----------Begin long multi topic post-------------
That is also why WFR died. we were working like that and all the while watched q4's multiplayer community dwindle to the point where we simply lost interest. I had it to beta and said: "WTF!? I can't get models good enough that look like they belong to a WF mod, I can't get maps made easily (at that point, I was the last mapper/fixer because of the fucking lighting and shadowing nightmare in q4), I barely have any of the sound features of WFA, this engine is unforgiving and produces low fps on anything of a busy fight...people are either bitching or taunting me over this,.. WHY bother anymore? Shut it down." Static had his WTF moment before that when I was losing drive after codefests and started playing world of warcraft again. his list or problems was the same as mine, but add a "lead programmer is playing wow too much now".
TBH, if I were to ever make a new FPS game.. I probably wouldn't want this community's input while making it. I would tune you guys out and simply dump the game in your lap when it was ready. Tweaking would be an option at that point because the base vision was created completely.
The entity system in q4 is far worse than the q3 system as it brought inheritance of tons of crap you may or may not use.
I had to create my own heirarchy of entities rooted from the most basic idEntity in order to keep the simplicity of execution of things like lasers, alarms, proxies, turret grenades enforced.
SS: while you may be able to shrink/fit/tighten the core engine code to chip size. I'm not sure the entity system can really be stripped down and maintain it's funcitonality. I speak from q4's entity and .def system of course. I've been through the q3 source and yes it was indeed a mess. I didn't stay in there very long as I didn't want to learn a "bad" system. What you want to call runable/storable on a chip is very different today than what was available as an embedded microcontroller when q3 came out.
But I'm going to say this: One of the characteristics that I believe makes people good programmers and what is a fun aspect of programming is to get into the code from someone else and understand it enough (over time) to work on it like it was their own demented creation. So while it was messy to work in either q3 or q4, I still had a decent amount of fun.
Evertime I see people mention the real lack of the old style game... 100hp xxx/yyy armor, z amount of ammo and you got 3-4 seconds vs anyone person to stay alive. You have your pick of a set of weapons, you have offhand grenades. You have unlimited respawns: go fight as hard as you can.... I want to make and play that game again. The problem is time, I never feel like I have it and the logistics of finding an engine suited to the speed of game, amount of spam flying around, ease of programming environment and most importantly, content creation like MAPS are the biggest barriers.
WF/WFA/WFR is probably the worst case scenario for modding because it has such DIVERSE classes, DIVERSE movement types with jetpack, grapple, DIFFERENT class speeds, wall walking in WFR baby!, retarded quantities of weapons each unique enough to require custom code, and unique abilities in WFR.
Well, atleast WF/WFA had native supported water.........