Long-lost Traveller sheep wanders back...

[clementk]

Originally posted by Maladominus:
I clearly remember them making wargames like Drang Nacht Osten.

Oh right! I do remember playing a nice simple wargame that made GDW popular back then.... it was called "A House Divided".

<waves>

<shudder> From what I hear DNO would stick in the brain.

FWIW A House Divided is back in a new edition put out by Phalanx Games. It looks like it was an early point to point game and there similar games out there, some by Phalanx.

It's a good time for boardgames at the moment with a lot of great designs out there, including ones that don't take a whole weekend to play (usually 3 hours tops). Boardgamegeek, ConsimWorld, Wargamer, and Web Grognards are all good sites to check out if you haven't already done so.

There is the Traveller games reprint by FFE but it's a big floppy book and IME a lot of those games are too drawn out for my tastes. FWIW a lot of the better AH games are reprinted/revised (often for the better) by either WotC/Hasbro or various companies who worked out an arrangement with Hasbro.

 

[kafka47]

Mal, could you tell me more about EVE as the resources on the webpage are most impressive.

Is it just go from point A to B encounter ships and take action? Or is there some depth to the game?

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by kafka47:
Mal, could you tell me more about EVE as the resources on the webpage are most impressive.

Is it just go from point A to B encounter ships and take action? Or is there some depth to the game?

Ahh. I never actually played EVE. I only was interested in playing it. Sorry for the confusion.

However, my friends DO play EVE. And here is a summary that I get from them:

You are basically a spaceship. The spaceship is your 'avatar' for the entire game. The game is very much focused on the interstellar economy and trade. The economy is very much dominated by a "player economy".

As my friends tell me.... EVE is a game for players with long term goals and TONS of patience. In EVE, the players that enjoy it most are the ones that have sticked around long enough so that they have built their own "trade empire", or have become profitable merchants, or have managed to BELONG to a profitable cartel/guild/empire, or have survived long enough to be a successful pirate/raider/ganker/griefer. LOL

EVE is not for the weak of heart. Unlike most other MMORPGs, EVE is very harsh on the "death penalty". If you engage in starship combat and your ship gets blown to pieces... umm... well, your ship is blown to pieces. In the other MMORPGs I have played (such as EverCrack, WoW, Ultima Online, etc)... getting killed is a minor affair. Usually you just lose a few minutes of time trying to get your corpse back or doing some kind of idiotic corpse run. But for the most part, you do not lose anything in your inventory.

EVE, on the other hand, is unforgiving. My friends tell me this is part good, and part bad. The bad side is obvious. The good side is they say that it makes the game VERY FUN and thrilling because combat (especially PvP combat against other players) is very scary and you take it seriously because you have a lot to lose.

My friends tell me... and I dont need them to tell me this part.... that EVE has the BEST graphics hands down out of all the modern MMORPGs. I believe them. It does have the best graphics from all the screenshots and demos I've seen.

Not sure what else to tell you, from my limited viewpoint. Have you ever heard of or played the old MUD/text BBS game called Trade Wars? EVE seems to be a lot like that..... except for the obvious fact that EVE is a modern 3D graphics-based game.

It's best to let another player post a review on EVE, since they will have more knowledge than me here. I am only posting experiences that have been conveyed to me by friends and former MMORPG guildmates.

 

[Maladominus]

P.S. --- I should add that my statement of "your ship is an avatar" is a bit misleading.

Yes, you are represented by the spaceship as your avatar. However, you are still a "person" behind that spaceship. Thus, your character can learn skills.... for example, prospecting (mining asteroids) etc. Those skills go up over time.

 

[kafka47]

I wonder while we are on the topic of EVE, having also checked out their web page. I wonder what the Ancients would think of leasing out some Traveller's Intellectual Property (IP) to this company for them to design a tiny corner of Chartered Space that all of us could enjoy.

The IPs in question would be things like the Imperial Starburst, common Ship designs, names for systems, concepts like Jump, etc.

Eventually building the momentiium toward a separate expansion kit. EVE would benefit from the few hundred extra visitors to their site and Traveller would benefit by engaging in a new medium and capturing some its audience and be on the cutting edge of what some tout as the next big thing.

Although, I think the real big thing that is coming is interactive environments that the whole person takes part in and in a few years we will look at MMORPGs like role players do wargames.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by Berg:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Maladominus:
Oops! I have ONE last question about GriP that is not covered in the product description:

does it work over standard TCP/IP?

Nope, It works over da net [...]
</font>[/QUOTE]May I ask how "TCP/IP" and "da net" (i.e. Internet) are different?

 

[Thareen]

Originally posted by Berg:
[QB] Here is a shot of the iGM on the map function screen

Here is the iPC on the interactive character sheet tab

It has an adventure editor, dice roller etc. What makes it better than others out there IMHO is the programmable character sheets. You can design them with all the diceroll, lookup stuff right in to the sheet

Download the software.../QB]

That looks like the Windows version. So tell me, is there a MacOS X version? A Linux version?

I am trying to wean myself off of Windows. Running a Windows machine on the Internet is getting more and more risky with every passing day. The software sure looks fun, but if it only runs on Windows it's useless to me.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Thareen:
That looks like the Windows version. So tell me, is there a MacOS X version? A Linux version?

I use both Macs and Windows computers myself. And it seems to me that GRIP will likely stay Windows-only. The reason is simple: the market for this kind of product is too small to warrant the effort/expense of porting it to other platforms like Mac or Linux.

However, it would be cool if some other programmer would write a similar piece of software for MacOSX or Linux.

 

[Berg]

I found this...

It's Java and it's FREE

Tom

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
Though I wouldn't want to undercut MWM and FFE, Stiggybaby's has all the CT reprints for a slightly better price. Shop around.

I want to thank Fritz88 for this advice. I am extremely pleased with Stiggybaby's service! Top-rate. Not only are their prices slightly lower than list price, but I ordered twice now from Stiggy's and both times, they arrived promptly (within a week of my order), my Reprints books arrived in very nicely packaged boxes, and the books themselves were in brand new pristine shiny condition. And of course, as soon as they ship my order, they always emailed me with a USPS tracking number. I'm definitely gonna buy the rest of my Traveller print products from them.

 

[Random Goblin]

Welcome back to the fold!

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by Maladominus:

I've been thinking to myself.... "If I had $10 million dollars to throw away", I'd give it to some developers so they could make a Traveller-based MMORPG! And then we could all enjoy playing once again in a virtual world of the Third Imperium..... wouldn't it be great to be able to choose a Vargr pirate character? Or wouldnt roleplaying be at its finest if you could imagine being a militant K'Kree adventurer with the crusade of exterminating all those filthy carnivores in known space? So many carnivores in the Galaxy to eradicate, so little time! Or imagine a Traveller graphical online rpg where starships like the Azanti High Lightning come to life with you at the helm... where you can pilot such ships much in the same way like in games like EVE or Star Wars Galaxies. Of course, that's just a pipe dream.

Wow!!!...
When you dream, you dream BIG!!!

But I like this idea also. I would love to find a detailed online Traveller RPG.

Even a small scale PS2 or XBox game would be cool.

 

[Thareen]

Originally posted by Berg:
I found this...

It's Java and it's FREE

Tom

Hmm...Java, eh? And Public Domain, too? Hmmm...interesting, interesting. It should at least work well under Mac OS X. Linux is another story.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Redleg58]

Thanks Fritz! didn't know about Stiggybaby's!