Kipper said:
In this case I dont really like the idea of a predetermined storyline
OH where to start where to start, I guess I can start by saying that I agree with Kipper 1000%... No over-reaching predestined storyline PERIOD... end of story (
pun not intended)
Kipper said:
In some ways, its forced, in others its not. But the problem here comes when you complete the story... then all of a sudden you are without any direction, and by this time you'll probably have a huge ship and millions of credits, so what is your motivation?
Biggest problem of most games I see, but of course if they publish games with infinite replayability then they won't make money by selling new games so you come into conflicts with real-world business interests here. However this opens up a new business model, which would be subscription based content, upgrades, enhancements, and multiplayer services.
Kipper said:
I think the single overriding storyline idea should be ditched. I like the idea of starting off, with or without a ship, maybe in a random/chosen place depending on how you set your 'character' up.
Yes! Do away with predestined, preplaned starting points, generic characters with a common background etc. Give each player a somewhat different and unique experience out of the gate that even though they're playing the same game the aren't playing quite the same game as everyone else in the community, which eliminates some potential for one persons experience in the game spilling over into anothers.
I recall a lot of earlier games such as Activisions: Alter Ego, a game where you made your character by answering a series of questions regarding life choices and such which determined your ultimate fate. I could imagine a character creation process similar to this, with a bit of random chance thrown in as well as links to whatever history might be embeded in the game, just to make ones character make a little sense. Having the character generation process fill in the gaps in the history as to explain why a player does or doesn't start with a ship of their own, or how much money they have, or even why they are where they're at now. Good times.
Kipper said:
Use the faction system to determine the sort of people you can choose to engage with, or not, use scripted missions for when you want to 'do' something, such as someone wants you to kill someone, or find someone, or follow someone, etc, procedural events could run the universe, deciding who goes where and what they do, therefore affecting the balance of power, the types of economies, etc, for instance, if someone goes and blows up a factory on the moon, cut down the production there of xx, causing a local/system wide supply problem, raising the prices, and a number of missions to find out who did it and why.
Absolutely! I will relish the day when players can have enduring and lasting effects on the game triggered by both minor and major events, although a stastistical nightmare to track in game, but I don't feel it would be impossible. Starting wars/conflicts, flooding and crashing economies, building a financial empire, or just a bit ol' pirating and terrorism to make the galaxys most wanted list? Make it so!
Kipper said:
If everything like that was procedural and there was enough variety, you could just keep going and going and going forever.
Almost forever, all there will probably be a design limitation to this, unless the game has a built in features for the download/integration of additional player/provider generated content.
Kipper said:
There needs to be ways of managing money, too, the problem with games where you get to amass money is, that you get to a point (as in real life) where you make so much, that you can just re-invest to make more, and end up with way more than you need. There needs to be a possibility for trading missions to fail / not pan out, sometimes goods may spoil in transit depending how long they've been in your hold, the price isnt what you expected, so you can either sell at a loss, or risk another jump and more goods spoiling, etc.. You have your ship repairs, maintenance, registration, insurance - taxes, perhaps, depending on your income from legitimate dealings.
Couldn't say it better myself, another big and glaring problem with a lot of games of this type, which is kind of a quandry unto itself. How does one make the game fun and not seem too much like work, everyone is different in this regard, where some don't want to have to slave away just to eck out a mediocre living always worrying about money and such. A lot of us get enough of this in the real world, and just want to be able to get in get to the meat of the game without having to prepare it. However there should be some randomness to it all where you couldn't pick some well-known safe trade-reoute and just racetrack it into financial independance. Economies should shift, boom, crash and fail like they do now as demand for products shifts as social and political conditions effect the flow of goods. Not to mention supply and demand, and the finite limitations on natural resources.
I believe the inner systems would be more dependant upon frontier worlds for the influx of resources due to the core systems being mined/farmed out over their lengthy human occupation, etc. It would be nice to see such things reflected in the game, etc...
So in short, I do not think that there should be a main story in the game at all, perhaps an overall theme or idea, such as the Federation and Imperial systems don't agree, but they may or may not even be at war, or even could be allied agaist another common enemy. However it plays out just so long as it isn't the same thing every game, and starts from some potential base-point built forward with a bit of entropy thrown in. I know such a system would be difficult to implement, but the payoff for the players and the shifting of game paradigms would
almost be on par with going from 2D graphics to 3D accelerated graphics.
