ncyphe
07-19-2006, 05:26 AM
If some of ya'll remember, I made a lot of comotion about an mmo in the process of highjacking the thread. Well, to those who never read about it, I will announce it here, along with some first official pre-alpha screens.
note: there is no site yet, so in hopes to gather others toughts I am posting the intial announcement here. Plus, I love to show off my works.
extra note: because this is in development, it is in the right forum.
------------------
[name]
First off, the project name is Eternal Space, ES for short. The name is only as a reference right now, and there is a strong possibility the name will change. (possible name could be Deadspace, named for the amount of empty space that will be available in the game)
[game play and setup]
=mmo
=simulative space game
--The game takes place in an equivlant relation version of our solar system. In lamens terms, Every planet and their relation to their moons, other planets, and relation of orbit in the system are accurate to a ratio, with the exception to the eliptical orbital paths. (This game will be circular to improve production speed.)
----While the Planets are ratio accurate, due to possibilities of problems with large empty space, the ration of stations, ships, and other man made objects will be limited to a max of 1/24 the size of a planet. (large enough to improve distance while still maintain the actual feeling of the size of our system.)
--Due to the massive size of the, players (with acurate engine speeds) will feel the need to remain near trade routes (space higways and roadways consisting of devices that aid in speed) untill they themselves can improve their engines.
--players may eventually get to leave their ship and walk about stations, probably even gain the chance of walking around their own ships. (Only if I'm able to do such codeing)
[gameplay concepts]
--Ships will be of massive size, crewed by a minimum of 5 npcs.
--leveling will still exist, but be of little use to the iprovement of most abilities.
--stats will be based on a crew system, in which one must dock at a station, recruit a crew, crew chiefs, and first officers.
----the ratios of crews in each deparptment determined the skill of the player in each deparptment of stats (such as accuracy, self repair, and shield maintenance)
----skills (relative to magic in fantasy mmos) will be available by recruiting crew chiefs. A player would be able to recruit a crew chief for each department for every certain amount of crew in that deparptment. (The starting ship will not be able to recruit a crew chief)
----abilities (always active boost to stats and skills) are obtained by recruiting a first officer. Each ship can only have one first officer for each deparptment. A first officer can only be recruited based on the total amount of crew on the ship. (A player may not be able to have even 1 first officer untill his ship can be crewed by a hundred or so people.)
------The players level will determine how many people will feel safe to crew your vesel. Unlike the player, most people who crew yourship will not have a resurection implant like you do.
-->> The point of a crew based system allows the player to redo his skills and atributes (at the cost of experience [people don't like employers who dispose of their jobs often]) without needing to start a new character
--upon death, a player will loose experience and several of his crew will have been losed.
--ship movement will be realtime, while (in the view of saving bandwidth) targeting and attacking will be point and click.
[game objects]
<subspace>a hypothetical universe that exsists below this universe. Acting with certain laws, any object that exists cannot exist in subspace with out being hurled back into normal space. Anything that enters subspace will ultimately return to normal space, related to the boyant effect that almost anythings has to the element murcury.
<deadspace> Empty space through which hardly any celestial objects exist. Some use this space to build pirate bases or search for treasured reckages of human or alien descent. -- A guild (only an idea) could build a station in this space to create a personalized headqourters.
<trade routes>
--Hypergates- Giant gates that accelorates ships into skimmin off of subspace in order to provide a fast and safe travel from planet to planet. The ship is not teleported but speed up, allowing the player to feel a sense of never leaving the game.
--(planet loop gates)- Allows ships to quickly (and safely) fly around planets to get from hypergate to hypergate.
--catapults- a device that acts like a hypergate, only it has no end gate. It thrusts a ship into partial subspace, however (based on the speed of launch) almost instantly starts to reduce speed. Catapults can not launch a ship through planetary orbits. Catapults have a possibility to provide temporary shortcuts to asteroid mines located far from a hypergate. Guilds (only an idea) could purchase catapults to provide access to their disanced stations or even create shortcuts to valuble mines while charging a toll.
--Jumpgates-- not to appear untill after launch with expansions. It provides an almost instantaniousl transportation to another system. The gate launches the ship deep into unstable subspace. Based on mathematics of launch, the ship will emerge from subspace in a new system. Due to the dangers of deep subspace travel, all jumpgates can only be used on the outskurts of a system.
>>all gate technology was derived from an inactive alien jumpgate discovered near the edge of the solar system. The alien programing was used almost directly and most saftey mechanisms could not be removed, such is a mathematical formula tht determines based on the speed of launch and ay nearby planets whether or not to allow launch. (example is the requirment for a jumpgate to be on the edge of a system, due to the power of the launch.)
[engine]
--The base of the engine is run on the shockwave 3d api; thus, the reason for the reduced quality of 3d in the screens.
--Also due to the easy sizability of the engine, I may release the game engine for any one to use in their own space game. No need to code, only the editing of ini file (free lancer style, for those who've edited freelancer)
[Work in-progress]
--Right now, I currently have a simple test graphical system in place. I am currently working on a file parser to read planetary, game, and setup files.
---Next I will need to set up a simple in game flight system to start working on an in game dev kit to set station and object positions and start working on game set up.
--After which, It will be time to finish an alpha server that will run through a multi-user server.
----Everything after this will be announced later.
And finally,
[Pre-alpha screens]
unfortunatly, you only get to the current beta of a dry dock. Pretty much the only thing that can be shown off, due to the lack of complete system set up and cmplete models.
As said, this is the beta of one spatial dry dock. It features tiny details to hint that the ships are large, and eventually players will be able to experience the vastness of size the station really is.
note: These are untextured. In professional mannor, they will be textured once the basic game is set up.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7694/dockbeta1sp7.jpg
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4295/dockbeta2ca8.jpg
edit: I felt sorry ya'll couldn't see more screens, so I got one more. This is a screen of the initial test 3d world; featuring the dynamic planet and moon scripts and a name tag system. What you can't witness is the auto resize of the tags and hiding of the moon tag once the camera leaves a certain range of the parent planet. Remember, this is very pre-alpha, don't expect much from this.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6514/spacetestkq3.jpg
Updated again: Made a hypergate concept, It might change later on, but thi will be in alpha. I'm on a roll, I'm kidding, the docking bay took me a day and a half, this only took me half an hour.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/6164/hyper1ov7.jpg
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/5230/hyper2ew8.jpg
you may notice that it is very similar to the freelancer style of trade lanes. Well, freelancer had it right, a two lane approach, like todays highways, is the most ethical and efficient construction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all, and hope for the best.
note1: This is a work in progress and will not be done for many months
note2: This took me about 1.5 hours to write, so I may have left out a few details.
Anyway, post your responses.
Edited later: The purpose of this thread is to gather your feelings to this and any recomendations to gameplay, gameplay I might be able to pull off, and concepts.
note: there is no site yet, so in hopes to gather others toughts I am posting the intial announcement here. Plus, I love to show off my works.
extra note: because this is in development, it is in the right forum.
------------------
[name]
First off, the project name is Eternal Space, ES for short. The name is only as a reference right now, and there is a strong possibility the name will change. (possible name could be Deadspace, named for the amount of empty space that will be available in the game)
[game play and setup]
=mmo
=simulative space game
--The game takes place in an equivlant relation version of our solar system. In lamens terms, Every planet and their relation to their moons, other planets, and relation of orbit in the system are accurate to a ratio, with the exception to the eliptical orbital paths. (This game will be circular to improve production speed.)
----While the Planets are ratio accurate, due to possibilities of problems with large empty space, the ration of stations, ships, and other man made objects will be limited to a max of 1/24 the size of a planet. (large enough to improve distance while still maintain the actual feeling of the size of our system.)
--Due to the massive size of the, players (with acurate engine speeds) will feel the need to remain near trade routes (space higways and roadways consisting of devices that aid in speed) untill they themselves can improve their engines.
--players may eventually get to leave their ship and walk about stations, probably even gain the chance of walking around their own ships. (Only if I'm able to do such codeing)
[gameplay concepts]
--Ships will be of massive size, crewed by a minimum of 5 npcs.
--leveling will still exist, but be of little use to the iprovement of most abilities.
--stats will be based on a crew system, in which one must dock at a station, recruit a crew, crew chiefs, and first officers.
----the ratios of crews in each deparptment determined the skill of the player in each deparptment of stats (such as accuracy, self repair, and shield maintenance)
----skills (relative to magic in fantasy mmos) will be available by recruiting crew chiefs. A player would be able to recruit a crew chief for each department for every certain amount of crew in that deparptment. (The starting ship will not be able to recruit a crew chief)
----abilities (always active boost to stats and skills) are obtained by recruiting a first officer. Each ship can only have one first officer for each deparptment. A first officer can only be recruited based on the total amount of crew on the ship. (A player may not be able to have even 1 first officer untill his ship can be crewed by a hundred or so people.)
------The players level will determine how many people will feel safe to crew your vesel. Unlike the player, most people who crew yourship will not have a resurection implant like you do.
-->> The point of a crew based system allows the player to redo his skills and atributes (at the cost of experience [people don't like employers who dispose of their jobs often]) without needing to start a new character
--upon death, a player will loose experience and several of his crew will have been losed.
--ship movement will be realtime, while (in the view of saving bandwidth) targeting and attacking will be point and click.
[game objects]
<subspace>a hypothetical universe that exsists below this universe. Acting with certain laws, any object that exists cannot exist in subspace with out being hurled back into normal space. Anything that enters subspace will ultimately return to normal space, related to the boyant effect that almost anythings has to the element murcury.
<deadspace> Empty space through which hardly any celestial objects exist. Some use this space to build pirate bases or search for treasured reckages of human or alien descent. -- A guild (only an idea) could build a station in this space to create a personalized headqourters.
<trade routes>
--Hypergates- Giant gates that accelorates ships into skimmin off of subspace in order to provide a fast and safe travel from planet to planet. The ship is not teleported but speed up, allowing the player to feel a sense of never leaving the game.
--(planet loop gates)- Allows ships to quickly (and safely) fly around planets to get from hypergate to hypergate.
--catapults- a device that acts like a hypergate, only it has no end gate. It thrusts a ship into partial subspace, however (based on the speed of launch) almost instantly starts to reduce speed. Catapults can not launch a ship through planetary orbits. Catapults have a possibility to provide temporary shortcuts to asteroid mines located far from a hypergate. Guilds (only an idea) could purchase catapults to provide access to their disanced stations or even create shortcuts to valuble mines while charging a toll.
--Jumpgates-- not to appear untill after launch with expansions. It provides an almost instantaniousl transportation to another system. The gate launches the ship deep into unstable subspace. Based on mathematics of launch, the ship will emerge from subspace in a new system. Due to the dangers of deep subspace travel, all jumpgates can only be used on the outskurts of a system.
>>all gate technology was derived from an inactive alien jumpgate discovered near the edge of the solar system. The alien programing was used almost directly and most saftey mechanisms could not be removed, such is a mathematical formula tht determines based on the speed of launch and ay nearby planets whether or not to allow launch. (example is the requirment for a jumpgate to be on the edge of a system, due to the power of the launch.)
[engine]
--The base of the engine is run on the shockwave 3d api; thus, the reason for the reduced quality of 3d in the screens.
--Also due to the easy sizability of the engine, I may release the game engine for any one to use in their own space game. No need to code, only the editing of ini file (free lancer style, for those who've edited freelancer)
[Work in-progress]
--Right now, I currently have a simple test graphical system in place. I am currently working on a file parser to read planetary, game, and setup files.
---Next I will need to set up a simple in game flight system to start working on an in game dev kit to set station and object positions and start working on game set up.
--After which, It will be time to finish an alpha server that will run through a multi-user server.
----Everything after this will be announced later.
And finally,
[Pre-alpha screens]
unfortunatly, you only get to the current beta of a dry dock. Pretty much the only thing that can be shown off, due to the lack of complete system set up and cmplete models.
As said, this is the beta of one spatial dry dock. It features tiny details to hint that the ships are large, and eventually players will be able to experience the vastness of size the station really is.
note: These are untextured. In professional mannor, they will be textured once the basic game is set up.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7694/dockbeta1sp7.jpg
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4295/dockbeta2ca8.jpg
edit: I felt sorry ya'll couldn't see more screens, so I got one more. This is a screen of the initial test 3d world; featuring the dynamic planet and moon scripts and a name tag system. What you can't witness is the auto resize of the tags and hiding of the moon tag once the camera leaves a certain range of the parent planet. Remember, this is very pre-alpha, don't expect much from this.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6514/spacetestkq3.jpg
Updated again: Made a hypergate concept, It might change later on, but thi will be in alpha. I'm on a roll, I'm kidding, the docking bay took me a day and a half, this only took me half an hour.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/6164/hyper1ov7.jpg
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/5230/hyper2ew8.jpg
you may notice that it is very similar to the freelancer style of trade lanes. Well, freelancer had it right, a two lane approach, like todays highways, is the most ethical and efficient construction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all, and hope for the best.
note1: This is a work in progress and will not be done for many months
note2: This took me about 1.5 hours to write, so I may have left out a few details.
Anyway, post your responses.
Edited later: The purpose of this thread is to gather your feelings to this and any recomendations to gameplay, gameplay I might be able to pull off, and concepts.