A few questions by a noob

#1 Hi James,

Everything is possible once you know how. If something is not available right out of the box, odds are that there is a walkthrough resource about how to add it to your game.

To modify your game, you will at least need to learn TorqueScript. It is a good idea to get the book Game Programmer's Guide To Torque by Edward F. Maurina III. It will teach you a lot about Torque.

A game engine is usually not a game out of the box, but the canvas on which you can paint your game. You get the tools, but color and shape are totally up to you. Your questions here mostly concern color and shapes, but I'll do my best to give you answers.

1. Yes. You will need to think through how your quests would work. What kind of quests you would want in your game. I know games that were made in Torque that have a quest log feature, so it certainly is possible.

2. Of course. There are several tools to prepare your terrain. For TGE, the built in terrain editor will be of help.

3. There's no cutscene editor built into Torque.

4. No. Music from other content that's been published is copyrighted, and you at least need the copyright owner's written permission to use the music. As far as I know it is possible to include music without a permission up to a few seconds, but I am not sure about which countries this rule applies to, so you better not rely on this.

5. Yes, since you make your game, you can do anything you want. Your question tells me that you are unsure about how to make your game. Get that book. ;)

6. The game engine is very much designed for multiplayer games - be that co-op, multiplayer, or even massively multiplayer. The engine is famous for it's network code's outstanding qualities.

Have fun!

#2 1) yes
2)Yes, you can use the editor to make it pretty much any hieght across the board.
3)yes, you would need to use the Theora player
4)you should only use music that you are licensed to use(safer for you, safer for later on, in case you forget you used a non-licensed piece of music)- but sure, you can use what ever music you want.
5)You can create multiple endings, but you would need to create a event schedule system, to monitor the changes and storylines.
6)You can make a game multiplayer, in fact the game engine should have no trouble with 4-64 players, unless you are also adding persistance and some rpg elements. then you start getting into server and other items. But multiplayer can be done.

I also recommend you example AFX if you intend to do RPG, has many features that might be a improvement.

#3 Darn you beat me Konrad, but looks like we agree on themost items, but #3 :)

#4 :) Yep, I was thinking he meant to have cutscenes with npc actors and cameras, and not a movie cutscene. But you're right, it's definitely possible to use a movie as a cutscene!

#5 You can even use npc actors and cameras as cutscenes, it just takes a bit longer, using the old record feature already built into engine :) but lots of options, my cutscenes and opening movie to fantasci all use theora.

#6 Ha! Thanks Edward, that's useful info for me too! :)

#7 Thanks for the very quick replies, guys. Helped me a lot. Looks like this is the right engine for me. With the answers, come more questions:

1. Regarding the copyrighted music, me and my friend (who wants to be a music composer), are going to buy a music creation program. Do you guys know of any good programs/software we could buy for about $150-$400?

2. Is it possible to test out your new mission in the demo version of TGE?

3. I want to create a fairly big battle, but not big enough to cause FPS lag on most computers. How many (soldiers) would be able to go on each side without causing to much lag? 100v100 too much?

Thanks again,

James/Jebus

#8 1)audacity is a good one, cool pro, there are lots actually. Your best bet is to find someone that can play a instrument(s) and learn to use it through the computer. its really not that hard. it just might not sound good.

2)i believe you can do everything but edit the source and engine.

3)well that really depends on the polys of the soldier models, 100 vs 100 models by themselves (2000 polys per model plus a 500 poly weapon) 500000 polys, i think can be done, but your really going to have to measure it considering, you i am sure have to take into account environment, terrain, and other features that are in view at the same time.

I recommend a stress test with your models. It can be done, but depends on your poly count and other optimizations.

#9 Let me add a few things to what Edward said:

1) You need to search for a sequencer, a sampler and sample libraries to achieve the best possible result, but quality software and libraries unfortunately will not fit in that budget. Why don't you do a search and see what software Google comes up with. As far as I know, Audacity is just an editor, not a sequencer, so making music with it is not easy. Some of the software you might want to look into are Steinberg's Sequel or Cakewalk's Sonar Studio. Reason from Propellerheads is a good choice as well, but tha's out of this price range a bit. (around 500 euros)

Also, if you have a Mac, you have GarageBand, which is pretty cool, and is a good start at making music.

3) I think you can easily go over a 100, maybe even 200 if you spend time on optimizing your game. But that will probably mean that you need to put some of the AI script into C++ source code, so do not expect that to work out of the box. It is possible, but the more you want the more you have to work for it. A stress test is a very good idea.