Largest game ever made?

-o-

O
In terms of the size of the game world, and the time it would take to travel to all its points, Elite Dangerous would have to take the crown.

As an example, the size of Eve is estimated at about 3x10^14 cubic meters. If we are to believe that the accessible game world of ED is the galaxy, that would make the size of ED about 3x10^61 cubic meters.

Yes, I know 99.9999x% of that size is just empty space, devoid of any content, but I can still fly my ship to most parts of that void - fuel/repairs/lifespan permitted.
 

intel

intel
-o- said:
In terms of the size of the game world, and the time it would take to travel to all its points, Elite Dangerous would have to take the crown.

As an example, the size of Eve is estimated at about 3x10^14 cubic meters. If we are to believe that the accessible game world of ED is the galaxy, that would make the size of ED about 3x10^61 cubic meters.

Yes, I know 99.9999x% of that size is just empty space, devoid of any content, but I can still fly my ship to most parts of that void - fuel/repairs/lifespan permitted.
Click to expand...

Billions of System, It will be a very very long time before someone explores 50% of them.
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
It's pretty trivial to make an infinite procedural game. A tweak to ED's algorithms would make it infinite. How much volume will be filled with meaningful content in ED is yet to be seen.
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
-o- said:
In terms of the size of the game world, and the time it would take to travel to all its points, Elite Dangerous would have to take the crown.

As an example, the size of Eve is estimated at about 3x10^14 cubic meters. If we are to believe that the accessible game world of ED is the galaxy, that would make the size of ED about 3x10^61 cubic meters.

Yes, I know 99.9999x% of that size is just empty space, devoid of any content, but I can still fly my ship to most parts of that void - fuel/repairs/lifespan permitted.
Click to expand...

It's not exactly a game (well, not yet ...) but in terms of physical size Space Engine is orders of magnitude larger. I went for a delightful flight from Earth out to the Lesser Magellenic Cloud last night and discovered an entrancing terran planet orbiting a yellow dwarf. Just like home ... :)
 

Slawkenbergius

Slawkenbergius
Darren Grey said:
It's pretty trivial to make an infinite procedural game. A tweak to ED's algorithms would make it infinite. How much volume will be filled with meaningful content in ED is yet to be seen.
Click to expand...

But Elite actually simulates the gameworld server side, in terms of factions evolving, meaning that there is a persistent element which is not destroyed. Other procedural games just create and destroy at will. It also has definite structure within its finite limits, which by itself makes it different to infinitely repeating games.
 
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humbleton

humbleton
Hellhawk666 said:
It's not exactly a game (well, not yet ...) but in terms of physical size Space Engine is orders of magnitude larger. I went for a delightful flight from Earth out to the Lesser Magellenic Cloud last night and discovered an entrancing terran planet orbiting a yellow dwarf. Just like home ... :)
Click to expand...

I've been messing around with Space Engine too ... it's immense fun (and free) and it's whetting my appetite for Elite. I can spend hours on that thing.
 

Gibbonici

Gibbonici
humbleton said:
I've been messing around with Space Engine too ... it's immense fun (and free) and it's whetting my appetite for Elite. I can spend hours on that thing.
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Heh, me too. I still make the mistake of loading it up "for a few minutes" before bed and end up crawling to work the next morning after a handful of hours sleep. There's something magical about sitting on some distant virtual world watching twin stars or the Milky Way rising. Over and over again. At various speeds and camera settings.

I'm almost glad there aren't any actual lifeforms and vegetation in Space Engine.
 

Komemiute

Komemiute
My God I thought I was one of the few running around an Universe devoid of life or gameplay! :p

Good to know I was wrong.

I must be honest and admit that at some point Space Engine freaks me out.
The sheer scale of the Universe starts to slowly get into my brain and I really get a sense of uneasiness and maybe even paranoia.

I mean... how small are we...
There's so much out there...

The distances... the... immensity.

How possibly are we alone in all this? Wouldn't it be a dramatic waste of ... well... space?
 

Dejay

Dejay
Komemiute said:
How possibly are we alone in all this? Wouldn't it be a dramatic waste of ... well... space?
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DON'T read up on the rare earth hypothesis or the fermi paradox. You'll embark on an infinite journey spanning countless page tabs that will make your head spin! :D

IMHO the most depressing though is that we are not alone, but that there are simply no practical ways to go faster than light. So yes we can spread to space, launch colonization ships containing robots some crew and lots of frozen embryos, and tens of thousands of years later we arrive. But society will endlessly drift apart between the stars, and any meaningful society among the stars will be impossible.
 

Zieman

Zieman
Dejay said:
IMHO the most depressing though is that we are not alone, but that there are simply no practical ways to go faster than light. So yes we can spread to space, launch colonization ships containing robots some crew and lots of frozen embryos, and tens of thousands of years later we arrive. But society will endlessly drift apart between the stars, and any meaningful society among the stars will be impossible.
Click to expand...
Reducing the flight time between stars to a mere dozens if not even to a handful of years might well be within humanity's grasp. So, multi-stellar society á la Alastair Reynolds could be possible... :)
 
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Komemiute

Komemiute
Zieman said:
Reducing the flight time between stars to a mere dozens if not even to a handful of years might well be within humanity's grasp. So, multi-stellar society á la Alastair Reynolds could be possible... :)
Click to expand...

Silly as I am, as an old git, I'd love my children to see a future where interspecies society would be a possibility.

That would obviously require for humanity to get over the contrasts between themselves. :rolleyes:

*sigh*
 

alan

A
just looked at the videos, the second i'm home tonight, i'm having a copy then getting out of the solar system, I may be back in time for Beta
 

Dejay

Dejay
Zieman said:
Reducing the flight time between stars to a mere dozens if not even to a handful of years might well be within humanity's grasp. So, multi-stellar society á la Alastair Reynolds could be possible... :)
Click to expand...

Yeah his books are quite awesome. They are true sci fi. But we'll likely have to travel 100th of light years between (viable) star systems.
 

Kipper

K
Things are only impossible when you can't presently do them.

Ask yourself what someone from a thousand years ago would make of what we take for granted today? Sure, you could equate a car to being our equivalent of their horse, you could say a plane allows us to fly like birds, but what would they make of an iPad? or the internet?

I'm hopeful that there are still many discoveries to come, and that with increased understanding of physics, we'll work out how to travel vast distances more quickly.
 

jedt

J
90 years ago (ish) the milky way was the universe. then came hubble, and the text books had to be rewritten. a little over a hundred years ago the first powered flight. last year voyager left the solar system.

just sayin'
 
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