OnlineUniverse (Xonline to us common folk).

[giskard]

Hello all.

Have you ever sat down and really considered what it means to play X2 online on a persistant server ?

Lets have a think about this shall we. Lets assume X2 will be ported right into multiplayer and lets assume its mostly an improved version of older X games. There will be some limiting factors too so lets list a few for the sake of the this thread.

Each player will probably have a limit on the number of factories he can own, so id expect the players to destroy old stations to build bigger more profitable factories once they hit their limit. Old players owning the biggest factories and newer players starting with smaller ones that are used to supply the bigger ones. Which makes both new and old players a vital part of the game to each other.

Systems may have limits as to the number of factories that can be built in them.

As the popularity of the Xonline grows new systems will be added and new players will have to find those systems to build factories in areas that are so far unexploited.

Few natural desasters may occure to change the way the universes production works, eg a super nova here, boom goes somebody cahoona bakery etc etc.

Now we start looking the game 2 months after its release. Some of you are tycoons by this time and Im a noob just signed on for the game. Im flying around in a basic Argon lifter.

I jump through a game and i get that message about orders. I choose 1 and get a list of items that need delivering. I found out the orders where placed by somebody canned Command Jameson (ho there you bud) on some billboard somewhere because one of his factories cannot get a good supply of silcon.

As a result i spend a day or so ferrying silcon in to the system and make some cash. I buy a silcon mine and place it on the closest silcon asteriod i can find.

I set the buy energy at 6 credits but end up ferrying the energy in my self so I change it to 10 and few noobs sell me energy at that price so I do not have to do that my self anymore (wheres more transports ?, i cannot afford any yet).

I set my silcon to sell at an average price, so people can make a profit but so do I and as a result the occasional noob buys my silcon and sells it to CJs factory.

Before long I realise i dont need lifters of my own. As long as the price is right the players will ferry the goods about for me. So I allow them to do it for me and make cash for them selves.

Already we see a change in game play where the players are independant traders and anything they want, they have to buy from other players. Which means they have to supply those players factories with the right goods to buy the items they want later.

Across the Boron border there is this Ace Rimmer guy who sells kippers from his silcon mine. His a bit miffed that ive taken away his customers and reduced his profits. Though he could never supply the demand him self he clearly wants all the credits he can get so he parks his M4 in the my system and blockages my mine.

Shooting any noob that attempts to trade with me.

Several noobs do not like this and decide their rep could use some work so they accept bounty i place on Ace rimmers head and a huge fight breaks out. Ace takes out 5 of them before the last guy eventually kills him. Each get a small increase in their rep for the attempt but the guy who killed him gets a slightly better increase in his rep.

Now this guy, with an m4 kill under his belt starts to get some interesting offers from the local authorities. One offer asks him to guard a convoy on it ways to some equipement dock. So he does so. Upon arrive he gets paid 5000 credits and his rep goes up again.

Prompty our friend Ace turns up for a little revenge and kills him. The guy respawns back at the last shipyard he visited and gets another basic ship. Still cool because he didnt lose anything from his last ship which was also a noob m5 ship. His rep increased slightly because of the hits he got on Aces ship. So over all his up slightly even if he did lose his ship. Ace on the other hand was out of pocket because his ship was a not a noob ship so he had to spend some cash buying an new M4 in preference to the default M5 ship.

Now Ace rimmer has some mates who see trouble for their friend so they tell their factories not to trade with giskard or that other noob.

As a result giskard and the noob have to build the factories that will supply our own factories with that they need. So a trade war starts up.

Eventually it becomes wide spread with several Boron players refusing to trade with several Argon players. It gets to the point where a war breaks out. Several factories are destroyed and neither side can supply their own factories anymore.

So a truce is called and free trade once again rules. Each side respecting the others right to trade in a certain commodity in that area.

New players are encourages to build factories further out and Ace with his brand new TL transports those factories out to the new systems with his new escort of 4 M3 fighters to be sure of its safe arrival.

The factory gets built but needs more goods of a certain type so the next noob that comes along sees an advert for Bofu that the new factory needs and starts to supply it.

Before long he has earned enough to build the factories required to supply the demand locally.

And we are back to where we started.

Of course there is always somebody who likes to blast everything and when CJ and Aces factories no longer get the supplies their factories need the player suddenly finds him self attacked by CJ and Ace who are projecting their supply lines.

A trading guild of sorts magically appears between players who cooperate with other. This cutting the costs need to defend every factory your self and the need to build every factory to supply your own your self.

And how cool would all that be ?

Well drifting through space with a little classical music bluring out and getting an incoming message from my trading partner that he desperately needs something I have would be kind of cool.

At least in my eyes.

Then what happens when TC decides its time to sort the split out and starts building a fleet for the job. Somebody finds their goods in demand suddenly and needs extra resources so and ends up paying 6 noobs to bring hthe good in as fast as possible. Does that person support TC, let him wait. Tell the split a fleets being made to use against them. Do the split players already have a fleet to use against TC ?

Giskard

[Xenon_Slayer]

1.Each player will probably have a limit on the number of factories he can own, so id expect the players to destroy old stations to build bigger more profitable factories once they hit their limit. Old players owning the biggest factories and newer players starting with smaller ones that are used to supply the bigger ones. Which makes both new and old players a vital part of the game to each other.

2.Systems may have limits as to the number of factories that can be built in them.

3.As the popularity of the Xonline grows new systems will be added and new players will have to find those systems to build factories in areas that are so far unexploited.

4.Few natural desasters may occure to change the way the universes production works, eg a super nova here, boom goes somebody cahoona bakery etc etc.


Giskard

1.The whole point of the X games is there is no limit. I shouldnt think that there is any limit to any thing, people will proberbly destroy your stuff anyway.
2.no doubt, but remember you can place stations thurver out than the gates. Just for fun you can set some up 1km from a planet.
3.I should think there would be around 500 to start with many empty sectors people havent been to. i cant wait for exploration.
4.I wish....i think, a supernova will destroy everything in a sector.


I have a question, how will you save games?

[Stregone]

Personaly, I wish they wouldn't go the mmog route. I'd rather they went with a more MUD-like scheme. Have multiplayer with a community, but none of the baggage a full blown mmog carries with it. To do this they could sell server licenses. Maybe something like 10 bucks(or maybe free included with the client) for a 5 user license if just wanna make a server for a few buddies, or up to an unlimited user server for several hundred bucks if you want to run something serious. Or, another idea, charge the server runners monthly fees instead of the players(kinda like adobe and their pdf files). It can be pretty modest since egosoft won't have to have to pay CSR's to piss off the players, or buy and maintain huge servers...etc. Price the client at normal video game price, and include an x-tension type single player. That'd rock

/me is a bit burnt out on MMOGs

[VoodooPriester]

In MMOGs your progress is usually saved on the gameserver, so the data can be sycronized with all the other players and you can't cheat. (Not that I think YOU are a cheater, but there are always black sheep somewhere)

[Xenon_Slayer]

i want to know what happens to your factories once you die, where do you come back

[Stregone]

Auto-eject? So, you'd only lose your ship and not your life. None of that respawning business.

[Xenon_Slayer]

and if someone shoots you when your floating around

[bobah083]

Or captures and sells you to the slavers guild

[Aro]

build:
quantum tube fab
power plant
more stuff

9000 km (or further if possible) out from the center of the sector.
set all to sell minimum cost.
ships take for friggun ever to get supplies.
easy to pick on them.
talkin about ai ships that is...


wouldn't that be fun?

[giskard]

I wonder how many of you actually read the entire post.

I was trying to create picture of how Xonline might differ from the game we all know and love. I think limits will be must. I honestly do not see anybodies connection being able to handle 1000 factories with 3000 ships per system. The lag would kill the game. So current day limitations would dictate what egosoft can or cannot do.

I doubt it will even be something they have a choice over. Not until we all get unlimited bandwidth and super fast connections that make the word ping as obselete as gas lamps.

Saves: yes they are usually saved on the server to prevent save hacking. It neating prevents a lot of cheats but does not fix the exploitation of bugs in the game.

Darkspace has a a rather rule that basically says play the game not the system and I think Xonline should adopt a similar rule and have penalties for those who are caught playing trying to manipulate the system.

There are definately enough players who enjoy persistant universes that already play one of the many that exist to make Xonline worth creating IMO. Jumpgate and Darkspace are both reasonably good games but nothing even approaching X's standards so I think Egosoft could win the day with Xonline.

Though I should note that Darkspace is a different game to X completely and does attract more homeworld style gamers than X gamers.

Giskard

[Aro]

A client machine cares not for anything more than the current sector it's in.

And I was saying that some people could take advantage of the non-bugs, things that can be used for good or bad.

[pjknibbs]

I was trying to create picture of how Xonline might differ from the game we all know and love. I think limits will be must. I honestly do not see anybodies connection being able to handle 1000 factories with 3000 ships per system. The lag would kill the game. So current day limitations would dictate what egosoft can or cannot do.

I doubt it will even be something they have a choice over. Not until we all get unlimited bandwidth and super fast connections that make the word ping as obselete as gas lamps.

Like Azzkicka says, the way the universe is split into separate sectors in X makes it a perfect candidate for an online game--I can't see a single sector having 1000 factories in it, can you? As for the ping thing, there are physical limitations which cause most of the issue--for example, a signal sent from the UK to a server in the States and back again couldn't do the round trip in less than thirty-something milliseconds even if you were using a direct connection operating at lightspeed. This is why games like Diablo 2 have separate servers in each continent (Europe, two in the USA, and three in Asia as far as I know).

[Riggs0]

would this http://www.online-universe.net/44index.htm be what this topic is about by chance? and when where is more info on this be??

[EmperorJon]

9 years? That's possibly the longest record for resurrection I've ever witnessed...

[Riggs0]

it was hard to find

[EmperorJon]

*Sigh*

In that case:

Yes, that is what it was talking about.
No, it won't exist, at least not in that form and in the foreseeable future.
Finally, resurrecting threads is frowned upon, resurrecting a thread which is almost a decade old will simply cause a lock and is generally a very silly thing to do.

[Riggs0]

well I guess then egosoft itself might want to look into the website then

[jack775544]

9 years? That's possibly the longest record for resurrection I've ever witnessed...

Same.

[pjknibbs]

As the site says, Online Universe is a dream...and unfortunately that's as far as it has got so far. I believe it's still a long term goal, but time will tell what happens with it.

Anyway, as already pointed out, 9 year old thread... *click*