Trader Miner Pirate Bounty Hunter
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 16:00
There's been a few hints in SSC about the different job the player can do,how about a few more details about them. :) Have you seen Miner war on SSC,interesting idea about blasting through the asteriods.
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 01:48
#2
Roles in ArcNebula
Your initial roll we are wrestling with now. Perhaps we should do a poll. I will set that up this week.
Basically there is a storyline which we are keeping under wraps at the moment which relates to the name ArcNebula. One idea that follows that storyline would involve us plonking you with a very badly equipped / or severely damaged ship somewhere in the Universe that you are unfamiliar with. And you need to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" from that point on. Another is stranded on the surface of a moon in a lander. Yet another is not even in a ship...
Also a possibility is to start you in a system close to a "Home" of sorts, and give you a place in society. How much or how little you follow your expected path in society will be reflected in the opportunities that open up to you. Do a little piracy on the side and get caught, or allow the people you are trying to attack to get away, or get a radio message off and you will become persona non grata in that system. If you manage to keep your diamond and slave smuggling ring under the radar you might be able to keep your job as a fleet escort...
As far as your role goes it can be pretty much anything you like. All activities which are possible and profitable within the ArcNebula system are open to you. The focus is on finding those opportunities and having the correct equipment to take advantage of them.
So, a short list for you to give you an idea of the activities you can undertake.
- Trader
- Bounty Hunter
- Miner
- Combat Pilot (this can be as one shot missions for quick play, or as a full role in the game).
- Explorer.
- *Racer. (Both space and planet based races.)
- Pirate.
- Ship "Jakka".
- Spy
Some are self explanatory. In the end you can take on activities from any role as you are an individual, but some choices will open and close other opportunities.
Ship "Jakka"s and Spys are a little more complex, and I'll be doing a blog about these roles towards Christmas.
*Racer is a slightly more complex one. We have a game in the pipeline which is also set in the ArcNebula Universe and is set around planet based races. This game will work standalone, or also in sync with ArcNebula (in a later update) so that you can visit tournament planets and take part in races for reward. But we are looking at some "Kesler Run" Space races based in more civilised systems which you can enter in ArcNebula as well.
I have not seen Miner, but did see something called the Jupiter Incident or something which looked rather intriguing... Had some nice Voxel stuff going on and good lighting if memory serves...
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 20:38
#3
Wow, that is a fairly diverse
Wow, that is a fairly diverse set of possible roles you laid out there. I am interested in the spy, and ship 'Jakka' as these both imply a further simulation of the game world, perhaps beyond space and ships alone.
Are you planning on having a physical avatar for the player? Or perhaps movement between space vehicles via smaller ships, trains, or taxis, somewhat like Hardwar?
And back to your original comment on the starting setup for the player...If you have such flexiblility, why not provide optional starting points for the player which are levelled, or simply provide an easy start point for a different role within the game?
An easy setting could start you near a warm and cosy 'home' system as you suggest. A medium start might plunk you down in a ship somewhere unknown, and relatively hostile, and a difficult start could be as you say, without a ship, planet or station-bound somewhere.
Or you could set up a specific start for each play/role type. Such starts could also be used for testing purposes, to quickly and painlessly get testers into the types of scenarios you want them to be testing. I did as much with the mod I have been working on and it helped testing tremendously.
However, there is also something nice about having a limited set of choices. Too many is not always good.
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 10:45
#4
Movement between vehicles & start locations..
Well we've made no secret of the fact that we're going to have eject in ArcNebula, and a suit for EVA. So the obvious choice for switching between ships is to go that route... It also opens up the possibility of other stealth approaches to problems.. But I won't give too much away right now....
I think your suggestion of a graded set of starting points is probably the route we will go. It's already on the list, but we were hoping to do something a bit more dramatic. Time will tell... :)
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 13:29
#5
You could randomize the
You could randomize the start. Set a number of variables, such as location, start ship, start money, faction relations (if you have those), and have the start function draw from lists for those variables. That combines a single start option, with many, differing replays. People could then brag about their start. "I had to start in X sector with no cash and only a small tug!" There could be a difficulty slider to skew the results as well.
Of course to make that work you would need a lot of variability at the lower end of things such as ships, weapons, cargo etc. There wouldn't be any fun in starting with the best ship in the game.
You could also go the old classic Ultima IV start. Query the player along a number of storyline like paths, then depending on the particular choices made set them up in x sector with x ship and x supplies. The end choices could even categorize the player as a certain career type, i.e. miner, pirate, combat pilot etc. The choices could also set the players standing in the world (faction relations, etc.) In this case, for most people, they could enjoy the results of their decisions freely, and others, who so wished, could easily game the storyline to get exactly the start they wanted.
Sat, 10/17/2009 - 10:54
#6
I think if we do randomised
I think if we do randomised starts like that then it may be an option that we enable in a later update, or after someone has reached a certain "level" in ArcNebula. What we may do is offer some customisation of startup options though.
Your suggestion along the lines of Ultima IV is probably the closest to how I feel a customisable startup would be implemented. It's all still on the table at the moment though. So we'll chuck these suggestions into the mixing pot and see what comes out. :)
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 19:40
#7
Roles in ArcNebula
Will there be any specialised ship in the game for exploring,mining,spy ect.or will it depend on
what equipment is installed in the ship.
Like the idea of the race circuit.Will it make use of the Ipod link up?.
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 10:48
#8
Roles in ArcNebula
Absolutely. We already have several different classes of ships. I think docbungee did a blog post about some today... Or it's in the process of being edited....
Depending on the size / hold capacity / class of a ship various upgrades will or will not be available. I am actually working on the HUD / Computer system for this right now.. It's turning out to be more complex than procedural planets or AI. Who would have guessed!
Meant to add that yes we will be using both local and internet networking in games. The standalone racing game is a while off, but both the Combat Simulator and ArcNebula have / will have network features. :) Ultimately we want to make it possible to have a persistent Universe, but I have already explained elsewhere this is further down the line in a later version.
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 18:49
#9
Gas gaint mining
Will it possible to mine the gas giants by sending a machine into there atmosphere.?
Iam in two minds about the starts,I always like the privateer 2/Freelancer starts where you play a slighty dark character.Then again I like the Fronter games where nothing but a basic ship was given,and its left to the player to decide what to be.As Cambragol says using the old Ultima idea is a good idea.Mybe some sort of fight test which could be combined with any in game training for the controls would determine the start position of the player.