Genre: MMORPRTSG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Real Time Strategy Game).
Possible Release Date: 2020 AD.
Medium: Space
Details:
Essentially I went over this about 2 years ago but I want to refresh my ideas.
Essentially you have a Galaxy with say 4000 Players. You'll have the ability to control planets, their economies and their government, and conduct very detailed diplomacy with other players and wage war.
The fighting I want to be based somewhat on the Homeworld engine, and the ability to "jump" from system to system. My friend suggest Babylon 5 jump gates but I'm quessy on using them, at best I think they'll be a "late game" kind of thing and a huge effort.
Now I'm thinking of having 2 account types full, and not full, where in full you can do the whole top down control of planets and ships, while in the other yet cheaper version just ships.
I'm inspired by that coming out game that I forget its name where you can upload custom content, I'm thinking that players can custom design the look of their ships and buildings so that instead of say choosing one of 10 races you get to just choose 1 generic race but your actions and government choices will effect how your race turns out thus making it that no one has a "definate" advantage at first.
They'll be a large and complicated tech tree and ships can be custom designed say you have X slots A small B medium and C large based on the ship class of say from fighter, corvette, frigate, destoryer, cruiser, battleship carrier, merchant, hauler etc.
I also want "little things" like realistic physics .
For example, you see all the stars but because of whatever technological limitations can't scan past the nearest 12, but you know where the stars are and thus can send ships in with your newly discovered warp drive to explore them, find planets to colonize and seek friends and foes.
But also say you discover a nebula or a comet I want the player to be able to post a survey ship to study it as a boost to tech and culture y'see? As well as having say a nebula that if you fire torpeedos in it will ignite it causing massive damage to enemy ships within it.
I'll rest on it and post more later. And King of Men please don't call me a newb. pleeeeease.
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posted
Would there be preset factions for new players to join, or would each player be his/her own faction? In your description, it sounds like the latter, but how would you prevent any one player from owning the whole galaxy? It sounds like balance could become a big issue there, especially with players who join initially just running around eating up newer ones.
I really like the overall premise though. Galactic emperor? yes please!
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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OK, I won't. I think I'll call you ambitious, instead. It does not sound impossible by 2020, unless we run into one of those naty fundamental limitations to Moore's Law. On the other hand, I do think you have some problems.
First, and as sorry as I am to admit it, the strat-gaming community just isn't as big as the twitch-gaming one. MMORPGs can gather 4000, even 40000, players; it is not completely obvious that an ORTS can. This may change as the gaming demographic ages, and people look for more depth. There again, it may not. Strategy just isn't for everyone.
Second, there is the issue of time commitment. MMORPGs require several hours a week, at an absolute minimum, for your character to become any good. Young gamers have that kind of time; older ones - and the strategy gamer is predominantly older - don't. I promised not to call you a noob; but I think it is fair to say that you are still too young to know just how much time is eaten up by that thing called Real Life. School is nowhere close.
Third, dropouts. In a MMORPG you can park your character in a safe area when you're on vacation. What do you do when a major Power in the current Great War announces that he is leaving for a month's holiday? You can see this problem even in today's MP games. Consider the CK game I am currently in - you can find the thread at the Pdox forums. I am at war with Poland. What happens if he doesn't show next week? I crush him like a bug, is what. Which would be a real pity for him, since he has got me at a disadvantage for the first time since the Great Rising in 1205. (Current year is 1375.) In fact, unless I get some commitments of troops from his opther neighbours, I'm going to have to concede defeat and hand over Brandenburg, Novgorod, and Silesia - a very nasty defeat. But I digress. The point is, if he can't show next week, he loses out on a hard-fought victory, and on the brilliant diplomacy that isolated me in the first place.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
KOM hey can I have a link to that specific page? Paradox forums are very messy.
Indeed I think the biggest issue could be dropouts, but i'll get to that in a minute.
I did post this before (and I did mean Spore thank you) but after some 100 posts I ran out of ideas and dropped it, now after watching the newer BSG and after playing HW2 and CIV4 I got some new ideas.
Factions, empires, guilds, etc etc are all player based, I want it to be open enough of a game that anything is possible diplomatically, and this may also solve some of the dropout problems, say you get 4 players to agree to merge with shared control but delegate who controls what, like 2 guys can cantrol the fleets, 1 guy solely the economy and the last guy can be held in reserve to take over should the other guys drop.
As for newbies signing on only to be conquered I play that the pseudo random placement starts from the middle of the Galaxy and is placed ever so farther outwards as the game progresses and central space is taken up. Also I hope on planning that the actual time in joining the difference between economies and militaries will negligible on performance say if you start as a Lvl 1 Civilization but have to be a Lvl 3 to be able to in theory take a Home World, so to speak. (Though the "level" system would probly just to be a method of determining score).
I'm thinking of a Hearts of Iron 2 kind of economy and government where economy is the sum of all your parts and based on your tech can upgrade facilities to harvest more resources, however if I can make it as realistic as I want the elemental rarity will reflect the composition of the Universe.
I have hope based on the performance of a Icelandic MMORPG called "Eve-Online" and "Earth and Beyond" both were sucessful games until Earth had a regime change and folded, but its players migrated to Eve afterwards and Eve is doing incredibly well in the space combat genre, but alas its not twitch based nor can huge fleet battles happen unless its by reasonably large guilds.
Also this is why I have the idea of "dual accounts" where people who can't put in all the effort to run a civilization can instead manage say a small fleet for a civilization and can do it for a smaller fee. This could in theory lead to a much much large wealth of ideas like say the formation of a "sub" system in the game where in a limited account you can buy a starter ship and as you gain rank and money buy better ships and add more ships to your flottila and loan your services to any government needed a quick boost to its military strength.
Also, I'm thinking of instituting a easy to learn scripting service where you can script battle plans that your fleets can use automated while your sleeping to defend yourself, and your economy I'm hoping can be automated as well, though of course micromanagement is a must option for those who can't help but spend endless hours fine tuning their economy.
But anyways KOM I hope you can win, think Frederick the Great! CK... Crusader King?
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Crusader Kings, yep. This is the development thread for it, but as an outsider you would likely find the diplomacy and AAR threads more interesting. Now with analysis of geopolitical strategies near the end! (The AAR hasn't quite caught up with the game yet, since our latest session was yesterday.) You should note that in my last Dip post, I'm being rather more aggressive than I can actually back up, in the belief that Italy and France will support me; as it turns out, France didn't show yesterday, and Italy was suddenly embroiled in a war with Burgundy, Spain, Kingdom of Jerusalem, and England. So even though they did declare war on Poland, I haven't seen head nor hair of any actual soldiers to support me. Hence my current, rather difficult position. I am negotiating with Hungary for an attack on Poland's southern borders, though, which should extricate me if it comes about. Bohemia shall be free!
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Eve online while a good MMROPG is still a MMORPG you can control ships, conduct trade missions, combat missions etc, but you cant control planets, your "guild" can in theory control territory but I haven't heard of anything but the largest guilds controlling 0.0 space.
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Anyways, I want as much flare and strategy as possible, aside from customizing what class of ship fills what role according to the technology availiable, I want there to be enough divirsity of thought, for example will the Battleship and similar be the Queen of the "sea's" or will the carrier take preeminance again? Carrier tech I actualy want to be hard enough to get via doctrines and tech that like in reallife only the "big boys" can build them in any considerable number but be expensive enough to maintain that even large powers will be tempted to forgoe them if something else is cheaper even if its not as effective.
The point here is that while lone wolves can do well I want it so that its almost preferable to do trade and utilize diplomacy. The example of diplomacy i want possible is this:
10 Players each with medium sized space faring nations are feeling threatebed by the encroching "Empire" lets call them the Quebecois Empire ruled by Emperor Bradley the First. And its big and powerful and is beginning to exert influence into the Orion Sector.
The ten or so Orion Nations fearful of being invaded ban together and form the Orion Protectorate and agree to pool their resources into one Sector Wide Fleet obeying the commands of the Orion Council.
The game I want it to be this sophistocated with the ability to custom name almost every level of a institution and get it to work anyway you want within limits provided by technology and culture.
And after they sign a Constituion (since any such Union would have to be signed) and declare their new Union. The Empire pissed off that its plans are being foiled Declares war upon the Orion Protectorate and a Seven Year war follows. (Probly 7 months in real life but meh) The Empire unfortunately is pushed back and is forced to sue for peace because a neighbouring Empire, the Kominian Star Empire is threatening its vulnerable flank with recent troop and ship movements and is forced to withdraw from the Orion Sector, forced to recognize the new political union, but still wishes to one day soon rule over them.
The Orions come out of the war with a powerful Fleet and with the tentative Orion Council more powerful then ever before thanks to its emergancy war powers, but after the Juxtapose IV massacre where thousands of Juxtaposites are killed to subdue a Anti-Orion demonstration... sets the stage for the Juxtaposite War of Sessesion....
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The big Quebecquois Empire, ruled by Emperor Bradley the First, discovers an exploit that allows them to manufacture ships at twice the normal rate. Using this ability, their clan rapidly comes to dominate most of the universe.
Five other clans band together to push against the Quebecquois, but only after complaining to the mods about the exploit. The mods do not respond, but the Quebecquois post something to the effect of "Sorry-ass b**tches suck it down, we dont use hks you just c4nt play lzrs."
The Quebecquois declare war. The five clans, united as the Players for Fair Play, immediately begin using the hack themselves.
Play goes back and forth for a while until one member of the PFP clan goes on vacation without telling anyone. The Quebecquois newbie assigned to pinging his six planets once every ten minutes in order to prove his worth notices that he's gone idle, and the entire might of the Quebecquois military descends on the vacationing player's system. It falls almost immediately.
The PFP are forced to post a public apology and admit that they drink dog urine on the forums. But the Kominian Star Empire, an "empire" of four systems run by a twelve-year-old Korean kid, discovers an exploit that can cause systems to go supernova in twice the time. He begins triggering supernovae in the Quebecquois Empire, demanding that Emperor Bradley abdicate to him. After appeals to the mods go unanswered, Emperor Bradley is eventually abandoned by the other players in the Quebecqois Empire, who sign up with the Kominian Star Empire to avoid blowing up. Bradley joins the PFP.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
You should write a comic, Tom. . .
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Okay they will probly not be an ability to crush stars, producing ships twice the normal rate I cant comment on but I doubt when push comes to shove its possible.
I'm still thinking how to take care of idlers aside from making it "unattackable" when the person is AFK or on vacation.
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