Best RPG engine

[JarlFrank]

The Infinity Engine was pretty awesome.
Also, Diablo 2 had a great engine that could be used for an awesome graphical roguelike.

 

[Silellak]

I think Dungeon Siege had a really neat engine. It had the no loading thing going for it and it ran really smooth. Too bad the games built on it sucked balls.

Actually, Ultima 5: Lazarus used the Dungeon Siege engine, and did so really well. The "huge, seamless world" thing helped make the game feel like a true Ultima game - almost like Ultima 7 in a 3D engine, but without the terrible combat.

I like Aurora for its flexibility (some friends and I still run multiplayer campaigns in NWN1 simply because it's so easy to build and sceipt for), but hate it for the fact that every fucking interior has to be its own "zone".

Some combination of the seamlessness of Dungeon Siege with the flexibility of Aurora would be fucking brilliant.

For 2D, I have to second the cries of "Infinity Engine", but the Ultima 7 engine is a very close second, if not tied.

 

[hiver]

Wow...so many shiny things... to choose from...

Source comes of mind among the first naturally because Dark Mesiah which proved how good it can be used in fantasy styled game. (traps, big monsters etc). And how terribly it missed some true RPg gameplay - though devs were pretty straight from the start about it-
It also runs on pretty much anything which immediately disqualifies Crisys engine from the contest. Horrible thing.

Much better candidate is Far Cry engine. Almost any computer could run it at extra high settings today and use all the remaining CPU juice for AI and more units in the game. Make it a nice thrid person PoV and it would be great.
Open areas and all.


Classical RPG engine award goes to TOEE of course, though it feels heavy sometimes but i guess it could be spruced up a bit maybe.
Especially if you would turn down magic effects to something more sane.
And probably a lot of other stuff too.


But my personal favorite would be Doom 3 engine. Especially because later advances in it like quake IV or Prey which im just playing again marveling how nice compact everything looks. Prey shows what can you do with it to create various different styled areas pretty nicely.
Also has that fine effect of not using our modern hardware to the max, leaving juice for Ai and more complex systems of gameplay.

Really, graphically speaking i wouldnt have desire for anything more than it.
Im also not crazy about having open world in every game.
World map + well developed locations are more then enough and most often, better.

 

[desocupado]

On the other hand, Aurora is an inexusably sub-par engine that seems to be getting worse with each new "improvement", NWN2 and its catastrophically inefficient renderer being the unquestionable apex of shittiness. Poor performance and stability issues that have consistently plagued Aurora and its bastard offspring would perhaps be forgivable if the engine was capable of visuals that were at least half-way decent. But instead all Aurora/Odyssey games had graphics that were inferior to what was considered standard at the time when they came out, and I can't help but cringe when I see NWN or KotOR struggle hopelessly with tiny areas, low-poly models and volumetric fog or violently hit the keyboard when staring at yet another two-minute loading screen for an area that contains five minutes worth of gameplay.

 

[Turok]

Best rpg engine is the one on space siege, problem is that now one have use it for make a crpg :shock:

 

[The Exar]

Infinity. I simply didn't fail. And so many wonderful memories...

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Infinity.

 

[Disconnected]

The Crytech engine with some ToEE-style combat mechanics would be pretty fucking fantastic. The combination of aerial combat, destructible environment and junk with physics would be fucking cool.

Just imagine it for a sec: fighter crashes in through a wall to get at a bard, jumps onto a table and prepares to fling himself, sword first, at the little shit.
Meanwhile, the bard just finishes casting Balagarn's Iron Horn, toppling table, fighter & everything else that isn't nailed down, to the ground.
Only to be rudely crushed flat along with fighter and building, by a hungry Rok accidentally dropping an elephant.

I'd love me a crawler like that.

Other than that, ToEE wins hands down in my opinion. Sure, the fluff & dialogue is pretty shit, the art direction is somewhat uninspired and the encounters leave much to be desired. But none of those things have anything to do with the engine.

 

[racofer]

D3 engine looks promising, although much of it is due to Blizzard's awesome artistic quality.

 

[made]

Gold Box engine.

Add a little bloom here and there and it would be up to par even today.

 

[David Xachaturian]

Temple of Elemental Evil. The best engine for an isometric CRPG. NWN ugly 3D should go to hell.

D3 engine looks promising, although much of it is due to Blizzard's awesome artistic quality.

Blizzard doesn't make RPG.

 

[Turok]

Temple of Elemental Evil. The best engine for an isometric CRPG. NWN ugly 3D should go to hell.

D3 engine looks promising, although much of it is due to Blizzard's awesome artistic quality.

Blizzard doesn't make RPG.

Yes they make Action rpg.

 

[The Feral Kid]

ToEE engine was awesome. Such a waste it was never put to good use. Though the combat was frustrating and tiresome. IE was nice for its time and much more fun combat-wise. Aurora and all its modifications suck hard. It brought the dreaded 3D to crpgs on the forefront, ruining any sense of atmosphere found in isometric pre-rendered environments.

 

[Disconnected]

Gold Box engine.

Add a little bloom here and there and it would be up to par even today.

Agreed.
3D/scalable 2D.
+Automap moved to main game screen.
+Proper mouse driven GUI.
+Journal entries in the game.
=
Better than anything since ToEE.

 

[BethesdaLove]

Word. The Gold Box engine would be fucking awesome with some proper gpu acceleration!

 

[bhlaab]

Are we talking about graphical engines or gameplay systems?

Because I mean, Fallout is stuck at 640x480 and Infinity Engine games are a pain to get working in XP and Witcher is slowdown city even on my high end hardware. Soooo, I guess I'm still waiting on that one.

Gameplay system? Can't beat SPECIAL. It's simple, not based on d&d, you don't have to choose a set class or race before you know how to contextualize them within the actual game... Un-bork things like the armor penetration formula and it's fine.

 

[Jung]

Gothic 1-2

 

[Volourn]

" It's simple, not based on d&d"

Yes, it is.

And, oh, the answer to the original question is easy - Aurora. No doubt about it.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Temple of Elemental Evil engine. If only they kept making games with it, I would be in HEAVAN!

Excellent combat system, and the adventuring part of the system is brilliant as well. The game itself needed another 6 months in the oven, but we are talking engines here.

Goldbox engine is great, and often I prefer the "zoom to tac combat screen" system. Unfortunately it doesn't do things, apart from in a simple manner, that are important for many such as dialogue, scouting with a thief, etc, otherwise I might have picked it. TOEE engine does all these things and more.

 

[ushdugery]

Any engine that utilises lots of necromancy. Alternatively the

Temple of Elemental Evil engine. If only they kept making games with it, I would be in HEAVAN!

Excellent combat system, and the adventuring part of the system is brilliant as well. The game itself needed another 6 months in the oven, but we are talking engines here.

 

[Lim-Lim]

ToEE engine gets the job done with DnD, altough Infinity Engine is a classic.
Jagged Alliance 2 engine is also pretty good.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

ToEE engine had circle fucking menu.

Circle fucking menu is one of the seven most fucktarded things in videogames ever.

 

[Melcar]

That circle menu thing gave me nightmares. I mean, really, who the hell though that was a good intuitive way to play?

 

[thesheeep]

I liked the circle menu and found it to be kind of intuitive. Probably I'm more next-gen than you old bastards

 

[Volourn]

Problem with TOEE's raidal menu (unlike NWN's) is that it had a nasty habit of being circle jerked RIGHT OFF THE SCREEN. HAHAHAHA! Great design there. NOT.