Be Excellent To Each Other

Chris Roberts is at it too

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig ... n?ref=live

Seems like he wants a new Wing Commander, but also for it to be Elite, at the same time.

I'd be very interested in the online multiplayer. However, I suspect that* PVP will end up be consensual and that removes the option of playing a murderous, cold blooded pirate type, and instead one'll end up waiting to find someone with a PVP enabled flag to go and pew pew with.

*If people funding it can shape game mechanics.

BACKEDED!

They've added more details about the multiplayer on the Kickstarter page the noo.

Sounds intriguing. A shame there's no stardreamer time acceleration, but I guess it flat out wouldn't work.

It'll be interesting to see if hyperspace clouds can still be analysed with the right equipment, and if faster ships can get to the destination before the analysed vessel can. That'd be a griefer's paradise, even with the systems in place they mention in the FAQ.

I think multiplayer and giving it 'traditional' Elite features like the Stardreamer are totally at odds.

Hardwar (remember that?) lived on for years on persistent servers run by dedicated fans, and the fact that the small world meant that you could just run away and the speed of your vehicle was a crucial part of fleeing. It might be something they could consider looking at, as the smaller distances meant you didn't need time acceleration.

Or "that would suit a style of play intended within the rulesets".

The bounty system seems to be a good idea.

As someone always massively put off EVE by the griefing element, I think the bounty system sounds like a good way of doing it. As I understand it, all human players are members of the pilot's federation, and it is illegal to attack other innocent members. Doing so puts a bounty on your head and allows others to attack you without fear of getting a bounty on their heads. If a highly Elite ranked player attacks a low ranked Elite player, the bounty is hugely multiplied.

It's an interesting idea, certainly. And some of my best memories from Frontier were those moments where I'd hyperspace into a system in my Cobra Mark III or whatever and suddenly get attacked by something much larger and better armed, like an Imperial Courier or even something like a Panther Clipper, and through some seat-of-my-pants manouvering, still come out victorious.

God damn, I hope this Kickstarter works! I've been waiting 17 years for this game!

I honestly think that ever would be very boring without the grieving. There'd be no real danger without it.

That will make it much more absorbing.

I refuse to play it until they reinstate the cardboard tray.

But would it matter if the computer was flying the attacking ship, or a player.

For what it's worth, there's not that much amount of griefing in EvE. it's an ill deserved reputation. I've seen huge collaborative projects doing things to benefit all and it is perfectly possibly to play it without getting shotified by another player, if you take appropriate precautions. You can wander about in 0.5 and above and be safe, and even in Low Sec, it is quite tricky to get killed. certainly, the players ebcme more aware of my movements and some had set up an early warning ssytem to warn of pirates.

but anyway, Elite:

Could be good, could be cotton wooled up to high heaven.

I just think, with Elite, it could be fun anyway having PvP combat, because it's not stat-driven like an MMO and even with weapon, shield and ship upgrades, there's still going to be a big player skill element involved.

The bounty system is good because it places less incentive on attacking players just starting out and more of an incentive on actively targetting experienced players guilty of griefing. Seems like a very fair way of doing it to me and quite in keeping with the spirit of Elite.

Combat in Eve is a lot more subtle than "Orbit at 500m". Player skill is more improtant than better stats, otherwise, I wouldn't have killed battleships in a cruiser, or battleships in frigates. The skill in the combat systems in Eve is being in the right place and making the right choices. 90% of the fight is ebfore you've even seen the other player. But I digress.



I agree with this.

The other night my hauler alt was flying through a 0.5 system (highsec on either side of it) with two ships and their fittings in my hold, for my corpmate who is a filthy pirate and also too lazy to log on his alt who can actually go to Jita or Dodixie to shop. Ganked by some asshole in a Tornado in 0.5.

Corpmate apologized for sending me all that way and also for not warning me of that particular system being bad at the moment, but hey: I'm out a Badger MkII. He's out 100mil's worth of stuff (he sent me the money to buy it all).

Neocron dealt with griefing and PvP by giving all new characters a 'combat chip'. You started with it installed, you couldn't reinstall it if you removed it. While it was in, other players couldn't attack you. However, you levelled more slowly, only up to a certain cap (20?) and also were a bit restricted in some things you could do involving clans. It seemed to work well.

Yeah, but that was the rusk you took, though. Your options were loads:

1) Don't auto pilot warp to zero
2) iStab you hauler for quick align
3) Warp from gate to nearest astral body then to gate
4) Courier mission it
5) Use battleship to haul and make three trips
6) Tank the hauler
7) Use a scout

That wasn't griefing, that was a business decision based upon the risk (hauler empty, although you probably were scanned; sec status hit; insurance payout) and the reward ( full hauler). It's a valid mechanic and you could hunt him down and murderize him now, but I'd recommend going adter his corp mates and explain why just after they pay the ransom and just before you pod them. I hit a hauler once in a dual rep Prophecy under gate guns in 0.4 and still found time to pod him. Top ship, that.

Griefers start young it seems.

Life is too shirt to poofreed beex

Another video added! Plus some more concept art.

GHhhnngnggghhh... he's talking about flying into Jupiter.... ooh lordies..

Looks very nice, and more content coming on Friday apparently.

The video was a bit shoddy (lots of obvious cuts) and I can see some people snoozing at it, I just hope it makes the target, they need the daily pledges to up by a factor of 2 or something to make it...

Malc

I have a Cloaky Hauler but it wasn't big enough to hold one of the ships (Stabber Fleet Issue) or I'd have used it instead as it's faster. I haven't got the money to spare on a Transport that could've carried the cargo and endured the attack.

As with everything in Eve, it's a lesson learned. I don't think it was griefing, and the ganker lost money overall so it's all good fun.

While Elite struggles for cash, Star Citizen breaks the five million barrier.
Cor.

Elite has over £500,000 in 14 days

Looking at SC's kictraq they had about $750,000 in the same time (I know they have their own fund raiser on the website too)

Which is about the same amount in Sterling no?

Malc

I thought Elite needed to raise twice as much money per day as it is doing?

If someone picks up your escape pod can they sell you as a slave? Wouldn't be a lot of fun to play, then.

That was a big issue for me playing Privateer... if you came across the remnants of a battle and someone had ejected, you could tractor beam them in. Except, this wasn't a rescue, this was enslavement, and you were now carrying contraband so the next time you got scanned by a militia or Confed patrol you'd be in trouble.*

*if you didn't realize you had the 'slaves' on board. Being scanned was easily avoided, you just dumped your cargo as soon as the patrol announced they were going to scan you, and then scooped it back up as soon as the scan was complete. Han Solo, you weren't.

No you were Clive Owen...which is a bit of a step down from Han Solo.

Well.... as I may have said before, I enjoyed the flying white van/winnebago that was the Tarsus starter ship in Privateer:



Likewise, my favourite ship in Frontier was the Adder, even though I ended up converting it into the space version of an 'executive travel' minibus.

If you look at just the last 10 days, and project that rate over the next 46 (or whatever it is) then yes, they would not make the total they set themselves, but, most of these projects have a spike at the start, and another (often bigger) spike at the end. If they were to maintain about £10,000 a day for the next 40 days, that would add another £400,000 to the £500,000 they have already, then they would need another £300,000 in the last week, at about £45,000 a day.

Looking at SC, after a week or so they were bubbling at around $25,000 - $30,000 a day (Which is what? £15,000 - £20,000), so maybe about double Elite, but Elite's campaign is for twice as long as SC's was, however, in the last week, they made about $1,000,000 (about 1/2 the final total, and about £600,000).

So, I don't think it's a lost cause yet! At least I hope it isn't. I really enjoyed Privateer, but it was not as good as Frontier.

Malc

The problem is that Wing Commander is much better known... I don't remember ever hearing much about Elite or Frontier until I saw it in UK magazines.

It's more recent, and like you say, it's got a bigger audience internationally. I heard someone mentioning that Americans might not like donating in Sterling as they don't really know how much it is and if they do, it's 60% greater than the dollar amount, and then it feels like a rip off.

I'm still confident it will get there, I mean look what he did with the Raspberry pi! If he can bring that level of work to the KS project in the next 6 weeks, and can show the game in any form of detail soon, I think it will start to head quicker towards the target.

Malc

Been waiting 17 years for that.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jos ... space-game

This looks interesting...

STOP POSTING SPACE GAMES I MIGHT LIKE, FEWL!

It seems a very ambitious project for one person to take on, at least when you look at the small armies it takes to make most games. I know it is procedurally generated and all that but just to get all the stuff working that he says it will include and also do all the graphics etc. I think it's all a bit unrealistic tbh.

MineCraft was only one chap, and look how far that got.

My main issue is that it is completely sandbox, yet single player. I love the idea of sandbox games, yet I always start them up and think "now what". Games need to have a goal of some kind for me, especially if they are single player only.

He got every one to build the levels though.

How many actual programmers work on the average game? I'd guess nowadays most of the work on a commercial game is on "asset creation", which procedural creation would get around.

73

Quite a lot, I'd imagine. Games have got more complicated as well as better looking.

One of my favourite game programming facts is relevant here: There were more lines of code to make the door opening keypads work in Doom³ than there were in the entire original game.

One to start with...

That just sounds like the programmers were shit.

Sure, now there are more. But being procedural and not having goals makes games far easier to develop.

Where's that Mr Dave? He's made games.

There was another game years ago that came out that was all procedurally generated and was largely the work of one guy. What the name of that now...? Something about ears? Front Ear? Frontier: Elite II something? Something like that anyway.

Anyway, the game was excellent. Would be awesome if he'd make a modern version of it!

I thought he had a team for that?

[edit]Appears not.

Depends on the game, it's scpe (i.e. are the developers f the engine included or not), and also what you'd class as a programmer really, and how you count (the number will change over the project life cycle)..

But yeah, they're somewhat dwarfed by content creation in most cases.

But the easiest way to find out is things like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXMyw_2PMOA (Small team)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MujQVKuxlF4 (Large team - see engineers)

They're all at it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the ... zy-returns

Gameplay footage!