[Davidge]

Hi guys' sorry if this sounds lame.  But I have had a few drinks pls bear with me.  This is what I would really like for FS2 & AOA; i would really love a larger scale Strategy-feel to AOA and FS2.

AOA was excellent for creating the on-site recon-command role of Laporte in the later missions (when she joins the fedayeen who use stealth command ships) and controls the action on the battle-field, but i think that can take a step further.

Who are the "elders" doing all the strategizing? Who is "allied command"?  Who decides which squadrons to deploy? Who decides to name squadrons?.

So i was hoping for an MMO game for the FS2 universe with the following:

1. The regular pilot simulator PLUS top-down home-world style commanding pointing & clicking of units - done by "command"
2. Players get to be pilots, with experience they get promoted to higher command roles within PVE or GTA or GTVA

3. Pilots that basically get to do the following:

3 (a) pilots fly their fighters/bombers obviously (this is what we have now)
3 (b) pilots can also serve as gunners on board larger cruisers (i've always wondered who would be the "firer" of the beam weapons"
3 (c) pilots also pilot the cruisers/battleships, while other pilots serve as gunners; as well as fighters that are 'launched' from the ships.

4. Main factions may include:
- Terrans (GTVA)
- Vasudans (GTVA)
-NTF
-Shivans (played by administrators or computers)
- Freelancers (for those of us who don't care about the great war maybe lol... i doubt there are people that dont care)

5. Gameplay revolves mainly around:
- enemy forces appear in friendly space to destroy stuff (what they do best)
- "command" staffed by veteran pilots to decide on deployment of forces
- pilots would engage enemy and if they succeed, Command redeploys them elswhere, if they fail, command brings in more pilots from some other area.

6. Command's role would probably be revolved around logistics, strategy of force deployment; choice for construction of ships/weapons systems; creating squadrons to be staffed by the pilots... giving out medals etc.

Please don't get me wrong, i'm not saying turn FS2 into EVE online... but just add onto it, allow pilots to become boring gunners on the cruisers ha ha, and i would really love to see a FS2 with a Galactic Map view of friendly/enemy territory and some decisionsbeing made by players over how to win the war, how to find more jump-nodes etc etc.

I'd love to see WHO is behind "Command" and who the decision makers are behind our missions, who the gunners are on the ships etc.

Alright i've said my piece, soberingup now.

Thanks for reading.

[procdrone]

I don't believe that would be TOO HARD to achieve, honestly. All the models and textures, sounds, core ideas... are ready atm, if we could use them without Interplay charging us all for breaking the licence... which is most probable.

But yea, playing freespace MMO would be certainly fun.

[Davidge]

yeah i mean i could imagine something like "OMG Wolf19-11 is the worst admiral ever! HE used all the res to make Artemis bombers!! wtf"

or "command blew it... who made the call to send in reinforcements? Wolf19-11"

[Phantom Hoover]

Running an MMO is expensive, and you can't make money off anything based on the Freespace IP or the FSO source code. That kills it in practical terms, but speculating about how it might work is still fun!

[headdie]

Not to ruin the thought train but some things to be aware of if anyone intends to make this a reality.

MMOs are a logistical nightmare
FS Source code was released under licence mandating that all code modifications to the code are made available without profit.
FSO is a terrible engine for use as an MMO
Interplay now holds *all* rights for the FS IP, even for a none profit/charge project you will still need permission to use the IP as Sol Contingency found out Interplay does not always play nice.
While the FS verse offers a lot of potential for an MMO, but also provides very little information outside of the told story and is irritatingly inconsistent in its own canon.

Having said that.

Flying around the FSverse as a merc for hire or a trader bumping into the names from here would be cool

[-Sara-]

People should launch a huge multiplayer-mission event, where every forum member can be a pilot. There'd be a weekly mission and depending on the outcome of the mission, a follow-up mission is quickly scripted and made. The outcome of the mission is given in a blog, told in-universe. The story is dynamic depending on the outcome of winning and losing missions. Oh yea, and dead = dead. 

[General Battuta]

You should play Windmills, it is very good.

[procdrone]

About that forum pilots.

Impossible.

Everyone here is from different timezones. Its just impossible to gather at reasonable hour for ALL

[headdie]

About that forum pilots.

Impossible.

Everyone here is from different timezones. Its just impossible to gather at reasonable hour for ALL

timezones make it difficult not impossible, that said it would be insane to expect *every* to participate in the event both for timings and interest reasons

[-Sara-]

No, not literally everyone participating, obviously, but open to everyone. Anyway it's more of a "oh wouldn't it be fun if" thought, not a serious proposal.

[Alzurana]

Ah yes, one of my old dreams and the actual reason why I started with game design and c++ coding in the first place. I dreamed of creating something like this eversince...
Nice to see others with the same idea, that means there's actually demand for it.
Even the "pilots can be gunners", "shivans played by admins" and the "command mode" idea is in there. Highfive for that, Davidge. We both have the same dream!

But as I grew older and gathered more insider information about the industry I came up with several reasons why this is virtually impossible:

1. There's no way to re-use the FS2/FSO code for an MMO. (Also because of the license) It's a nightmare to think about problems like simulation and AI, collision detection and all that jazz on a MMO scale. Basically the good old question: "How do you simulate a solar system". There are solutions but they remain performance greedy which makes servers expansive.
2. As headdie pointed out: managing an MMO is a nightmare. Server structure and positioning is hard duo to desired low pings for an FPS shooter. Gamemasters, moderators, tech support. There are usually hundreds of people involved in just keeping it running.
3. These servers are very expensive. A rough estimate from the gaming industry states that a medium size MMO generates about 50-100k$ monthly costs on the averange.
4. You need people(users). Lots of them. They all need a place on your server (that's where the costs come from). And most of them have to pay. Otherwise you won't be able to pay for the infrastructure.
5. Content. No one would play and pay for an MMO without enough content to fill years of entertainment. You'd need lots of content patches over time and therefor an active development team. It's never done, and never will be.
6. Sad but true: Good luck getting the license. Interplay won't give it away for free.

With all this said, I'd say the biggest problem is budget, experience and demand.
'Virtually' impossible. Entirely for a small source code project, which is a shame :C
I think the best alternative is a complete new game as MMO, in a different universe but inspired in gameplay by freespace. And maybe not even 3D, but 2D which eliminates lots of technical difficulties and saves a lot of performance for the server and network code.
Or a CO-OP mod for FSO which implements basic online features.
Some dreams may never come true...

[Hellstryker]

People should launch a huge multiplayer-mission event, where every forum member can be a pilot. There'd be a weekly mission and depending on the outcome of the mission, a follow-up mission is quickly scripted and made. The outcome of the mission is given in a blog, told in-universe. The story is dynamic depending on the outcome of winning and losing missions. Oh yea, and dead = dead. 

I would be very interested in helping to arrange something like this as long as we can get FL's net code not to crap itself.

[Davidge]

Wow it has been 5 years since i started this. Sorry for belated reply

I vaguely recall there was a MMO for Battle=tech ages ago (currently there is Mechwarrior online and battle tech steam), but years ago in "humanity's neolithic infancy" there was an MMO, where players join various houses in mechwarrior and login to do battle (FPS style) for their houses; and the galactic map would change colour (according to the Houses) depending on the outcome of the battles.   Always thought something similar could be done for FS2 MMO, colour of a system changes from Green to Red once the shivans have it