SCMMORPG

[2-23-6]

As dirty as this makes me feel, I side with Viropher. This needs to die and Tou-Foo-Rol be banned.

[Lukipela]

Am I missing something here? Why?

[Scott_Irving]

yes why?, though we can just move to the now dedicated forum

[Eth]

Perhaps we should be "minimally multiplayer," since there probably aren't going to be very many of us...  

[Lukipela]

apparently none, seeing as no explanations or discussions seem forthcoming on this or the other forum

[Parker]

Something similar to a Star Control MMORPG has recently surfaced in the retail game world.  It's called Freelancer.  It is yet to be seen how moddable this game is, but if it is moddable enough, the game would be the perfect foundation on which to build a Star Control MMORPG upon.  It is a 3D game, but you don't really fly around in all dimensions.  You are usually just flying around on a 2D plane on which you can maneuver up and down slightly.  There are multiple star systems within this game.  The game's multiplayer is run on user maintained servers.

[Scott_Irving]

Ive been following Freelancer since it was first announced back in the day by Digital Anvil (the company the guy who created wing commander started).
Evil microsoft bought it out and he left cause he didn't want to be working under microsoft. But anyway I highly doubt Freelancer will be modable in the degree were taking. User maintained servers? how is that possible?
But who knows well have to wait till it comes out... but were hopefully looking at some that will run on slow internet connections which freelancer probably won't Earth and Beyond bairly does.

[Eth]

  Oh, I assumed that you were talking about a text-based thing.  What ARE you talking about?  What is the basic concept of this MMORPG-thing?  I tell you, I'm interested, if it looks simple enough for 3-5 people to make in a year or two, with sporadic but inspired effort.  

[Scott_Irving]

Well like Earth and Beyond however probably not 3D only 2D simply cause 3d takes much more work and more data being sent via internet connection. Also 3D dosen't seem to fit SC that well though it's something that could be tried.

[Parker]

Ive been following Freelancer since it was first announced back in the day by Digital Anvil (the company the guy who created wing commander started).
Evil microsoft bought it out and he left cause he didn't want to be working under microsoft. But anyway I highly doubt Freelancer will be modable in the degree were taking. User maintained servers? how is that possible?
But who knows well have to wait till it comes out... but were hopefully looking at some that will run on slow internet connections which freelancer probably won't Earth and Beyond bairly does.

[Parker]

Ugh, sorry about that.  I had to go back and fill in an email but it deleted my post and I failed to notice.

Anyway, if anyone who owns Freelancer wishes to set his computer up as a server for his pals or the rest of the internet, all that he has to do is run and maintain the dedicated server that is included with the game.  This is just like how people can run servers for popular FPS games off of their computer.

[Eth]

Well like Earth and Beyond however probably not 3D only 2D simply cause 3d takes much more work and more data being sent via internet connection. Also 3D dosen't seem to fit SC that well though it's something that could be tried.

I haven't played Earth and Beyond, but I looked at a few screenshots.  It looks pretty graphically intense.  Even if you did sort of a 2-D version it would probably take a prohibitive amount of man-hours.  Is there a more modest option available?  What does it take to qualify as a MMORPG?  Maybe we could do some graphics, but not much in the way of animation?  

[Scott_Irving]

Well wouldn't have to be to fancy, say like your basic SC2 melee with a huge interactive universe with missions, storys, etc..

[Eth]

  Since UQM is open-sourced, couldn't we take that and modify it?  That would give us the universe, the graphics, and the combat engine, which would eliminate much of the work right there.  What would be left would be plot, dialogue, connectivity, and some sort of RPG-style character advancement sceme.  Would everyone be flying around in Flagships, or what?  

[Scott_Irving]

I good idea however because of the way this would all be done, it would probably be better to build from scratch or at least part, could use some of UQM code though. Ill do up a "fake" screenshot of what I envision.