Unigine OilRush Pre-Order For Linux Now Open

[DavidNielsen]

If you can't afford or are unable to buy the game (e.g. no access to a credit card) for the joy of it I will buy a copy to the person telling the funniest joke:

see: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/03/t...e-get-oilrush/

[bbordwell]

I am excited to see multi-player over LAN included as many major game studios are ripping this feature out to stop piracy, just another way they screw actual paying customers.

I plan on pre-ordering this game in mid April, will I still be able to get beta access or is that only for people that pre-order it for the first couple of weeks or something?

[bbordwell]

Also another question to binstream. Have you thought about getting this sold through Ubuntu software center? I do not know if this would be a good option or if it would be feasible, but I think it should at least be looked into as a way to boost sales.

[binstream]

And if you think that list is too tall an order to ask for, just take a quick look at my favorite strategy games of all time, Sins of a Solar Empire and Supreme Commander.

OilRush is not Sins of a Solar Empire or Supreme Commander, it's a different game. It might looks "too casual" for hardcore RTS players, but it still has its own beauty and strategies. You can take a look at a piece of gameplay captured a while ago (sorry for the voice-over, there are subtitles available): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps7uitdSHjM

[binstream]

Bought my copy! Nice to see a Linux game with that much bling
It runs very well on my Q6700 + 8800GTS system.

I'm wondering, where are the options saved? I need to tell the game to use anti-aliasing 8x each time. Is there an option I can change in the .cfg file? It might be related to these messages:
Xml::load(): can't open "profiles/_default/_default.cfg" file
Xml::load(): can't open "profiles/_default/_default.prof" file

CLI options in .sh lauchers overrides the config, you can directly tweak the launcher:

#!/bin/sh

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./bin:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
./bin/OilRush_x86	-video_app opengl \
					-sound_app openal \
					-extern_plugin Network \
					-data_path ../ \
					-engine_config ../oilrush-0.5.cfg \
					-system_script waterwar/unigine.cpp \
					-console_command "world_load waterwar/waterwar" \
[B]					-video_multisample 3 \[/B]
					-video_fullscreen 0 \
					-video_mode -1 \
					-video_width 1024 \
					-video_height 768

I agree the UI is not very intuitive, but I'll give it more play before having a definitive opinion of it.

Take a look at the user manual for controls/UI explanation.

[dredhammer]

Sent technical support an email today.
I was able to play the tutorials with no problem, but the quick games all crash after 10-15 mins in either window or fullscreen mode i get kicked from the game, usually when i am getting into the grove of things, tried launching from the terminal but i dont see what causes the crash.
Had myself a corrupted save file after the crash when i tried to load a game
Any way to generate a debug?

My system Ubuntu 10.10 64bit 2.6.35-27-generic
Video Card : NVIDIA 9800GTX
RAM : 8GB
CPU : AMD ATHLON ll X3

[smitty3268]

Hero units? Floating, evolving, living cities? An unlockable tech tree with hundreds of possible research options? Visual style that markedly changes units' appearance, weapon fire, etc. when upgraded? The ability to increase the unit caps beyond "paltry" to "uncountable" or even, dare I say, "epic" levels? Massive capital ships and aircraft carriers with location-based hardpoints, activated abilities and their own level-up veterancy system?

You have to remember this is a $20 title, it's not trying to be a full price AAA title or competing with them. The more they can give us the better, of course, but it sounds to me like you simply don't like the style of game. It's more of a tower-defense type game than a hard-core RTS, with everything that implies.

[F-GT]

Sent technical support an email today.
I was able to play the tutorials with no problem, but the quick games all crash after 10-15 mins in either window or fullscreen mode i get kicked from the game, usually when i am getting into the grove of things, tried launching from the terminal but i dont see what causes the crash.

My system Ubuntu 10.10 64bit 2.6.35-27-generic
Video Card : NVIDIA 9800GTX
RAM : 8GB
CPU : AMD ATHLON ll X3

Same.

I haven't been able to finish a quick game yet. Tutorial worked fine though.

Fedora 14 64bit 2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64
Video Card : NVIDIA 460GTX ( nvidia-260.19.36 drivers )
Ram : 4GB
CPU : Intel Q6600

Would like to nice to see a 64bit version though ... any possibility in the next update?

[quintesse]

Actually, it runs with r300g

It does? Cool!
Now if only somebody could explain how to get the 600g installed and running on Fedora 13 (or 14, I'll upgrade if necessary) that would be great (I searched for it, but can't seem to find anything definite)

[miles]

Actual strategic depth is sorely lacking. The game's shallowness ranks it among titles like Dawn of War II, O.R.B., and Supreme Commander 2 as far as lack of content and base-building. For examples of other RTS games that are the polar opposite of this simplistic style, see Sins of a Solar Empire, Supreme Commander 1 (not 2), or Anno 1404.

I'll be frank: unless the campaign is as engrossing as a Bioware game, the game mechanics and units alone will not keep me interested for long, if the variety of units and abilities that currently stands does not improve by more than an order of magnitude in the months between now and June. Because the game looks and feels like a tech demo, I have to give it an overall score of 6 / 10. Here's the lowdown.
RTS Type: "New Wave" (no / shallow base building and tech; simple "streamlined" RPS strategy).

(...)

Gameplay: 2. See RTS Type for explanation why. In a word, "booooo-ooooooring." Maybe it's because I've played too many RTSes in the past, but there is nothing conceptually simulating or complex about any of the mechanics, so there is nothing keeping me addicted to the game for gameplay reasons. And for what it's worth, the games I've played the longest and have been most memorable were games that had innovative, complex gameplay.

You seem to be making the mistake most Linux gamers make when reviewing a native Linux game - you're expecting the game to be what it's not, because when every other year there's finally a native Linux game, everyone wants his own sub-genre and his personal preferences to be satisfied with that one game.

It's an "indie" 15? tower defense game - except as a bonus this one has AAA graphics. It's not a 50? AAA RTS with indie gameplay.

Tower defense games don't have to be hugely complex to be endearing. The simpler the gameplay the better - Pixeljunk Monsters, Plant vs Zombies, etc... Complexity would just cover for a bad gameplay, and the game would suffer.

And as far as RTS goes, iI found SoaSE boring and the AI way too easy (playing at max difficulty), but that's a problem with most RTS/TBT video games. Then again, I also play Go, which has the simplest rules of all strategy games, yet makes any of those RTS you like pale in comparison when talking about the complexity of the gaming itself. The most strategic game is the one that has the simplest rules, but those simple rules allow for creating highly complex strategies. Bad games try to hide things with more units, more rules, more tech levels...

Overall: 6. Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but it seems Unigine has been significantly over-extending themselves, and over-estimating their abilities on this project as far as delivering an actual game that's more than a tech demo.

You nail it, yet you're asking them to do the opposite in the rest of your posts. Unigine needs to care about not over-extending themselves, and they seem to have clearly defined what they could do. Adding more units, more complexity, would be the exact mistake they need to avoid, yet later you're saying that's what they should go for...

Focusing on offering a solid 20$/15? game is what they're doing. Those games aren't C&C, they aren't Stardock games either. If they manage to release Oil Rush - and that looks quite on track - they've succeded, and the game should be well received for what it is. They need to polish the quick entry into the game (your points about the learning experience are on the mark) so the appeal can be as broad as possible, because the worst would be to limit themselves to a niche into a niche (Linux gamers of the niche "hardcore" RTS games). That and like you said game balance for the long term.

Their company doesn't deserve to get their first game shot to a bloody pulp by reviewers and earn themselves a bad name -- but if they release OilRush without some major gameplay changes, I think that's where they're headed.

Windows and PS3 reviewers won't "shot it to a bloody pulp". They 've got plenty of games to play, their life doesn't depend on a game being the epitome of gaming so they can tell their friends "You need to install Linux because the best game ever is on Linux". They don't burden a game with their years of pent-up expectations, and thus they can enjoy a good game for what it is. Check the light strategy games released on the Playstation Network at a similar prices for a down-to-earth look at the market, if they can offer a seamless entry into the game they'll give competition a run for their money - and to top it they'll have AAA graphics indie games can't dream of.

I still think most Linux gamers will also appreciate Oil Rush for what it is. Best thing that could happen to Linux gaming is having linux developpers like Unigine get rich. It won't happen overnight, but if we want other gaming companies to start considering Linux, somebody has to make lots of good hard cash out of it, not just enough cash to pay for the developpment of one game.

My personal hope it that it's succesful enough to warrant a sequel. Indie developpers like facing new challenges and go into an entirely new direction after one game is released, but the money is in sequels, where you've already got a good base of customers and you get the others that weren't there to buy on release date, never got around to buy it late into the game, but still heard good things about it and will go over the fence for a sequel. That, and you can reuse the assets and polish the gameplay.

However, since they're probably using in-house developped games as a way to improve/develop the engine they sell to other game companies, they'll probably go for a completely different genre next time. But I still hope they'll see the sense in building along a sequel.