I want to focus on game content rather than creating a good gaming engine. Which would you recommend for this? Would it be better to go with one that is open source like quake? Something that is newer, but only allows scripting like UT, Quake III Arena, or Half Life? I would like to add in some sort of storyline and rpg type elements. Thank you for the help

i''ve messed around with half-life, quake, and quake2.. personally, i''d choose half-life..
quake and unreal, i believe, are the only ones that just let you script (QuakeC and UnrealScript) from quake2 on id used dlls, so all you need to do is build an executable. so, with half-life, quake2, and (i assume) q3a, you are only limited by the engine and your programming skills.
also, the half-life sdk uses a nice, clean c++ class hierarchy..

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IUnknown *pUnkOuter

"Try the best you can
try the best you can
the best you can is good enough"
--Radiohead

HL is nice, but there are already so many mods for it that you won''t probably get all the attention you wan''t your mod to get. You could try something like Diablo II.

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Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
John Milton, Paradise Lost

how could diablo II be modified without any sort of development kit short of hacking the assembly and hex editing?

I''d use the Unreal Engine. It is the most *advanced* engine out there. I see Half-Life''s reign on gaming ending relatively soon, and the Quake series may be dead for a while.
If you go this route though, be sure to add at *least* a couple of weeks to a couple of months for you/your coders to learn UnrealScript, it is a Java/C++ like scripting language with *many* quirks.



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I''d say definitely go with HL without a doubt. Yes the technology is a bit older, but it has several things going for it that other games do not.
1) HL has the largest audience hands down. (Thier installed base is about 2.5 million last I heard, and they are doing another re-release)
2) HL has the best documented SDK of any of these games.
3) HL has the largest Mod community. You''ll easily be able to get help and information from other authors.
4) Valve supports their mod authors better than any other company.
5) HL seems to be the most flexible environment of the bunch.

On a side note, as far as attention and possible recognition goes....

Yeah, it''s crowded in the HL mod community, but if you make something unique and fun, you will get noticed. Valve is particularly appreciative of Mod authors. I originally sent an NDA to them for the full SDK and received nothing after several weeks. I then called Valve to find out what the deal was, and I was put directly in touch with Gabe Newell who was very friendly, and he called me back directly after tracking my request down and setting things straight. I also met him at E3, (he approached me), he talked with me for a bit about mods, and was genuinely interested in what I thought about HL, the mods, and the progress they were making on TF2. In short, Valve is very approachable and genuinely interested in what people are doing with their game, regardless of whether anyone is actually playing the mod you make. I''ve heard good things about Epic''s support, but I don''t see UT ever saturating the market the way HL has. A year ago I was of the opinion that HL was going to die soon, but it seems I was very wrong. I''m sure the console versions, and the re-release will give it yet another shot in the arm, and it will be around a bit longer. It''s worthwhile to develop for HL still. You''ll have the largest potential audience, the best support, all the while developing a relationship with Valve. If you continue on this path, I''m sure you''ll want to work on mods for TF2 and/or HL2 (as they look to be potentially huge successes) so it couldn''t hurt to start establishing yourself in the community with an HL mod, and at least make yourself known to the folks at Valve.

Good luck.

have you thought about fakk2? it''s EASILY the nicest engine to work with.

Fakk 2 used the Q3 engine.

"Never pet a burning dog." - Warcraft II

I *would* say use the Half-Life engine, but I am looking a little forward. Though Half-Life has a huge audience base, almost 90% of them are only concerned with CS and TFC, you would have to make one damn good mod, and even then i really don''t think it could break the hold on CS''s dominance. Also, I haven''t heard much about how easy porting a mod from HL to Valve''s next game will be. To see the differences in how a mod in Half-Life seems to a similar mod in UT...find an article comparing Counterstrike and Tactical Ops...i play both avidly, and the latter is by far the better.
Of course, knowing what kind of project you are trying to do would probably also help get responses!



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Thanks for all the response.
Thats true, I said I wanted to add rpg elements but I wasn''t very specific. Basically, what I would like to end up with is the game elements of a roguelike in 3d. Similar to angband or moria.