MultiTheftAuto Development Continues

MultiTheftAuto Team writes "Today, MultiTheftAuto have released the first information about their new core technology that will be deployed in future versions of MultiTheftAuto. The new core technology, codenamed 'blue', offers many of the features that have been requested by the software's users over the last year and a half, these include: Support for boats, support for firing from vehicles, support for drive-bys, and support for planes. As well as supporting all these features, the new core will introduce a revolutionary new way of writing modifications for Vice City, combining the existing methods with a fully integrated C++ add-on system, giving anyone who wishes to the ability to create complex and exciting mods, far beyond the possibilities of 'traditional' methods."

Comments

Sweet

[Lord Kano]

I guess all we're missing now is GameSpy support.

LK

Awesome!

[t_allardyce]

its engines like this that are the way forward - Flashpoint, GTA, 1942 etc that allow massive worlds, vehicles and lots of freedom and interaction with objects. Also some decent maps or realistic cities help (the getaway was crap to be honest), stick all that together and you can create pretty amazing games easily!

Re:Dammit - I didn't know this was for a game!

[Jerf]

There are car defense systems that support "firing from cars", though it isn't quite the same thing:

Flamethrower now an option on S. African cars (December 11, 1998):

Crime-obsessed South Africans have a powerful new weapon with which to stop likely criminals: the car flamethrower....

The Blaster squirts liquefied gas from a bottle in the automobile's trunk through two nozzles, located under the front doors. The gas is then ignited by an electric spark, with fiery consequences.

Note the source, CNN. This is not a joke. Apparently, at least as of 1998, neither was the crime level in South Africa. Lots of corrobation, including an IgNobel Peace Prize Award (truly an honor!).

Re:How 'bout those features!

[gl4ss]

those being all features that exist in vice city anyways it's not so shocking.

Re:How 'bout those features!

[burns210]

Features like planes, air vehicles in general, boats, 2-wheeled autos(motorcycles) and simlar features just make GTA the 'One True Engine'.

Wether you want to kill people, move up in the mob, or write a wholesome mod, these features make GTA's engine be able to scale from a third-person shooter, flight sim game, boat sim game, car race game..

GTA 4, or similar engine, will have the real world features that make it the most powerful engine out there. You will be limited by your imagination, not the game.

Now all we need is a game disk and map engine that can scale from 1 city, to an entire state... And have it be online based, where crossing county boarders is equal to crossing to another server... Fly a cesna from LA to NYC, if you want. Heck, make it use information off of mapquest, or similar, to stay updated if you want.

Re:why not an opensource game like that?

[imroy]

I know I would love to put together something like GTA:VC or MTA. I'm sure many others have as well. My problem is that I'm perhaps not as good a coder as I'd like to think, and I've never explored game programming before. But I have put a lot of thought into it the last year or two, and have come up with these resources:

• OGRE - an object-orientated graphics engine.
• Open Dynamics Engine - as used by the well-known stair and truck dismount games.
• DIE - a car game in the early stages of development. It uses the two previous libraries.
• Boost - C++ libraries. In particular, there is Boost.Python which allows good cooperation between C++ and Python. That could be useful for scripting the interactive behaviour of the various people, vehicles, weapons, and other devices.

As you say, the key would be in creating a flexible engine at the core. I imagine people adding new vehicles, tools, missions, and venues. I'm not sure what the "aim" of the game would be, but I'm sure people would create things to do. Here's my wishlist of improvements and other ideas:

• Climbing ability. I see lots of ladders around GTA:VC, but can't climb them. The ability to hang onto ledges like Tomb Raider would be useful as well.
• More detailed buildings. Most of the buildings in GTA:VC are just boxes. I'd like the ability to walk inside, use the stairs or elevators, find a sniping position on the balcony or window, etc.
• Focus less on violence. GTA:VC has been heavily criticised for its violence and sometimes even I find it a little too much. I'd like to see more focus on stunts and tricks, mischief, puzzle solving and just simple exploration. Perhaps make the police more likely to catch you when you do something "wrong".
• Different character classes. Perhaps not as detailed as a full-on role-playing game, but do have different types of characters with slightly different abilities. You need variety when multiple people are playing online.
• More interactive elements like light switches, garage doors, elevators, etc. Perhaps the player could obtain a garage door remote control and go around opening peoples garages.
• For the ultimate geek thrill, simulate several thousand artificial people! Get rid of the annoying "background" element of the cars and pedestrians in GTA:VC. Everyone has a house, they travel to work every morning and travel home every evening. Police and police cars actually patrol and have to travel to you instead of just appearing. Likewise with the heavier SWAT vans, police helicopter, and army trucks and tanks. Tourists travel in on planes to the airport, stay at hotels, travel around by day seeing the sights, and leave again by plane. Oh boy, lots of computation and memory and bandwidth! Perhaps a little too far-fetched for now.

Re:When's the terrorist edition coming out?

[One Childish N00b]

This is probably going to roast my karma beyond belief, but I feel a rant coming on - Sickens you? why? was the Russian school massacre started because of a computer game? no, it was started by Al Queda encouraging Chechen forces already angry because of the brutally unfair treatment of their country by the Russian army. (for your information, far more Chechens have been killed in raids and bombings of towns and cities by the Russians than Chechens have killed in terrorist attacks - the Russians have no moral high ground in that conflict. The school massacre was organized by Al Queda using the name of Chechnya to further their murderous intent - if any Chechen leader was involved at all it will be Shamil Basayev, he has a history of violent attacks and seiges in the name of Chechnya which have more bearing on the desires of muslim extremists than the Chechen people).

So tell me, where do you get off comparing a violent video game which millions around the world have played with no significant increase in violent crime encouraged by it to the decade-long 'slaughter of innocents' on both sides of a drawn-out and brutal war? I'm sorry, it doesn't compare. You are following the media bullshit line of saying video games encourage violent behaviour, only now you're comparing it to terrorism, whereas I refuse to believe video games encourage violence at all - I have been playing violent games since I was 8 years old, I'm also a huge fan of Industrial Metal music and action/horror movies. If the world was the way the media portrays it, I would be a mass murderer by now, yet the most illegal thing I'm likely to do is download as song I shouldn't from a P2P network. I and the millions of other people that play games like GTA without as much as a spot on their real-life criminal record are living proof that the 'violent games cause real-life violence' argument is a lie. Suffering and oppression cause violence, not games - I doubt many Chechens have ever heard of Grand Theft Auto, let alone played it, and if Klebold and Harris hadn't been mercilessly bullied by their peers they wouldn't have shot anyone, reguardless of how much Doom they played. Blaming games is a hideous way to direct blame away from the real culprits, those being the problems that lie in real-life society and not on a disc you insert into your PC from time to time, but when you start comparing it to the suffering of hundreds of Russian families and the oppression of many thousands of Chechens... it just doesn't compare.

I'm yet to see proof that games encourage violence, if anything they provide a vent for inherent violent urges within a person - if I'm mad, what's better? Virtual violence or a build-up of real-life anger? From a psychological point of view violent games provide an outlet, not encouragement. Oppression and extremism encourages massacre, not the latest Rockstar release. Look for yourself and stop relying on media scapegoating and you'll see it too, but instead I expect with the little you now know about me you will sit smugly expecting me to turn up on the news having killed a few dozen chilren because I wear dark clothes and like GTA, when this is clearly not going to happen, but I'm a lone voice against the force of mass media, what can I do? I can't convince you - but please don't trivialise the Chechen conflict by using it to show how 'terrible' violent games are.