Oolite Bulletins

Regarding the current discussion on MMORPG:

If the programmers are up to it, what would you think Oolite multiplayer should be?

Remember, the bigger the choice, the harder to do...

I've gone for 1 galaxy MMORPG, but I know this is maybe a bit ambitious.

My views have been posted on the original thread. Personally I'd prefer the single player game to be expanded upon (as it is at the moment) with more missions, ships and 'theme' oxps - e.g. commies, anachies etc). I prefer the 'fleshing' out of the ooniverse.

Agree, but having one system as a Deathmatch system would be quite fun. This woudn't effect the single player aspect and if people came up on the ID as "Imperial Courier (LittleBear)" etc, it would be fun to have the occasional battle with other Ooliters.

Hmmmm.

That's all I can say. I can see the appeal of it.

One way that this could work - and appeal to all oolite fans - multiplayer and single player - could be this. How it would be coded I don't know.

A system in galaxy 1 is selected for the multiplayer role e.g. Ra
You hyperspace to the system and make contact with a buoy

This then triggers a query to check if you are online - if you are then a message appears - 'Do You Wish to Enter the All Star Arena' - if you accept then you are transported to said arena (equivalent to Witchspace) if you decline then your single player game continues as normal.

If you accept you compete with other players - no kill points towards elite status are awarded though.

A shoot 'em up league could be set up through your ad here oxp.

Now that would be good as it would keep the single player alive in your own mind i.e. your life in Oolite would remain intact and events that occur in, say assassins, would happen until you reach them. Yet you could still compete with other players. Naturally a way to disable energy bombs etc. would have to circumnavigated (perhaps you get given a temporary ship depending on your status - adder for harmless, gecko for mostly harmless etc.)

How this could be done I don't know, and whether it is do-able is, with my very, very limited knowledge of OXPing is highly unlikely.

Basically LB, what I'm trying to say, is yes, your idea is probably the one I'd prefer.

Ta

(must get some sleep - but I have two non-contacts tomorrow so it doesn't really matter lol)

The way I envision Oolite Arena is simply as a separate app.

I agree with Ahruman. It could be a thing of its own, independent of all the Ooniverses we are playing in.

If you like it, you join.

If you don't like it, you don't. (I personally wouldn't.)

I'm with The Big A too.

haven't voted yet, just a couple questions :-

the online version - i take it it'd be a brand new save-game ID? if not, we'd have to load up all the OXP ships for people using Stingrays, Vampires etc as their chosen ships.

the arena - do you mean *simply* an arena to come and tw@ each other? if so, what about the trading to kit-out/repair your ship? money from contest wins perhaps?

would there need to be any sort of sytem to even out the discrepancies between ships? what i mean is, someone who's a rabid gamer could spend hours trading and getting money and kit out a killer ship. me, playing maybe an hour or two a week would have like 350C, and would be easy prey to them if they decided to pirate me. this is not too much of a bother in the game at the mo because when i'm not competing against each other, only NPCs which have set spec levels. left as is this would reward the hardcore player and not the occasional player, evening things would do the opposite.

Your point is well made KW, Oolite as a mutiplayer would be a totally different game, I can also envisage a few individuals forming into marauding groups and totally dominating the space lanes and "spoiling it for all the others.

Not voting yet either, since the choices more or less encompass two different things: 1) an MP shoot'em'up range and 2) MMORPG

If there would be a shoot'em'up range, a single system would prolly be the best, unless you use some sort of a ladder mechanism to separate "elites" from "beginners" into different arenas.

If there were to be a MMORPG, I'd naturally like to see at least one galaxy for it (or perhaps a half a galaxy, given the number of probable players). You'd sometimes bump into some other player, perhaps you could even give each other missions (and pay for them) on bulletin boards, or join forces to rid some system of pirate activity (a larger scale coop mission).

TGHC wrote:

Your point is well made KW, Oolite as a mutiplayer would be a totally different game, I can also envisage a few individuals forming into marauding groups and totally dominating the space lanes and "spoiling it for all the others.

Which, if done right, would be limited to Feudal and Anarcy systems, as the NPC Vipers would kill them off if they tried to maraud systems that were safer.

Wolfwood wrote:

1) an MP shoot'em'up range
If there would be a shoot'em'up range, a single system would prolly be the best, unless you use some sort of a ladder mechanism to separate "elites" from "beginners" into different arenas.

That could be done with the 8 systems arena I proposed. Actually I had in mind thematic systems: Shallow pool, Big Boyz Playground, Eat my Exaust (Racing), Meat Grinder (warzone), Stone Crops (asteroids everywhere) etc.

I do like the idea of making this as a separate App as sugested by Arhuman.

Wolfwood wrote:

2) MMORPG
If there were to be a MMORPG, I'd naturally like to see at least one galaxy for it (or perhaps a half a galaxy, given the number of probable players). You'd sometimes bump into some other player, perhaps you could even give each other missions (and pay for them) on bulletin boards, or join forces to rid some system of pirate activity (a larger scale coop mission).

winston wrote:

TGHC wrote:

Your point is well made KW, Oolite as a mutiplayer would be a totally different game, I can also envisage a few individuals forming into marauding groups and totally dominating the space lanes and "spoiling it for all the others.

Which, if done right, would be limited to Feudal and Anarcy systems, as the NPC Vipers would kill them off if they tried to maraud systems that were safer.

Any newbie would be at a serious disadvantage. I'd say to flag him as long as he stays 'Nearly Harmless'. As soon as he becomes 'Poor', it's fair game for the other players.

But the fun part of a MMORPG is precisely to be able of teaming up with your buddies! Also, you put 10 players together, I don't really see any system's entire police viper force having a snowball's chance in hell.
You'd have to call in the military!

Do like the separate App idea. No OXP ships. No mines. No E-Bombs. Everybody starts with an Adder with a pulse laser. Killing another player awards credits depending on the ship they have. You can leave the arena(s) by hitting H (but maybe a 60 second countdown). If you make it out you go to a shipyard screen, allowing you to spend your credits on more equipment or a better Native Ship. On this screen you can save. Die in combat and you lose all progress since your last save. Hitting F1 takes you to a server, showing who's playing in each areana (maybe limit of 16 players at a time or somthing). Click to join in and you launch into the fray. No idea how to code this, but this type of "Halo style" game, but with the ability to work up though the ships seems at least possible and fun. Very different from normal Oolite play and without the intergration problems. A long way short of a true Multi-Player game, but "just" coding this would be a tremendous effort and project in itself, so a first step.

As somebody who has been trying to do this.... I'd have to say for the sake of your sanity don't bother. It would be substatially easier to start from scratch. Ok, so a simple arena style shoot 'em would be achievable and networking with a simple SDL module would be trivial. Unfortunately anything more than this is an exercise in futility. I know everybody bitches about Obj-C but it is extremely convoluted and working backards to build a server app has proven too difficult and mind destroying for me to do. Unless someone has some substantial free time to throw at this I don't think it's ever going to happen.

Sometimes the only winning move is not to play....