I just read an article at
Slashdot that prompted me thinking again about an idea I have had for a while. The free, platform independent, distributed database part is what caught my eye about Cloudscape. It also seems that it would support production if people wanted a pay-network down the road.
The quick overview - combine the multiplayer aspects of economy that exist in Jumpgate, Eve, Freelance/IWar2 with a dynamic campaign engine like Falcon 4 or Starshatter that is distributed across player run servers.
There is also some long threads
here from a discussion on the Vegastrike forums about economies.
This is from a usenet post I did a while back (some edits applied):
1) Let each server maintain the "inventory" and the config of connected neighbors via a network. Make the inital build of a system like a RPG char. generation. A server admin gets 100000 pts to allocate for minerals, metals, ag., tech tree, weapons, energy etc. for an inital loadout to create their system. After that it is shaped by in-game dynamics. Each new player also brings an influx of resources to the overall game. This would help self limit the economy. People would be free to create custom elements within their universe as long as it was within the constraints of the economy. I.e player-run stations but you still have to be profitable.
2) Have the jumpgate mechanism limit the number of active players in a system at any one time to what the server can support for a multiplayer battle. If a server is down, so is the gate. Need a mech so people are not trapped in a system if the server goes down.
3) Server config is signed and authenticated so people can't go in and cheat up the system. Enforce growth/change through play only. Also, the longer a server/better is up, the better it's trade route rating.
As a server is added, new trade/jump routes are randomly generated. It would be my goal that the system be fairly automatic and not need a lot of sys-admin. The system would support clans so we get some epic conflict but should also support individuals who want to trade and merc and not live in the game.
What is needed in SCP? Well to start I can think of the following:
Add the hooks for tacking externally generated missions and jumpgates.
Add an inventory system for trading.
Discuss what a tech tree looks like for a system and/or clan.
Why do it bring this up here? SCP is fantastic and my expectations of what would happen with the source code release have been wonderfully exceeded! You guys have done a fantastic job and there is momentum here. My motives are selfish - I have not yet found my perfect game. FSSCP has the combat part, I want the economy and trade. For you real old school folks, I'm still looking for Traveller on the computer.
All comments good, bad, whatever are welcome!
Sincerely,
Bod
Poll
