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An Open Source Multi-Player Starship Bridge Simulator for Linux

326 points by marcodiego 5y ago

edoceo 5y ago
Well, there went my weekend
smlacy 5y ago
How does this compare to Artemis?
- trynewideas 5y ago
  It doesn't. If you want something closer to Artemis, try EmptyEpsilon.
chrischen 5y ago
I’ve always wanted to try Star Wars bridge simulator but haven’t due to the high cost and mediocre reviews.
- treve 5y ago
  You're probably talking about Star Trek, but I can confirm. Me and a few friends got this (some of which with VR) and it feels like a fantastic premise, but it's very linear and it has very little content. It feels more like a demo than a full game. Desperate for more in this genre we ended up playing a bunch of Pulsar: Lost Colony. It has a lot more depth (but can be a bit rough around the edges).
  - chrischen 5y ago
    I’d imagine Bridge simulation is pretty close to actual naval vessel operations. If something like this doesn’t exist then someone should make a naval vessel simulator and adapt it.
    - dividuum 5y ago
      There’s Carrier Command 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1489630/Carrier_Command_2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1489630/Carrier_Command_2
      - AlexAndScripts 5y ago
        I've been playing CC2 a lot. It's got a steep learning curve and some bugs but is brilliant with friends.
      - sprkwd 5y ago
        Wow. That must’ve one of the longest gaps between releases.
  - mhh__ 5y ago
    I think it's a fundamental limitation of video games. Unless you are playing against other people, you are never really somewhere and I think that shatters the illusion. The same way that "holding" a gun in VR is really impressive, but the headset can't mimic the wind in your face or cool spray of the sea - these issues, I think, don't arise with 2D games because there are too far away from the uncanny valley. You and your friends in charge of a spaceship would probably feel like commanding a PBR in Vietnam, but I don't think a game can capture that Vibe (it's a cheap term but I genuinely think it fits). Pulsar looks cool though, will check it out.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - chongli 5y ago
      these issues, I think, don't arise with 2D games because there are too far away from the uncanny valley Yeah. This is why I can spend hundreds of hours with a game like FTL: Faster Than Light. Its 2D and very simple pixel art give way to fantastic gameplay rife with difficult decisions and lasting consequences! It would be really cool to have the gameplay of FTL with immersive, high-end VR but I think such a game would never be made due to the risks of alienating the audience.
    - krisoft 5y ago
      > I think it's a fundamental limitation of video games. I don't think so. Game design is a whole art form in itself. Some games suck at it and some games succeed. I haven't played with the linked game, but played with Artemis. That one sucked. The good part of it was being nerdy and role-playing out a fantasy with friends. The bad part was that after the first "battle" engagement we quickly learned that the enemy is very predictable and the game won't provide any challenges to us. Basically yelling "Aye captain, proton torpedo loaded" was fun, rolling up to the next sprite and demolishing it within seconds no matter what "tactic" we employ was not fun. Basically our mistakes didn't matter, and we just had to shoot down everyone who was moving about. There were no commercial traders, everyone comms contacted immediately opened fire on us. Furthermore there was nothing we were protecting other than our own skin. The game forced us to be amnesic murderhobos going nowhere, doing nothing of value. > You and your friends in charge of a spaceship would probably feel like commanding a PBR in Vietnam I never commanded a PBR in Vietnam, but I don't think you did either. Probably you have a feeling of what you think it means, maybe action? Daring charges? High speed chases? Maybe inspired by the plot of Apocalypse Now? In reality it was probably 95% boredom, batting mosquitos and flies away, trying to stay hydrated, and maintaining the bilge pump while doing routine boring work. Punctuated with 5% "damn, we are dead because we just got ambushed" or "damn they are dead because we got the jump on them". A realistic PBR simulator would suck. One written to follow the feeling or vibe you were thinking when you wrote that sentence? Now that would rock! Making a bridge simulator is really hard. You are not just balancing one experience but a different one for each crew member. In a real ship if engineering is bored out of their mind 99% of the time that's not a bad thing, in a game that means you just ruined the experience to one of the players. You have to keep all of your players busy, and occupied with meaningful choices, while not pushing them accidentally into task saturation. If you want to make it fun you have to treat each station as a separate game interacting with the others. Which is naturally harder than just making a single game.
  - routerl 5y ago
    Hey, check out Artemis. It's the exact same genre as Star Trek: Bridge Simulator, but takes the concept seriously. https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/
  - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
    I think that the best bridge simulator we have is FTL.
    - chrischen 5y ago
      FTL is just purely good game design, but with simplified UI model. If they can integrate with 3D or VR, the atmosphere, and multiplayer we might have a playable bridge simulator.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
  For a somewhat more directed and engaging experience, I recommend Pulsar: Lost Colony (1). It actually just recently (two months ago) saw a 1.0 release after 8 years in early access (2). The best way I can describe the game is that it's a 5-player cooperative FTL-meets-Star-Trek-RPG. The dev team is pretty small, but from the perspective of having that "Star-trek like experience" they have actually done a pretty good job of really capturing it and making it engaging and fun. Up to 5 people can play cooperatively, but myself and two friends have sunk probably 30-50 hours into the game exploring and progressing (the AI controls the roles that you aren't able to fill). It's also got a pretty active community with games to jump into but it's kind of hard to find other people with equal skill level as you when you are just starting out. The gameplay is there, but it feels pretty unpolished in terms of bugs and graphical assets and it would really be something special if a AAA studio bought the game and added in some professional-grade assets because it's otherwise a really well-made experience. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSAR:_Lost_Colony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSAR:_Lost_Colony [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XbLEvhI_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XbLEvhI_s
barbs 5y ago
How does this compare with Empty Epsilon? https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/ https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/
- smoldesu 5y ago
  This game appears to be more simulation-based, as opposed to EE's more arcade-y style.
agent327 5y ago
"So how do I install this game?" "It's really simple! Here's a specific sequence of 21 shell commands that may or may not work, and is certainly incomplete, and you have to modify some of the source of course, we don't say how but don't worry it is really easy, oh and it won't work on these systems, just hack it until it works. Heh, of course you already have a compiler, why would we even mention it. Then do these 8 shell commands that we really hope will work. And then you get a text-mode menu in your shell, that's the game." Just in case anyone is wondering why it isn't the year of Linux on the desktop yet. If you don't see the problem here, you're part of it.
- senko 5y ago
  > Space Nerds In Space was designed with hackerspaces in mind -- where else are you going to find enough people to run a linux-based multi-player LAN game spaceship simulator for Star Trek nerds but a hackerspace? Doesn't sound like it targets users who expect one-click installs.
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  > Here's a specific sequence of 21 shell commands Almost all of those are just "apt install" and could be easily done with no command line. Then there is "run this command or get this zip". Then you run the only mandatory command, "make". > that may or may not work It will work fine on ubuntu but the dependencies might have different names elsewhere. It's not great, but at the same time it's better than "Oh this only works on windows X." > and is certainly incomplete, and you have to modify some of the source of course, we don't say how but don't worry it is really easy, oh and it won't work on these systems, just hack it until it works. I don't see any of this?
- chucktingle 5y ago
  So, one of my neighbors is a car enthusiast. Can you imagine me walking into his garage, looking at the car he's working on and starting to whine about why I'd need all his tools and special machines in order to get the same car? Who in his right mind wouldn't want to just sit in the car and turn the key?! That is why it isn't the year of the custom car yet. That person is clearly a part of the problem!
et1337 5y ago
I met the developer of Artemis at an Ohio game developer meetup. Nice guy. The Ohio game dev scene is pretty cool.
Gigachad 5y ago
It looks like there is more gameplay in getting the thing installed than the actual game.
- jalino23 5y ago
  haha
- fhars 5y ago
  As they say, "I love games, my favorite it the multiplayer text adventure called Unix."
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    I never liked vi or emacs, but when I learned the basics of vi, I was amazed how similar it is to nethack.
  - webmaven 5y ago
    The final boss is really hard.
- aftbit 5y ago
  It's really just: 1. apt-get install some deps 2. get the source 3. call make a few different ways 4. run the binary Really not that complicated. If you wanted to, you could make a flatpak, docker container, appimage, snap, deb, rpm, or whatever for your OS in a few minutes and save everyone else the install.
  - criddell 5y ago
    That's still kind of nuts when you compare it to how you install application on the other major desktop operating systems.
    - 10000truths 5y ago
      It’s not the OS’s fault that the developer’s application is hard to run out-of-the-box. If the developer wanted to make it easy, he could just build a .deb, host it on his own PPA and ask people to install it with apt-get.
ghoward 5y ago
I wonder if this could be set up at some kind of conference. I think that would be fun, especially to be the game master and throw the players for a loop. :D
- jon-wood 5y ago
  I've seen Artemis run at a hacker camp before, complete with a tent full of touch screens, a big projector as the main display, and of course an overly large seat for the captain. It was great fun, highly recommend it if you get the chance.
pietromenna 5y ago
The long installation steps are a feature. Seems like the ideal foreplay.
walshemj 5y ago
Interesting Roll20 and other TTRPG clients could do with a better support for Starship combat for Traveller Starfinder and the Expanse
forgotpwd16 5y ago
Seems fun! >for Linux Is there a reason that it cannot run on other Unix/Unix-like systems or even Windows?
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  Because it wasn't developed for those platforms? The code itself will probably mostly be portable but there's tons of libraries that also need to be pulled in. Some programs were developed for Windows, some were developed for macOS, and this was developed for Linux, simple as that. Windows should be able to run it with WSL2 with some extra setup. If you can get all the other dependencies in place, macOS might also be able to run it, I don't know how compatible the macOS windowing system is with the Linux ones. Same goes for the *BSDs.
jeroenhd 5y ago
This web page does a terrible job representing the necessary install steps. It looks super combined but can be combined into three or maybe four commands. I think it would be massively helpful if the devs would upload a DEB/Flatpak file somewhere instead of having compilation instructions as the primary install method. Sure, if you run a funky Linux like OpenSUSE you need to follow and convert installation instructions, but for Ubuntu (which the guide is targeting) you really don't anymore. That being said, on Arch (and Arch-derived) systems you can find this in the standard software store under the name snis-git if you've enabled the AUR.
- jka 5y ago
  Maybe worth sending a Request For Package[1] in Debian? (that process involves sending an email, or running 'reportbug' at the command-line if you have it installed). Most of the install steps would be rolled into the dependency list by the maintainer, I imagine (and many of them look like they're only required at compile-time). No guarantees on when it might appear as a package, of course, but it doesn't take long to ask (and hopefully not too long to implement, either). [1] - https://wiki.debian.org/RFP https://wiki.debian.org/RFP
- noduerme 5y ago
  If I understand the point of it, having a militantly unfriendly install process would be a feature, not bug. A Kobayashi Maru if you will. In that sense they probably hit the right audience. Almost enough to make me try it. Problem is I can't justify nerding out on a spaceship ...even if I actually had to work to get there.
- app4soft 5y ago
  > I think it would be massively helpful if the devs would upload a DEB/Flatpak Providing AppImage[0] would be enough for mostly all Linux users. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage [1] https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/Similar-projects https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/Similar-project...
- grae_QED 5y ago
  >This web page does a terrible job representing the necessary install steps. It looks super combined but can be combined into three or maybe four commands. git clone <git-repository>; make; make update-assets It's literally three commands, assuming you have all the dependencies like I did, all of which is written clearly on the project page. Even if you don't have the dependencies, it's trivial to install them. I don't understand what's so terrible about it.
Kinrany 5y ago
Another game in this genre, but 2D is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.
squarefoot 5y ago
This looks interesting for hacker/gamer spaces, probably also hacker themed pubs, but I wonder if it could be easily adapted to allow the crew to operate their stations remotely, that is, each one at their home. If remotely networked, it could be expanded to have more ships fighting against each other; the kind of game and related voice communications should suffer less from latency which usually plagues first person shooters etc.
- loa_in_ 5y ago
  The author tells about it in this comment section
xwdv 5y ago
I’m tired of these kind of space themed exploration games. Why not do some kind of exploration game where you get shrunk down to microscopic size and explore a human body and fix problems or deep sea exploration aboard a submarine?
- theelous3 5y ago
  Because space is fuckin rad Also, Subnautica. Also also, barotrauma. And piles of submarine combat games. I don't think people want to play human body repair games, typically. Putting existential woes on hold is usually a nice side effect of games.
smcameron 5y ago
Hi, author here. I'm a little hesitant to wade into these comments, but I'll try to answer a few questions I see popping up, and some that I just made up. 1. Why do I have to compile the thing myself? Because packaging on linux is a nightmare. For a long time, Linus Torvalds did not offer linux binaries for his "subsurface" diving program, but did offer them for Windows and Mac. Now there are linux subsurface packages, but Linus doesn't do them himself. If Linus can't be bothered to make linux binaries, you know the situation is messed up. I figure, if the game is good enough, then someone (besides me) will make packages. If that doesn't happen, well, I guess the game isn't good enough. And I'm ok with that. 2. Why don't the devs do this or that? "The devs" is mostly just me. I do what I feel like, this is my hobby project that I do for fun. 3. How does this compare to Artemis/Empty Epsilon etc.? It's more properly 3D than Artemis or Empty Epsilon. It has a much nicer Lua API for making mission scripts than Artemis's XML based system. It doesn't have as many mission scripts as Artemis or EE. It feels a little more "millenium falcon" than "Enterprise", mainly due to the turret gun, I suppose. I think the planets, especially the gas giants[1] in SNIS look cooler than anything in Artemis or EE. 4. Why does the game design suck? It's hard to make a cooperative bridge simulator that's fun at every station all the time. Back in 2012, I heard about Artemis, and thought it was a cool idea, and it seemed like a neat project, so I started working on my own interpretation of the genre. It's hard to know how things will turn out without just trying it. It came out the way it came out (so far). A lot of the fun in this type of game has to come from the participants. With the right participants with the right attitude, it can be pretty fun. Some parties are fun, some are dull. Alcohol sometimes helps. 5. Why doesn't it run on Windows or Mac? It used to run on Macs, but then support for OpenGL on Macs became problematic. Maybe someone could get it to run on Macs again, but not me. It will run on Windows using the Windows subsystem for linux, however, the graphics will be software emulated, which is generally not good enough. Trying to compile natively on Windows would be a big job. It uses pthreads extensively, and some other various linux-isms here and there. Windows and Mac were not a priority for me because I don't have either of those machines, and I was mainly interested in playing the thing with my friends. Besides, Windows and Mac already have enough games. 6. Can you run the game remotely, or does it have to be on a LAN? Maybe. I've never seriously tried to run it remotely. I have tried it once or twice, with the server running on a digital ocean server in New York, with my clients running in Virginia, and it worked better than I expected it to. It does have a voice chat feature built in (added after COVID appeared), and that seemed to work. But my test was limited to about 5 minutes of messing around, and only a couple of clients. Each client will require about 100k/s of bandwidth. This can be greatly reduced by reducing the number of objects (asteroids and NPC ships) floating around in the simulation, but I haven't really experimented much with running this thing other than on a LAN. 7. Will it work on a Raspberry Pi 4? Yes and no. Some stations will work. SCIENCE, COMMS, and ENGINEERING seem to work alright. More graphics intense stations don't work so well (MAIN SCREEN, NAVIGATION, WEAPONS, GAMEMASTER). [1] https://github.com/smcameron/gaseous-giganticus https://github.com/smcameron/gaseous-giganticus
ntnsndr 5y ago
Just in case some additional decision-making functionality would be useful, we're working on a Lua mod for that. https://gitlab.com/medlabboulder/modpol https://gitlab.com/medlabboulder/modpol
fgerling 5y ago
I created a little container image to help building snis: https://github.com/fgerling/snis-builder https://github.com/fgerling/snis-builder My goal is to build a linux iso image with snis preinstalled.

326 points by marcodiego 5y ago

edoceo 5y ago

Well, there went my weekend

smlacy 5y ago

How does this compare to Artemis?

trynewideas 5y ago
It doesn't. If you want something closer to Artemis, try EmptyEpsilon.

chrischen 5y ago

I’ve always wanted to try Star Wars bridge simulator but haven’t due to the high cost and mediocre reviews.

treve 5y ago
You're probably talking about Star Trek, but I can confirm. Me and a few friends got this (some of which with VR) and it feels like a fantastic premise, but it's very linear and it has very little content. It feels more like a demo than a full game. Desperate for more in this genre we ended up playing a bunch of Pulsar: Lost Colony. It has a lot more depth (but can be a bit rough around the edges).
- chrischen 5y ago
  I’d imagine Bridge simulation is pretty close to actual naval vessel operations. If something like this doesn’t exist then someone should make a naval vessel simulator and adapt it.
  - dividuum 5y ago
    There’s Carrier Command 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1489630/Carrier_Command_2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1489630/Carrier_Command_2
    - AlexAndScripts 5y ago
      I've been playing CC2 a lot. It's got a steep learning curve and some bugs but is brilliant with friends.
    - sprkwd 5y ago
      Wow. That must’ve one of the longest gaps between releases.
- mhh__ 5y ago
  I think it's a fundamental limitation of video games. Unless you are playing against other people, you are never really somewhere and I think that shatters the illusion. The same way that "holding" a gun in VR is really impressive, but the headset can't mimic the wind in your face or cool spray of the sea - these issues, I think, don't arise with 2D games because there are too far away from the uncanny valley. You and your friends in charge of a spaceship would probably feel like commanding a PBR in Vietnam, but I don't think a game can capture that Vibe (it's a cheap term but I genuinely think it fits). Pulsar looks cool though, will check it out.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - chongli 5y ago
    these issues, I think, don't arise with 2D games because there are too far away from the uncanny valley Yeah. This is why I can spend hundreds of hours with a game like FTL: Faster Than Light. Its 2D and very simple pixel art give way to fantastic gameplay rife with difficult decisions and lasting consequences! It would be really cool to have the gameplay of FTL with immersive, high-end VR but I think such a game would never be made due to the risks of alienating the audience.
  - krisoft 5y ago
    > I think it's a fundamental limitation of video games. I don't think so. Game design is a whole art form in itself. Some games suck at it and some games succeed. I haven't played with the linked game, but played with Artemis. That one sucked. The good part of it was being nerdy and role-playing out a fantasy with friends. The bad part was that after the first "battle" engagement we quickly learned that the enemy is very predictable and the game won't provide any challenges to us. Basically yelling "Aye captain, proton torpedo loaded" was fun, rolling up to the next sprite and demolishing it within seconds no matter what "tactic" we employ was not fun. Basically our mistakes didn't matter, and we just had to shoot down everyone who was moving about. There were no commercial traders, everyone comms contacted immediately opened fire on us. Furthermore there was nothing we were protecting other than our own skin. The game forced us to be amnesic murderhobos going nowhere, doing nothing of value. > You and your friends in charge of a spaceship would probably feel like commanding a PBR in Vietnam I never commanded a PBR in Vietnam, but I don't think you did either. Probably you have a feeling of what you think it means, maybe action? Daring charges? High speed chases? Maybe inspired by the plot of Apocalypse Now? In reality it was probably 95% boredom, batting mosquitos and flies away, trying to stay hydrated, and maintaining the bilge pump while doing routine boring work. Punctuated with 5% "damn, we are dead because we just got ambushed" or "damn they are dead because we got the jump on them". A realistic PBR simulator would suck. One written to follow the feeling or vibe you were thinking when you wrote that sentence? Now that would rock! Making a bridge simulator is really hard. You are not just balancing one experience but a different one for each crew member. In a real ship if engineering is bored out of their mind 99% of the time that's not a bad thing, in a game that means you just ruined the experience to one of the players. You have to keep all of your players busy, and occupied with meaningful choices, while not pushing them accidentally into task saturation. If you want to make it fun you have to treat each station as a separate game interacting with the others. Which is naturally harder than just making a single game.
- routerl 5y ago
  Hey, check out Artemis. It's the exact same genre as Star Trek: Bridge Simulator, but takes the concept seriously. https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  I think that the best bridge simulator we have is FTL.
  - chrischen 5y ago
    FTL is just purely good game design, but with simplified UI model. If they can integrate with 3D or VR, the atmosphere, and multiplayer we might have a playable bridge simulator.
SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
For a somewhat more directed and engaging experience, I recommend Pulsar: Lost Colony (1). It actually just recently (two months ago) saw a 1.0 release after 8 years in early access (2). The best way I can describe the game is that it's a 5-player cooperative FTL-meets-Star-Trek-RPG. The dev team is pretty small, but from the perspective of having that "Star-trek like experience" they have actually done a pretty good job of really capturing it and making it engaging and fun. Up to 5 people can play cooperatively, but myself and two friends have sunk probably 30-50 hours into the game exploring and progressing (the AI controls the roles that you aren't able to fill). It's also got a pretty active community with games to jump into but it's kind of hard to find other people with equal skill level as you when you are just starting out. The gameplay is there, but it feels pretty unpolished in terms of bugs and graphical assets and it would really be something special if a AAA studio bought the game and added in some professional-grade assets because it's otherwise a really well-made experience. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSAR:_Lost_Colony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSAR:_Lost_Colony [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XbLEvhI_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XbLEvhI_s

barbs 5y ago

How does this compare with Empty Epsilon? https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/ https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/

smoldesu 5y ago
This game appears to be more simulation-based, as opposed to EE's more arcade-y style.

agent327 5y ago

"So how do I install this game?" "It's really simple! Here's a specific sequence of 21 shell commands that may or may not work, and is certainly incomplete, and you have to modify some of the source of course, we don't say how but don't worry it is really easy, oh and it won't work on these systems, just hack it until it works. Heh, of course you already have a compiler, why would we even mention it. Then do these 8 shell commands that we really hope will work. And then you get a text-mode menu in your shell, that's the game." Just in case anyone is wondering why it isn't the year of Linux on the desktop yet. If you don't see the problem here, you're part of it.

senko 5y ago
> Space Nerds In Space was designed with hackerspaces in mind -- where else are you going to find enough people to run a linux-based multi-player LAN game spaceship simulator for Star Trek nerds but a hackerspace? Doesn't sound like it targets users who expect one-click installs.
Dylan16807 5y ago
> Here's a specific sequence of 21 shell commands Almost all of those are just "apt install" and could be easily done with no command line. Then there is "run this command or get this zip". Then you run the only mandatory command, "make". > that may or may not work It will work fine on ubuntu but the dependencies might have different names elsewhere. It's not great, but at the same time it's better than "Oh this only works on windows X." > and is certainly incomplete, and you have to modify some of the source of course, we don't say how but don't worry it is really easy, oh and it won't work on these systems, just hack it until it works. I don't see any of this?
chucktingle 5y ago
So, one of my neighbors is a car enthusiast. Can you imagine me walking into his garage, looking at the car he's working on and starting to whine about why I'd need all his tools and special machines in order to get the same car? Who in his right mind wouldn't want to just sit in the car and turn the key?! That is why it isn't the year of the custom car yet. That person is clearly a part of the problem!

et1337 5y ago

I met the developer of Artemis at an Ohio game developer meetup. Nice guy. The Ohio game dev scene is pretty cool.

Gigachad 5y ago

It looks like there is more gameplay in getting the thing installed than the actual game.

jalino23 5y ago
haha
fhars 5y ago
As they say, "I love games, my favorite it the multiplayer text adventure called Unix."
- perl4ever 5y ago
  I never liked vi or emacs, but when I learned the basics of vi, I was amazed how similar it is to nethack.
- webmaven 5y ago
  The final boss is really hard.
aftbit 5y ago
It's really just: 1. apt-get install some deps 2. get the source 3. call make a few different ways 4. run the binary Really not that complicated. If you wanted to, you could make a flatpak, docker container, appimage, snap, deb, rpm, or whatever for your OS in a few minutes and save everyone else the install.
- criddell 5y ago
  That's still kind of nuts when you compare it to how you install application on the other major desktop operating systems.
  - 10000truths 5y ago
    It’s not the OS’s fault that the developer’s application is hard to run out-of-the-box. If the developer wanted to make it easy, he could just build a .deb, host it on his own PPA and ask people to install it with apt-get.

ghoward 5y ago

I wonder if this could be set up at some kind of conference. I think that would be fun, especially to be the game master and throw the players for a loop. :D

jon-wood 5y ago
I've seen Artemis run at a hacker camp before, complete with a tent full of touch screens, a big projector as the main display, and of course an overly large seat for the captain. It was great fun, highly recommend it if you get the chance.

pietromenna 5y ago

The long installation steps are a feature. Seems like the ideal foreplay.

walshemj 5y ago

Interesting Roll20 and other TTRPG clients could do with a better support for Starship combat for Traveller Starfinder and the Expanse

forgotpwd16 5y ago

Seems fun! >for Linux Is there a reason that it cannot run on other Unix/Unix-like systems or even Windows?

jeroenhd 5y ago
Because it wasn't developed for those platforms? The code itself will probably mostly be portable but there's tons of libraries that also need to be pulled in. Some programs were developed for Windows, some were developed for macOS, and this was developed for Linux, simple as that. Windows should be able to run it with WSL2 with some extra setup. If you can get all the other dependencies in place, macOS might also be able to run it, I don't know how compatible the macOS windowing system is with the Linux ones. Same goes for the *BSDs.

jeroenhd 5y ago

This web page does a terrible job representing the necessary install steps. It looks super combined but can be combined into three or maybe four commands. I think it would be massively helpful if the devs would upload a DEB/Flatpak file somewhere instead of having compilation instructions as the primary install method. Sure, if you run a funky Linux like OpenSUSE you need to follow and convert installation instructions, but for Ubuntu (which the guide is targeting) you really don't anymore. That being said, on Arch (and Arch-derived) systems you can find this in the standard software store under the name snis-git if you've enabled the AUR.

jka 5y ago
Maybe worth sending a Request For Package[1] in Debian? (that process involves sending an email, or running 'reportbug' at the command-line if you have it installed). Most of the install steps would be rolled into the dependency list by the maintainer, I imagine (and many of them look like they're only required at compile-time). No guarantees on when it might appear as a package, of course, but it doesn't take long to ask (and hopefully not too long to implement, either). [1] - https://wiki.debian.org/RFP https://wiki.debian.org/RFP
noduerme 5y ago
If I understand the point of it, having a militantly unfriendly install process would be a feature, not bug. A Kobayashi Maru if you will. In that sense they probably hit the right audience. Almost enough to make me try it. Problem is I can't justify nerding out on a spaceship ...even if I actually had to work to get there.
app4soft 5y ago
> I think it would be massively helpful if the devs would upload a DEB/Flatpak Providing AppImage[0] would be enough for mostly all Linux users. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage [1] https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/Similar-projects https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/Similar-project...
grae_QED 5y ago
>This web page does a terrible job representing the necessary install steps. It looks super combined but can be combined into three or maybe four commands. git clone <git-repository>; make; make update-assets It's literally three commands, assuming you have all the dependencies like I did, all of which is written clearly on the project page. Even if you don't have the dependencies, it's trivial to install them. I don't understand what's so terrible about it.

Kinrany 5y ago

Another game in this genre, but 2D is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.

squarefoot 5y ago

This looks interesting for hacker/gamer spaces, probably also hacker themed pubs, but I wonder if it could be easily adapted to allow the crew to operate their stations remotely, that is, each one at their home. If remotely networked, it could be expanded to have more ships fighting against each other; the kind of game and related voice communications should suffer less from latency which usually plagues first person shooters etc.

loa_in_ 5y ago
The author tells about it in this comment section

xwdv 5y ago

I’m tired of these kind of space themed exploration games. Why not do some kind of exploration game where you get shrunk down to microscopic size and explore a human body and fix problems or deep sea exploration aboard a submarine?

theelous3 5y ago
Because space is fuckin rad Also, Subnautica. Also also, barotrauma. And piles of submarine combat games. I don't think people want to play human body repair games, typically. Putting existential woes on hold is usually a nice side effect of games.

smcameron 5y ago

Hi, author here. I'm a little hesitant to wade into these comments, but I'll try to answer a few questions I see popping up, and some that I just made up. 1. Why do I have to compile the thing myself? Because packaging on linux is a nightmare. For a long time, Linus Torvalds did not offer linux binaries for his "subsurface" diving program, but did offer them for Windows and Mac. Now there are linux subsurface packages, but Linus doesn't do them himself. If Linus can't be bothered to make linux binaries, you know the situation is messed up. I figure, if the game is good enough, then someone (besides me) will make packages. If that doesn't happen, well, I guess the game isn't good enough. And I'm ok with that. 2. Why don't the devs do this or that? "The devs" is mostly just me. I do what I feel like, this is my hobby project that I do for fun. 3. How does this compare to Artemis/Empty Epsilon etc.? It's more properly 3D than Artemis or Empty Epsilon. It has a much nicer Lua API for making mission scripts than Artemis's XML based system. It doesn't have as many mission scripts as Artemis or EE. It feels a little more "millenium falcon" than "Enterprise", mainly due to the turret gun, I suppose. I think the planets, especially the gas giants[1] in SNIS look cooler than anything in Artemis or EE. 4. Why does the game design suck? It's hard to make a cooperative bridge simulator that's fun at every station all the time. Back in 2012, I heard about Artemis, and thought it was a cool idea, and it seemed like a neat project, so I started working on my own interpretation of the genre. It's hard to know how things will turn out without just trying it. It came out the way it came out (so far). A lot of the fun in this type of game has to come from the participants. With the right participants with the right attitude, it can be pretty fun. Some parties are fun, some are dull. Alcohol sometimes helps. 5. Why doesn't it run on Windows or Mac? It used to run on Macs, but then support for OpenGL on Macs became problematic. Maybe someone could get it to run on Macs again, but not me. It will run on Windows using the Windows subsystem for linux, however, the graphics will be software emulated, which is generally not good enough. Trying to compile natively on Windows would be a big job. It uses pthreads extensively, and some other various linux-isms here and there. Windows and Mac were not a priority for me because I don't have either of those machines, and I was mainly interested in playing the thing with my friends. Besides, Windows and Mac already have enough games. 6. Can you run the game remotely, or does it have to be on a LAN? Maybe. I've never seriously tried to run it remotely. I have tried it once or twice, with the server running on a digital ocean server in New York, with my clients running in Virginia, and it worked better than I expected it to. It does have a voice chat feature built in (added after COVID appeared), and that seemed to work. But my test was limited to about 5 minutes of messing around, and only a couple of clients. Each client will require about 100k/s of bandwidth. This can be greatly reduced by reducing the number of objects (asteroids and NPC ships) floating around in the simulation, but I haven't really experimented much with running this thing other than on a LAN. 7. Will it work on a Raspberry Pi 4? Yes and no. Some stations will work. SCIENCE, COMMS, and ENGINEERING seem to work alright. More graphics intense stations don't work so well (MAIN SCREEN, NAVIGATION, WEAPONS, GAMEMASTER). [1] https://github.com/smcameron/gaseous-giganticus https://github.com/smcameron/gaseous-giganticus

ntnsndr 5y ago

Just in case some additional decision-making functionality would be useful, we're working on a Lua mod for that. https://gitlab.com/medlabboulder/modpol https://gitlab.com/medlabboulder/modpol

fgerling 5y ago

I created a little container image to help building snis: https://github.com/fgerling/snis-builder https://github.com/fgerling/snis-builder My goal is to build a linux iso image with snis preinstalled.