[Mefustae]

Infinity: The Quest for Earth

A small, independant project seeking to create a completely open-ended space MMO where there are little to no restrictions, not to mention that it's likely going to be completely free. See, unlike other games, the entire Galaxy is open, meaning that - thanks to procedural techniques - there will be billions of planets revolving around millions of stars, each and every one explorable to the point of landing on them and driving around in smaller vehicals, and each unique. This is going to be rather entertaining...



[Ingame]

Minimum Requirements:

CPU speed: Intel Pentium IV 2 Ghz or AMD Athlon 1500+ or equivalent
RAM size: 512 MB
Video card: a graphics card supporting pixel shader 2.0 (ATI Radeon 9500+, NVidia Geforce FX+)
Disk space: at least 2 GB
Internet connection: 56k modem
Operating system: Windows 2000 or later

Recommended Requirements:

CPU speed: Intel Pentium IV 3+ Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or equivalent - optimized for Dual core systems -
RAM size: 1 or 2 GB
Video card: a powerful video card supporting pixel shader 2.0 or 3.0 (ATI Radeon X800 XT+, NVidia Geforce 6800 GT+)
Disk space: more than 5 GB - used for caching textures -
Internet connection: ADSL
Operating system: Windows XP SP2 or later

[Fineus]

That sounds like it could be fun up to a point... but what else can you do in this open-ended universe? If it ends at being able to drive around a lot of barren rocky planets then it might get old quite quickly despite the scope...

[Herra Tohtori]

 

I've been waiting for something like this for a quite long time. I just hope it'll become ready some day in less than 5 years.

Heh... wonder if they're gonna includesome civilization development on it. Like, players choose a race and start developing it together from, say, 21th century Earth-level? Then it'd take some time (not too long) before players start encountering new races and so on. Would be kinda cool to participate in a first contact, even if it was virtual.

Then there would be, like, Human-Minbari war or equivalent, if the other side had managed to develop a bit further...

Oh my, this does offer very much, providing that they do manage to finish the project. Hope they also get the gameplay right besides good looks...

[Grug]

Sounds like an EvE rip.

I love the saying
Of course your unique, just like everyone else.

Sounds interesting though.

[Mefustae]

That sounds like it could be fun up to a point... but what else can you do in this open-ended universe? If it ends at being able to drive around a lot of barren rocky planets then it might get old quite quickly despite the scope...

From what i've read, there's actually a lot you can do. Aside from the Universe being quite story-driven, you can build something resembling an empire, building stations, starship factories, and eventually control entire fleets. I for one look forward to the possibility of building a base inside a Nebula and swallowing any ship that enters it. Kadeshi FTW.

[Fineus]

Yes... yes I went on to read the website and the overall plan seems quite masterful. I hope they get it right though. X3 had promise of some massive empire building and such but the gameplay execution left a hell of a lot to be desired.

Also, a lot of the shots they have of planets look a lot like Terragen work. Nothing wrong with that - but there's only so many "oooh look, purdey sun setting behind a mountain" shots I can take before I start to want something more.

That said - benefit of the doubt time - we'll see when it has a demo out or something.

[Singh]

sounds like EVE online.

EVE-online runs on my PC...this one looks like it wont

I'll stick with EVE for now.

[Ransom]

But unlike Eve-Online...

Combats will be purely real-time, action based, much like in a flight simulator or a first-person shooter. You will be in full control of your ship.

This was the main reason I didn't like Eve. I just couldn't get into the detached way you controlled your ship. (I realise Eve isn't that kind of game, though.)

[Singh]

But that's there because it's a vital counter-measure to fight the evil lag!

As little as the lag may be, the one thing I've found in EVE-online's system is that it's consistant. I get the same amount of lag with my cable connection in Singapore, as I do with my DSL-at-dialup-speeds connections in India

Playing it in FPS format is gonna cause significant amount of strain on the network code for such a thing

[Ransom]

Lag or not, it doesn't really change the fact I found it to be quite an effective cure for insomnia.

Eve's strength is the politics and trading. That's fine, it's just not my thing. Infinity seems to be a little more story driven, and for me that alone makes it a far more interesting proposition than almost every other MMO on the market at the moment.

Anyway, saying this game is ripping off Eve doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Eve inhereted most of its core gameplay from other sandbox space games as well, it's really the community that sets it apart.

[aldo_14]

Give me a gun and I'll make it fun.

[Singh]

EVE is also story driven, to an extent. Corps that play out the story RPG style are fairly common. In any case, its just that the thing's description is so suspiciously...well, similar to EVE-online's system right now, and it is just as open ended, sans going on the planet bit (which they actually intend to do soon, along with a major graphics update). Over there, I remember someone once mentioned that travelling between planets at non-FTL speeds would take exactly how much time it'd take as covering the same distances would in reality. It's just that big, and it's running on one server cluster.

However, before you take it the wrong way, I'm not bashing this at all. I'm just saying it's similar - and the fact taht it's possibly going to be free looks like it's going to be good. The planet landing and the FPS bit is utter coolness, not to mention if it's moddable, imagine the machinima possibilities

But if its going to come at hte cost of horrible, horrible lag, it sorta takes out the fun of it all

[Ghost]

I've been following this for..oh, say, half a year. I actually think I followed a link from here some time ago. It looks totally awesome, and I'm really disappointed that I missed the combat alpha, on account of being busy last weekend. Did anyone here get to play it?

[Herra Tohtori]

By the way, just think of the amount of easter eggs they could put into this game. Like...

...finding a Halo on some distant system...

...or better still, a Knossos Device...

..that leads into a dense nebula infested with... well, you could guess...

...or an 8th passenger infiltrating your ship at some deserted piece of rock...

...or the Katana fleet of Dreadnoughts...

...or quite much anything.

Galaxy is a big big place to hide stuff into. 

[an0n]

That sounds like it could be fun up to a point... but what else can you do in this open-ended universe? If it ends at being able to drive around a lot of barren rocky planets then it might get old quite quickly despite the scope...

Empty space is good. Especially if they let you build/buy stuff like prefab buildings, bases and modules.

You could fly out, find some nice, backwater moon with no-one on it, then build yourself a nice tank-factory on the ground and some fleetyards in high orbit. And because the galaxy is so huge, people would have to use ACTUAL espionage and bribery to find the place.

[Fineus]

Y'know I did think of that. But given the apparent scale of the universe I can't help but feel that the actual exploration of the systems could be somwhat dull. One terragened style planet looks much the same as another y'know? Oh you have difference in size, perhaps some gas giants and so on - but sooner or later you realise there's nothing really novel.

That is of course untill the game takes off and becomes popular. Then as you say - people can actually sell starcharts to help people navigate territory - heck you can make one yourself or decide to do some science-mission type stuff where you basically document all the systems in a certain area then sell the information on. Or you could fly as far as you can in a certain direction and set up shop far away from the eyes and ears of everyone else... secretly building up a stupidly large fleet of ships before going out on pirate style raiding missions or basic genocide if the desire took you.

[karajorma]

If the entire galaxy is available that means that you could buy a ship, head out to the fringe of space and never be seen again even if you play for the next 10 years

[aldo_14]

If the entire galaxy is available that means that you could buy a ship, head out to the fringe of space and never be seen again even if you play for the next 10 years

29/3/06 10:20am>>Player (Aldo) has entered sector 1300
1/5/11 10:30am>>Player (Anonymous_Steve1200) has entered sector 1300
1/5/11 10:32am>>(Anonymous_Steve1200) >> hello
1/5/11 10:34am>>(Aldo) >> hello
1/5/11 10:35am>>(Anonymous_Steve1200) >> do you want to buy medications?  www.dodgypharmacysellingviagra.com!
29/3/06 10:36am>>Player (Aldo) has left sector 1300

[an0n]

If the entire galaxy is available that means that you could buy a ship, head out to the fringe of space and never be seen again even if you play for the next 10 years

Now imagine that, but with tractor-snagged n00bs.

You could drag their ship out beyond what their nav computer considers 'known space' (possibly cripple their hyper-drive with a few well-placed shots) and use them as slave-labour for mining operations.

[karajorma]

They'd be pretty sad individuals if they kept playing though