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Not MMO, OOlite can be "retro" with the right options on. Extensions (aka "OXP" or "OXZ" in Oolite lingo) can give you in-station text based activities (the ex

Not MMO, OOlite can be "retro" with the right options on. Extensions (aka "OXP" or "OXZ" in Oolite lingo) can give you in-station text based activities (the extension is named "Life in the Frontier" IIRC) and planet descriptions, among other things (there are about 400 extensions available from the integrated package manager, not counting older ones that haven't been ported). Extensions are written mostly in Javascript and the community is very friendly and helpful. Last but not least, it's free and open source.

vidarh 10y ago
I second Oolite. And in terms of adding networking, a game following the original Elite model should be fairly "MMO friendly" in that each system is basically closed - players can jump in and out, but there's no continuous flight between systems (unless they've added that to Oolite since I last checked it out), so e.g. scaling it to multiple servers can be done on the star-system level up until there's quite a lot of players. I haven't looked at the extensions mechanism - it'd be interesting if players could "claim" systems and dynamically control gameplay capabilities in their system. Would create challenges with e.g. the economy/trading etc. (preventing users from setting up a server that gives them infinite credits to bring back to other systems) - perhaps that'd actually be a suitable use for a blockchain... (Not that I have time to spend on something like this, but I'll back it in spirit if someone hacks Oolite or similar into a MMO... I might back it with money too if someone where to want to crowdfund something like it)
- stcredzero 10y ago
  but there's no continuous flight between systems I'm working on a game in the spirit of Elite, but with continuous flight between systems, in the spirit of Star Control 2. https://www.reddit.com/r/gogamedev https://www.reddit.com/r/gogamedev
  - vidarh 10y ago
    I actually don't really like the continuous flight between systems. I prefer the simplicity of Elite. The massive increase in complexity is one of the reasons I never liked the sequels. But don't pay attention to me - I'm unlikely to be representative when it comes to a gamer audience.
    - stcredzero 10y ago
      I actually don't really like the continuous flight between systems. Are you familiar with Star Control 2's "hyperspace?" It's really not all that more involved than flying into stargates or using the map in Elite, especially for short hops. I wanted to get away from point to point stargates in order to avoid the creation of choke points. I wanted to eliminate "gate camping."
      - vidarh 10y ago
        That might be interesting, though I also think that choke points around gates open up interesting game play in itself. But note that Elite doesn't really need to have choke points around gates, as it doesn't have gates. It has system to system jumps, that leave you "somewhere" far out from the station. In Elite it doesn't matter whether or not that "somewhere" is in theory the same spot or a random position near the planet, as the system, including any ships, is re-generated from scratch each time you enter. So in a multiplayer version you could avoid gate camping simply by making it a random position, but as I mentioned I think choke points might be interesting. Elite has a simple mechanism that is easily extended to prevent such choke points getting out of hand too: Reputation with local law enforcement. Generally this means you want to do your dirty deeds far away from the stations, but it'd be easy enough to extend it towards the jump points, and make the station security pay attention if there are repeated reports of ambushes.

vidarh 10y ago

I second Oolite. And in terms of adding networking, a game following the original Elite model should be fairly "MMO friendly" in that each system is basically closed - players can jump in and out, but there's no continuous flight between systems (unless they've added that to Oolite since I last checked it out), so e.g. scaling it to multiple servers can be done on the star-system level up until there's quite a lot of players. I haven't looked at the extensions mechanism - it'd be interesting if players could "claim" systems and dynamically control gameplay capabilities in their system. Would create challenges with e.g. the economy/trading etc. (preventing users from setting up a server that gives them infinite credits to bring back to other systems) - perhaps that'd actually be a suitable use for a blockchain... (Not that I have time to spend on something like this, but I'll back it in spirit if someone hacks Oolite or similar into a MMO... I might back it with money too if someone where to want to crowdfund something like it)

stcredzero 10y ago
but there's no continuous flight between systems I'm working on a game in the spirit of Elite, but with continuous flight between systems, in the spirit of Star Control 2. https://www.reddit.com/r/gogamedev https://www.reddit.com/r/gogamedev
- vidarh 10y ago
  I actually don't really like the continuous flight between systems. I prefer the simplicity of Elite. The massive increase in complexity is one of the reasons I never liked the sequels. But don't pay attention to me - I'm unlikely to be representative when it comes to a gamer audience.
  - stcredzero 10y ago
    I actually don't really like the continuous flight between systems. Are you familiar with Star Control 2's "hyperspace?" It's really not all that more involved than flying into stargates or using the map in Elite, especially for short hops. I wanted to get away from point to point stargates in order to avoid the creation of choke points. I wanted to eliminate "gate camping."
    - vidarh 10y ago
      That might be interesting, though I also think that choke points around gates open up interesting game play in itself. But note that Elite doesn't really need to have choke points around gates, as it doesn't have gates. It has system to system jumps, that leave you "somewhere" far out from the station. In Elite it doesn't matter whether or not that "somewhere" is in theory the same spot or a random position near the planet, as the system, including any ships, is re-generated from scratch each time you enter. So in a multiplayer version you could avoid gate camping simply by making it a random position, but as I mentioned I think choke points might be interesting. Elite has a simple mechanism that is easily extended to prevent such choke points getting out of hand too: Reputation with local law enforcement. Generally this means you want to do your dirty deeds far away from the stations, but it'd be easy enough to extend it towards the jump points, and make the station security pay attention if there are repeated reports of ambushes.