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some issues i have with Elite, and you could replace open/group/solo with an open a multiverse game:
- i guess they don't allow player-player trades or credit transfers b/c:
- they don't want ppl to build big empires/corps that crowd out newcomers, like in Eve
- they want the world to feel big, not small
- they don't want rich ppl coming in and buying tons of credits with real money
all good reasons, but imo this is still a bad decision:
- it would be much more fun to trade with other players
- i want to build empires
so how else could you deal with some of those?
- 'multiverse' concept: ppl who don't want to be crowded out could play in a relatively 'new' universe
- could also structure this as regions of the galaxy ('countries') with strict border controls (eg can't bring much with you, including your other-country credits). But i prefer multiverse.
- i like the 'open play' vs 'private group' vs 'solo' concept. But i don't like that gains in solo or private group carry into 'open play'. Apparently they ameliorate this by making some 'promotional events' only open to pure 'open play' players, but this sucks b/c since you only have one character for account, now you can't group with your friends (as i did on my very first and third plays). Better would be to have a system where changes made during private group or solo simply don't affect your open play account at all, but upon each private group or solo start, you can choose either to start up where you left off in private group or solo, OR to start up where you left off in open play.
- Putting together open/group/solo with 'multiverse', you can generalize open/group/solo, and the operation of starting a group status with your previous open status, into a 'inter-universe jump', which is then similar to importing an existing character into a new 'country' or universe. Which suggests that some universes may allow you to 'bring with you' some of your stuff/upgraded character attributes, and some won't; perhaps also varying depending on which universe you came from.
- i dont like how alternate clients are prohibited. My longstanding philosophy in games is that you should be able to have alternate clients, and you should be able to script anything that you can do. This of course means the client cannot be trusted, which means that all you send to the server is what you told your ship to do; the test of how fast your ship is, how manuverable, etc, must all be serverside.
- putting multiverse+alternate clients+open/private/solo together, this suggests an opensim/hypergrid setup:
- anyone can run their own server; the multiverse is 'open'; and anyone can make their own client; the only thing communicated from client to server is (attempted) actions, and the server communicates local state to the client.
- during a game, ppl's clients communicate only with the server. At logoff events (or at 'save'/checkpoint events), the server makes publicly available its attestation that in its universe at this time, the character possesses these attributes and possesions. Then, should the player wish to import the character into another universe (eg open->group play in Elite), the new universe's server can decide whether it accepts attestations from the first server about character state (eg the 'open play' servers would not accept from the 'group play' servers), and if so, which subset of attributes/property the character is allowed to bring with them into the new universe.
- the logical way for servers to broadcast these attestations is via a blockchain, i suggest Ethereum.
- one downside here is this makes all state at savepoints public. The server could instead (perhaps at player's request) encrypt attestations to the public keys of certain other servers; assuming these other servers won't reveal secrets, this keeps character state secret.
- related is the idea that keeping property on a blockchain, eg in CCGs, allows players to value it more, b/c even if the manufactorer of the game goes out of business, they can still own their cards (property).
- the idea of doing a 6dof space pilot sim suggests ways that whatever the opensim protocol currently is may have to be extended, if it is not already capable of handling them; eg you need ways to request position or velocity or acceleration, in either displacement or rotation, from a vehicle; request that the vehicle 'fire' or in other words attempt to carry out some arbitrary action (which may include creating independently-tracked new entities, eg the bullets or lasers or whatever); there may be things like 'gravity'; you may have limited view/sensor range. And probably a way to request that a certain script be run serverside.
- it should be opensource, aka the hypergrid concept; ppl with good servers (can handle many players at once reliably) and reputed servers (play in the 'official' universe; get property that is audited by the devs for game balance and hence permitted by the other big servers) charge extra.
- also, why not have 4d (8dof, i think? todo doublecheck) piloting? hyperspace and all that.
- also, this reminds me, stuff like Eve should be used in research for experiments in (a) governance, and (b) economics. And stuff like space pilot sims should be used for experiments in AI/robotics. And of course stuff like chess and go is already being used for experiments in AI/robotics
- one of the problems with Eve esp. for governance experimentation is 'wardecking', eg the rule that the 'safety zones' dont apply to corporations if another corporation pays a fee to declare a 'war' against the target corp
- Eve safety zones are a good idea, if complex (note on complexity: see 'A note from Tinman' on http://wayback.archive.org/web/20160403005801/http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Nullsec_Campus )
- Steve's idea is also key here; having tournament forums that require submission of a script and give each players equal CPU time
- mb look into:
- just as blockchains need to permit atomic transactions (btw transactions, not just transfers; eg to allow account A to buy X from account B in exchange for Y, not just send Y from account A to account B), the blockchain for the multiverse needs to allow universe A to transfer character C to universe B in such a way that character C is no longer in A, but is only in B (in addition to allowing the other case, where character C is still in universe A but another instance of C (as distinguished from a copy of C; because updates to a new instance of C may affect other instances of C) is also in B). This allows a character to enter a universe that requires them to expose themselves to the risk of being permanently damaged as a condition of entry.
- should support 'multiscale', eg you are in a space sim game then you land on a planet and you are in a civ-like game
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