I am in the early stages of developing an alternate history based Real Time Strategy/First Person Shooter. As with most start up projects, funds are limited and I want to get the most bang for my buck. With said, I am considering a few different engine possibilities. ofcourse I would like it to look as good as possible so the engine needs to support advanced shaders, HDR, etc but most modern engines look just fine. What I am really concerned with is are the features I am planning on incorporating into the game.
Good AI support: There will be AI controlled units but they only need basic AI as they will be managed by players. They won't need to make their own decisions, however the code needs to be efficient because I plan on having a number of them. Few engines offer this out the box due to the complexity of AI programming so this might fall into "Would love to have" rather than "Have to have"
Wide open spaces: RTS games are big and I want big maps in mine. Almost all of these will be outdoors with organic terrain and will need vegetation and other props. Most structures will be placed by the team so there is not a great need for brushwork but it would be great if the mappers had alot of freedom to make buildings and what not on their own.
Huge models: As mentioned before, most structures will be placed by the team while in game. That's pretty simple. The problem is I want my buildings to be very large and have multiple levels. This could lead to more complex collision meshes and hit boxes. The engine needs to be able to handle this.
Vehicles: There are going to be alot of them. Wheels, tracks and aircraft.
I would like to be able to change the map objects on the fly. This would mean periodically changing/replacing props and textures while a game is in progress. I am not talking dynamic terrain, although that would be great, just objects and textures. Again, this is a "would like" not a "must have"
Net code: This is going to be an online game so good net code is important.
Support for both FPS and RTS views: One player will be in RTS view exclusively while others can switch from one to the other. This should just be a camera orientation issue and a pretty simple feature to implement.
I would love to have destructible models as is supported in UDK, however this is another "nice" feature not a must have.
With all of this said, what do you think about Leadwerks for what I need? I wanted to post hear to get some opinions from experienced users of Leadwerks before making my decision. If this won't work, perhaps there is another engine I should be looking at?
Thank you in advance for your help,
