Patrizierforum

Ok I know I am only a noob here but I guess I joined this site because I have two ideas based on Ascaron games....this time discussing the failure and potential of Tortuga 2. Sorry if I am breaking any rules by starting two threads but I figured since I am discussing two games I'd make it two separate threads...

So Tortuga 2 for me ended up being a bit of a tacky Hollywood (Pirates of the Caribbean) cheesy rip off. This game like DarkStarOne did show some potential though and I saw some features I'd definitely like to see in some future games.

As I said in my other thread I really enjoyed being able to zoom right in on the ship and take on more control of that one ship. Also here is a game that I believe could learn and take something from two other very popular games.

GTA - The whole open ended, non linear, world of GTA would work very well in a Tortuga game. Cut out all the loading of separate maps from Tortuga 2 and make it one complete world for us to explore, filled with plenty of things to see and do.

Assassins Creed - Now some may argue here because I know not everyone enjoyed the combat style of AC, but I feel it would be a major improvement over the frenzy left clicking combat style of Tortuga 2 where you always win but only by being the fastest left mouse button clicker in the Caribbean. So I like to get off the ship and get involved in some close combat, but I'd rather a slower more calculated style of combat as seen in Assassins Creed. More thinking and less beating the mouse. Give me a wide range of weapons, armor etc and get in to some combat that involves both offensive and defensive moves.

Ok next, a little of what I said for DarkStarOne, don't force me in to sticking with one ship. Allow me to chop and change to different ships via a variety of different methods and allow plenty of customization to these ships.

Just to finish of this topic, I believe it would be a great spinoff title to Patrician and Port Royale. Tortuga 1 was better than Tortuga 2, and despite the poor effort I believe Tortuga 2 was, there is room for all 3 (4 including DarkStarOne or what ever its future name would be) to be successful because they all offer a different experience.

Patrician focuses on Euro and the Hanseatic League and trade/piracy etc.
Port Royale focuses on the Caribbean and trade/piracy etc.
Tortuga focuses on taking command on one ship or perhaps fleet and is more of and open ended world GTA style.
DarkStarOne focuses on trade/piracy etc but with a space/future setting.

Zitat

Originally posted by Dorimil
Ascaron is unfortunately dead. They dont survive the production of Sacred 2.

The licences of all Ascaron Games except Sacred were bought by kalypso (German publisher). Gaming Minds is a new Developing company of kalypso and there are a lot of employees of Ascaron in it. Patrician IV ist the first project of this company.
kalypso also published, that they willing to produce some sequels to these old Ascaron games. Maybe Tortuga is one of them. I think the more succesful Patrician IV will be, the better the chance, that there will be more sequels...

In your list there is one game missing: "Anstoss". Its an Soccer-Management-Game. Maybe not known outside Germany!

No I've never heard of that game, sorry. I do know about Ascaron going bust most of its games being taken by Gaming Mind Studios and all that, which is why I know about Patrician 4, and I'm really looking forward to it. However I think in the long term most companies survive by having more than 1 or 2 successful games, or at least one super successful game eg GTA. R* could probably survive solely on that game, but even they do produce other games, often making use of ideas taken from GTA. Seems the next installment of Red Ded is going to use some of that open ended world idea from GTA, a style which is currently very popular in a few other games coming out these days too.

For Gaming Minds to be successful at producing a game in that style they still need to stick with what they are best at, which is Patrician/Port Royale, but as part of that ensure they are producing something totally different to what is already out there, I believe the ideas I suggested achieve that, if they are done well enough.

While right not their focus is on Patrician 4, maybe after that Port Royale 3 (at least thats a series I'd like continued), but apart from that I know of no other titles, they may have some but Patrician, and Port Royale are the only two known outside Germany or Europe. Surely they need to expand on that to survive, and I see no reason why they couldn't.

I've been a gamer for long time now, since early 80s infact, point to telling you that is.....well for long time most of the top PC games were made in the US by companies like Maxis, EA, Origin, New World Computing, 3DO, and many others, now yeah I realise most of these companies have been swallowed up by the bigger guys like EA, but despite the size of Activision and EA, I believe the US is no longer the better game maker.

In recent times most of the games I buy are European games. Examples:

ArmA - Bohemia
East India Company - Paradox
GTA - R* is essentially British
Assassins Creed - yes its Ubi, and its not a Euro game but its still not US either, Canadian
Heck even Need For Speed Shift - again while its an EA product, the most successful games in the Need for Speed series were not produced in US based studios, they were Canada
Call of Jaurez 1 and 2 - again I am not 100% sure where they are located but I know its in Europe
Anno 1701/1404 - I think Germany but I know for sure its European

anyway my point is that many European and smaller developers are making a major impact on gaming these days and producing some highly successful games, Gaming Minds could be one of them, if they produce the right games, and I seriously hope they do.

The Patrician and Port Royale series are a good start, but what about when those are done, what's next that sells well outside Germany?

Do what most other companies seem to do these days, make a game engine, then use it for a whole range of different games over the next year or two.

Also just to point out, I'm not suggesting the US dont make any good games now days, just that they no longer have the monopoly they seemed to have in the past.

Heck even Scared could live on, how - Well I was a major fan of the old Might and Magic series in the days of New World Computing and despite its demise through 3DO and now Ubi, the creator of this game is still around and sometime over the next year or so will deliver a game that is already looking very good, its not called Might and Magic now, but its not the name that matters.

Also take note of what happened with the Total Annihilation game.....Chris Taylor spent years trying to get the name from Infogrames/Atari, then finally realised he didn't need the name, just produce the game and slap a new name on it. Same thing could easily be done with Sacred, produce the same style of game, just find a new name.