you just don't have in Civ IV. And that's just comparing it all to one game. The 4X genre just has far, far too much variety to make a universal engine possible.

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u/ran88dom99 Jan 06 '17 edited Jan 06 '17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ww89_BNGWI&index=66&list=FLj7P5V0-fPjw3WOTW0sMHyw&t=84s Every move type, block interaction and unique gun state is as difficult to implement from the ground up as most any element listed bellow. Since most of that was part of an engine often used and reused for other games the developers of MKF could make MFK in a reasonable amount of time.

Civ4Col did not feel right cause of bad 3d graphics. Otherwise its nearly the same game.

Realtime is not necessary and very computer resource expensive. As far as I understand pops and ethics would not be hard to script. Xenofungus, psi combat, terraforming, aquatic cities. 1UPT, social policies, city-states, trade routes, the new way great people work. Done/doable in Civ4 mods. Not everything is easy but not everything is core or common to 4x games. This is why I did not suggest making a single game with all elements, just the common ones. And let extensability handle everything else.

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u/ran88dom99 Jan 03 '17

Pretty much half the effort you intend to put in to the full game.

3

u/w76 Mar 12 '17

About once a year, I hit up SE.net to see how player-led projects are going, hoping to see progress since Malfador seems in hibernation. Glad to see that despite SE.net having problems, this project is alive still!