Well not so much of a software post this week more of a quick description what what I got upto over weekend. Well its was unusually exceptionally busy...
On Saturday I took a trip in a balloon on which was awesome. Part of the flight was that we had to inflate the balloon and put everything togther. This was kinda cool seeing how everything worked.
When your flying it is the most oddest thing just being blown by the wind but a very exciting experience which I can recommend. The landing is kinda odd , i would describe is as more like a controlled crashing but was neat :D.
Well no rest for the wicked Sunday was a driving day , I went off to Silverstone racetrack and took
a Lotus Exige for a few laps around the circuit with a racing driver. This was really neat , not as neat however as being driven round the circuit by a racing driver OMG darn so fast...
Next well , next it was time to try out the Ferrari 360 400bhp 0-60 in er quick. Did a few laps in this baby... nice , very nice.
I will say however that my have an Honda S2000 myself and I have to say apart from the grunt of the 400bhp V8 , I preferred my Honda and under heavy load the Honda doesn't sound so bad either ( non standard air induction of course ).
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Friday, 13 July 2007
Best game I have played in ages....
Well I did it! I went and bought an RTS all I can say is wow.
What I am playing, well I have just started playing Supreme Commander and to coin a phrase from one of my favourite Podcaster's its "AMAZING". I played it straight for 10 hours last weekend. I havent done that since... probably my Starwars Galaxies addiction back when it first came out. The Cinemamatics are great and the cut scenes that describe the upcomming missions are very immersive. It also has a kick ass sound track, reminds me of the film The Hunt For Red October or maybe The Rock.. anyway.
THQ/Gas Powered Games Well done and thanks for restoring my belief that I can actually play non MMO games and really enjoy them.
What I am playing, well I have just started playing Supreme Commander and to coin a phrase from one of my favourite Podcaster's its "AMAZING". I played it straight for 10 hours last weekend. I havent done that since... probably my Starwars Galaxies addiction back when it first came out. The Cinemamatics are great and the cut scenes that describe the upcomming missions are very immersive. It also has a kick ass sound track, reminds me of the film The Hunt For Red October or maybe The Rock.. anyway.
THQ/Gas Powered Games Well done and thanks for restoring my belief that I can actually play non MMO games and really enjoy them.
Thursday, 12 July 2007
The Perfect MMO
Okay this is NOT finished.. but here goes ...
For a while now I have been looking for a new game to play. I was into Starwars Galaxies for a long time until the NGE came along and I felt I had to leave. Since this time I have tried WOW, Anarchy Online, Face Of Mankind, EVE and Arch Lord and most recently Lineage 2.
All apart from EVE in my opinion, lacked for me certain elements of what I needed in an MMO.
Things that I look for in an MMO:
Good points:
Engine
Decent Graphics ( does not have to be state of the art just ok )
Random faults, I think this is cool this happens in the real world when equipment breaks down maintenance of your equipment should be required at periodic intervals. Faults should beable to occur at anytime but are rare depending on use or abuse of your equipment. With regular maintenance probability of failure is reduced. A piece of equipment that is poorly maintained can malfunction catastropically causing injury to the whelder / destruction of the equipment or/and faster reduction in equipment life.
Faults can be broken down into several catagories:
Temporary Faults
i.e Gun Jam, Over Heating , Power Overload etc
Semi Permeant Fault
Repairable Fault with large/small loss of equipment life.
Permeant Fault:
Destruction through poor maintenance
Faulty equipment can be repaired.
The quality of the repair is based on the skill/Experience of the player doing the repair.
Mounts
Mounts can be used as extensions of your body i.e in combat you should beable to shoot and the mount should beable to attack closed ranged things like a pet.
Characters types
Male and Female thats it! Er what I mean is that Healers , Damage Dealers are simply skills you learn. Oh go on you can be a Female Fairy if you like!
Character/Customisation
Character customisation should be detailed. It should be very possible for everyone to look different.
Status bars: best I have seen is Health / Action / Mind.
or Shield / Armour / Hull athough for Mounts i.e ships it works slightly differently.
Things that effect HAM.
Fatigue: fatigue causes a reduction in the amount of useable Mind /Health/Action.
Economy
Player driven economy.
A Bazaar terminal with a maximum allowed value.
Player Auctions are possible as well as sales through bazaar.
Advanced crafting system
Player made Weapons , Armour objects with the exception of very limited Legendary Weapons i,e loot drop based 1 per server ( must have decay)
In world raw materials which everything is made from these materials spawn randomly for with a certain amount of availability.
Materials are mined through use of automated mining machines or gathering manually.
Everything made must decay through use or through age or both.
Crafters are able to sell their wares through the use of shops which they own.
Crafters can repair / maintain broken systems
Environment
A Player modifable environment
Player Housing
A real Avatar that can walk round and converse ( i.e not a SHIP as in EVE Online )
Player generated content
Players must have purpose/jobs , there must be a point to going out and killing in the wild.
Combat
Player Vs Player combat
PVE Combat
Multi faction based combat.
If NPC factions exist there should be a reason to fight them.
Effects
Animations
Enough with the crappy partical effects already.
Epic battles between different factions different guilds or corporations.
Battles between NPCs you should beable to join in if right faction.
Missions
Player bounty missions
NPC Corporations/factions etc can put jobs on publically accessable Mission terminals for reward.
Faction
Faction experience this can be earned through missions which are available on mission terminals
Player who can create missions on these terminals for factions as long as they have enough faction points
faction points are lost if mission is not completed. If mission is completed player gains faction.
Factions should have rank the high the rank the more faction points your need. Higher ranks can only be attained by
time and also by faction points. Faction points required for ranks get increasingly larger requiring missions to be created
and completed by your workers.
Faction points decrease slowly over time.
Control
Twitch based combat ground based FPS style and also on mounts i.e space ship combat or simply riding something.
Skill system
Skill proficiency through use of that skill.
Law and order
The law and order system in EVE works well I think it could be appiled to other world based MMO's also.
Each Area is assigned a security rating from 0.0 to 1.0.
Each player has a security status starting at 0 for killing a player or attacking non pirate NPCs you receive a negative security rating.
Systems that have a security rating of 0.5 and above have greater and greater defence's and attack strength. If a player gets a secuirty rating to low ( not sure how much) Concords EVE's police force will attack and eliminate that player. It has other variables as well but you get the picture.
Player that continually show antisocial behaviour can be handled in several ways : Bounty, They become a outlaw.
Beleive me there nothing more satisfying than removing an idiots character ( if only temporary ) as a Bounty Hunter :D
Groups
Guilds ( Social Group )
Hunting Party ( temporary group )
Corporation ( Business Group )
Alliances ( Gathering of Social or Business Groups )
A player can be in a Guild and in a Corporation which is Part of an Alliance.
Skills
Skills are skill books are bought each book allows you to use a certain piece of equipment after a period of learning.
More complex weapons systems take longer to learn.
Experience through use of weapon increases your deadlyness with that weapon
Each character can learn any skill they want the more they use it the better they get.
Weapons and Armour Systems
Weapons and Armour have the own stats.
All weapons can be deadly. Including hands / feet etc. Meaning you dont have to be a Master at a certain
weapon to kill another player it just helps.
Higher proficiency with weaponry can only be gained by training with a Master.
Magic
If Magic is to exist then it should be special and rare. Only the highest skilled should beable to wield it think of it as a legendary weapon only a few on the server with very limited use and it also decay's just like a legendary weapon. How to decide who has it difficult im still thinking about this one perhaps It cannot be earned it can only be given and then not to all Masters only a select few. Anyway im still thinking on this.
Death
Land Based Avatar
Death should be no laughing joke if a player runs out of some primary stat. Like health he should become incapacitated
If incapacitated 3 times death occurs.
If a player dies the player can lose all carried items. A player will then respawn at there cloning point. If a player visits his body he may beable
to get back lost items in a peroid of time.
Bad Idea's
No decay for the servers this is bad and causes a massive problem with databases. For the MMO player this means that you cannot realistically have a real economy since nothing ever needs replacing. The problem is exasperated when you introduce very powerfull weapons that come from loot drops. These weapons soon become the weapons they everybody wants and these never degrade so once a player has one of these. It can be used constantly. Making a special weapon not special.
Interworld Internet Search i.e a bazaar that can search. every players shop. This feature discourages customer loyalty and takes away a good in game dynamic of a customer->retailer relationship. It also requires less skill from the seller in choosing the right spot for a shop growing relations with your customers with this world search. The dynamic becomes more about cheapest or best of the best cutting out a large proportion of crafters. Since everyone who PVP's always wants the best of everything. Anything thats not the best is in contrast crap, of course this is rubbish but this is how it works in game in my experience.
Get rid of Levels these suck and it leads to levelism...It also means that your friends may not beable to come with you on your adentures do to not being the correct leave and being killed to easily.
Death locking you out of the game for 24hrs, this really sucks especially when your new and tend to die more often.
For a while now I have been looking for a new game to play. I was into Starwars Galaxies for a long time until the NGE came along and I felt I had to leave. Since this time I have tried WOW, Anarchy Online, Face Of Mankind, EVE and Arch Lord and most recently Lineage 2.
All apart from EVE in my opinion, lacked for me certain elements of what I needed in an MMO.
Things that I look for in an MMO:
Good points:
Engine
Decent Graphics ( does not have to be state of the art just ok )
Random faults, I think this is cool this happens in the real world when equipment breaks down maintenance of your equipment should be required at periodic intervals. Faults should beable to occur at anytime but are rare depending on use or abuse of your equipment. With regular maintenance probability of failure is reduced. A piece of equipment that is poorly maintained can malfunction catastropically causing injury to the whelder / destruction of the equipment or/and faster reduction in equipment life.
Faults can be broken down into several catagories:
Temporary Faults
i.e Gun Jam, Over Heating , Power Overload etc
Semi Permeant Fault
Repairable Fault with large/small loss of equipment life.
Permeant Fault:
Destruction through poor maintenance
Faulty equipment can be repaired.
The quality of the repair is based on the skill/Experience of the player doing the repair.
Mounts
Mounts can be used as extensions of your body i.e in combat you should beable to shoot and the mount should beable to attack closed ranged things like a pet.
Characters types
Male and Female thats it! Er what I mean is that Healers , Damage Dealers are simply skills you learn. Oh go on you can be a Female Fairy if you like!
Character/Customisation
Character customisation should be detailed. It should be very possible for everyone to look different.
Status bars: best I have seen is Health / Action / Mind.
or Shield / Armour / Hull athough for Mounts i.e ships it works slightly differently.
Things that effect HAM.
Fatigue: fatigue causes a reduction in the amount of useable Mind /Health/Action.
Economy
Player driven economy.
A Bazaar terminal with a maximum allowed value.
Player Auctions are possible as well as sales through bazaar.
Advanced crafting system
Player made Weapons , Armour objects with the exception of very limited Legendary Weapons i,e loot drop based 1 per server ( must have decay)
In world raw materials which everything is made from these materials spawn randomly for with a certain amount of availability.
Materials are mined through use of automated mining machines or gathering manually.
Everything made must decay through use or through age or both.
Crafters are able to sell their wares through the use of shops which they own.
Crafters can repair / maintain broken systems
Environment
A Player modifable environment
Player Housing
A real Avatar that can walk round and converse ( i.e not a SHIP as in EVE Online )
Player generated content
Players must have purpose/jobs , there must be a point to going out and killing in the wild.
Combat
Player Vs Player combat
PVE Combat
Multi faction based combat.
If NPC factions exist there should be a reason to fight them.
Effects
Animations
Enough with the crappy partical effects already.
Epic battles between different factions different guilds or corporations.
Battles between NPCs you should beable to join in if right faction.
Missions
Player bounty missions
NPC Corporations/factions etc can put jobs on publically accessable Mission terminals for reward.
Faction
Faction experience this can be earned through missions which are available on mission terminals
Player who can create missions on these terminals for factions as long as they have enough faction points
faction points are lost if mission is not completed. If mission is completed player gains faction.
Factions should have rank the high the rank the more faction points your need. Higher ranks can only be attained by
time and also by faction points. Faction points required for ranks get increasingly larger requiring missions to be created
and completed by your workers.
Faction points decrease slowly over time.
Control
Twitch based combat ground based FPS style and also on mounts i.e space ship combat or simply riding something.
Skill system
Skill proficiency through use of that skill.
Law and order
The law and order system in EVE works well I think it could be appiled to other world based MMO's also.
Each Area is assigned a security rating from 0.0 to 1.0.
Each player has a security status starting at 0 for killing a player or attacking non pirate NPCs you receive a negative security rating.
Systems that have a security rating of 0.5 and above have greater and greater defence's and attack strength. If a player gets a secuirty rating to low ( not sure how much) Concords EVE's police force will attack and eliminate that player. It has other variables as well but you get the picture.
Player that continually show antisocial behaviour can be handled in several ways : Bounty, They become a outlaw.
Beleive me there nothing more satisfying than removing an idiots character ( if only temporary ) as a Bounty Hunter :D
Groups
Guilds ( Social Group )
Hunting Party ( temporary group )
Corporation ( Business Group )
Alliances ( Gathering of Social or Business Groups )
A player can be in a Guild and in a Corporation which is Part of an Alliance.
Skills
Skills are skill books are bought each book allows you to use a certain piece of equipment after a period of learning.
More complex weapons systems take longer to learn.
Experience through use of weapon increases your deadlyness with that weapon
Each character can learn any skill they want the more they use it the better they get.
Weapons and Armour Systems
Weapons and Armour have the own stats.
All weapons can be deadly. Including hands / feet etc. Meaning you dont have to be a Master at a certain
weapon to kill another player it just helps.
Higher proficiency with weaponry can only be gained by training with a Master.
Magic
If Magic is to exist then it should be special and rare. Only the highest skilled should beable to wield it think of it as a legendary weapon only a few on the server with very limited use and it also decay's just like a legendary weapon. How to decide who has it difficult im still thinking about this one perhaps It cannot be earned it can only be given and then not to all Masters only a select few. Anyway im still thinking on this.
Death
Land Based Avatar
Death should be no laughing joke if a player runs out of some primary stat. Like health he should become incapacitated
If incapacitated 3 times death occurs.
If a player dies the player can lose all carried items. A player will then respawn at there cloning point. If a player visits his body he may beable
to get back lost items in a peroid of time.
Bad Idea's
No decay for the servers this is bad and causes a massive problem with databases. For the MMO player this means that you cannot realistically have a real economy since nothing ever needs replacing. The problem is exasperated when you introduce very powerfull weapons that come from loot drops. These weapons soon become the weapons they everybody wants and these never degrade so once a player has one of these. It can be used constantly. Making a special weapon not special.
Interworld Internet Search i.e a bazaar that can search. every players shop. This feature discourages customer loyalty and takes away a good in game dynamic of a customer->retailer relationship. It also requires less skill from the seller in choosing the right spot for a shop growing relations with your customers with this world search. The dynamic becomes more about cheapest or best of the best cutting out a large proportion of crafters. Since everyone who PVP's always wants the best of everything. Anything thats not the best is in contrast crap, of course this is rubbish but this is how it works in game in my experience.
Get rid of Levels these suck and it leads to levelism...It also means that your friends may not beable to come with you on your adentures do to not being the correct leave and being killed to easily.
Death locking you out of the game for 24hrs, this really sucks especially when your new and tend to die more often.
Friday, 6 July 2007
The Chaos Engine is born hip hip hurray
Welcome to "The Chaos Engine" ok what is the chaos engine? Well its a blog about what I Uncle Cyrus gets upto in real life and in the virtual world... Yes I am a damn gaming addict and it
usually revolves around MMO's or MMOG's thats Massivley Multiplayer Online Games.
I think the title of the blog describes what I think of general movement with todays society and towards and life virtual and not.
A little about myself first. First and formost am an English Gamer have been since the age of 11 when i got my first computer and second im a Software Developer by trade. Sorry but thats just my priorities!! :D
What sort of games am I into well MMO's as I have already stated and also im into RTS thats Real Time Stratery and FPS . First Person Shooters....
--History--
MMO's
So how did I come across MMO's when I guess the first time I was exposed to MMO's was on a service called Prestel/Micronet god that is along time ago :D I had a crappy modem and used to log into usually not very sucessfully into a MUD ( Multi User Dungeon ) called Shades. The there it was years later before I got into proper MUDs at College the main distraction
being Cheeseplants House (Chat based) hosted at Warrick University ah the JANET network... I even wrote a crappy one at Oxford Polytech anway I digress. This experience basically forged what was to become an Epic addiction. Okay lets fast forward so what I am playing now...
EVE Online
Lineage 2
RTS
I started on a game for the Amiga ( damn that was a fine machine ) called Megalomania ( Awesome for its time ) and Supremacy ( also very good ). This trend advanced as the computing power advanced. Moving forward in time I liked very playing Starcraft which was my first real PC RTS followed by its subsequent Broodwars expansion. Okay best RTS yet? Difficult because Starcraft was aewsome but Stronghold Crusador was very good too. I bought the more recent versions but they didnt get me like Strong Crusador did. Currently I have just bought Supreme Commander , damn I cant wait to get the cellophane off!
FPS
ok this started with Doom then Doom2 .. Unreal .. I had some late nights at work, then onto Halflife + expansions , Doom 3 and now im into Battlefields 2.
Okay thats enough typing for now ...Seeya.
usually revolves around MMO's or MMOG's thats Massivley Multiplayer Online Games.
I think the title of the blog describes what I think of general movement with todays society and towards and life virtual and not.
A little about myself first. First and formost am an English Gamer have been since the age of 11 when i got my first computer and second im a Software Developer by trade. Sorry but thats just my priorities!! :D
What sort of games am I into well MMO's as I have already stated and also im into RTS thats Real Time Stratery and FPS . First Person Shooters....
--History--
MMO's
So how did I come across MMO's when I guess the first time I was exposed to MMO's was on a service called Prestel/Micronet god that is along time ago :D I had a crappy modem and used to log into usually not very sucessfully into a MUD ( Multi User Dungeon ) called Shades. The there it was years later before I got into proper MUDs at College the main distraction
being Cheeseplants House (Chat based) hosted at Warrick University ah the JANET network... I even wrote a crappy one at Oxford Polytech anway I digress. This experience basically forged what was to become an Epic addiction. Okay lets fast forward so what I am playing now...
EVE Online
Lineage 2
RTS
I started on a game for the Amiga ( damn that was a fine machine ) called Megalomania ( Awesome for its time ) and Supremacy ( also very good ). This trend advanced as the computing power advanced. Moving forward in time I liked very playing Starcraft which was my first real PC RTS followed by its subsequent Broodwars expansion. Okay best RTS yet? Difficult because Starcraft was aewsome but Stronghold Crusador was very good too. I bought the more recent versions but they didnt get me like Strong Crusador did. Currently I have just bought Supreme Commander , damn I cant wait to get the cellophane off!
FPS
ok this started with Doom then Doom2 .. Unreal .. I had some late nights at work, then onto Halflife + expansions , Doom 3 and now im into Battlefields 2.
Okay thats enough typing for now ...Seeya.
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