Entropie (UE1/TC) Main page

Welcome to the main page of Unreal: Entropy. Here you'll get an overview of this new open world action/adventure game with survival and horror elements. There's a Demo planned for end of 2021. It utilizes a drastically altered Unreal Engine 1, based on the Unreal Tournament 469 Community Patch and the Unreal Tournament Community SDK, and is developed by a small German developer team, that hopefully expands as Entropy causes ripples...

In this version of the game you'll play either as human or Nali, the natives of Na Pali - the planet where Entropie is primarly set on. We currently focus on the human campagin. If you choose to play as human you'll have the opportunities to go into a vast set of different character builds a human soldier could develope, given the frame of the setting (see Main setting - Human Perspective). So you'll specialize as army engineer, tank, scout, medic, sniper etc depending on your preferences - BUT your missions will vary on your chosen skill path.

Should you choose to play as a Nali, you'll have almost the same character build possibilties of the human playthrough, with the advantage of developing a strong magick-oriented gameplay (see Sub setting - Nali Perspective) on the hand but with the disadvantage of facing prejudices by humans and fewer available equipment (at first) on the other hand.

We're playing with the idea to utilize a third perspective, that of the evil Skaarj - but that is only speculation and human and Nali playthroughs are our only focus for now.

#### Background & History

You're on the mysterious planet Na Pali. The planet and it's lore were the setting for the world famous game "Unreal", set in the year 2214. With Entropie we seek to enhance and deepen the original lore and background, while trying to keep the original Unreal-feeling. Na Pali is known for it's earth-like characteristics and features enourmous rich ressources like the Tarydium-Crystals and other raw materials, and of course a giant habitable planet.

Since it's a very ressource rich and prosperous planet it was often the setting for war and tragedies in the past. The Skaarj Star Empire, always striving to conquer new habitable planets in their lust for dominance over "weaker" races and beings, waged war against Na Pali and its natives, the Nali, for centuries. Oppressed them, exploited the planet's ressources, altered it's appearance and geology. The ancient monotheistic texts of the Nali's main religion was always centered around the coming of a messiah, an outsider from the stars to free Na Pali from the "Sky Demons", like the Nali call the Skaarj. After the events of both Unreal and it's Expansion Pack, where a nameless prisoner (Prisoner 849) dares to challenge the Skaarj and killed one their Queens, that was overseeing progress on Na Pali, the Skaarj Empire openly turned against Earth and it's colonies.

Earth and it's planets are organized in the New Earth Government (NEG) and local planetary member states - acting as a grand federal democratic system, to more efficiently combat the Skaarj Empire. Megalithic cooperations like the Liandri Mining Corp., Axon Research Corp., Izanagi Corp. were formed, exploiting raw materials and weapons research to fuel the war against the Skaarj. Despite all these efforts, the Skaarj - with their pure hate against anything weaker and superior technology - drove humanity to the brink of devastation in the year 2216, when the giant Skaarj mothership 'Krujhlok' (the infamous Skri'ith Class Dreadnought) besieged Earth. Countless attack waves were send against the mothership, sustaining heavy damage to it's outer hull.

The damaged mothership overloaded it's core to charge it's planet killer mass drivers - a monstrous weapon build to destroy stars and planets by shooting superheated plasma bombs. Many cities were reduced to mere ashes within days. Millions dead or fleeing to other planets and colonies. But there's one human quality the Skaarj underestimated: Improvisation. The just-new found NEG and it's main military organisation, the UMS (Unified Military Service), identified a flaw in the Mothership's defences and sent a group of NEG commandos in one-man "Eagle" space fighters to exploit this very flaw - being to small and maneuverable to effectively counterattack them. The commandos were successful; Farham from the Earth Defense Force destroyed the Mothership, together with another Skaarj Queen aboard. During that time, later known as the 7 Day Siege, around 2 billion people died. Hundreds of Thousands of people fled to Luna, Mars or other planets and colonies and its cities, seeking refuge from a wasteland of a homeworld behind them.

#### Main setting - Human Perspective

Rather than a "Class", like in other RPG-oriented games, you choose from a list of archetypes, which determine your basic gameplay frame, setting, starting condition etc. There're not Classes in the classic sense, as they're still highly customizable. Some archetypes allow for a "free" choice of the start locations (Stalker), while others have a fixed start (like the military archetypes). The archetypes play very differently and can be seen as sub-games itself. The general setting for all archetypes is this: Humans and Nali are allies, and the Nalis allowed all human governments to freely settle and collaborate anywhere on Na Pali as long as they obey BOTH human and Nali laws. Both species are allies for roughly 70 years now, with first settlers arriving around 50 years ago.

Each archetype has its own unique campaign and approach to the Unreal universe. Will you be a brave soldier in shiny armour or a vicious underground outlaw? Will you be a scientist uncovering Na Pali's Secrets or a daring, keen Stalker thirsty for adventure, exloration and treasures? That's up to you. Each archetype has different starting conditions and outcomes: A new stalker has to find a lot of gear of its own first, while any soldier gets a fair amount of starting gear.

Planned, playable Archetypes:

* Human MRN Soldier (Main Campaign)
* Human MRN NCO \*(1)
* Human MRN CO \*(2)

#### Sub setting - Nali Perspective (Planned)

You play as a Nali. Your people are highly intelligent and overly peaceful, and are able to cast spells and the majority or your people experience lucid dreams often. Over centuries the evil "Skydemons", as you call the Skaarj, exploited your homeworld, waged war against you and oppressed you brutally - letting little to no place for your society's development anywhere beyond that what humans call "middleage".

More than 100 years have passed since the Messiah, a nameless human prisoner, mostly freed your world from the Skaarj. After initiating diplimatic relationships with mankind's governments after they almost lost their homeworld, most of your people are openly welcoming your archenemy's enemy. Since Na Pali is 4x the size of earth, most Nali nations agreed to ally with humanity's governments providing land to settle. For many decades the collaboration is going strong and very well. With almost all Skaarj gone on the one side, being a free Planet for decades now, and the collaborative work and development with mankind on the other side, most of Na Pali's towns and settlements have reached a post-industrial level of technology, similar to that of earth's 21st century. Many towns or settlements have a human district, military outposts or bases and academies turning them into cities with modern transportation, science institutions, diplomatic council buildings on the one hand and grand ancient Nali architecture of the past on the other hand.

As a still-young Nali you grew up on your parent's farm in the suburbs of your home town "Vandora's Harbor" (a human translation), ou try to find your place on a much altered Na Pali, your parents always tell you about a hundred times when comparing the past with the present. Your parents are a local farmer (father) and an engineer (mother) and have mixed feelings about the collaboration with humanity. However, you're a curious and gifted young Nali. Will you become a famous Wizard, a healer, scientist, battle-mage or even enlist into the new found Na Pali Republic Military (NPRM)? Or will you just step into your parents' foodprints as local worker/technician? After deciding what to do with your young life, the beautiful landscapes of your homeworld and the possibilities of collaboration with mankind are wildly calling for adventure...

The year is 2322 - Know thyself. Unreal: alter your reality, forever.

Playable Archetypes:

* Nali NPRM Soldier
* Nali NPRM NCO \*(1)
* Nali NPRM CO \*(2)
* Nali Scientist
* Nali Mage Apprentice
* Nali Mage
* Nali Wizard
* Corrupted Nali

#### Engine Enhancements - The Background and big Whys

Entropie utilizes a drastically enhanced Unreal Engine 1 based on the wonderful Unreal 227 Patch and my Unreal Tournament SDK Framework. Both patches together will provide insane possibilities almost reaching Unreal Engine 3 features. "Why not using Unreal Engine 3 or 4 then?" - you may ask. Look, I've been developing for UE 1 since I was a kid (started around 2000).

I know this fine engine by heart, and I have to admit, that I've had many struggles getting into Unreal Engine 4: "Compiling Shaders: X of +20.000" was breaking my nerves and in the enhanced Unreal Engine 1 I have FULL control over everything with a straight-forward what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach. One thing I can't possibly say about the current interation of UE 4. Unreal 227 + Unreal ED 2.2 + Unreal Tournament SDK is the way to go for me... at least for this version of Entropie.

#### Engine Enhancements - Technical Overview

Here you'll see a list of the main (new) engine features, Entropie is going to use, for a full list, see the UT SDK Framework Page

* **Static Mesh** Support, with tons of options for the actual Static Mesh Class (like U/V mapping, shading/lighting options, 3D Drawscale, LOD Support etc.) -> the most crucial feature to build highly detailed levels and architecture
* powerful **Particle Engine** featuring a multitude of emitter variants: Sprite-, VertexSprite-, Beam-, StaticMesh-, Spark-, and SubUV-Emitters with in-Editor preview support, Forces, interaction and interpolation support (Scripts and Volumes!)
* **Advanced Texture/Material System**: a lot of new Texture Blend Modes, Texture Combiners/Panners/Oscillators/, Emissive Materials, Environment/Cube/Sphere Maps - everything works on BSP, Static Meshes and Particles!
* **Advanced Sprite System**: Lensflares, better Blend Effects (called Coronas in Unreal Engine), Vertex Sprites
* **Weather System**, based on the Hidden Markov Algorithm
* **Enhanced Decal System**: a custom texture projection system
* **Basic Post Processing System**: Texture Overlays, Color Manipulation etc
* **Improved Lighting**: new Light Scripts like a Sunlight improving overall lighting possibilities, I'm also working on introducing Raytraced shadows or at least simple dynamic shadows..
* **Easy to use UI/Window System**: build your own Menus and ingame Windows lightning-fast (not going to use UWindows..)
* **Improved Interpolation System**

#### Abbreviations/Footnotes

* 1 - Non-commissioned Officer (NCO)
* 2 - Commissioned Officer (CO)