Mods, I don't know which group to put this this thread in, so I put it in here because this group seems so generalised.
If DB held a contest and gave you the opportunity to build a space based simulation, not game, in the spirit of Elite, what would you build?
I'm going to give my vision. I know it is very egotistical, but this is what I want to see in my space game.
It would be set in 4400 and the second great war would still be in full swing. The empire and the federation would have joined forces and eliminated the alliance, because the human race has to act as one to survive as a species, and the alliance did not want to join forces.
The game would be a true sandbox simulated on servers, and the user interactions are through portals projected onto their desktops or VR headsets. You do not control your avatar directly. Instead, you give suggestions. The reason for this is that lag may have a significant impact on reaction when split second action is necessary. AI will have a significant roll in controlling your avatar, and you'll be ablento write or tweek your own AI heuristics. If you don't know, or want to know, how to do this, this you can use the standard AI, or buy modules in the store.
The gane will be centered on the individual. You will be born to pc or npc parents and inherit some of their heuristics and physical attributes, and have some unique just for you, due to mutation. Eugenics will be outlawed so you can't "design a child." You will start out as a helpless baby, and as you grow, how you play and interact will determine your base characteristics. You will go to school, and based on what you learn will given you aptitude in certain skills.
After you've grown, you can be anything you want to be. You can be a rich, spoilt brat that had their parents executed to take over their empire, or you can come from modest means and live a modest life. You could be an orphan that grew up in the streets, stole a ship and become a pirate with a pirate crew, or you could not even be human. You could be thargoid or reaper. There should be no distinction between pc or npc, because you'll be suggesting instead of acting. It's the AI that will do the real magic. As stated before, AI will be a priority focus in this game. Too many games consider game AI a nice to have instead of a priority.
The simulation will be as close to real as posse and the game universe, itself, will be alive. Planets will have their own weather systems, tectonic activity, wildlife if life evolved, non-space fairing species; as far as I know, only humans and thargoid and ... have the capacity for interstellar travel. The whole nine. Sun's will go through cycles and throw off cme's. Planets will have ELE's and get impacted by random asteroids. Anything that has and can happen will happen.
Now we come to the part we all love. The ships. Your portal will be the PoV of your avatar, not your ship. You can buy your own ship and customize it, or you can steal it. The ship model will be much more advanced than ED, and if you connect the wrong hose to the wrong pipe, things may go horribly wrong. I hope you paid attention in class! And depending on the ship, you will need a crew. Engines need to be monitored and maintained. Meals will have to be cooks. Cuts will have to be stitched. And raiders will have to be repelled if you encounter pirates or reapers. Please let it not be reapers...
Because the sandbox will try to stay as close as possible to reality, the weapons will have to adapt. This game at its core is a simulation, so gameplay will have to work around the simulation instead of the simulation working around gameplay. You can use ballistic weapons if you're close to your enemy, lasers if he's far, or high speed seeker missiles if you want to go the expensive route. You can deploy drag mines that attach to an enemy's ship to slow them down or grapplers to snag your prey so you can empty your cannons into them. And because this is a generalized sandbox the sky's the limit on what you can design!
You can be a miner will several employees, pc or npc to mine and process ore. And if you feel like it, you can go out yourself and mine a few tons! And you'll need protection so you'll have to put together your own private army. But be careful it doesn't get too big or the local government may think you're up to subversion.
If you don't feel like interacting with anyone you can pick a ship, and maybe a crew, or crew of ships, and just go, out there, and find what you can find.
The beauty of this sandbox is that you can build anything you want, as long as it obeys the rules of the sandbox. The developer only gives you the tools and starting objects and AI, and it's up to the players to mold and shape this universe. If you want to build a spaceship that uses poop as propulsion, you can! If you want to build a ship that can scoop hydrogen from a star then you better make sure your sunshield can withstand the radiation and have a pretty good cooling system. If you figured out that you can combine certain technologies and create wormholes from star to star, go for it! The developers wouldn't have to specifically design this feature into the game, but instead provided the laws that made it possible by player ingenuity.
Speaking of travel, well have none of this hyperspace business. You can warp space to have effective faster than light travel, but no magic jumps. "I'm giving you all she's got captain!" And things can go wrong. If you've modified your warp engine to improve efficiency but forgot to add cooling to a certain component, and it blows causing you to drop out of warp suddenly... What happens when your bubble suddenly collapses upon itself? Do you have the supplies to repair your ship? Did you file a flight plan so someone can come looking for you?! Oh no! Did you backup your consciousness before you left?
This is just a sliver of what I would make. If I were to write it all out it sold be several volumesnfor the sandbox rules alone. So, for this incomplete description, you'll have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks.
What would you build?
If DB held a contest and gave you the opportunity to build a space based simulation, not game, in the spirit of Elite, what would you build?
I'm going to give my vision. I know it is very egotistical, but this is what I want to see in my space game.
It would be set in 4400 and the second great war would still be in full swing. The empire and the federation would have joined forces and eliminated the alliance, because the human race has to act as one to survive as a species, and the alliance did not want to join forces.
The game would be a true sandbox simulated on servers, and the user interactions are through portals projected onto their desktops or VR headsets. You do not control your avatar directly. Instead, you give suggestions. The reason for this is that lag may have a significant impact on reaction when split second action is necessary. AI will have a significant roll in controlling your avatar, and you'll be ablento write or tweek your own AI heuristics. If you don't know, or want to know, how to do this, this you can use the standard AI, or buy modules in the store.
The gane will be centered on the individual. You will be born to pc or npc parents and inherit some of their heuristics and physical attributes, and have some unique just for you, due to mutation. Eugenics will be outlawed so you can't "design a child." You will start out as a helpless baby, and as you grow, how you play and interact will determine your base characteristics. You will go to school, and based on what you learn will given you aptitude in certain skills.
After you've grown, you can be anything you want to be. You can be a rich, spoilt brat that had their parents executed to take over their empire, or you can come from modest means and live a modest life. You could be an orphan that grew up in the streets, stole a ship and become a pirate with a pirate crew, or you could not even be human. You could be thargoid or reaper. There should be no distinction between pc or npc, because you'll be suggesting instead of acting. It's the AI that will do the real magic. As stated before, AI will be a priority focus in this game. Too many games consider game AI a nice to have instead of a priority.
The simulation will be as close to real as posse and the game universe, itself, will be alive. Planets will have their own weather systems, tectonic activity, wildlife if life evolved, non-space fairing species; as far as I know, only humans and thargoid and ... have the capacity for interstellar travel. The whole nine. Sun's will go through cycles and throw off cme's. Planets will have ELE's and get impacted by random asteroids. Anything that has and can happen will happen.
Now we come to the part we all love. The ships. Your portal will be the PoV of your avatar, not your ship. You can buy your own ship and customize it, or you can steal it. The ship model will be much more advanced than ED, and if you connect the wrong hose to the wrong pipe, things may go horribly wrong. I hope you paid attention in class! And depending on the ship, you will need a crew. Engines need to be monitored and maintained. Meals will have to be cooks. Cuts will have to be stitched. And raiders will have to be repelled if you encounter pirates or reapers. Please let it not be reapers...
Because the sandbox will try to stay as close as possible to reality, the weapons will have to adapt. This game at its core is a simulation, so gameplay will have to work around the simulation instead of the simulation working around gameplay. You can use ballistic weapons if you're close to your enemy, lasers if he's far, or high speed seeker missiles if you want to go the expensive route. You can deploy drag mines that attach to an enemy's ship to slow them down or grapplers to snag your prey so you can empty your cannons into them. And because this is a generalized sandbox the sky's the limit on what you can design!
You can be a miner will several employees, pc or npc to mine and process ore. And if you feel like it, you can go out yourself and mine a few tons! And you'll need protection so you'll have to put together your own private army. But be careful it doesn't get too big or the local government may think you're up to subversion.
If you don't feel like interacting with anyone you can pick a ship, and maybe a crew, or crew of ships, and just go, out there, and find what you can find.
The beauty of this sandbox is that you can build anything you want, as long as it obeys the rules of the sandbox. The developer only gives you the tools and starting objects and AI, and it's up to the players to mold and shape this universe. If you want to build a spaceship that uses poop as propulsion, you can! If you want to build a ship that can scoop hydrogen from a star then you better make sure your sunshield can withstand the radiation and have a pretty good cooling system. If you figured out that you can combine certain technologies and create wormholes from star to star, go for it! The developers wouldn't have to specifically design this feature into the game, but instead provided the laws that made it possible by player ingenuity.
Speaking of travel, well have none of this hyperspace business. You can warp space to have effective faster than light travel, but no magic jumps. "I'm giving you all she's got captain!" And things can go wrong. If you've modified your warp engine to improve efficiency but forgot to add cooling to a certain component, and it blows causing you to drop out of warp suddenly... What happens when your bubble suddenly collapses upon itself? Do you have the supplies to repair your ship? Did you file a flight plan so someone can come looking for you?! Oh no! Did you backup your consciousness before you left?
This is just a sliver of what I would make. If I were to write it all out it sold be several volumesnfor the sandbox rules alone. So, for this incomplete description, you'll have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks.
What would you build?