my own production
I've made a bad little clone of EV, and I decided to post It here. Galaxy at war go to the bottom of the page and click the grey bar
I am capable of making an online Nova Gaming Universe, but I need two things:
a server, since I can't be dedicated
and a few testers when I am getting done with the process.
anybody up to it? Who likes it?
This post has been edited by AlphaKiller : 06 March 2007 - 03:47 AM
@alphakiller, on Mar 6 2007, 03:46 AM, said in for those of you who really want to play online:
go to the bottom of the page and click the grey bar
....Unless you're on a Mac w/o a way to run a Windows app, in which case you've got no reason to bother. 
Bloody .exe files. I dislike them so much they make me use a british method of cursing things! Don't ask why, because I don't know either.
Any chance those of us on the Mac side of the things can get a version? Or at least some screenshots?
oh...
mac users might be a problem...
I can try and post some screenshots.
click on the image to get a bigger view.
the game physics are just like nova, but controls are slightly altered to allow for two player use.
It's... interesting. However, right now it's just a fancy Space Duel without the sun in the middle. Not bad, much farther than I ever got with my programming, but it doesn't show to me that you're capable of really making a multiplayer EV. A multiplayer EV will probably contain these elements which you don't currently have (outside of networking):
Planets. Systems. A galaxy. Hyperspace. Different weapons, outfitters, etc. etc. etc, all those things which distinguish EV from other games.
Moreover, you have to think through how you can really make EV multiplayer without completely sacrificing what we've experienced in the single player. Nova gives dates to show the passage of time to a player, but in multiplayer you could easily have people running around with different dates if you used the same time system. This messes with "rush deliveries" and a few other aspects of Nova. What happens to a player when they dock at a station? How many players do you plan on having?
A lot of Escape Velocity is about the ability of players to modify the in-game scenario. So if you want a real EV game, you'll have to incorporate that somehow, most likely by having players run their own servers with whatever modifications the admins want. Then you'd have to tie pilot files to each server/mod. It'd sacrifice the smaller plug-ins, but at least we could mod it. Large modifications seem to be part of EV:N in any case.
Anyways, you have a very, very long way to go. Very long way. I'm not saying that you should dump your project entirely by any means, but I don't think what you have is or ever will be anything close to EV4. So I wouldn't try making EV4, I'd try just taking what you have and making it better until you get tired of doing that, for the sake of experience. If you want to learn networking, work on the networking. If you want to work on your programming in other areas, work on that.
'Course, you could just be thinking modestly in the first place... but you have to expect me to start ranting like it's EV4 considering the topic at hand.
I, by no means, believe that I am capable of working EV4 alone, legally or literally.
I do, however, know how to network a game. I know how to set up hyperspace, outfitters, planets, but not systems, as of yet. I do know how to find help in make a systems "system" (go figure), as I am part of a game making forum community right now.
Dr. Trowel: I know how to incorporate graphics into my game. In fact, it's much easier for me there than it is for Nova :). Im just working on gameplay aspects right now.
future additions for next demo: bigger starmap with scrolling screen, and transferring to other side of map when you go over one side.
Question: Should I just make a clone of EV Nova and take out the missions and put in multiplayer, or should I add new features, like ships, outfits, and otherwise?
also, I was thinking of a span of real time of 5 minutes equals 1 day in this game, and hyperspace is instantanious. When you land on a planet, you end up in a spaceport area where you can go to the bar to hang out and talk to other players (and perhaps get a programmed mission) go to an outfitter to trade with friends or to buy from the outfitter, pay to repair your ship and refuel, and return to your ship when ready.
This is a good start.
What you need to work on is design , before you get to coding. You need to design a way to keep something approximating EV's mission capability (including universe changes!) while allowing multiplayer.
My suggestion: You could seriously cut down on the amount of "drudgery mission" programming you have to do if you allowed players to offer missions to each other. This seemingly simple suggestion hides a world of complexity, of course, but it's worth considering.
Also, the Holovid could be co-opted as a means of putting out "player bulletins"----requests for others to join a mission in cooperative missions (such as fleet battles), notifications that some facility is under attack or some planet is being evacuated; basically, letting people know when the galaxy has or is about to change.
Lastly, there is the danger that one player's change in the galaxy would render another's mission string uncompletable. To that end, some missions (not all) should have the ability to dynamically update themselves given conditions in the galaxy. At the very least, they should have alternate destinations in the event one becomes unreachable.
I know how to code around the EV problem of galaxy changes becoming incompatible: make each planet copy have a shared ID, and when you get to the planet with a certain ID, then you have it finish the game.
remember, this is an independant program, not made from the nova engine, but from scratch. You dont need to think constrained to some of the limitations of nova.
also, If anybody happens to know how to make User input and/or plug-ins possible, tell me, please.
@alphakiller, on Mar 7 2007, 03:43 PM, said in for those of you who really want to play online:
remember, this is an independant program, not made from the nova engine, but from scratch. You dont need to think constrained to some of the limitations of nova.
But it should follow the Nova experience as closely as is reasonable.
There are many different ways to code an action, but still have the same visible effects.
I'll note for what it's worth that EVC did not change the galaxy at all, and EVO had relatively minor changes (largely, a few systems changed hands from one government to another). I think you'll find that the simplest way to design a multiplayer EV game is to have the systems all be static.
For that matter, most MMOs I've heard of work this way. I don't think you're likely to find a solution that allows you to have a changing universe without making missions either terribly generic or inconsistent with the universe.
Not to pop you're bubble guys, but Alphakiller, have you been in contact with an Ambrosia representative and gotten some kind of copyright permission? Before we talk about replicating the Nova experience online, let's find out if the Nova experience is something you have a right to work with. This project looks really good and promising, and I'd hate to see it killed by legal issues.
The relevant quotation is here, from Dave Williams. He's not exactly an authority, but he does know what he's talking about. The upshot is that you can create games with similar gameplay all you like; what you can't do is appropriate the name and/or content of the Escape Velocity series. The concept of a space exploration game where the player flies from one system to another, trading goods, participating in combat, and receiving missions, is hardly unique to the EV series (see e.g. Star Control II for a game that did it four years before EVC was released, and Elite, twelve years prior to EVC.
I would vote for complete non-MMOness. I want multiplayer EV to be something I can play with my friends when and where I want to, with whatever plug-ins (known in other games as server-side mods) we wish to have. Then it should let us save our game, since one of our computers is the host, and continue later. Maybe it could even be a persistent world, but one which only myself and my friends can play in! Then we could run into each other throughout the day and all. Whenever we got tired of it, we could load different plug-ins and reset the game. Easy! Just like EV, except that you can play with yoru friends, the point of the whole idea!
No need for MMOness. MMOness is BAD. Don't succumb to the temptation!
This also has the advantage of allowing someone to play single player if they want to. You could still play it very much like one would play EV.
This post has been edited by Phyvo : 07 March 2007 - 02:02 PM
that does sound like a good idea.
Quote
Not to pop you're bubble guys, but Alphakiller, have you been in contact with an Ambrosia representative and gotten some kind of copyright permission? Before we talk about replicating the Nova experience online, let's find out if the Nova experience is something you have a right to work with. This project looks really good and promising, and I'd hate to see it killed by legal issues.
all I'm doing is making a clone under a different name, with a different concept. I dont plan on using any content from nova if I don't get permission. None of the content in the game so far has any escape velocity qualities, except for inertia and space combat.
