You may think I'm crazy, but you should read this:
Based on the forum you're in, I'm sure that you have played Arena when it first came out, or you downloaded DOS Box to convert your computer to 16-bit. Either way, you're here, and I am going to pitch an idea.
1. Background
The thing that makes Arena so great is looking back and seeing, that even in 1994, most of the cities, towns, countries, governments, and plots were already developed by Bethesda studios. Unfortunately, for us gamers, looking at non-proportionate pixelated images is not so “Next Gen”, so why not do as gamers want? With the willpower of the Elder Scrolls Restoration community, we can remake a classic.
2. Old Files
The title of this section states it. The age of the game makes it impossible to open most files using modern software. This applies for most except for the applications that make up the engine. THIS IS WHERE CODERS COME INTO PLAY. They will need to analyze the content of these files and salvage as much as possible.
3. New Engine
Yup. You heard me right. We will be throwing out the rest of Arena to make a new game engine. CODERS LISTEN UP: This new engine will be similar to the old one, except (a) it needs to run on 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and (b) it needs better controls. Now, by “similar” I mean that buildings will be rectangular, map and inventory will be the same, and people will have only two sides.
4. 3d Models
Nothing to say here. All you have to do is incorporate new textures with square buildings and objects.
5. Texturing
And now… the most important part: texturing. The base idea of this project was to make the textures look HD while being on flat objects. Basically, they’re just images being posted in the game. It’s as simple as that.
Overview:
Really, I just want TES Arena to run on new computers, and I want it to look better. Maybe you could comment your thoughts?
Yes, these are all things that someone might make into a list if they were going to re-make Arena. So what?
Wow! Such a grand idea! So original!
i was thinking about that,make both arena and daggerfall in oblivion that would be amazing, and your post was long so i didnt read sorry if this wasnt what you were talking about
Wow, great idea! This is really something we need to get working on right away. I mean, we have all these talented developers sitting around picking their noses and looking for something to work on, we were just waiting for someone to come along and tell us what to do next! Thankfully Skywind is basically done and we can move on to bigger and better things that the community wants us to.
Even better, let's have an ELDER SCROLL that can teleport us to the beginning of Arena, where we can recreate every location and province in that era.
First of all, I can't tell if you all are being sarcastic. If not, read my next post.
cire992: Well I want to get more feedback before I actually make this a thing.
aretea: It's actually not as original as you think. After posting this, I found out that someone else is doing this for Daggerfall, but why not do it for Arena too?
carter: It would be most helpful if you read the whole post. The problem is that Arena has a randomly generated landscape and it used to run on a 16-bit processor. So, unless you want to get a huge team to make a whole new game engine similar to that of Oblivion, we need to keep the basic game mechanics the same.
SquallyDaBeanz: Can you just directly insult my idea instead of using some confusing sarcasm? That would be helpful.
The TesRenual community is all about the real thing, we do not like to talk about idea's in general, If you do not upload usable content, then it simply does not exist and the idea is pointless. We like to look at things in that way on these forums.
Short version:
Your idea is worth nothing until you make it happen.
Object noted.
I love the idea, but i'm basicaly a bystander. I dont know how to do any of the stuff you guys are doing. But, that said, I for one both appreciate and admire what you guys are doing. If i knew anything about what you guys do, i'd help. But i'm guessing no one here has time for tutering lessons, so, i'll keep on appreciating and admiring.
This is a idea I would get behind but are impossible, at least in the way you put it. The game's engine is in 2D, and is most likely faking 3D with a concept called "Binary Partitioning", used for Doom and Doom 2, ((The vid starts with a overly dramatic begining as a joke, skip a-bit into the vid) www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb6Eo1D6VW8 ), to simulate 3D environments; therefore, the ground is flat and all terrain features are collision-less sprites. Solution: We data-mine ESO for the terrain's height-map, import it to Unity, which has built in bump-map rendering and procedural generation support, then write a script for procedural tree placement. With only about 10-15 villages/villages per province, the quickest option would to handcraft replicas of complex buildings and interiors, then procedurally generate the simpler dungeons and caves.
https://discord.gg/q2kRdf7
I was actually going to start doing this for Morrowind. I made the starter dungeon and put it up... somewhere. I think it was Planet Elder Scrolls, back before that site shut down. I might still have it on my computer, but I don't know. I was going to continue it, but it would not have been exactly the same as Arena. It would have placed an amulet in the Census and Excise Office in Seyda Neen which, when used, would transport you to the dungeon. You would then get a journal entry, Ria Silmane would be there (all ghosty), and she'd give you the key and disappear. Then you'd make your way to the Shift Gate, fighting through rats and goblins, and the gate would take you to Rihad. It would basically just have the nine main cities for you to visit, the starter dungeon, the eight dungeons with the maps to the main dungeon holding the pieces of the staff, the eight main staff-piece-carrying dungeons, and the Imperial Palace. Once those were done, I was going to add the artifact quests, with two artifacts available per city. Only with one dungeon holding the artifact rather than a dungeon leading to the map that pointed to the dungeon with the artifact. And also, I made the starter dungeon have the exact same number of cells as in Arena, and it was just far too big. Making each city would also be too big, so my plan was to make just a little section of the city, a large enough city with a store, an inn, the palace, the Mages Guild, and a temple place, but not have it be the same size as the cities in Arena. Because, as I said, too big.
But, as I digress, I needed new monsters, I needed new weapons and armor... Flails, for example. Actually, I probably would have just replaced flails with spears. Then there were the amulets, rings, torcs, bracers, bracelets, belts, crystals, and marks. No equip slot for the bracelets, torcs, crystals, or marks, bracers were part of the armor, and the amulets, torcs, bracelets, and belts wouldn't have added armor (although I suppose they could have just increased your armor skills). I also needed some unique terrain for the cities and dungeons. New models for the different artifacts. King Orgnum's Coffer, for instance. I'd need something for that, plus scripts to make the artifacts do what they're supposed to do. I mean, for things like the Necromancer's Amulet, I'd just use the same model from Morrowind and just change the enchantment, but then there's King Orgnum's Coffer and the Ring of Namira, which aren't in the main game and would have to be made. It was all just too much for me to do by myself. I'm not a bad scripter, and I can make quests and stuff. But I don't know how to make new things, and I am not going to buy software and learn to do it.
However, with all that being said, I'd definitely help out the best I could if someone wanted to do this. I understand these guys have enough on their plates with building Skywind and Skyblivion, but if there are others out there who'd be willing to team up, just let me know.
Well, I feel you.. I found this looking around to see if anyone has done something like this, but in hindsight after reading the replies, I am a bit less optimistic. I played Arena and Daggerfall to no end, and never got close to actually even completing either. Arena I had a bug in my game on the 6th staff piece. So could never get past that. ..., but bottom line is, those games were made for content and gameplay. It would be a enormous undertaking, probably bigger than Skywind ( since the world map is so much bigger ) . I do hope it happens though.
https://discord.gg/q2kRdf7 Really want this to happen? Join this then... Also nobody on here is likely to help and most people dont like the idea of remastering it so i would suggest no longer bringing this thread back from the dead. Moderator or admin if you see this thread id suggest to go ahead and lock it.
Marinxar... There are people working on it
7 years later and here I am out of nowhere. BUT, I would 100% support this by paying large sums of money for it when it was finished, honestly. Arena was the original, it was like nothing else, and after playing it 72 hours straight one time (Wow, that was...a smelly 3 days) I could do it again. Although I'm sure much of that 72 hours was swapping floppies.
Perhaps when Beyond Skyrim is finished... The worldspaces are way too much to do! Project TES Arena https://discord.gg/EQRuJgf
Isn't Arena's engine the same as Daggerfall? Wouldn't DaggerXL or whatever it's called be portable to this?
No, Daggerfall Unity won't work, but there is an Open Arena project.
Here's the link if anyone is interested
Github Open Arena