Traveller MMO

[Sturn]

For me the definition spans all kinds of online games where there are more than 2 players online at any time.

I would say much more then 2 players. The first M stands for, "massive" afterall. You can go online and play first person-shooters (PC or console) that have around 6-20 players, but they aren't called MMO's at all. Massive is just that, massive. 100' or even 1000's online at once.

A persistent world is also a requirement. As in when you log out, the game universe doesn't and keeps existing with other players online. I guess the abbreviation should be, "PMMO".

The original abbreviation for these games was MMORPG. The RPG has since commonly been removed. I wish it wasn't there in the first place, since most MMO's are anything but a RPG.

 

[aramis]

I like to repeat the question "what is a MMO". I know the acronym stands for massively multiplayer online game. But what attributes do you think are required to make a game a MMO. (not what attributes do you want)

Aren't those text based games MMO's? [You are in your stateroom. There is a bunk, a trunk, a com panel, a door to the fresher and a door to the passageway. What do you do?]

Does a PbP game qualify if there are enough players?

BTW, when doing some quick research on what a MMO is I found something interesting: UltraCorps is an online, multi-player, turn-based space strategy game. In 2006, the game was redeveloped by Steve Jackson Games.

No, most of the text based don't count as massively multiplayer; most don't even make it to multiplayer.

Massively means thousands of users at a time.

PBP doesn't qualify because it's neither computer moderated nor massively multiplayer.

An MMORPG is a computer moderated persistent massively multiplayer shared environment videogame, usually with some form of graphic interface and internet connection, tho dial-in works, too.

 

[Mark Morgan]

Mmo?

MMO sorry but I am not up on this acronym

 

[Baeron Gredlocke]

I may be imagining it, but I seem to recall an interview with Marc Miller indicating FFE was working on a traveller-based game for Facebook? I know it's not the ideal platform for this sort of thing, but I personally think you could could do a lot with the platform.

 

[fredofmars]

History
and
gear/starships/vehicles.

I think the suggestion to have an hour (real) to day (game) relationship is probably realistic.

I think some of the "crafting" could be done on starships in Jump space. That would help people remain part of the game while otherwise not interacting outside of the ship. Then again, there's sometimes adventures that take place on the ship even in Jump space.

I think some of the "guild" concept could be used for those playing active duty characters. Particular guilds (IN, ISS, etc.) could be the gateway to using particular starships or gear, and can also give an obvious route for adventures.

 

[Cryton]

MMO sorry but I am not up on this acronym

(M)assive (M)ulti-player (O)nline game.

Think WOW, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heros, Star Trek Online, ect.

 

[hdan]

I may be imagining it, but I seem to recall an interview with Marc Miller indicating FFE was working on a traveller-based game for Facebook? I know it's not the ideal platform for this sort of thing, but I personally think you could could do a lot with the platform.

I know - I was looking forward to that! Even the time spent in jumpspace would fit the Facebook game paradigm - plenty of other games have "time until you can X". Having a FreeTrading game would be very nice, especially if you had a "Mafia Wars" type mode where you could attack other players in the same system as you or something. But then you would need to implement "safe" systems with a lot of SDBs keeping the pirates away....

 

[DaveChase]

I know - I was looking forward to that! Even the time spent in jumpspace would fit the Facebook game paradigm - plenty of other games have "time until you can X". Having a FreeTrading game would be very nice, especially if you had a "Mafia Wars" type mode where you could attack other players in the same system as you or something. But then you would need to implement "safe" systems with a lot of SDBs keeping the pirates away....

StarFleet Commander but with no true trading.

There is trading via talk and taking your chances that the other guy/gal will send back to you.

Build ships, planets, attack and defend, join alliances, and even stay out of the fighting with diplomacy mode.

It can be played via Facebook or seperately.

Dave Chase

 

[saundby]

The term MMO (or MMORPG) was created to differentiate the games from MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon/Dimension, massively multiplayer text-based games) and games like Quake deathmatch and Halo online games (no character development, simultaneous player numbers limited to something like 4-32 at a time playing together.)

The names implies a graphical interface, as well. So more or less a graphical MUD.

The problem I see is that the features that would make a Traveller MMO good would keep it from becoming popular. Traveller stats and deadly combat, limits on communication. The existing MMO audience doesn't like constraints.

At this point, development costs for an MMO are high enough that it's hard to justify for a niche audience. That market is still served by MUDs, of which there are thousands, both hobby and commercial.

Work is ongoing toward getting a graphical platform developed that can be used for hobby game development, and the underlying tech gets more accessible every day, but graphics and/or models still drive up development efforts a lot.

 

[atpollard]

... I didn't see a button for "Yawn, so what and who cares."

(The OP did mention something about how often you would use it.)
IMO, Traveller does not lend itself particularly well to MMO. YMMV

 

[Enoki]

If Traveller were to be made into a MMOG I, in my humble opinion, should be focused far more on players being able to make just about any starting character they wanted and on a set of detailed and consistant worlds that allowed maximum interaction in various ways. After all, if you were to have say, 100,000 players in a 24/7 game and no two characters exactly alike doing everything from starting and fighting interplanetary wars to trying to just make an honest buck running a freighter, that would be traveller! You would get one character (unless you paid in for more) pretty much to your specs much like say, WoW or Perfect World but with skills already preset along with age etc. You then play until you die. No resurrection unless you want to pay for it. Sort of like Hardcore in Blizzard's Diablo games.

I would nearly let players almost pick and choose what they wanted for a character. Since MMOs are often free with add ons for profit, the way I see one of these for Traveller is that you can get almost any first character you wanted but, that character is subject to a permanent death within the game. You could spend cash to lavishly outfit your character, or have more than one for a price. This would avoid players using quasi-legal sites to get around the rules and do it anyway. Why buy stuff from a questionable virus ridden site when you can get everything allowed right off in the game for a price.
If that sounds unfair, it probably is. But, Traveller is a huge universe and you can always get unlucky. An expensive character could be pricy to resurrect. After all, the people running such a game do have to make a living too.....

But, the game would require the details of worlds, systems and, interaction of players that was consistant. That is, if you go back to a world it is the same as last time sans any changes consistant with the game. The planets would have to move around their stars, multi-ship combat would have to be possible. There would have to be lots of NPCs including very powerful government forces that could reign in players that tried to take over the game. That way you could become a small freighter captain bent on making a profit. Another player could become a pirate preying on you. Yet another a mercenary looking for a fight. For a true MMO Traveller the adventures must be only limited by imagination and your character that you chose and must live and die by.

You would want something where someone could play casually and like it or, could play to chat with friends and enjoy the game without alot of conflict and violence or, someone could be teetering on the edge of life continiously or, they could simply be a criminal and life the crazy life. It would and should all be possible. That is what makes Traveller Traveller.

 

[Yavin_Prime]

Greetings everyone, this is my first post so I hope no one minds if I just jump in. I've been playing MMORPG's since 1999 and I've played almost every single major released MMO upto date. Sadly I have more experience and friends in the MMO world than I do in the PnP world (I struggle to find people to play with where I live).

So a quick comment, MMORPG = Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game and MMO - Massive Multiplayer Online (which is a short term most people use, I refer to players of MMOs as MMOers).

Well there are a few things that a Traveller MMO would need and here is my little list:

1) Stick to the book: Any Traveller MMO would need to follow the rules of the game that it represents. Its not enough to create a video game with the Traveller IP attached to it. Rather any Traveller MMO would need to have the core feel of playing the real pen and paper counterpart or fans of the franchise will likely reject it.

2) The feel of Traveller: Its important that the game would have the feel of the IP. Be it artwork, game play mechanics and such. If players are playing the game and say 'this feels like blah blah video game with a Traveller skin' then chances are fans will abandon the game to return to the PnP version.

3) Players must be characters not ships: There is a game out there called StarQuest Online, it looks and feels like it was made in the early 90s but the truth is it was launched only 3 or so years ago. The dev team did something special though, they made it so that you were a member of a ship's crew rather than a ship flying around in space. You and your companions had to work together to win battles and pilot the ship. Obviously it can be hard to get on a game with a busy work schedual so in a Traveller MMO I would expect the game to create bots (computer controlled players) for people who only could solo at the time if their crew or friends were offline at the time. Oh and yes that means fully rendered ship interiors, half of Traveller maps are ship insides so it wouldn't make sense not to have them.

4) Hardcore: Now this isn't what some of you are thinking ;D. When I say hardcore I mean the game sticks to the flow of the PnP counterpart. For example travel time should take a while. So make it so that their are lots of ship board activites to do while you traverse the stars (now I'm not saying that travel should take weeks but rather 1 week can = like an hour or something reasonable, so you can set an auto pilot if you need to make multipul jumps). Also perma-death should be considered. However a system that allows players to transfer wealth and some skills to benifactors would be neat (be it a character's offspring or family member and so on).

5) Sandbox: Now some of you may be familiar with the term in that players are not given a set goal but rather encouraged to build their own experience. The truth is the Pen and Paper version is a sandbox in which your ref can design any sort of adventure. So the game should just be totaly open ended and their should be no way to beat the game. Rather players should get back what they put in. In the MMO community non sandbox games are considred tredmills. This means that the game gives you the goal to get to a max level and gain the highest level of gear. So you run along on the tredmill untill you reach those goals (another term is grinding levels, just the sound of that makes me wana turn off a game).

6) Foundry System: Anyone here who plays Star Trek Online will know that they're about to launch the Foundry System for that game. This is a system or rather tools that are given to the players so that they can craft their own missions and story archs that their friends can then turn around and play. This essentialy gives players the power to become refs of their own online gaming experience and would be well suited for the Traveller universe since thats exactly what the core books give you... the tools to make your own adventures.

Well these are just a few core ideas. Lets just say that if any dev out there were to pick up the franchise and make an MMO they'd want to please the fans more than the video gamers out there. I say this because Star Trek Online's developers stated that they were building a game both for fans of Trek and fans of MMOs, the truth is the only people still on that game are the fans of Trek so its smart to just build a Traveller MMO for the fans of Traveller.

 

[shawnmac]

This would get me back into the MMO sphere with a quickness. For the love of God man, keep Sony out of it, they ruined SWG and would surely hack the Traveller Universe to shreds.

However, I'd like to run my toon through a profession skill system similar to the one SWG used PRE NGE. It was tough running my guy up through the Ranger quest tree, but worth every second. I got it done about a six weeks before NGE was announced and I was working the Jedi quest tree by that point so I was just super POed. Still bitter about it too. Multiple profession trees would be an absolute must. Ok, SWG NGE hate rant complete, moving on now.

Yes, it would have to be the OTU, I'd also prefer just after the Fourth Frontier War or if that is too far back, within 10 to 15 years of the beginning of the Fifth Frontier War and definitley within the Spinward Marches to start.

Yeah DO IT!!!!!

 

[Yavin_Prime]

Lol it never stops amazing me to hear that people have a grudge or strong emotions about SWG. I totaly see why and agree with them and have to say that Sony really messed up massively when they butchered SWG. I don't think SOE has ever fully recovered from that blunder.

But yes Spinward Marches should be the start area because its the focus point of the PnP game (well the basic one players can buy other moduels to change the atmosphere obviously).

 

[shawnmac]

Lol it never stops amazing me to hear that people have a grudge or strong emotions about SWG. I totaly see why and agree with them and have to say that Sony really messed up massively when they butchered SWG. I don't think SOE has ever fully recovered from that blunder.

Fall 2011 I'll be taking Anthropolgy of Virtual Worlds at UH Manoa, can't wait to hear what they have to say about the NGE.

 

[Samules]

All I want right now is a game that does not have people who take obscene amounts of damage. Sure you can have a suit of combat armor that makes you nigh invincible to small arms but if that new player with a pistol pops 2 shots into a neck crack you had better go down. Also having players who fly ships not just NPC's with a boat that is actually a teleporter would be pretty cool. I think a big thing would be having player determined galactic events, such as someone actually able to buy ships, even fleets, hire npc soldiers as well as player ones and be able to make wars without admins just throwing in the big events for player participation. Actually feeling like you are making a difference on your own agenda, not the admins.

Something with that would be in my opinion would be the best game ever.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

I second this motion!

All I want right now is a game that does not have people who take obscene amounts of damage. Sure you can have a suit of combat armor that makes you nigh invincible to small arms but if that new player with a pistol pops 2 shots into a neck crack you had better go down. Also having players who fly ships not just NPC's with a boat that is actually a teleporter would be pretty cool. I think a big thing would be having player determined galactic events, such as someone actually able to buy ships, even fleets, hire npc soldiers as well as player ones and be able to make wars without admins just throwing in the big events for player participation. Actually feeling like you are making a difference on your own agenda, not the admins.

Something with that would be in my opinion would be the best game ever.

Yeah, what Samules said, like a bunch!