What would it take to make EVOnline?

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This post has been edited by WickTownEV : 02 March 2007 - 10:10 AM

These topics are about Nova, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

http://evula.org/dragoon/locked.html

http://www.ambrosias...showtopic=88554

EV Online would take:
A brand new game engine. Current ones are single-player only.
A brand new server app.
A new online-friendly scenario. The Override and Nova scenarios swap systems during mission strings.

The above would take a combined seven or eight years or so. Matt Burch and the Atmos team did Nova in four, and TCs are taking more than four. A new engine would take longer to build, because it would be more complex, between new ship actions, animations, and whatnot. The server app would be easy, taking a month or two. The online-friendly scenario would take another few years to build, to actually use the new engine. Debugging it would not only involve testing a new scenario, balancing, etc, but making sure it worked over the net, among other things.

Nova wasn't particularly good financially. Lots of registration fees, sure, but it took, what, 30k man-hours? Assuming all 9-odd-thousand people registered with the boards have paid $30 (which they haven't, and some have that don't visit the boards), that's about $27000, or <$1 per man hour, minus Ambrosia's share for marketing.

Ambrosia's cookie-cutter response: You make it, we sell it.

Many have said they are making it, me included (no finding and gravedigging my topic, please... I want to do that when I have an engine and not this miserable scrap heap of code).

I think it would be a marvelous idea, but nobody can/will do it. They all got bored after trying for a few months/years. THere was a project for it once, but it died. If I get around to finishing my "learning" of C++ before college and get around to having enough time to make the whole thing before college is over, it might get done, but I'd have to register it with Ambrosia, as they have all the rights for EV. I'd also have to ask Matt Burch...etc etc...

All in all, it would be a HUGE, sticky electronic mess...

But so great if it would work.

One day, maybe...one day.

Until then, let's all just play Freelancer. Much better for the short run...multipayer, same basic idea, 3D, yeah...

Another problem with online EV, though, would be handling the thousands of people who might be paying it...and all at once. It would be crazy, and the gameplay would have to change, etc. And the AI probably wouldn't be as good. I can see it being done with Java applets, and being strictly online.

I hatched a plan a few months ago (13 or so) to make a multiplayer EV with a friend of mine (good computer programmer, I'd be in charge of graphics, etc.). The idea was simply: fighter combat. Grab all the fighters from the game, and make an arena system (anyone remember Centerfleet's Wormhole?) where you could buy better ships and better weapons, as well as ammo with money you earn from killing other players for bounty, or some such nonsense.

So yeah. Sorry, but if it's gonna happen, it would:
1. Be COMPLETELY different (barring ships, etc.)
2. Take a few years (like 20) to get done.
3. Probably cost a lot to make it worth the scripters' while.
4. Probably be through Ambrosia, or maybe just end up being a network game, and not actually online MP. Could be cool, but not what you're asking here.

Who thinks a network version could be cool? You and a friend could link up, fly about the galaxy, hook up for joint missions (like Freelancer), etc. I think it'd be neat, a good first step, and fun.

Enough babbling, now. Later, all!

Ambrosia will not host the serves required to do that. They only are a software company.

I really doubt EVIV is going to be Massively Multiplayer Online. It will lack the huge storylines. I'd be more interested in something with a single-player mode, with storylines and everything Nova had, and a multiplayer arena mode where everyone gets a set number of credits and builds fighting ships with them, settling the equivalent disputes of "MY UNRELENTING CAN KILL YOUR RAVEN!!!" and similar.

Problems with Freelancer that I can see just looking at it:
It's Microsoft. Enough said.
It's not pluggable. No ten-games-in-one-registration fee type of thing.
Is there a Mac version? If so, is it stable, and does it run quickly enough?

(EDIT)

Shrout1 said:

Ambrosia will not host the serves required to do that. They only are a software company.

Late night?
(/EDIT)

This post has been edited by The Apple Cřre : 02 June 2005 - 04:56 PM

The Apple Cřre, on Jun 2 2005, 07:29 PM, said:

Problems with Freelancer that I can see just looking at it:
It's Microsoft. Enough said.
View Post

Please leave your hat, coat and platform flames at the door.

Thank you.

:rolleyes:

That wasn't exactly platform-related.

It becomes platform-related if I point to it being Windoze only.

Besides, this is the EVC forum. EVC is Mac-only, unless you're somebody with Basilisk.

The Apple Cřre, on Jun 2 2005, 10:54 PM, said:

Besides, this is the EVC forum. EVC is Mac-only, unless you're somebody with Basilisk.
View Post

That's not the point. If all the people in here were white or black, would that make racism ok?

I know it's really not on the same level, but it's the same principle.

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This post has been edited by WickTownEV : 02 March 2007 - 10:10 AM

The Apple Cřre, on Jun 2 2005, 12:29 PM, said:

Problems with Freelancer that I can see just looking at it:
It's Microsoft. Enough said.
It's not pluggable. No ten-games-in-one-registration fee type of thing.
Is there a Mac version? If so, is it stable, and does it run quickly enough?
View Post

Yeah, it's Microsoft, but it roxxors.
It is pluggable, just not as such. You can add tons of ships (I've played with a Star Wars mod before), and I believe you can change the storylines...but it takes TONS more work.

Also, it's got a lot more interesting twists and turns, like the wormholes, etc. Most people don't even find half the galaxy in their first few runs through the game, especially dealing with the pirates, as they kill you instantly upon wormholing into a system.

Also, missions affect the galaxy, like explodarising stations, etc. That affects everyone playing with you over the network/server. It's kinda cool.

The Apple Cřre, on Jun 2 2005, 03:54 PM, said:

That wasn't exactly platform-related.

It becomes platform-related if I point to it being Windoze only.

Besides, this is the EVC forum. EVC is Mac-only, unless you're somebody with Basilisk.
View Post

AHEM

waves hand

I run Basilisk. I have no working Mac.

pp0u20e8, on Jun 2 2005, 10:08 PM, said:

That's not the point. If all the people in here were white or black, would that make racism ok?
View Post

Yes. Furthermore, Ambrosia will never make a multiplayer EV. Nor will they ever port Nova for windoze. Nor shall Apple start using pentiums and make Mac OS X the universal operating system.

I doubt we will ever be in a state of symbionic techno-bliss. Consumer need spurs on technology advances, which in turn forces the consumer to adapt to the tech change, which forces technology to improve, which forces the consumer to upgrade, which forces technology...

Hamster, on Jun 6 2005, 01:08 AM, said:

Yes. Furthermore, Ambrosia will never make a multiplayer EV. Nor will they ever port Nova for windoze. Nor shall Apple start using pentiums and make Mac OS X the universal operating system.
View Post

They did port Nova to Windoze. A LOOOONG time ago. Like last year. Like two months after it was made for Mac. I play it. On Windows. My Mac emulator's too crappy to take it anyhow...no PPC ROM (yet. I'm getting one soon.) etc...

/me points to PearPC.

I don't think Basilisk will emulate a Power Mac. I know it will emulate a 68k, but I don't know if it will emulate a Power Mac. Bit of a processor architecture difference.

Oh, well, I shouldn't bash Basilisk users, either. I might just be running LinBasilisk to play in an Avara tournament.

In the mean time: no Mars Rising for you.

The WinNova remark was meant to show how there wasn't going to be a WinNova, and how there similarly won't be an EV Online.

EDIT: I think.

This post has been edited by The Apple Cřre : 06 June 2005 - 08:30 PM

Basilisk II is completely incapable of emulating a PPC. THe best it can do is a emulate a Quadra 650. The highest version of MacOS it can run is 8.1. PearPC, OTOH, will run OSX Darwin, and Mandrake Linux 9.1. Some research is being done on if it can run AIX or if AIX can be made to run on it. Last I remember reading, PearPC will give you approximately the performance of a computer with half your rated physical CPU speed. So, if I used it on my 933MHz P3, I'd get about 466MHz performance. However, there is a PearPC Performance Pack someone has written to help with this, according to the website http://pearpc.sourceforge.net .

I'm somewhat sure that BasiliskII can do better than a Quadra 650...and I'm also pretty sure that it can run up to 9 with the right ROM. Lemme check, I'll get back to you on that...

<EDIT>
Scratch that. I can't find the info. There used to be a compatibility table or something...but I can't find it. Oh, well. I'm still pretty sure on my thing. Maybe it was 8.1, but I'm sure that it can do better as far as ROMs .
</EDIT>

<EDIT2>
Okay, okay, I admit defeat. I can't find it, and I read in 2 places that it can't do better than 68k. But it can do better than Quadra. My Quadra ROM is said, by the emulator itself, to be the worst known ROM.
</EDIT>

This post has been edited by Dash_Merc : 07 June 2005 - 10:48 PM

Let me put it this way. The Quadra 650 rom file is the best known rom dump out there. the 900 rom dump is known to not be so good, to the best of my knowledge. But I admit that it's been a while since I looked for a rom dump file, so I might be wrong.

As for what OS it woll run, the Basilisk II homepage clearly states that the best you can Emulate is the Mac II series stuff, which will only go up to OS 8.1, depending on your rom file.

http://www.students....002/B2Main.html

This post has been edited by CaptJosh : 07 June 2005 - 10:52 PM

Mine is the 650. Basilisk tells me it's the worst...lol. I had a shot at a Centris II or something, but missed it. It would have been legal, too.

Funny, BAsilisk II told me that the 650 was the best and the 900 was the worst...