What did Helmut Halfmann have planned for Aquanox 3?

[Mazryonh]

I know it's unlikely that AQ3 will be made, but does any info exist in English on what Herr Halfmann planned for Aquanox 3? If it was ever released (along with the source code for the KRASS engine) some enterprising modders could make AQ3 for themselves.

[sideshowBob]

On the contrary my friend, after the past weeks it is in fact quite possible that AN3 WILL be made (by Nordic Games, who bought the assets of then-Publisher Jowood who's gone broke)
However as far as we know Halfmann didn't advance the story substantially beyond AN2. That is to say he wrote a fair bunch of pages but didn't get nearly as far enough as to merge the storyline with the events of AN2/1.

[DragoFire]

There is a cross-over between Aquanox 2 to Aquanox, the optional "Freeman" mission is the only point where the stories have a hard connection. Other than that there's referrences to events in Aquanox within Aquanox2.

And Aquanox has lots of references back to AD, with meeting characters and a few events coming into the story line for Flint.


Be interesting to read what story lines have been written so far for Aquanox3, wether it continues on from Aquanox and Flint's story or Aquanox2 storyline, or something completely new?

[sideshowBob]

Be interesting to read what story lines have been written so far for Aquanox3, wether it continues on from Aquanox and Flint's story or Aquanox2 storyline, or something completely new?

That's what I'm talking about. He began working on AN3 but to the point he stopped, the storyline didn't fuse with AN1/2. So we will never know what he had in mind in the long run! That's what I recall from an ex-dev commenting on that same question here somewhere.
Of course there are links between AD, AN1 and AN2. I wasn't denying that.

[DragoFire]

well there's so many options of storylines....

if trading was added you could do a freighter trying to get his/her foot in the door. the Bio's are still around no both Aquanox and A2, so there's the option of hunting them down and finding what they're upto.
and I'm sure I could come up with 100 more base on the sub-plots in all 3 games, plus a few out of left field!

[Mazryonh]

On the contrary my friend, after the past weeks it is in fact quite possible that AN3 WILL be made (by Nordic Games, who bought the assets of then-Publisher Jowood who's gone broke)
However as far as we know Halfmann didn't advance the story substantially beyond AN2. That is to say he wrote a fair bunch of pages but didn't get nearly as far enough as to merge the storyline with the events of AN2/1.

Damn, that's too bad. What exactly did Helmut Halfmann die of in 2009? And when was he born? Information about him is difficult for a German-illiterate like me to find. I take it he didn't have much warning, otherwise he would have taken care to write down all he could about his unfinished stories for others to finish after his passing, like the fantasy author Robert Jordan (best known for the Wheel of Time fantasy series) did.

Mind you, I'm not someone who thinks Herr Halfmann's writing is perfect; a look at the intro to Aquanox 1 or Aquanox 2 will see that he, or those at Massive Development who incorporated his writings into the game, had a thing for including superfluous exposition that often tends to bore gamers (people who are increasingly known for their ever-shortening attention spans nowadays). For example, why do we need to learn about how scientists in Aqua are breeding back extinct aquatic creatures in the Aquanox 1 intro, since that is never touched upon again in the game? Why do we need to learn about the "unspeakably horrifying" golden horseshoe crab (heavily implied to be related to the Schax monsters from AQ1) if they're not touched upon later in the game? Most people don't play video games to read books--they read them to interact with a virtual world in entertaining ways. If Aquanox 3 gets to be made, there will have to be a lot done to make that kind of exposition attractive to players again.

How exactly is Nordic games going to be funding Aquanox 3, then? JoWood's intellectual properties clearly weren't doing well when it collapsed--how is Nordic going to get enough funding for a series that wasn't very popular outside of Germany?

[Rikki-Tikki-Tavi]

The problem with AN1 was, that it was originally planned as a much larger thing. So far as I know, the developers were quite unhappy about how it turned out, but they couldn't get any more funds for the project, so they had to throw something out the door. There is a lot of talking in AN2, too, but I liked every second of it.

Helmut Halfman died of cancer. I think he was in his fourties.

[Mazryonh]

The problem with AN1 was, that it was originally planned as a much larger thing. So far as I know, the developers were quite unhappy about how it turned out, but they couldn't get any more funds for the project, so they had to throw something out the door.

They could have released them in episode format. Something like AQ2's backdrops mixed with AD's dialogue choices and optional missions through those dialogue choices could have worked better.

There is a lot of talking in AN2, too, but I liked every second of it.

Not if you're a Gamespot reviewer. Funnily enough, no one gives the Metal Gear Solid series flak for having so many "talking heads" sections and extraordinarily long cutscenes.

Helmut Halfman died of cancer. I think he was in his forties.

Never mind, I discovered recently he was born in 1958, which means he lived a mere 51 years.

[Mazryonh]

Also, did Herr Halfmann leave behind any notes on what exactly the Angel's Tears were supposed to do? The only thing one of them actually does is melt the ice imprisoning the strange black-and-green creature inside William McGregor's lab. This was hinted at in the game about how "perhaps the Angel's Tears can do more than just melt hearts," but why would the ability to melt ice be so special? Any sufficient heat source can do so. It's hard for me to believe that they were so important, unless they are the only thing that can kill the "unspeakably horrifying" creatures from the Aquanox 2 intro. If so, McGregor's creature is not of the Schax species, who (with the exception of Forneus) are as vulnerable to conventional weaponry as anyone else.

[DragoFire]

I know it's unlikely that AQ3 will be made, but does any info exist in English on what Herr Halfmann planned for Aquanox 3? If it was ever released (along with the source code for the KRASS engine) some enterprising modders could make AQ3 for themselves.

I've had a look for anything on this and found very little in English, as for the KRASS game engine I had no luck at all location who holds the license or even has it for use.

The problem with AN1 was, that it was originally planned as a much larger thing. So far as I know, the developers were quite unhappy about how it turned out, but they couldn't get any more funds for the project, so they had to throw something out the door. There is a lot of talking in AN2, too, but I liked every second of it.

When looking at Aquanox and Aquanox2 you do get a general idea of the larger picture, but there are a large number of unknowns that would need filling in. Both run almost side-by-side time-line wise, with AD as the starting point for Aquanox.

I think the whole story could be fleshed out and made whole, but would require all information to be pooled, both German and English, plus any other sources located.