Hello, Im new, and I have ideas (big text)
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 1:01 pm
Ooo, I dont like writing too much but I could go on and on with ideas forever so please dont ban me for spamming.
I just stumbled upon Pioneer two days ago now from watching Scott Manleys youtube video review of it. I have been an Elite enthusiast for almost as long as I had computers. Briefly touched original Elite on Amiga, followed the development of Frontier for a long time and played it on PC, played Frontier: First Encounter and recently tried Elite: Dangerous (Steam). Quite disappointed with E:D, its just souped up graphics for the original Elite, barely any added gameplay. Seems to me that Frontier had way more immersion and depth. Seems to me that E:D is just an attempt to commercialize and profit from the Elite fans. (Microtransactions, Expansions...) And then I stumble on Pioneer, an open source remake of Frontier that I might actually be able to add to myself. Did I die and go to heaven?
I had my own computer since 1989 (C64 at first), Ive been programming lots (started on C64). Currently Im suffering from disability, but hey, at least I get to stay home all day every day, so I have plenty of time. Currently Im not doing much programming but some php, html/css/javascript, Linux C. I am the principal author of the energymech IRC bot, but havent touched it since like 2009. I have my own VPS, not for anything serious, just messing around and hosting my own little web things. Unfortunatly I have stayed clear of anything object oriented, so no real knowledge about C++, but its similar to C and im a fast learner. I am a perfectionist, so most of my projects never gets finished, I spend too much time on tiny details.
So, Im even having trouble sleeping because my head is so full of ideas, so lets try and get some ideas down "on paper".
1, Redefining cargo/modules to become volume(m3) and mass (kg, possibly expressed as tonnes with decimals)
This has already been discussed on the forum Ive seen, but I think its important and should be prioritized since it would allow for much finer granularity and details.
You cant add fine-grained alternatives like "save 5% fuel" if 5% is rounded off to zero. you may buy fuel by the tonne, but if you spend it by the kg, things like 5% more fuel efficient hyperdrives can be added. Which leads to my next idea,
2, Specialized equipment.
There is a large universe there filled with millions and billions of different manufacturers, Im sure they dont all use the same blueprint for their class 1 hyperdrive. If I wanted to gain marketshare I would sink big money into R&D to try and make my hyperdrive better than my competitors over at Barnards star.
Class 1 Hyperdrive options;
cheap "made in china" generic standard, cheap but breaks more easily so will have to be repaired/replaced more frequently
standard quality, passed QA, normal price normal everything
high quality expensive Rolls royce, handcrafted, extended jumprange/better precision, massively expensive/hard to find
high quality expensive Toyota, better fuel efficiency
high quality lightweight, same fitting volume, less mass (indirectly better performance like thrust, jump range, fuel economy. but not as much range as the RR)
high quality durable Volvo, less maintainance, longer lifespan, less likely to malfunction
And thats just one module, other modules could be similarly varied. Tweaked modules could be obtained in interesting ways, like mission rewards, salvaged from wrecks, etc.
3, Equipment wear and tear.
As simple as an attribute added to equipment->wearntear = new int32; Could start at 100,000 (factory outlet), dropping over time, presented as % (100,000/1000). Eg. Buy a new hyperdrive from a factory retail outlet. wearntear = 100,000. Make one jump, wearntear -= random(0 to 50); at wearntear 0, chance of breakdown is 100%, trying to hyperspace would make the drive explode into small fragments, unrecoverable. but with 10% left, only 20% chance of fail-n-explode, but 40% of mis-jump, 80% of jump-but-destination-is-1000au's-away. if it fails-n-explodes, it cant be repaired, but if it only fails, it needs a crew engineer to repair it (successfully) before another try can be made. the ship itself would also have a wearntear. at 0% it would simply collapse into a pile of rust n dust as soon as you touched the thrusters. other modules could have similar failures.
hyperspace drive, fail/explode/misjump/inaccurate
reactor, fail/explode/spike and damage other modules/low power other modules flicker on and off randomly
sensor, fail/undetected contacts/ghost contacts/mis-identify pirates as police and vice versa
autopilot, fail/erratic flight/jam throttle at 100%/sit for 2 hours at 0 throttle
4, Crew skills.
Hired a competent engineer? Cool, he can repair the hyperdrive that just failed. Skill = 10% --> chance to fail and brick the drive 90%; Skill 90% -> succeed and add +1000 wearntear points; Skill 0% --> BOOM, hello tombstone!
skilled gunner? add 5% to damage output
skilled navigator? add 5% to jumprange and drop into normal space closer to the sun.
5, Missions
Lots of diversity can be added here.
5A, BBS tabs for easy browsing.
Use tabs for "All / Deliveries / Combat / Trading [commodities, ships, modules ] / Services [crew, repairs, police ] / Other [charity, black market, personal, dummies]"
5B, Dummy entries
As was said somewhere, the BBS is public and persistent not just for you but also for others, so entries which are not for you should still show up.
5C, BBS chat format
Instead of one small page that blanks and refills with text and buttons, it could be made into more of a chat log format. Instead of a text input you have buttons, press a button, the buttons go away and you transmit what the button said, the reply comes and a new set of buttons show up with the next thing to say, but previous sent and replies stay in the window. You might even piss off an NPC by asking the same thing too many times;
Him: Hello, my name is Lucifer Mephisto and I need someone to transport some documents to Hell star, Hades outpost, before December 31st, 3199.
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: Oh no, not at all.
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: Umm, no.
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: Are you a retard or what?
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: <click>
5D, Mission-chain one
Step 1, Do a normal passenger run. "People are out to get me", get him/her safely to destination (or alive atleast), Passenger pays, and says "Good job, I owe you one. Here take this data chip and next time you see a Bigdummypost on the BBS, give them this data chip, and they will find you a nice reward. Should be a very small chance of this happening, maybe 1/100 or so.
Step 2, You eventually find a Bigdummypost on a BBS. You have talked to Bigdumyposts before but they never say anything of interest, but this time you have a button to say "Someone told me to give you this..." they say like "Oh yes, our organization is very grateful for your assistance. It so happens we have some surplus equipment on (20ly away star), why dont you go there, talk to Yetanotherdummypost and he will fix one for you, ok?"
Step 3, Go to surplus-star, talk to Yetanotherdummypost and receive a free, high quality Volvo hyperdrive, or a Plasma Inc weapon, or something rare like that.
5E, Mission two
"Hey there commander, I have some info you might be interested in.. my cousins wifes fathers sisters son came across this derelict ship at Rustys star. If you give me some credits I'll provide you with the coordinates, deal?"
So, you pay him some 100-1000cr and you get the coords. You get there and...
option 1, nothing is there, youve been had.
option 2, pirates pop out of nowhere and go like "Yeah dude, I told you this guy is good at baiting people. Look at this shiny dummy he got us, now lets get to work..."
option 2a, after blowing up the original 2 rats, 1 more show up, bigger ship, higher combat rating (like a chief rat), disposing of him leaves more bounties/salvage/commodities
option 3, you find a derelict ship and salvage parts/commodities worth some reasonable amount, or (rarely) some hard to get equipment
5F, "mission" three
Black market ships or equipment not available from legit shipyards. BB entry might only be found in anarchy systems or pirate hideout orbital stations or such.
5G, faction/organization bbs entries.
under a weird nonsensical bbs post you might find something that is a dummy post until you have reached (a hidden counter) enough standing/rep to access it.
after access is available, there might be good or services available for beneficial rates.
6, Jump gates
A few systems might have afforded the construction of huge jumpgates. You may use them if you pay/have high enough rank/rep/standing with the controlling entity. Jumping through (one-way?) launches you at high speed 100ly (some long distance) away at high speed (1/10th of the normal travel time for that distance). Number of known such gates in the universe might only be 10 or so, but creates "highways" between high population high-tech areas of the galaxy. Secret gates might take you to secret places.
7, Making your own outpost
It has long been a dream of mine that, why cant I just buy some slaves/... and liquid ox, water, food, machinery.. and then go drop them on an unihabited planet, and after some time, a new outpost would pop up, one that I owned/controlled. Not especially for financial gain. Possibly a big endeavour to travel great distances out into the unexplored and setting up an outpost where you could eventually refuel, repair, etc. Population might grow, with or without you interaction. First 10, then 20, then 50, then 100, ... 10,000... 200,000... this might be especially attractive if the next idea is implemented. This is not a "make money" feature, more of an "im bored, Im elite, have every ship in game, am loved by all factions, 100billion in the bank, now what?"
8, Timeline "multiplayer"
No direct interaction, simply a server that keeps track of missions done and goods traded. A timeline server could be private or public and might eventually allow players to collaborate. Maybe throw a system into anarchy, maybe clean up that rat infested anarchy sesspool and turn it into a prospering democracy. Maybe collaborating on setting up an outpost?
Any player action would be recorded by date and would not occur for another player until his game time reached that date.
-----------------
Things I'd like to do:
Diversify models, add ships, orbitals, city buildings, etc. If I can.
Impaktor suggested I have a look at the city generation code. That might be right down my alley as Im a big fan of procedural generation.
Ah let me post this and take a break from writing for now.
/A, Joonicks (yes thats an intentional play on UNIX)
I just stumbled upon Pioneer two days ago now from watching Scott Manleys youtube video review of it. I have been an Elite enthusiast for almost as long as I had computers. Briefly touched original Elite on Amiga, followed the development of Frontier for a long time and played it on PC, played Frontier: First Encounter and recently tried Elite: Dangerous (Steam). Quite disappointed with E:D, its just souped up graphics for the original Elite, barely any added gameplay. Seems to me that Frontier had way more immersion and depth. Seems to me that E:D is just an attempt to commercialize and profit from the Elite fans. (Microtransactions, Expansions...) And then I stumble on Pioneer, an open source remake of Frontier that I might actually be able to add to myself. Did I die and go to heaven?
I had my own computer since 1989 (C64 at first), Ive been programming lots (started on C64). Currently Im suffering from disability, but hey, at least I get to stay home all day every day, so I have plenty of time. Currently Im not doing much programming but some php, html/css/javascript, Linux C. I am the principal author of the energymech IRC bot, but havent touched it since like 2009. I have my own VPS, not for anything serious, just messing around and hosting my own little web things. Unfortunatly I have stayed clear of anything object oriented, so no real knowledge about C++, but its similar to C and im a fast learner. I am a perfectionist, so most of my projects never gets finished, I spend too much time on tiny details.
So, Im even having trouble sleeping because my head is so full of ideas, so lets try and get some ideas down "on paper".
1, Redefining cargo/modules to become volume(m3) and mass (kg, possibly expressed as tonnes with decimals)
This has already been discussed on the forum Ive seen, but I think its important and should be prioritized since it would allow for much finer granularity and details.
You cant add fine-grained alternatives like "save 5% fuel" if 5% is rounded off to zero. you may buy fuel by the tonne, but if you spend it by the kg, things like 5% more fuel efficient hyperdrives can be added. Which leads to my next idea,
2, Specialized equipment.
There is a large universe there filled with millions and billions of different manufacturers, Im sure they dont all use the same blueprint for their class 1 hyperdrive. If I wanted to gain marketshare I would sink big money into R&D to try and make my hyperdrive better than my competitors over at Barnards star.
Class 1 Hyperdrive options;
cheap "made in china" generic standard, cheap but breaks more easily so will have to be repaired/replaced more frequently
standard quality, passed QA, normal price normal everything
high quality expensive Rolls royce, handcrafted, extended jumprange/better precision, massively expensive/hard to find
high quality expensive Toyota, better fuel efficiency
high quality lightweight, same fitting volume, less mass (indirectly better performance like thrust, jump range, fuel economy. but not as much range as the RR)
high quality durable Volvo, less maintainance, longer lifespan, less likely to malfunction
And thats just one module, other modules could be similarly varied. Tweaked modules could be obtained in interesting ways, like mission rewards, salvaged from wrecks, etc.
3, Equipment wear and tear.
As simple as an attribute added to equipment->wearntear = new int32; Could start at 100,000 (factory outlet), dropping over time, presented as % (100,000/1000). Eg. Buy a new hyperdrive from a factory retail outlet. wearntear = 100,000. Make one jump, wearntear -= random(0 to 50); at wearntear 0, chance of breakdown is 100%, trying to hyperspace would make the drive explode into small fragments, unrecoverable. but with 10% left, only 20% chance of fail-n-explode, but 40% of mis-jump, 80% of jump-but-destination-is-1000au's-away. if it fails-n-explodes, it cant be repaired, but if it only fails, it needs a crew engineer to repair it (successfully) before another try can be made. the ship itself would also have a wearntear. at 0% it would simply collapse into a pile of rust n dust as soon as you touched the thrusters. other modules could have similar failures.
hyperspace drive, fail/explode/misjump/inaccurate
reactor, fail/explode/spike and damage other modules/low power other modules flicker on and off randomly
sensor, fail/undetected contacts/ghost contacts/mis-identify pirates as police and vice versa
autopilot, fail/erratic flight/jam throttle at 100%/sit for 2 hours at 0 throttle
4, Crew skills.
Hired a competent engineer? Cool, he can repair the hyperdrive that just failed. Skill = 10% --> chance to fail and brick the drive 90%; Skill 90% -> succeed and add +1000 wearntear points; Skill 0% --> BOOM, hello tombstone!
skilled gunner? add 5% to damage output
skilled navigator? add 5% to jumprange and drop into normal space closer to the sun.
5, Missions
Lots of diversity can be added here.
5A, BBS tabs for easy browsing.
Use tabs for "All / Deliveries / Combat / Trading [commodities, ships, modules ] / Services [crew, repairs, police ] / Other [charity, black market, personal, dummies]"
5B, Dummy entries
As was said somewhere, the BBS is public and persistent not just for you but also for others, so entries which are not for you should still show up.
5C, BBS chat format
Instead of one small page that blanks and refills with text and buttons, it could be made into more of a chat log format. Instead of a text input you have buttons, press a button, the buttons go away and you transmit what the button said, the reply comes and a new set of buttons show up with the next thing to say, but previous sent and replies stay in the window. You might even piss off an NPC by asking the same thing too many times;
Him: Hello, my name is Lucifer Mephisto and I need someone to transport some documents to Hell star, Hades outpost, before December 31st, 3199.
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: Oh no, not at all.
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: Umm, no.
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: Are you a retard or what?
You: Is it dangerous?
Him: <click>
5D, Mission-chain one
Step 1, Do a normal passenger run. "People are out to get me", get him/her safely to destination (or alive atleast), Passenger pays, and says "Good job, I owe you one. Here take this data chip and next time you see a Bigdummypost on the BBS, give them this data chip, and they will find you a nice reward. Should be a very small chance of this happening, maybe 1/100 or so.
Step 2, You eventually find a Bigdummypost on a BBS. You have talked to Bigdumyposts before but they never say anything of interest, but this time you have a button to say "Someone told me to give you this..." they say like "Oh yes, our organization is very grateful for your assistance. It so happens we have some surplus equipment on (20ly away star), why dont you go there, talk to Yetanotherdummypost and he will fix one for you, ok?"
Step 3, Go to surplus-star, talk to Yetanotherdummypost and receive a free, high quality Volvo hyperdrive, or a Plasma Inc weapon, or something rare like that.
5E, Mission two
"Hey there commander, I have some info you might be interested in.. my cousins wifes fathers sisters son came across this derelict ship at Rustys star. If you give me some credits I'll provide you with the coordinates, deal?"
So, you pay him some 100-1000cr and you get the coords. You get there and...
option 1, nothing is there, youve been had.
option 2, pirates pop out of nowhere and go like "Yeah dude, I told you this guy is good at baiting people. Look at this shiny dummy he got us, now lets get to work..."
option 2a, after blowing up the original 2 rats, 1 more show up, bigger ship, higher combat rating (like a chief rat), disposing of him leaves more bounties/salvage/commodities
option 3, you find a derelict ship and salvage parts/commodities worth some reasonable amount, or (rarely) some hard to get equipment
5F, "mission" three
Black market ships or equipment not available from legit shipyards. BB entry might only be found in anarchy systems or pirate hideout orbital stations or such.
5G, faction/organization bbs entries.
under a weird nonsensical bbs post you might find something that is a dummy post until you have reached (a hidden counter) enough standing/rep to access it.
after access is available, there might be good or services available for beneficial rates.
6, Jump gates
A few systems might have afforded the construction of huge jumpgates. You may use them if you pay/have high enough rank/rep/standing with the controlling entity. Jumping through (one-way?) launches you at high speed 100ly (some long distance) away at high speed (1/10th of the normal travel time for that distance). Number of known such gates in the universe might only be 10 or so, but creates "highways" between high population high-tech areas of the galaxy. Secret gates might take you to secret places.
7, Making your own outpost
It has long been a dream of mine that, why cant I just buy some slaves/... and liquid ox, water, food, machinery.. and then go drop them on an unihabited planet, and after some time, a new outpost would pop up, one that I owned/controlled. Not especially for financial gain. Possibly a big endeavour to travel great distances out into the unexplored and setting up an outpost where you could eventually refuel, repair, etc. Population might grow, with or without you interaction. First 10, then 20, then 50, then 100, ... 10,000... 200,000... this might be especially attractive if the next idea is implemented. This is not a "make money" feature, more of an "im bored, Im elite, have every ship in game, am loved by all factions, 100billion in the bank, now what?"
8, Timeline "multiplayer"
No direct interaction, simply a server that keeps track of missions done and goods traded. A timeline server could be private or public and might eventually allow players to collaborate. Maybe throw a system into anarchy, maybe clean up that rat infested anarchy sesspool and turn it into a prospering democracy. Maybe collaborating on setting up an outpost?
Any player action would be recorded by date and would not occur for another player until his game time reached that date.
-----------------
Things I'd like to do:
Diversify models, add ships, orbitals, city buildings, etc. If I can.
Impaktor suggested I have a look at the city generation code. That might be right down my alley as Im a big fan of procedural generation.
Ah let me post this and take a break from writing for now.
/A, Joonicks (yes thats an intentional play on UNIX)