Multiplayer

Why doesnt anyone make this game multiplayer? sure itll be alot of work but just think of how fun it would be maybe hard to keep up with the cheats but u could always update the program to block it out....Look at parsec its gonna be a kick ass game and its multiplayer (url="http://"http://www.parsec.org")www.parsec.org(/url)
and its free!

B-

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Blackout the Beguiling Ravnos

I must agree with you. The game will be exceptionaly better with multiplayer. I say that all of us complain to Ambrosia so that Matt Burch and Andrew Welch can make us a multiplayer game or Escape Velocity/Override

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Not a bad idea whos with us?

B-

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Blackout the Beguiling Ravnos

Heh, you guys have some spirit, don't ya?

Ambrosia clearly states its stance on a new EV, and I don't think it'll change for a while. They have tons of games they need to work with.

My bet would be on a more independent group that has some seriously qualified people to do work on a multiplayer EV with some ideas for it. I mean, we all know that AW has had games be made under the Ambrosia logo from independent prorammers, all they need to do is submit work for AW to approve (I'm sure its slightly more complicated progress than that though 😉

Of course, you still need to find guys first. After all, just saying "lets make a multiplayer EV" isn't going to get you one, is it?

CS

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Oy. This is the second most popular query on the web board. Only "best ship" questions are more common. I've heard there is someone working on a multiplayer EV, but I don't know. But complaining to Ambrosia won't help - they're busy with half a dozen other projects already.

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" The Zaphod Beeblebrox?"

"No, just a Zaphod Beeblebrox; didn't you hear I come in six-packs?"
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Yes, there are some people working on it, 7 I belive. We at Aeon have created a board (url="http://"http://lightning.prohosting.com/~micah/cgi-bin/aboard/UltraBoard.pl")here(/url) for EVMP. Guessing from what I've seen, I shouldn't say who's doing it, but their webpage should become available soon (That's what they said).

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Micah L.
(url="http://"http://micahl.cjb.net")Micah World(/url)
(url="http://"http://lightning.prohosting.com/~micah/cgi-bin/spamindex.cgi")The EV/O Player's Spam Board(/url)
(url="http://"http://redrival.com/micahl/evo")Micah's EVO Page (Mostly Operational)(/url)
(url="http://"http://lightning.prohosting.com/~micah/links.html")Micah's Links (Not completelly updated)(/url)
(url="http://"http://boardbio.cjb.net")The EV/O Board Members Bio Page, 2 people to be added(/url)
ICQ: 57161584 }{ AIM: MicahL1 }{ iTools: mlanier

(This message has been edited by Micah L (edited 02-21-2000).)

Read (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/news/newsletter")Should EV/EVO be update(/url) to get a intelligent, balanced opinion on EV multiplayer and 3d.

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" The Zaphod Beeblebrox?"

"No, just a Zaphod Beeblebrox; didn't you hear I come in six-packs?"
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

How many of you "Give us a damn 3D or multiplayer EV now!" folks know anything about programming? Such a task requires ALOT of time. Think of it this way, would you want to do a massive plug-in on someone elses plot? Exactly who would AW tell to work on the project? "But El Presidente! I have my own project!", so what about Burch? Its taken him alot of time just to update to 1.0.2, you think he will have time for an entirely new game? Even just coding would require a horrible amount of time.

Next, 3D EV is a stupid idea, as is multiplayer. Because EV was not designed to be MP. Instead, make a game LIKE EV MP. As for 3D EV, a 3D enviroment would have enormous potential, only an idiot would limit it to whats allowed in EV.

Now for Exobattle being taken by Ambrosia and made into a new game. AW seems to suggest that anything that wont work on his crappy PPC will not be done by Ambrosia. To make 3D EV you would need a good graphics card. Also, AW seems to have a thing with how evil 3DMF is, and that OpenGL is better and more used and blah blah blah.... so why would Ambrosia do anything with the Exobattle code?

As for Aeon working on MPev, dont hold your breath. Other groups have had ALOT more hope and seemed to have greater chances of getting done than Aeon. Plus, Aeon still has not released one plug-in.... nothing by a group at Aeon has been done.

Finally, in most cases the people who are going "Yes I am going to be making a super massive plug-in using EV-Edit" are boasters who would rather spend more time saying how cool they are and getting everyone's hopes up, than actually working on a plug, or in these cases... 3D or MP EV. People who go around boasting about what they are going to do, setting up websites and all sorts of other things are the ones not likely to get jack squat done. If 3D EV was ever going to be made from Exobattle, it would mostly likely be done by a small quiet group of people and hopefully released by Ambrosia.

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Unix for business
Linux for development
BeOS for media
Mac OS for productivity
Windows for solitaire

Ok Mikee why do you think they put EV or EVO or any other programs out? just so they can make people happy? hell no! there in it for the money they wouldnt mind coding a new game or plug-in as long as theres a pot of gold at the end of the 63 billion lines of code...yes its hard work but would they have made EVO if they werent going to get paid? ask yourself that question, its hard enough to make a linux script just to port scan; and who are you to speak on the behalf of the programmers? im not if oyu want to make an argument keep repying and i garuntee you I will open a can o woop ass......

B-

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Blackout the Beguiling Ravnos

Yes, software companies make applications for money. Do you have any idea how well Ambrosia is doing right now? You think they are desperate for money? Do you think people program things they have no interest in? If someone is working on a game plotted by someone else, the game will either:

  1. Not be done
  2. Lack features
  3. Be as exciting as the programmer was programming it

If you think people program just for the purpose of making money you are very wrong. What keeps programmers up to all hours of the night typing line after line of code? Its because they love what they do and are excited about what will come out of it. People program what is of interest to them, those that program something they hate just for the money.... make a ****ty product

Quote:
"im not if oyu want to make an argument keep repying and i garuntee you I will open a can o woop ass......"

No, the last thing I want is an argument. Understanding you posts is hard enough

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Unix for business
Linux for development
BeOS for media
Mac OS for productivity
Windows for solitairer

(This message has been edited by mikee J (edited 02-22-2000).)

Ok, pretty much the only reason that anyone would want EVMP is to see who would win in a battle, right? Altough I would love to see all the features of old EV I think it would be best to just make a battle system. And you could say that the network features of ares are like this but they really aren't. I just think that if someone were going to create EVMP it would be best to just have an arena sort of thing, which doesn't involve hyperjumping, trading, etc. Maybe you could have a feature where you earn money, get new ships/outfits, etc, but I think that missions and a big galaxy would be unnecessary. Anyway this is just what I think.

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Raddy

No beer and no TV make Homer something something...

Un... I really don't think people want EVMP just to see who would win a fight. That is like saying lets have Clan Lord just to duel. Not going to happen. People want to interact with other people in good ways and in bad ways. Lets face it, when there is actually another real person there you have to deal with, things are going to be a little different. You will have clans fighting for control of the galexy and tottaly radical ships if the economy is worked out well. Any way just my $0.02

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Heh, legend, you are exactly right, I think. People want interaction. They want missions, trading, excitement, the ability to do what they want (and more)...

CS

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Massively MP can't work.

Once 30 or 50 or even 100 people get together to try and take or invade a system, every in the system will experience a crash....

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Unix for business
Linux for development
BeOS for media
Mac OS for productivity
Windows for solitaire

In order to have a truly realistic multi-player EV, one would have to have a constant universe. A constant universe would contain all the star systems as a whole. No jumps, just open space... everything connected. Otherwise, I might jump in to a different system, thus I go from tuesday to friday, while you are still in tuesday (the probablems of landing, buying, communicating etc... would also interfere with normal space time). Plus, if you did have an open space like that, it would open up for a lot more interesting plots and technology. New long rang scanners, new warp drives, slipstream, wormholes, stargates, you name it!

Multiplayer EV is possible, it just would require a whole lot of adjustments to the game. In which case, it would probably encourage building a completely seperate game (just like Unreal & Unreal Tournament are seperate).

One other thing. I really don't think that 3D is the way to go. I mean, let's face it, it's a whole lot easier to move and see in 2D EV. And, it requires a powerpc (which I don't normally have). The game just isn't the same with a 3 dimensional enviroment.

Sincerely,
Zeta

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Sleep?! Oh yah... I did that last week.

Constant universe? Hmm let's see. You'd have to load the entire galaxy into RAM and constantly update it to reflect movement you wouldn't need a PowerPC, you'd need a G4 with a gig of RAM and a T1 line to even think about that. Each system should be loaded as you jump in, hyperspace jumps could be in real time, depending on modem speed (time to load new systems).

Of course EVMP would be totally seperate. It would have a whole new plot, etc.

2D is the way to go for EVMP - 3D is a bit unwieldy for this kind of game in multiplayer. Considering how much RAM EVMP would take anyway

mikee J, stop being so pessimistic. EVMP could be done. Why would the network crash during an invasion? And why would 50-100 folks band up? I think 10-20 players is a good fleet

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" The Zaphod Beeblebrox?"

"No, just a Zaphod Beeblebrox; didn't you hear I come in six-packs?"
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hmm, here is my opinion on all of this. First off, I'd like to say something about this massive Clan Lord like multiplayer game of EV. It really wouldn't be all that hard to have 100+ ships (maybe the limit being 128 ships per system?). Thats only 4 packets tops per ship (direction, speed, ship type, name), if it is not firing. If there are 128 ships in a system firing flaming death, thats when it gets ugly. However, things like this would be a rare occurance. Sure, the hosting requirements for such an endevouer would be substantial, but YOUR not going to be the one doing it. Its going to be Ambrosia. Ambrosia would also make alot more money on a multiplayer game like this than any shareware game. First, they change you for the game. 2nd, there is a low monthly fee, say, $10. As more people join, the serving/mantinance costs will even out and eventually reap profit.

Next, I can't believe the limit of everyones' vision! You say EV 3D. If Ambrosia made a 3D space shooter, why the hell would it have anything to do with EV? I doubt they'd stick a name of a 2D game on a 3D space shooter just to make it sell better. Let me put it straight with all you EV nerdlings: EV 3D is NOT going to happen. Period. Another Period. Ambrosia could stick the Escape Velocity name on any 3D space shooter they'd like to, but it would be so entirely different from EV that no one could really recognize it. Sure, you could warp from planet to planet, trading, etc., but as mikee j put it, only an idiot would limit something like this to what is in EV. Thankyou, and good night.

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--
"Do or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

I've been absent from the board for a while, so hi everyone. Anyway, I think that Dave is totally correct. A 3D EV? Not bloody likely. First of all, Ambrosia hasn't made a 3D game since Avara! Next, things would be so different that it would have a different feel. Can you imagine one f those titanic battles from EV:O in 3D? Well yeah, but think of th requirements! There would have to be a tiny number of ships in the system at a time. Also, the action wouldn't be as heated, because, as any moron knows, 3D space is BIG! You would be able to run away more easily etc. The asteroids themselves would crash the average PPC! Furthermore, you'd actually have to see what the alien races look like. For some reason, AW refused to give us any information on the EVO aliens, leaving it to our imagination. Imagine the people going, "That's a Emalgha? Euuuch." (That's not quite as important though.) The game would also have to have a coupe hundrd fewer systems. Fine, let AW make a 3D space game, but don't tack EV onto the title! Thank you and good night.

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"Where'd you get those
coconuts?"

I'm just wondering... How many people here would use an EVMP for LAN based games? The changes req'd for a simple LAN game wouldn't be so bad.

Think about this, what if every time a player jumped into a new system, that system ID would be broadcast across the network. If two players happened to be in the same system, then ship specs would be transmitted, and from that point only key presses would have to be transmitted. Certain things would have to be reworked, like realtime communications (descent's style worked fine) vs the dialog based communications currently in use. Landing on a planet could still be dialog based. Internet play is where the limitations of the EV engine would really start to show, but if all we want is a LAN based game then it suddenly becomes a lot more possible.

Thoughts?

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