Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 5:29 pm Post subject:
OpenSA - a recreation of Swarm Assault game
Hi there!
Have you ever perhaps played an old RTS game called Swarm Assault where you control bugs with gun? Well then, I'd love to introduce to you my OpenSA project. This is a mod for OpenRA engine which recreates this old RTS game from 1999. Just like OpenRA's core mods which are Red Alert, Tiberian Down or Dune 2000, the project's goal is not to be a faithful recreation, but more like modern remake. Of course all required features are certainly recreated and you can feel the spirit of the original game.
Currently the project is highly playable, it has recreated 80 missions out of 100. You can play skirmish, even multiplayer which the original game didn't have (3 available servers). It misses some other minor features which are not important for gameplay (like original loading screens). You can play it on Windows, Linux and macOS.
This project is standalone (download, install, play), so I hope you'll try it and tell me your thoughts ^^.
I'd love to also ask you if it's possible to host required assets for this project. Now, let me be 100% straight, the original game is not freeware and I consider it pure abandonware. Original developers are nowhere to be found and the publisher which published the game in the past, doesn't own the game (I asked them via Facebook). So what I currently do is having right now one mirror from which required assets are downloaded from (just OpenRA does that for RA, TD or D2k).
Yes, I did read that you don't support warez or illegal stuff, I do understand that. However, you're hosting Dune 2000 files for OpenRA project. Dune 2000 is not freeware either and nobody knows who owns the game now (high chance the rights came back to Frank Herbert's family). So in my honest opinion the situation is kinda similar. Of course I will understand you if you don't agree for hosting for this project
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 12:42 am Post subject:
First of all, this project seems to be quite interesting .
Do you have a video to promote it?
Quote:
I'd love to also ask you if it's possible to host required assets for this project. Now, let me be 100% straight, the original game is not freeware and I consider it pure abandonware. Original developers are nowhere to be found and the publisher which published the game in the past, doesn't own the game (I asked them via Facebook). So what I currently do is having right now one mirror from which required assets are downloaded from (just OpenRA does that for RA, TD or D2k).
Depending on some conditions, we might be able to mirror it. What is the current size of the files? Who else is mirroring these files? And also, it should not include any .exe files.
Quote:
Yes, I did read that you don't support warez or illegal stuff, I do understand that. However, you're hosting Dune 2000 files for OpenRA project. Dune 2000 is not freeware either and nobody knows who owns the game now (high chance the rights came back to Frank Herbert's family). So in my honest opinion the situation is kinda similar. Of course I will understand you if you don't agree for hosting for this project.
The Dune 2000 files hosted on our domain as a mirror of the required files for the mods that comes with OpenRA does not allow you to run Dune 2000 without the original game license. So, we are not hosting warez here and we don't promote any illegal way to play Dune 2000 either.
Anyway, all Westwood games from Dune, Lion King franchises and few others are in a limbo, because these games could only be sold with the agreement from all those involved (those who own the IP of the franchise and who created the game, which right now is EA). So, these games can't be sold because EA is no longer licensed to sell games from these fanchises. QUICK_EDIT
Hi, don't have have any promoting video. Although I do have one video of playtesting this mod, I believe it's not good enough for that. I could record something new and better if you really require something like that.
To be honest about the original game, yeah, it's really mediocre. I'd compare it to the first Z game, with that main exception that Colonies are technically your territory to capture.
When I was a child, I didn't really care about the quality of the games, you just played what you had.
Now, a lot of the original "jankyness" is brought back to the OpenSA, although something like wandering around your units has been decreased for the player, so it is not as annoying as it was in the original game.
To summorize it, it's not really something I'd personally recommend, at this point it's an interesting fact. There are still some people around who also played Swarm Assault and were glad OpenSA was created. QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:31 am Post subject:
difficulty on OpenSA
I had the original game when I was a kid and I managed to get to level 99. the overall difficulty was fine and quite challeging. I downloaded this game yesterday and d@mn! It is impossible. I reached to level 5 or 6 where the spiders first appear. Absolutely relentless bugs. They hunt AND advance at the same time. you have no time to make a single bug to defend your base and you start with beetles, unparalelled reach and power. Normal difficulty. "well, i guess i will down it to easy". Same thing, they gave me like 5 more seconds TO PRAY FOR MY FOREVER IMMORTAL SOUL before they destroyed me. 1 hour of play, couldn' last more than 3 minutes each round. I know I'm no pro, but could this be a bug or something? like unbalanced AI or something? and if it's me that sucks, can anyone give me a hint? I want to chop my leg and Chuck Norris the s**it out of the computer before i bleed to death. I'm pissed. QUICK_EDIT
In the original game, AI ignores your units and focuses on capturing colonies. Since the game is recreated in OpenRA, it uses ORA AI and this AI uses Attack Move. That means it will shoot anything in its path, making the game more challenging.
Difficulties only change the awakening of AI, in the vanilla game it's about 6 secs before AI starts doing anything. So I made it normal. Hard is 3 and easy is 15.
Please, do notice that this is not faithful recreation of the original game and it won't be. While there are lot of mechanics recreated quite faithfully, getting 1:1 experience would be too demanding task. Treat it as soft remake.
As @twistedconversion mentioned, first focus on building ladybugs and one cannon to send it to the creep any colony.
In the next version, you'll start with a bit more ants to make the life a bit easier (this is not the first time I had to alter original maps to get more fair result). Hopefully, this month. QUICK_EDIT
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OpenSA - a recreation of Swarm Assault game
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difficulty on OpenSA
