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Lightbringer
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MMOSWG

Post by Lightbringer »

Massive, Multi-player, Online, Strategy War game

As y'all may or may not be aware, I have enough trouble finding time to play some weeks. I definitely don't have time to digest the editor and mess around with modding the whole game. I have an idea, which I'll pose in a series of questions about what the game is capable of.

1. Can the game be made to run at real time speed? (Meaning one day would take 24 hours to complete.)

2. I know you can leave a multi-player game and the AI takes over. Refresh my memory, can someone join a MPG midstream? ( it has been awhile :S)

3. Would it be possible to leave a server running a MPG at real time speed, and have players log on to adjust their regions orders, direct troops, and perform such things as placing unit build orders, then log off knowing the AI won't be able to totally screw the pooch in the time it will take them to sleep, go to work, eat dinner and log back on?

I really like the Multi-player concept, but the technical difficulties of synching everyone's computers, combined with the need to kick everyone's booty in a few hours, detracts from the experience. The speed of game time could even be faster, but the idea was to make it slow enough to catch the AI before it ruined your whole effort, or adjust your troop deployment to react to someone who attacked you whilst you slept. I am fairly certain that the prospect of facing human foes...and quite a few of them at one time, would outweigh the torpid pace of how things develop. In fact, a well played plan might even be more gratifying if it took a few days or a week or more to come to fruition.

I seem to recall bringing up this idea before, and having it shot down due to some technical hurdle or another. I have played enough mmorpg's to know that the servers can upload quite a bit of data that has changed with your account, I'm wondering how hard it might be to set something like this up.

Please let me know if I am missing something obvious that would prevent this, and any ideas to flesh out the concept would be most welcome too.


P.S. Goats, I'd pay monthly to play something like this. :D
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” -Winston Churchill
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

This idea has been floated around before, and we certainly have not ruled out such an idea for the future, but it is not possible with SR2010 nor will be it be possible with SR2020. It is not possible to join a multiplayer game midstream. Also, I'm not sure you'd want too. Legend and I tried some Civ4 multiplayer to see what it was like and did not like coming into a region that the AI has not built to my liking or, worse, that was being played by a player who left because they were loosing.

Also, the infrastructure of servers and bandwidth is far beyond our reach at this time. You need list servers with IPs to connect ppl. This one is very far off if it ever comes to be...
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Lightbringer
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Post by Lightbringer »

Legend and I tried some Civ4 multiplayer to see what it was like and did not like coming into a region that the AI has not built to my liking or, worse, that was being played by a player who left because they were loosing.
Yes, I agree that such a situation would be a turn-off. I can think of several ways to circumvent such problems though. Either smaller maps, with new games starting for each dozen or so players to request a region to run, or a world sized map with hundreds of regions no larger than state size. Think along the lines of the WWIII scenario with every starting region being starting regions in the campaign games. In either case, once a region is played by a human, it can only revert to AI control, not be dealt out to a new player. As for late comers being given AI run regions, there would be a stark contrast between Civ and y'all's AI. I've played Civ and their AI has a propensity to overbuild whether it is worth building or not. Your's on the other hand, at the moment, does not build. While I understand you are looking at changing that, I get the impression that y'all will not go overboard. Another plus is that the Cities themselves are already in existence, so situations where the Civ AI builds it's cities in less than ideal spots, perhaps not making proper use of resources available, would not come into play.

I any case, I shall hide and watch, waiting for 2020 like a kid on Christmas Eve. Keep up the good work, and I'll bug ye later about this topic. :P
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” -Winston Churchill
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tkobo
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Post by tkobo »

Hey light ? Did you see the one MMO company thats holding a contest to get new MMO ideals and concepts ?

Ill dig up a link -


Dear Player,

Introducing the Top Secret project where players actually get an
opportunity to participate in the entire video game development process
from start to finish. David Perry will be building the new online game
from scratch and is offering members of the Acclaim player community a rare
opportunity to help him develop this video game in a collaborative effort
with some of the industry's best talent.

In an unprecedented move for the game industry, players will be given a
chance to have their work featured in a massively multiplayer PC game that
will be published by Acclaim and directed by David Perry. Perry will
choose a winner from the contributors, and Acclaim will be giving them a
breath-taking prize, 'A Video Game Industry Directorship', working on a new
fully-funded massively multiplayer online PC game. David Perry will be
their Executive Producer to help them as needed on their game, and once
they complete their project, they will even earn royalties from the game
sales!

The entry period will be limited, so will the number of people we allow in
to see the project, so sign up now to become a team member on Top Secret.
To register for a free account and find out more about Top Secret, visit
http://topsecret.acclaim.com.

Acclaim
This post approved by Tkobo:Official Rabble Rouser of the United Yahoos
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Feltan
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Post by Feltan »

Balthagor wrote:This idea has been floated around before, and we certainly have not ruled out such an idea for the future, but it is not possible with SR2010 nor will be it be possible with SR2020. It is not possible to join a multiplayer game midstream...
It would seem one could code a wrapper that kept a persistent connection "open" for a player whether they were actually playing or not. You could start a country....shut off your computer and the game would still think you are there. The wrapper could authenticate useers as they logged in to join an ongoing game -- but from the game's perspective they never left.

Regards,
Feltan
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

Feltan wrote:...but from the game's perspective they never left...
Except that while they slept their country was invaded and conquered... :P
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Lightbringer
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Post by Lightbringer »

Except that while they slept their country was invaded and conquered...
The speed of game time could even be faster, but the idea was to make it slow enough to catch the AI before it ruined your whole effort, or adjust your troop deployment to react to someone who attacked you whilst you slept.
I know you are kidding Chris (at least partially ;) ), but that was the idea of running it 1/1 real time, or at most double speed. Admittedly, a lot could be done in , say, an 18 hour period between log off and next day's log on, but if you have even the slightest clue as to defensive troop placement, even the AI commanders under you should be able to hold off total disaster for a day or so. Perhaps the game design would allow you more ability to gather spy type info warning of troop build up and deployment towards your border, thus allowing you to step up defenses.

I'm not saying it doesn't have some rough edges to smooth out, but the concept intrigues me.

and Thank You Tkobo, I'll check that contest out and let y'all know my impressions. Lord knows my idea would stand out like a sore thumb amongst the millions and millions of applications for new FPS mmorpg's I'm sure they will get. That could also be it's downfall, as the marketplace consists of the aforementioned millions of brainless robots who can manage to spend the same amount of time in a FPS as we do in 2010 (or other strategy format). I like a good shoot/hack/zap em up now and then, but after you have killed your ten thousandth cyborg orc demon from another planet...it gets a tad boring. :P (unless you are part of the dreaded and feared Jedi Klingon Special Forces)
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” -Winston Churchill
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