The 120-message thread down there is incredibly interesting, but it takes way too long for me to load it all whenever I peek at it. Thus I just wanted to restart it to save some download time.

By the way, you all have some really amazing ideas for this; my interest has been renewed again. I swore to myself that I would not post on the topic of a EVMP, but I have again become intrigued as I will be without Diablo for the entirety of the summer. Thus I must reroute my multiplayer thoughts here, I suppose.

I have no programming skills, nor am I a hard worker. Thus I cannot contribute anything of real note to the discussion, except my thoughts on the general scope of the game. Every massively multiplayer game I have played has been most dependant on player interaction, not mechanics. For instance, the action in Ultima Online is fun, but pretty dopey. It's all about talking it up to the people around you.

So, here goes a hopefully not-so-brief list of my random opinions:

1. I think EVMP would have to focus on pilot-to-pilot interaction. Missions and such would be very versatile like Newbie's concept; nothing tied down by specific numbers. I would chat with some big Kestrel-flying dude and say that I want him to rough up a freighter near Sirius that mocked my cat. I hear about it, and through a trade system much like Diablo 2's or Fallout's, I would give him some cash and maybe a sensor upgrade.

2. In game, I would be able to broadcast messages to the system, i.e. "Someone help me! DethsAvengr killed my friend ,the 14 year old bully dope! I'll give you 10 grand to git him!" . A personal 'whisper' method would be available so that I could converse with a friend privately. Perhaps that could be done intersystem.

3. I really think we need GM's for areas of the galaxy. In a new plot, perhaps there could be several areas of 6 to 15 systems controlled by their own govts. People could be GM of the Lowery Federation, and build up a big fleet of merchants. Or, they could GM the Mac League, and send out maniacal attacks on neighbors. New players would have to find the kind of play they want and get with that group. It'd make for more interesting interaction than just flying around trading and shooting.

4. There are challenges with system-conquering balance issues. If it were possible, the first clan with 20 people would spend two hours on a monday morning and win over half the galaxy. I suppose that it could be balanced; those 20 would be hard-pressed to stay in control. I just prefer the idea of extremely challenging conquering (dozens of ship waves) to give the GM's time to send a broadband alert and get their faction back for defense. I am just worried that a great game would be made only to be wrecked by exploiters of power.

5. Perhaps a main group of admins (Ambrosia, developers, top GM's) could have some sort of alien craft and act as moderators through force. As in, when the Lords of Destruction clan rips through Deneb III, Matt Burch slips in and knocks out half of them to keep them in catch. Perhaps the destruction of this uber-race ship would give mega props; if they manage to take one of these veterans in a great ship, they get an extremely rare weapon or something.

6. In general, I think that with all the beautifully fun ideas, a bunch of 13 year olds with an attitude could wreak some havoc. In Diablo, a great game was ruined by rampant cheating and abuse of the system. To me, making a balanced, stable galaxy would be much more difficult than programming all the stuff necessary.

Of course, as I said, I play 'em like I see 'em.

Maclowery

------------------

By the way, feel free to digitally slap me for having regurgitated views probably had by hundreds of others more capable previous to me. I hope that Pop-pop succeeds so that Ambrosia can push for more multiplayer online goodness. I wonder how many people would freak out if Ambrosia suddenly said they were accepting offers to assist in production of EVMP. Hehe if Andrew'd done it for April Fools they'd have strung up and stoned the entire crew just for cruelty.

Alright, I'm actually starting to annoy myself now; I'll shut up and hopefully let people that know more than me talk now.

------------------

Regarding taking over a planet, I was thinking abou t the other day. Your right in that it would have to be something that takes a lot of time. I got around to thinking, "How would someone actually take over a planet." Well, you can bomb it or send a transport to land on it. What if you had some kind of ship, or "fighter," that could be used to take over the planet when you launch it? Thing is, you couls have it floating in the upper atmospher coordinating attacks, and has little armor, and takes a while to work(amount of time and armor could be tested during the beta). So unless you and your buddys gaurd it, its most likely gonna get destroyed, and could possibly even be taken out by a lone pilot with good hit-and run tactics.
Of course, you could add on to this. Trade increases a planets money and population, and they will slowly grow over time. You could build extra hangers for AI ships and barracks that will make it take more than a single transport to take over the planet. Ships could try orbital bombardment, which would take out some defenses but would destroy the infastructure more than a normal take-over would.
Well, I think the ideas good, but let me now what you think. The main thing is that you need a way to make planetary conquest something three guys can do at 4 o'clock in the morning unless they're that good.

-Yorick

------------------

IMO, planetary take-overs in the traditional EV form would have to be abandoned in any multiplayer game - because of the problem of people sneaking along in the middle of the night and taking over Earth. This wouldn't be removing an essential EV feature: from all I've heard, domination was only added as a last minute feature to EV during beta - and it shows. All it really ever supplied in EV was a kind of final challenge for the very bored, it was never an integral part of the game that made actual sense.

Planetary conquests on a large scale (assaults on fleet command, homeworlds or other important stellars) would have to be handled by GMs, as part of the overall game 'plot' - depending on how it was decided all these things should be run. If an independent group really wanted a minor world or station to submit to them, there's also a way this could be without demanding tribute or GM involvement: (the following assumes there are players in control of spobs, and that some kind of economic system exists)

Some pirates want to take over, intact, a small independent fuel refinery to use as a base for their future operations. So; they blockade the system - without the fuel going out, or food, new personnel, essential equipment or other supplies coming in, the crew of the station will soon be bankrupt at least and might possibly starve - so they'd be likely to negotiate terms with the pirates.

Anyway, my point is that planetary domination, at least in the form EV uses, is not an essential feature, and certainly need not be retained in the 'waves of defenders' form. There's always ways of thinking round these things.

------------------
Ja sam ovde samo zbog piva

I agree; I think that world domination would have to be much more dynamic, involving the human interaction I'm so keen on. As in, if one faction really wanted to wage war on another, the GM's would work out something logical and flexible. These major plotlines would have to be well planned out, though, and rather sparse so that the galaxy is constant enough for balanced play. It would also require intelligent, unselfish GM's that would accept a loss of a planet to keep the plot interesting.

One thing I'm not sure on is exactly how GM's would work; I suppose they would need their own program, or possibly just a passworded menu of some sort. They would need to be able to post messages to their zone of control, maintain system characteristics (amount of random pirates, trade costs), and be able to relinquish this control to other GMs.

I'm not sure how realistic it is to have 8 or 10 zones in the galaxy controlled by their own sets of GM's; perhaps this would warp EV into a new game. Hmm or maybe that's what it needs! Oh, the places you'll go...

------------------

Hye guys, I'm new to this board but I have a kind of solution to the whole domionation thing. If this EVMP is like networked based or some thing like that. make hyper jumps to everywhere form every system and when somebody is logged off the hyper link is inactive. Just a suggestion, please no flame mail or anythign like thta
Rebel Dan

------------------

My take on the domination idea:

The only reason I suggested the 'flak' feature was to deal with, IMO, crappy domination methods.

And making for fun blockade running.

Ever play FH/FF? Remember the 50 mill ships that kinda did nothing important?

Well, imagine those, but totally immobile.

And armed with high speed, high range missiles, a load of turrets, and a medium range weapon that does little damadge, but has a blast radius and impact about as much as a forklift.

You'd be constantly pounded with missiles, bumped around by the flaks, and if you happen to get near one of these ships, you'd be trashed by their obcene amounts of AntiProton cannons.

Probably I'll also give them ER Tractor beams.

For the MPlayer stuff, 10 of these defence stations per system, plus 2 for each planet over 1, would stop a lot of things.

Add assistance coming in from all over ("Sol Defence to all units, please assist. Are under attack from unknown enemy.") would add for a rather nasty trip for the bullys.

-Skunks

------------------
Enginners can actually hear machines talk to them. The rattle in the car's engine teases softly, "I'll bet you can't find me." The computer hums an approving tune when the enginner writes an expecially briliant peice of computer code. The toaster says "Not yet, not yet, not yet." untill the toast pops out. An enginner who is surrounded by machines is never lonly and never judged by apperance. These are friends.

I was sorta thinking that if planets had an economic system (produce a given quantity of x materials per cycle), then that planet could generate money. The owner would then spend that money buying and upgrading a defense fleet, paying for merchants to export surplus materials and import needed supplies, ect. This would all be possible to control by landing on the planet. (any player can control a planet)

If someone wants to dominate a planet, they first have to destroy that planets defense fleet. The planet, now defenseless, can then be taken over by the attacking fleet's alliance or government. Players from that alliance now become responsible for buying and maintaining that planets defense fleet. In a properly balanced game, 20 or so people won't be able to take out a decent planet without some powerfull allies. This also encourages clustering, making it easier for groups to defend their hard-earned territories.

------------------

Heh, keep the good ideas coming! At the very least, I can use them for my RPG

CS

Um, no. My Ideas™ are copyright of Me™. And Other People™'s Ideas™ are copyright of Them™.

------------------
God. Root. What is difference?
-Pitr

AIM: obormot345