> This means that OpenRA is not restricted by the technical limitations of the original closed-source games: it includes native support for modern operating systems and screen resolutions...
I think this is the most compelling reason - it opens up features that would be way harder to realize in the original engine.
It is a great question! Why does anybody play a specific game? For my kids gaming is a way to form a collective in-group narrative between a set of kids. That means that they all drift to the same games. My sons actually play different games together than the games they play to form a narrative with the bigger group. For me I play solo without talking about it with other adults too much. Many of the games are of the type I played with my friends when I was in the phase my kids are in now. Mostly 4x and RTS/TD. So my relaxation also has a nostalgic element. I don't grok Fortnite, but I do grok the cultural element in a few hundred million (!) people watching the same seasonal change. I wish I could have had gaming as a cultural element on that scale when I was young. Based on my preferences it beats the fads of the 90s by a very long stretch!
1) I used this [1] guide to get it working on Windows 10.
2) This [2] is a more detailed version with a lot of comments.
The bugs don't bother me that much to be honest, unless you want to complete all quests in a city, then you should have a look at them.
The tools one uses for configuration like dgVoodoo generally work, but I guess anyone could slip in malicious code if they really wanted to.
One final tip, the Hero Editor is a great way to edit your characters if you want to turn a fire mage into a wind one or stuff like that. Since multiplayer is not common these days, I reckon it's not cheating as you've lost all the benefits of multiplayer anyway. (I think the tool is just in German, not sure.) [3]
In terms of the open frameworks, it's not my area of specialty, but there is Sacred ReBorn, and there is even a Diablo 2 mod to Sacred. I believe even dgVoodoo does edit some files to use newer (open) frameworks.
> This means that OpenRA is not restricted by the technical limitations of the original closed-source games: it includes native support for modern operating systems and screen resolutions...
I think this is the most compelling reason - it opens up features that would be way harder to realize in the original engine.
noteworthy
- OpenXcom https://openxcom.org/about/
- OpenRA https://www.openra.net/about/
- OpenTTD https://www.openttd.org/about.html