Nexus - The Jupiter Incident

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Just played through the first tutorial of Nexus - The Jupiter Incident . Looks absolutely beautiful, very nice UI, very atmospheric. Worth looking at if you want a tactical space RTS.

Not available in the US until Feburary due to the US distributers not wanting to go into the crowded pre-Christmas market, but there is a demo to download.

 

[Moose]

Gogamer has it if you can't wait til the US release.

http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer.storefront/SESSIONID/Product/View/001NEX

 

[Gollum]

I've been playing around with the demo, but without any kind of tutorial/introduction, I find it very hard to do pretty much anything than get my ships blown into pieces...

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I've been playing around with the demo, but without any kind of tutorial/introduction, I find it very hard to do pretty much anything than get my ships blown into pieces...

The full game has tutorials, so it makes a lot more sense. When you've seen it, it seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Oh man, Nexus... This game must have had the worst times during its development ever

When I've first seen it, it was called Beyond, and it wasn't much of a game, but with a nice engine and special effects. Then the studio I've been working at has purchased the project, and the Imperium Galactica license for it, thus it has become IG3. It was originally scheduled for a late 2001 release ) but we were still hard at work on the cinematics at that time.
Then in 2002 Philos Labs has crashed, IG3 was cancelled and most of the dev team left to found a new studio. They've managed to get a new deal with the publisher to complete the game. Time passed and the license was lost, so it got renamed to Galaxy Andromeda. Then CDV cancelled the project again and it seemed that it was over...

So it's totaly unreal for me to finally see the game released, but I'm very happy for those guys I hope I can get a copy... wonder if my name's still in the credits

 

[hoom]

Ahh, so it did get cancelled when Philos died.
This was publicly denied at the time (though there was a rumor that this had happened).
Interesting.
So you worked for Philos?

I was like the 3rd person to get to the IG3 forum & first member of the general public & have been following the ups & downs ever since.

I'm so very happy that its finally managed to get finished
Both because I will get to play it & because the people involved in making it have been working hard for so long.

Unfortunately at the ass end of the world we don't seem to have a distributor & the local shop doesn't seem interested in importing

I hear the opening cinematics are very long & good
I like that but it'll have to be very exceptional to beat the Iwar opening.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I like that but it'll have to be very exceptional to beat the Iwar opening.

It's not that good. While NTJI it has a better quality of rendering and video (as expected this many years later), IMNSHO the IWar ones are still better paced and better directed in terms of cinematic technique.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Yep, the IG3 cinematics were the first job for an inexperienced team, and it's also worth noting that we've finished the job in early 2002. This means that the stuff is 2 years old, and the events surrounding the final weeks of the production weren't too inspiring. But the biggest problem was the direction/story... (or lack of it)

Also, there are many other cinematics which were rendered with the engine and post-processed with some effects.

 

[swaaye]

So you're saying this is IG3? Wow. That was used as a demo for Matrox dualhead!!!

I'm very excited to see this game though. I've been hoping for a new space title for a long time.

 

[hoom]

Well its more complicated than 'IG3 resurrected'
Its actually both the ancestor of IG3 & its descendant simultaneously.

CDV forced changes to the game design that were not liked by the devs.
HD Interactive, the publisher which picked it up allowed the devs to go back to more like the original plan when it was called Beyond.
Meanwhile, many of the ship designs have remained but the game engine, textures, effects etc continued to evolve over time.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

But the biggest problem was the direction/story... (or lack of it)

There's an article in this months Interzone on computer games, and one of the points raised is that although computer games have come a long way, they are often lacking in the story area, and could do worse than look at using talent from the world of SF writers to build games with better storylines.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Hehe, the problem was that the intro script was indeed written by a sci-fi writer (Zsolt Nyulaszi, lead designer of Nexus). He's got talent to write novels, but movies are very different... And unfortunately we haven't really tried to revise the script, and there was no 3D animatic either. We just went in full throttle, building half-million-poly spaceships and such, without really knowing how it'll end... someone with more cinematic experience should have polished it for a week or two before we've started.

So if you look at the intro, there's a real lack of action, half of it is slow moving spaceships, another half the hero standing by a window. Well, so we've managed to cram in a few explosions too Also, almost every other scene required new backgrounds, characters, vehicles, which was highly ineffective as well.

Then again, some of the scenes can still hold up against most other game intros, and some of the ships look cool as well. So we don't have to feel ashamed IMHO


But you're right that game stories need better writers. There's a real lack of originality in today's games - almost everything is based on the sci-fi and action movies of the past 20-25 years like Aliens, Blade Runner, Star Wars, James Bonds, LOTR, X-files and so on. But I'm sure there are some guys out there with fresh ideas... or at least the ability to deliver the story in a better way, like in Half-Life or Halo.

 

[Gollum]

and one of the points raised is that although computer games have come a long way, they are often lacking in the story area

Unfortunatelly I'd have to make the case that the same holds true for much of today's TV, movies and yes, sometimes even literature...

 

[Zyrusticae]

Agreed.

Don't forget music, for that matter.

 

[Gollum]

Well, music doesn't really need a story, but sure- bad composing and shoddy songwriting fill most commercial airwaves these days, so - agreed!

 

[swaaye]

I just happen to have this installed in Steam at the moment and it got an update today.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/6420/announcements/detail/275113954136580710

Update 1.03: GUI Scaling Added, Fixes Steam Workshop Support
Community Announcements - MegalomaniacNG
ADDITIONS
• Added GUI scaling option for use with very high display resolutions.

FIXES
• Eliminated administrator mode dependency when installed into Program Files. Saved games, logs etc. are stored in the user’s AppData folder.
• Restored Windows XP compatibility.
• Fixed incorrect loading back of in-mission saves containing ship formations causing crash when the formation leader destroyed.
• Fixed unwanted activation of absolute ship movement when switching to Steam panel with Shift+Tab.

MODDING ADDITIONS
• Added Steam Workshop support.
• A mod can be an alternation of the main campaign itself by overriding its missions, models, textures, movies, sounds etc.


We hope you enjoy the game now even more and we hope to see some great mods!

 

[Malo]

Lol what? that's crazy.

 

[Davros]

I have a text file where I list all my cd keys and I noticed I have this game listed but I cant find it on my pc
very weird

 

[hoom]

There had been a previous update back in March at least on GoG (doesn't have 1.03 yet but apparently it's coming)

Changelog for update 1.02 / GOG-13 (Windows) (added 29 March 2016):

This update adds support for the following languages:
- English (audio + text)
- French (text only)
- Italian (text only)
- German (audio + text)
- Hungarian (text only)
- Russian (audio + text)

ADDITIONS:
- Added option to use the current desktop resolution. It’s the default.
- Enabled using modern monitor resolutions including Full HD.
- Added correct displaying of GUI elements, briefings and subtitles with modern monitor aspect ratios: 16:9, 16:10, 21:9
- Added separate field-of-view setups for different monitor aspect ratios.
- Added VSync option. It’s on by default.
- All available text languages are selectable from the launcher.
- All available audio languages are selectable from the launcher.
- Added multiplayer NAT resolver to help connecting to Internet servers.

FIXES:
- Removed obsolete DirectX 8 executable versions.
- Fixed disappearing of the loading animation in fullscreen mode under modern OSs. Also dimming is applied to the GUI during loading.
- Fixed mouse cursor latency.
- Fixed lagging of NPC mission dialogs with the unpacked data files.
- Fixed the issue shortcuts stop working after switching tasks with Alt+Tab.

MODDING ADDITIONS:
- Editor window size is configurable from mod_tools launcher.
- Configured window size is independent from the fullscreen game resolution.
- Nexus can be started in windowed mode from mod_tools launcher.
- Nexus can be started in windowed mode with the /win command line option.
- Mission Editor enables returning to main menu and load another mission.
- Mission and Solar System Editor enables editing main campaign’s missions.
- Published former developer tool Briefing Editor to ease altering main campaign’s mission briefing scenes.
- Published former developer localization tool NexLoc to ease adding new translations.
- Options saved to the user’s AppData folder instead of the registry.

MODDING FIXES:
- Fixed Converter crash under under modern OSs.
- Editor windows startup arrangement changed, Quit buttons added.
- Editors warn about unsaved changes.
- Solar System Editor uses the usual solar system navigation GUI.

One of these days I'm gonna actually play it through...

Edit: apparently rights were purchased by Nordic Games (now THQNordic) in Sept 2015 http://www.nordicgames.at/index.php/article/nordic_games_acquires_nexus so the patches are coming from them

 

[hoom]

So I was trying to find a video of the old IG3 demo for another thread & holy crap look what I stumbled upon
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uLXn7rZYtlsO8R2kZS1kQ/videos
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dJutYTT6Raf4s1TG6EiPNVmKc4OZYDzRQV2u2522e7I/edit