Firstly, did we all sound like this guy at once when we were noobs cus man dose he sound young and inexperienced. Secondly, play the MMO space sim EVE Online cus it’s just like the type of game you’re talking about minus the ground work, it might give you some ideas about what you could have in a space sim. Thirdly, use the dam edit button man, its not like it’s hidden or anything. o_O

I would post more useful comments...and read the entire thread but...i cant be asked...

Siolis

Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
If you go MMO and every player has at least one ship after an hour or so of play, then it'll be one crowded star system. You say there are ways to move about on the planet's surface. How about letting players just use other players or NPCs ships? Instead of buying a freight for 400,000 credits and using it to transport my FedEx packages, how about I find a player who's going where the package is headed, and pay then 200 credits for a ride? You could be a crew member, hired by a player to man one of their gun turrets or to fly a fighter that docks in their bay, or you could jsut be a passenger, paying for a seat in the compartment. It would reduce clutter, let beginners get into space without buying a whole interstellar starship, and encourage community.

Then players could make their own quests, and pay one another for services.

I think the standard MMO objective of "get rich, kill enemies, collect treasures, offend other players with poorly typed sexual insults" would be enough. Let players conquer ports and built space stations (with enough capital, of course) and you'll be fine.

Ok...I was wrong, I can be asked.

EVE Online gives each and every player a starship as standard at the start of the game and from the 2 hours I spent in that game they weren’t crowded. Personally however I hated the game but that’s only because of personal preference. For what it is it dose it very well except some major control issues which again was down to personal preference.

The issue with relying on other people for things such as transport and trying to use player constructed or even NPC run services that the player needs to use such as "Paying for a transport from A to B to player C" is that often players will try to either A- Rip people off by charging too much, B- Trick players by taking people on rides and then putting their "Disposable" ship into a sun or C- not offer the right service when people want it IE there will probably be 20 players who want to be a gunner for a starship and only 2 to 5 ships with 2 to 6 guns a piece making, at best, 15 guns which leaves five people wanting and waiting along with a lack of people who don’t want to do the other jobs which are required for a space ship to do a mission, such as run the engines or something. Outside the example my point is that unless you have some good random mission generation and an AI capable of adapting to it, most of the time players wont be able to do what they want when which will commit the cardinal sin of the gaming world of making the player bord.

And finally, what the hell are you playing at encouraging anyone to do the "standard MMO objective" thing. I’ve played so many MMO's and MUD's I’ve lost count and the one thing that’s pissed me off about all of them is the standard list of MMO objectives rammed up the arse of everyone of them which dose nothing but bore the hell out of me...unless I’ve misunderstood your last lines, which I may have...please explain if you did or didnt mean that he should or shouldnt use the standard MMO objectives?

Siolis

PS: Look mommy, i can use the edit button. =P

[Edited by - Siolis on September 28, 2005 4:27:05 AM]

Puzzle Pirates handles the problem of multiple players on one ship. In order to run the ship properly, the ship owner has to hire a crew, be they permanent or merely for the trip. Each crew member can take whichever station they want (bilge pumps, sails, carpentry, cannons, navigation, course plotting, or extra hands just in case they get into ship-to-ship combat). There are various things you can do to keep the players from abusing each other, you can code the ship so only the captain can fly it (to prevent the part-time crew from turning on him and just taking the ship). If the captain logs out you could also allow the crew members to use the escape pods, or just leave the ship of their own volition and not be screwed. And there's always payment upon delivery, to keep them from taking your cash and dumping you in the sun. ;D

There's also the possibility of a permanent and part-time crew system, people who are a permanent part of the crew and have the requisite skills can navigate the ship when the captain isn't there or isn't logged on, whereas part-time crew members can't. So if the captain logs off, one of his trusted permanent crew members could take the helm and make sure everyone on board isn't borked and have to bail out.

You should also consider checkout out the old Elite games, as well as Battle Cruiser 3000 AD.

May I suggest that the player designs his very own alien race as a beginning? Each trait would have an advantage and a drawback. Like you decide for vertebrate, unvertebrate, ethereal or chitinous, if they will be rampant, walking on two, four or more legs, if they will fly or swim, or be amphibians. You decide wether they will speak up or use another form of communication, like pheromones, infrasounds, flashlights, brainwaves contact, or maybe hand signs? You design the size of one individual, ranging from antlike to mammothean, and what kind of perceptions they can have, being limited by your previous choices (of course, an ethereal conscience cannot be blinded of deafened, since it is only barely conscious. It may suffer from a psy-assault, but wouldn't suffer mch from physical damage. And then wouldn't be very interested in anything physical anyway...). You design its color and basic political and social concepts, or even better ask the player to SCALE the reaction of his own race towards other concepts.

And after that, you just let things boil, and witness surprising things arise, with green slimes trading telepathically neutromium for seashells to six-armed blue centaurean creatures who tend to communicate through the rufles of their mane, or human-like creatures trying to spread the holy word to ethereal mind-vampires who comunicate through colorflashes. Or anything else.

If the game is about RolePlaying, then let's assume that all your players won't share the same role. Or at least that you will give them the opportunity NOT to share it? Which means that, if a player decides to create a race that is almost completely immune to PvP, it should be possible, but it should also hinder its possibility to communicate and trade. It may only leave him with some exploration to do, but not much interaction. But if such is the wish of your player, who are you to say no?