ORBITER MMORPG!!!!!!

statisticsnerd · Nov 14, 2009

Sup? Is there any interest in creating something like Warcraft or any of those other massive online games that you hear about nerds playing for 12 hours a day?

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I dreamed about it last night. I can TOTALLY picture it in my head and it's getting me all excited. Have a couple of guys act as "space traffic controllers," directing spacecraft so they won't run into each other. We could all wear headsets and talk to each other on Skype, have docking parties at the ISS, drink virtual beer, etc..

Don't know how long missions would work though (i.e. anything out of Earth orbit)... It would be nice to have controllers and bases set up across the solar system but since it would take months/years to get there, I just can't see it being feasible... UNLESS we could cheat a bit and somehow integrate time acceleration.

Anyhow, what are your thoughts on this???

HAIL :probe:

Pilot7893 · Nov 14, 2009

Orbiter Multiplayer was a project at 1 point, but I don't know what's happened to it.

Kaito · Nov 14, 2009

statisticsnerd said:
Have a couple of guys act as "space traffic controllers," directing spacecraft so they won't run into each other.

Ever dock with ISS before?
To do that, we need to first be in the right plane, then match altitude, then sync orbit. Unless there here HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of people in orbit around earth, collision would be so unlikely. And even then, collision would still be incredibly rare, unless you were trying to do it

Woo482 · Nov 14, 2009

I don't think any thing exactly like this would happen for Orbiter, there are a lot of problems with doing it.

BHawthorne · Nov 14, 2009

I've always wanted to see a semi-serious MMO using vehicle/flight simulation. Everything out there is arcade level and the graphics are a decade old. I think the reason why it has never been done seriously by an accomplished game developer is that MMOs are targeted at the largest cross section of people who have the attention span of a crack addict. IMHO, if design compromises were made a vehicle/flight sim MMO would have merit, but I'm not so sure either side would appreciate the compromises needed to pull it off.

Probably the closest to an MMO that'll occur is whenever someone picks up on maybe the Macross/BattleTech universe or Gundam. That's not near future or non-sci-fi though. There is always STO, SWG or Eve out there right now though, but those are arcade like, not sim like.

Another option would be just to go make your own space sim MMO by recruiting about a dozen people. More and more lately garage gaming developers are getting nice engine SDKs available like the recent free release of the Unreal 3 Dev Kit just last month. The Unity engine and Multiverse might be good options too depending upon your goals.

Hielor · Nov 14, 2009

garyw · Nov 14, 2009

If you want MMORPG there are applications out there for it and there is second life. Orbiter isn't suited for it and I, personally, think it would be a complete waste of time. I like to be able to plan my own missions, add my own components to the ISS, build my own lunar base without some MMORPG playing idiot getting in the way.

Dambuster · Nov 14, 2009

Don't forget Infinity:

http://www.infinity-universe.com/

Brycesv1 · Nov 15, 2009

though it would be nice to have 2 or 3 guys in the same scn with you in different ships

BHawthorne · Nov 15, 2009

Brycesv1 said:
though it would be nice to have 2 or 3 guys in the same scn with you in different ships

Agreed, and mission control with multiple people also linked in and the ability to meet up with other vehicles and stations that are also staffed, but orbiter is ill equipped/designed for it. There are add-ons that work around these design omitions, but they're not ideal.

Arrowstar · Nov 15, 2009

Dambuster said:
Don't forget Infinity:

http://www.infinity-universe.com/

This actually sounds pretty interesting. Thanks for the link.

BHawthorne · Nov 15, 2009

Dambuster said:
Don't forget Infinity:

http://www.infinity-universe.com/

The problem with Infinity Universe is it grew out of the sci-fi 3d modeling forum communities over the last decade. That means it's origins are more style than substence as far as simuation. Sure, it'll look stunning, but will it have enough simulation elements in it to appeal to the Orbiter fan? My interest will be seeing just what more will it do to build and design it's way past the limitions Eve has and bring new things to the table for MMOers. My dream is to finally see a MMO that simpits could function in and interact with the rest of the game population.

Epsilon · Nov 15, 2009

From experience with OMP when we had a server going, it -is- fun to fly around with other people. The operative term here, of course, is -fly-.
Once you get into orbit, it gets horribly boring, and don't even think of doing interplanetary stuff - time acceleration doesn't work in a multiplayer environment. Formation flying isn't all that great either, since there's a limit to how precise the server can be in positioning ships.
All in all, if you want a multiplayer scenario, you're better off doing something like FSX.

BHawthorne · Nov 15, 2009

Epsilon said:
From experience with OMP when we had a server going, it -is- fun to fly around with other people. The operative term here, of course, is -fly-.
Once you get into orbit, it gets horribly boring, and don't even think of doing interplanetary stuff - time acceleration doesn't work in a multiplayer environment. Formation flying isn't all that great either, since there's a limit to how precise the server can be in positioning ships.
All in all, if you want a multiplayer scenario, you're better off doing something like FSX.

There needs to be setups and missions that specialize in this sort of interaction. Things like outings on planetary surfaces to collect samples or orbital debris collection or asteroid mining. All of those are valid cyclical thigns that could be done in a multiplayer environment interacting for a common goal in a mission. people focus far too much on the downsides like distance between desitnations and orbital alignment and other time consuming empty matters. There are jsut as many buisy things to do as idle things to do though. It depends upon what you focus your play around though.

Donamy · Nov 15, 2009

I've been doing MMORPG in Orbiter since 2008, we're all in stasis going to Pluto, should be there in another eight years.

BHawthorne · Nov 15, 2009

Donamy said:
I've been doing MMORPG in Orbiter since 2008, were all in stasis going to Pluto, should be there in another eight years.

Guess I'm preaching to the wrong target audience. Limited vision makes the world go around. :thumbup:

John_L · Nov 15, 2009

garyw said:
If you want MMORPG there are applications out there for it and there is second life. Orbiter isn't suited for it and I, personally, think it would be a complete waste of time. I like to be able to plan my own missions, add my own components to the ISS, build my own lunar base without some MMORPG playing idiot getting in the way.

Right, Second Life has a robust space enthusiast community. Off the top of my head... The International Spaceflight Museum and NASA COLAB come to mind, and an in-world search would yield much more. There's also tons of Star Wars/Star Trek related sims out there as well. As a matter of fact, I was checking out a Star Trek related sim once, and I remember walking into a room with a bunch of images on the wall (and links to websites when you touched them, and, among them was a link to Orbiter! Full circle I guess.

and then there's me... I haven't done too much in that area, but I recently built an Ares I rocket, non functional, just for show, but still pretty neat. If anyone wants to contact me in world, I'd be happy to give you a copy of the Ares I (free, I'm not selling it) as well as a (very high quality!) NASA meatball logo T shirt. Just send an IM to Johan Laurasia, let me know you're an Orbiter fan, and I'll give you a copy of those items and any other space related stuffs I have (that are copyable).

Donamy · Nov 15, 2009

BHawthorne said:
Guess I'm preaching to the wrong target audience. Limited vision makes the world go around. :thumbup:

It was supposed to be a joke, guess I needed to place some smilies.:lol:

Ghostrider · Nov 15, 2009

Donamy said:
I've been doing MMORPG in Orbiter since 2008, we're all in stasis going to Pluto, should be there in another eight years.

Let me guess, you're doing the Dwarves' Quest?

escapetomsfate · Nov 15, 2009

A simple freelance multiplayer is hard enough to make. An MMORPG would need to support many more players, and store information on every ship for the next login.

Perhaps it would be fun without time acceleration. You could perform a TLI burn on Monday, and a week or so later login to find yourself in the moon's SOI.

Maybe Lua can be integrated into OMP? That would be the start of tasks and missions etc.

There's also NASA's moon, mars and beyond:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/0...tual-universe-astronaut-moon-mars-and-beyond/

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