exactly! in fact, the problem's worse:Holywhippet wrote: The main problem I see is the same problem that was present in Ultima Online. Stronger players could just go around crushing newbies with their M1 fleet. The current design simply isn't workable for competitive multiplayer.
as combat is other MMORPGs is calculated rather than actual, to get an evenly-matched battle between a player and AI is easy - just give the AI the same "combat level" or whatever you want to call it. In X2 the AI actually has to try and outfly the player, meaning the player's AI empire is a sitting duck to a hit-and-fade attack.
other MMORPGs are about accumulating personalised power - you, plus maybe some minions, your special abilities, your high-level rare equipment, all in one place. You log off, and you disappear, basically.
in X, it's all about your property - your ships and factories. factories shouldn't really disappear when you log off. with your ships you can be in more than one place at a time. bad, because spread out = vulnerable. bad, because spread out = can harass and dominate newbies in many places at once.
not saying it will be impossible, but it will rely VERY heavily on a robust, elegent reputation and faction system. A balance would need to be struck between omnicience and ignorance of player activities, and tolerance and rejection of the same. Currently an AI race knows whenever you do something bad, and pretty much lets you away with it. They would need to see less and do more.
the current script editor would need to be altered (so it didn't allow rule-breaking and bending, obviously) so it allowed very felxible high-level scripts for your minions, and preferably linked into the faction system so they could decide whether or not to help your allies.
and a faction system would need to be created that allowed things like player-administered factions, variable access control to faction AI ships (ie high-level faction players should be able to command faction defence ships) etc.
ideally the script control would allow access to external sources ie IRC, email, data files etc. to allow external programs to influence scripts (sending an alert to an IRC channel when your ships are attacked, linking to external decision-making programs and allowing external input, especially for player factions)
...etc etc etc....
all the above probles / ideas went straight from my head to the keys, didn't need to really think about them. Stuff like economy, number of sectors, creating of sectors, faction control of sectors etc. are other areas. I'm sure egosoft has thought of many more....
still, if it comes out as a subscription service it would be the first one I ever buy, I'm that keen