actually, the WCU mod is starting with a privateer remake, and then is gonna morph and branch into a remake of all of wc in one timeline.
and the priv remake is nearingn completion. we've got all the missions, locales, ships, etc. visible weapon upgrades
D), and i'm currently working on a demo ship (a stilhetto) with visible engine+afterburner upgrades, and visible wing-mounted missiles.
the gameplay is a little modified. there is some dilemma over the AI. we don't want it retarded like the priv AI, but anything better doesn't let you really handle 5 ships alone... like you could in priv. a cute little thing i added was that when you hurt a transport between 40% -> 10% health, it'll drop cargo little by little. So if you're careful you can pirate without killing
. of course you'll still get more of you kill it, but you will help your relations a bit with less kills. getting greedy and hitting the 10% mark to get all the cargo will just make the transport turn on you suicidally... also, the distances are different... more wc3ish. which makes keeping wcpriv style combat realy hard. it was meant for slow motion floaty fights. so some compromise will have to be made.
anyways, we're still working on adding multiplayer. the people coding it haven't been completely reliable, so it's in a state of perpetually half done. but ultimately it'll allow mmorpg style play.
and sometime in the future the engine will get an overhaul to support some newer effects. we have specular/reflective mapping, and damage mapping, detail mapping, etc. but normal mapping would be an awesome addition.
anyways, we were considering releasing the priv remake sometime soon (there are playable betas out), but there is still stuff to iron out.
-scheherazade