The brainstorming posts beneath his essay are still relevant though...
References:The endless game world sandpit, in which the gamer is free to choose the path, sounds great, but nowadays it is already slightly worn out. And this journey began in boundless space - yes, you guessed it, it was with the legendary Elite. Let the wire graphics - but the 3D world without barriers, fly wherever you want. And there was somewhere to fly, 8 cards of 256 systems, any of which could become a bright adventure for the evening. The descriptions of these systems were arranged according to the in-built template, but the then gamer, who was still living in the era of text-based adventures, had a vivid imagination and knew how to entertain himself on his own. As one of the old-school gamers recalled at the Elite Veterans Forum: he flew in, unloaded at the station, saved himself and went to bed. And in the passport of the system, a tropical rain forest is mentioned - and now a person, falling asleep, imagines how this forest looks, sounds and smells and how great it would be to fly there on a shuttle. When processors were eight-bit, programmers were heedful of every byte of memory. When I first encountered Elite, I was shocked and fascinated: how the hell did they manage to do this? Just think how many kilobytes a complete catalog of all 2048 systems should take? Let's take at least Diso with her
This planet is mildly noted for its ancient Ouza tulip plantations but ravaged by frequent earthquakes.
I will not bore you with calculations, but according to estimates, it turns out something like 128 bytes for the system and 256 KB for the entire directory. Unbearably huge for a tiny 42 K memory of the Spectrum an array of information.
Procedural generation is the secret.
The entire vast world of the Elite is essentially grown from a tiny six-byte seed, and what looks like a game database is a shell that transforms the bits of the seed into many unique playable locations according to certain rules. 6 bytes is actually a lot, it is 2 ^ 48 unique keys, each of which creates a unique map at the output. In total, there is potential not just 8 maps with 256 systems in each, but 281,474,976,710,656 unique maps, among which there is a map with the planet ASSHOLE (there is one in my working archives!). But the legendary planet RAXXLA in this boundless ocean of probable worlds is not and cannot be - the algorithm for generating the name of the system precludes such a combination.
Nowadays, procedurally generated space will surprise no one, but the situation has turned inside out. Three decades ago, a procedural generator was used to dynamically fill a memory space with content that was too small for manually created and customized game worlds. Now game universes created on the server side can already take up terabytes of memory. Filling such colossal amounts of memory with meaningful content manually is a hopeless task. The current procedural generation algorithms no longer just create unique configurations of solar systems in general terms. They are used to generate unique planets with their own relief, climate and unique biota. Amazing progress ... and mostly pointless. In the truest sense of the word. No Man's Sky. Space, in which a person, by and large, has nothing to do.
I don’t mean to say that procedural generation is a waste of time. It creates the foundation of the world, freeing the game coders from the unbearable volumes of monotonous technical work. But procedural generation only sets the stage for meaningful content. Plot, history, cultural layer, lore - call it what you want, without this there is no game. And it is precisely the persistent misunderstanding of this fact that is the reason for the fiasco of the Parallel Reality 002 project. Some kind of motivation is needed to stimulate the gamer to wander purposefully, not just at random no matter where.
What was the motivation for the gamer in the canonical Elite besides a set of kills, bringing him closer to the coveted legendary rating? Well, at first, the gamer was simply not up to global reflections about the meaning of life, the Universe and everything else. Having grasped the basic rule "we take electronics in the industrial world, we sell in the agricultural world, we collect alcohol or furs, we fly to the industrial world, profit!" the gamer was busy looking for the best route with the optimal balance of profit and risk. Basically, this part of the game was learned quickly by trial and error. Having pumped the ship up to be an “iron ass”, the gamer set off on a free journey. Well, then, in the exciting anticipation of the missions that were legendary (very few people knew at least approximately how many there are in the game, what they would be, where and when they were given!), Whoever could fill the time as best he could. For example, why not cross the entire map diagonally from corner to corner before jumping to the next one? Or even cross all four corners. There is a goal, there is a choice of a route to it, each game session moves you towards its achievement. Of course, no discoveries were expected on the way of the gamer: no matter what system you take, in fact they were not much different. The only sun with a single planet, and even that was interesting only insofar as it was necessary to look for the solitary station of the system next to it. This did not prevent the gamers from filling this world with meaningful content on their own: people were looking for the legendary planet RAXXLA and even an analogue of the Earth, they discussed vague rumors about meetings with generation ships in deep space and wondered where the thargoid home nest was, and undertook ultra-long-distance expeditions, trying to check whether it is possible to get from one system to another through ordinary space, and not through a wormhole.
And what about Oolite? What can the explorer's game do?
Oolite no longer needs the old procedural generator to create a game universe from a six-byte seed. Information about systems is stored in a huge planetinfo.plist, which can be supplemented and edited to the best of your ability. But in the default vanilla game, the first impression is the same as in the old Elite: the sun with a single planet and a single station. For a novice who has looked into Oolite from the outside, such asceticism is discouraging. The base game provides only a skeleton, which the gamer completes with loadable .oxp modules and customizes to his liking. The concept of a constructor world is designed for a gamer who loves and knows how to come up with tasks for himself. Not everyone is willing to understand and accept this approach. And if you look at this ecosystem as a whole, the game plus half a thousand add-ons, you get a potentially rich world. Each of the 2048 Ooniversum systems is no longer just a sun with a single planet and a single station, but a fully-fledged model of the solar system with planets, moons and stations, which now opens up an additional dimension to the gamer - interplanetary flights. The game engine technically allows these systems to be as spacious as you like, and the procedural generator is unique. The question is still how to fill this procedurally generated kaleidoscope of locations with interesting meaningful activity. The procedural generator by itself, as we noted above, cannot do this.
Designing all these 2048 systems by hand, customizing them individually, saturating them with meaning and plot - well, you know, this is far too ambitious not only for a lone amateur, but also for a team of game developers. But the good news is that you don't need to meticulously design all 2048 systems. Cosmic wonders do not have to come across at every step. Interesting hand-sculpted locations, separated by routine procedurally generated intermediate points - why not? Let's drop it offhand. 16 individually configured systems on the map, maybe even only 8 systems - this is already enough to stimulate long-distance flights within the sector. And it will be a completely meaningful game goal as opposed to the meaningless infinity of No Man's Sky, where it doesn't matter where one flies.
Let's face it, the potential of this open world is poorly realized. And here the criticisms are not directed against the developers of the game, but against the community of addon oxp developers. At first, addon developers drew inspiration from the lore that grew out of Holdstock's Dark Wheel. In Ooniversum, in addition to the hermit asteroids, which are in the default game, there are deep space dredgers, generation ships, thargoid craft - all these legends of the old Elite have been brought to life. If anything, now, the legendary planet RAXXLA can be technically created - of course, linking its search with a non-trivial plot. There is a legendary space graveyard in the Tionisla system, there are three more systems with individual settings, and finally, there is a promising, but alas, abandoned project The Famous Planets. There are finally some epic missions like Trident Down. Alas, this is practically everything that now exists and almost all of this has become so outdated that it urgently needs at least a cosmetic update. Ooniversum is not attracted by the concept of world-exploration. The first meeting with the colossal Generation Ship, of course, is impressive, but only just - I saw it, took a screenshot as a souvenir, unloaded it into the gallery and forgot. This meeting gives neither answers to old secrets, nor ties to new plots. The pulsar in the Tianve system, the orbital cemetery in the Tionisla system - the same issue. The first time one looks it is interesting, but nothing more. There are no storylines for these locations.
Commander Vasig might remind us: well, since we are talking about Tionisla, the mission of Tionisla Reporter is connected with this system. Right. There are other missions that start when the gamer enters a certain system. But the fact is that in Tionisla herself there is absolutely nothing unique, anything unique which makes it possible to receive the mission only there - except that it is system number 124 in the First Sector. Now imagine that it is possible to get and pass a mission not just by being in the desired location, but by collecting and analyzing a bunch of information in order to catch a pattern and calculate this location.
The default Ooniversum is an interesting world for a fighter or an athlete-traveler. To be registered visiting all the Famous Planets or even all 2048 systems is quite a goal for yourself. But the researcher in this world, by and large, has almost nothing to do. There are mysteries in the Ooniversum, but there is no mystery in it. What mystery can there be if Ooniversum is a densely populated world in which everyone knows about everyone? Gamers do not need to go on long expeditions to unexplored areas of the map to find high-tech worlds in which to upgrade or purchase a new ship. There are no unexplored areas of the map in Ooniversum - the entire map is revealed immediately. All high-tech systems of 13+ gaming level, all agricultural systems that need electronics, all anarchic pirate-infested systems - all this a gamer can discover right away without leaving Lave, and without any navigational database upgrades.
I do not mean to say that Ooniversum is boring and does not provide food for the mind. Due to the stochastic behavior of the popularizer, even a routine trade trip in a well-known system can turn into a bright adventure, and, on occasion, an unplanned profit or loss, it’s as lucky. But skirmishes with pirates and raids of thargoids also become routine over time.
Could there be any terra incognita in this densely populated cosmos?
Why not? At the very least, there is a spacious solar system outside the well-trodden path of the entrance lighthouse - the planet, and in this spacious solar system you can place a lot of things, even while remaining within the canon. Ships and stations of aliens somewhere on the distant outskirts (other aliens, not thargoids), planets and moons, potentially suitable for industrial development and even for terraforming, and maybe even with their own xenobiology.
There was a definite movement in this direction. Interesting planets and moons for the explorer, however, never appeared, but Smivs, with the help of other developers, was noted for his interesting packages Aliens and Star-jelly, in which there really are mysterious alien ships (possibly of organic nature) and huge organisms - inhabitants of open space ... Alas, the potential of these packages has not been developed.
What's wrong with these packages? Yes, in principle, the same thing as with dredgers and with the generation ships: meeting with these seemingly unique creatures is in no way tied to certain locations that a gamer needs to calculate, find and explore. A meeting with them does not portend any secret, but remains a pure whim of roulette.
I think the time has come, from grumbling “this is all wrong,” to finally move on to a concrete conversation: how, at least approximately, do I imagine the world of exploration?
And at least something like in the Star Trek universe. Something about the destination system is known, but only in general terms. There is information about the spectral class of the star and, possibly, about the presence of planets in it. It may be known that this system has a station or colony on the planet, but contact with it will need to be established upon arrival. The gamer arrives at the system, scans it in general terms, approaches the planet and scans it remotely. Launches drones for additional reconnaissance on the planet and finally lands himself (yes, I know, in Star Trek, the budget was poorly allocated for drones and planetary shuttles and we had to invent quantum teleportation, but the train of thought is clear).
And here the scope of imagination runs into tough reality. The problem is not even that such a scenario is far beyond the scope of Oolite's lore. Much worse is the fact that full-fledged development in Oolite occurs only in space. Landing on the surface of the planet as such, or going into outer space, the Oolite engine will not dare to process any of this - instead, a temporary port is created and the gamer's ship is docked with it. So, alas, no trips on an all-terrain vehicle and hiking with a geological hammer or tricorder, no survey of abandoned alien objects, no contact with local flora and fauna. All that can be done is to schematically illustrate the landing process with a package of pre-prepared pictures.
With the generation of beautiful cryptic graphs, diagrams and something similar to the computer interfaces that captivate Hollywood scriptwriters, it is also a complete ambush. But scientific reports in the form of texts and even in the form of tables can be created completely. Of course, they will look archaic, but why not give the gamer an extended passport of the planet, which he will see after exploring it? Not just the radius of the planet, but its equilibrium temperature, gravity on the surface, density and composition of the atmosphere, composition of the soil, the presence of water, the index of vitality.
From Roolite: Roolite in Google Translate
And look here: Strangers World wiki page: see bottom of page with Roolite screen shot and button revealing his translated essay
