Are there any particular guidelines about fan remakes?

[6799c5f8b62a7RandomCat]

I want to try remake System Shock 2 in Unity and I don't know what to not do. There was that one recomendation in Steam community to ask for original files. So, is that still relevant? And is there more recomendations?

Also, where I ask if I made a typo in email when I tried to register?

[6799c5f8b658avoodoo47]

unless you are really, really good, and/or have a few very dedicated people in your team, you probably won't get too far - the task is just too complex. but if you don't mind not ending up with a playable result, and just want to learn, then sure why not - all the original files are in the crf archives (can be opened by 7zip), and should be in pretty standard formats which most editors (photoshop, blender etc) can read, so all you have to acquire is a legal copy of the game.

I'm guessing the tiredcat account that has been created today and is awaiting activation is you? activated manually, you should be able to log in and change the email address.

[6799c5f8b6689TiredNighlyCat]

Yeah, it was me.

And yes, I don't mind that. Thank you for your answers.

[6799c5f8b6b3eicemann]

I want to try remake System Shock 2 in Unity and I don't know what to not do.

Firstly, this is a monumental undertaking that you have ahead of you, that MANY have tried and failed to do (beyond getting the Medical level done, minus enemies and game mechanics).

Your chances of succeeding are extremely low, and I'm saying this with no malice intended. It's just a gargantuan undertaking, and not one that could be done by an individual, unless your willing to devote the next 10 years of your life to it. If you have a team, then it's more likely to get done, but even then a low likelihood of success.

Firstly don't make the mistake a million others have done. DON'T start by trying to remake the Medical level. Start by attempting to get the game mechanics to work, and then and ONLY then work on getting the levels done. What mechanics are these:

* All of the guns and melee weapons - Get those to work
* Hack-related abilities - Hack crates, doors, various things
* PSI abilities - The numerous PSI abilities
* Weapon modding and repairing
* GUI interface and interactions - This includes the player inventory, the MFD
* Player stats
* Audio logs and emails
* Music - And specifically the way in which SS2 does it

If and only if you get the above implemented and full working, then you can move on to:

* Enemies
* NPCs

Then:

* Levels

Levels is absolute last. If you don't have the stuff before it done prior, then there is zero point in trying to make a level. If you have never done a remake of anything before, then your jumping in at the deep end and I HIGHLY recommend remaking something far smaller first, like an Atari 2600 game, or something done on the early consoles. If you can get this done, and stay committed to it then sure go for it.

[6799c5f8b6f5eRocketMan]

I think we should unlearn the habit of telling people they will probably fail at their attempts unless they're really good or whatever criterion is met.

Self-fulfulling prophecies are responsible for every teen with social anxiety choosing not to go to the prom, every person who golfed or ski'd for the first time deciding not to do it again and every 60 year old engineer who's still in an entry level position because he's afraid to fail at something a little more challenging.

I know the rebuttal is going to be "well it's just honesty about the scope of the job ahead and they need to know that so they don't waste their time for nothing" but again, many ways to skin a cat.  Present the requirements, present the challenges, be a mentor to those who want and deserve mentorship, but don't dump the weight of failure on their shoulders before they've even learned to walk.  If not for the 0.01% of our species who laugh in the face of naysayers (either because they're stupid bold or because they have confidence in themselves), we'd still be squatting in front of fires and hitting each other with rocks.

[6799c5f8b7197JosiahJack]

Go for it!   

You will need the self-motivation of an angry cornered tiger.  If you don't have that internal drive plus deep love for what you are doing, it will take much longer and you may give up (well, you still will for a little while sometimes, good to take breaks and relook at things with fresh eyes) when you are fighting a bug that takes days to figure out or find a workaround.

Also, TiredNighlyCat you as can anyone can of course use my project Citadel as a base so you can skip the need to redo the basics like walking, mouselook, crouching, leaning, sprint, ladders.  Though most of the rest of it will all need major rework to make it closer to the SS2 methods.  Unity's major drawback for new users is that none of the example projects have a suitable first person setup geared towards a game like System Shock 1 or 2.

You got this.  And maybe when I'm done with Citadel I can help out here and there with the code, modelling, animation, texture work, CG for the cutscenes, pretty much whatever.

[6799c5f8b7403ZylonBane]

The usual angles have already been covered, so I'll ask: Why?

If your intent is to simply make a 1:1 reproduction, what's the point? Thanks to NewDark, the original SS2 runs better than ever on modern PCs. A Unity port would bring barely anything new to the table. You'd probably just end up gaining support for bump/normal maps and some other modern effects, but losing compatibility with all but the most basic mods.

If your intent is to do it as a learning project, you have VASTLY underestimated the amount of effort remaking SS2 from scratch would take. Just reproducing all the capabilities of the Dark Engine would be a years-long project. It may be old, and not very pretty, but it's remarkably complex and capable at what it was designed for.

If your intent is to improve the quality of the models and textures, you could make a far greater positive impact by just contributing to SHTUP, 400, or the Fixed Models pack.

Whatever it is you're after, you'd best familiarize yourself with DromEd before you start creating things. You can't recreate what you don't understand.

[6799c5f8b751cTiredNighlyCat]

Thank you all for your answers.

It was mainly to learn somethink new and I think it can be done. And yes, I knew that I likely crash and burn, but I think that even if I fail it will be valuable experience for me.

[6799c5f8b764cRocketMan]

Failure should neither be an outcome, nor a deterrent, but simply one of the phases of success.

[6799c5f8b799fJDoran]

Thank you all for your answers.

It was mainly to learn somethink new and I think it can be done. And yes, I knew that I likely crash and burn, but I think that even if I fail it will be valuable experience for me.

Just a friendly suggestion here, but instead of putting so much time and effort in to recreating SS2 in a modern engine and then, if you do succeed, having (as ZB says) basically a copy of a game that already runs fine on modern systems and looks fine even now, why not start smaller and aim for something much simpler, but that will be appreciated by the SS/SS2 community, like a fan-mission? That way you get to learn as you go, and put your own mark and ideas into the project, and (if the end product is good enough) then we will *really* appreciate it, as fan missions are sadly very rare for the two System Shock games.

[6799c5f8b7a99icemann]

Hell yeah. We need more FMs for SS2. Please do this instead. Love playing new FMs.

[6799c5f8b7b8dvoodoo47]

I'll just add that whoever is thinking about making SS2 FMs, should not make the mistake of not cooperating with the community here from pretty much the first moment - there is a lot to be vary of.

[6799c5f8b7ccfKolya]

[6799c5f8b7dc5voodoo47]

welcome to my world.

[6799c5f8b7f21TiredNighlyCat]

Hmm... I'm doing this mainly to learn how to do certain systems in Unity that I think will be usefull for me. Well, not only systems but everything really. Right now I finally made character controller that don't change it course in the air, and I'm learning as I go. Now it's time for crouching and climbing!

Also I looked at ShockEd briefly and it kinda scares me. And I don't have any appropriate ideas for System Shock 2 missions. Ah, and I found at TTLG forums that instead of DEOCI they use BinMaster. There, https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149975.

[6799c5f8b8028voodoo47]

well yes, if you can survive Shocked, you can survive pretty much anything.

[6799c5f8b80fcicemann]

ShockEd is the gateway drug to a far larger world of games dev.