@amiga_boy
Trust me, if I wasn't a dreamer I wouldn't be here. But even
when dreaming, if you want those dreams to have any sort
of constructive quality, you need to base them in reality.
... But fair enough, if it is dreams you want, dreams you'll
get. My gaming-dream is a Frontier-like multiplayer
universe where players from all over the world could take
on any role they wanted. And now I'm talking full virtual
roleplaying - play as a character, capable of doing
practically anything. If you didn't want to be a
pilot/trader/pirate/military (the classic choices in a game
like Elite), you could choose to set up shop on one of the
space stations and run the game as a business simulator of
sorts. Dull, everyday jobs might be a little too much to ask
from a gaming community, but still, thieves, clerks and
ship's crew might live on in their roles if they wanted to in a
sort of "The Sims" gameplay (only playing everything in a
3D world, first person view). Planetside players might get
into planning a colony or run a mine if that is the kind of
game they're interested in. Economy would eventualluy (as
the amount of players grew) more and more be released
from the clutches of a "virtual" engine tweaking the
stockmarket into something "real", actually varying
depending on real people's trading - an economics
experiment in large scale. Administration and police
enforcement are other roles one could try out. A set of
omnipotent AI:s (I.e. GameMasters) rule and decide
conflicts.
For the more traditional players (I suppose the more
peaceful roles better appeal to certain groups of players
than others) there must of course be conflict and spacial
battles raging. I envision rallying up with my pals in our little
pirate raiding party of swift ships, waving at each other and
talking over the comm, planning a raid on a trading
convoy led by that pesky guy from next door... More
importantly, when commanding your ship, you should
always have the possibility to get out of your chair and
walk around as a person (assuming you ship is big enough).
Of course it's convenient to have a "locked" view when
dogfighting etc, but still you should have that opportunity in
order to deepen the feeling of playing an individual role and
not just "be" a ship.
One of the most important aspect of this is personalisation.
There should everywhere be things you could buy (or
otherwise obtain) with very little actual game-play value -
decorative stuff, art, good-luck charms, an ivory desk for
your lounge. People owning a workshop in the game might
be able to create such items freely (in a raytracing-similar
program, that outputs a format useable in the game), to sell
for whatever price people are willing to pay. Other
"useless" locations, such as drinks, gifts and fancy
apartments in the "finer" spaceports are obvious features
along with bars and restaurangs. Just looking at present
online games gives a hint here.
The virtual world can be made completely engrossing,
encompassing elements of your operating system. So you
would be doing your real world work on what looks like a
terminal from the game - and with your game persona
actually sitting at a terminal in the game (be it in their
quarters or at the controls of their ship)! Updates in the
game will be appearing discreetly at the bottom (coming to
think of it, the game world can become the new visual
interpretation of the internet itself ... but now we're
threading into Neuromancer territory).
... at any rate, I think that would be a "killer" game for the '
Amiga - or atleast AOS5+ running on next-gen super giga
processors...
;-)
.
SlimJim
