A Humble Suggestion/Question

[iGregory]

Hello Commanders!

I have been playing this game (very poorly) for years. I remember having it on my IBM XT compatable back in the day.

One thought I have always had was that there should be a way to enjoy this with my friends, though... I'm pretty sure that turning this into a MMORP has been done now with Elite Dangerous.

But, I have an idea, kind of inspired by playing Start Trek Bridge Crew...

Support for multiple monitors and bridge jobs... and multiple game controllers/keyboards to map to it. So... let's say you have three monitors -- one pilot with the joy stick and the main 'view' -- he controls flying the ship and firing weapons, if needed. The monitor on the right would look out the port window, and have control of the scanners and communications and the starboard monitor would have control of engineering... It would be cool to have enhanced scanner functionality and communications and such.

I think it would be cool to play this with a couple buddies... almost like a space faring RPG...

Is this even possible?

Thanks for your thoughts!!

Greg

[Disembodied]

Hi iGregory, welcome to the boards! It's an interesting suggestion … as to whether it's possible or not, you'll have to wait for one of the clever people to come along, but I've always been surprised by just what is possible in this game. In terms of gameplay, it might be necessary to allow for different numbers of players - e.g. a 2-person setup (player 1: pilot/missiles/forward laser; player 2: communications, ECM, side/rear lasers) as well as a 3-person setup.

It could change the gameplay, but - especially for large ships - that might not be a bad thing … say, if Engineering controlled the throttle (or at least the injectors and hyperspace). That would bring further complications, and probably the need for some turret-based point defence …

[Cody]

Welcome aboard, Commander! I am most definitely not 'one of the clever people' - merely a dumb pilot.

I'm pretty sure that turning this into a MMORP has been done now with Elite Dangerous.

Elite: Dangerous is really Frontier III in disguise.

[iGregory]

Well, used to write code for a living... nothing fantastic -- a proprietary scripting language and some C#... so perhaps I may give mod writing a try?

I think key to it, though, would be to add extra complication/details to the various systems. There needs to be enough for the other players to do. I'm thinking the jobs would Navigator, Pilot, Communications, Science, Engineering... Maybe a Captain's position to organize it all? On smaller ships, one person could do all the jobs.

I think I'll go poke around on the development pages and see if there is a 'hello world' place to start with mods...

Greg

[phkb]

Personally, I think the best way into modding is to pick an OXP that does one thing (like an extra piece of equipment or single MFD), open it up and pull it apart to see what it does and how it does it. And then feel free to ask questions!