Developers Corner

I have posted in the Developer's Corner forums for a long time now, mostly regarding the possibilities for the MMO genre in the area of the vast untapped potential that arises from the interactions of the players themselves with a dynamic world where their actions create ever-changing situations. 

I have also written extensively about how a dynamic natural economy of the game world is an important element on which dynamic interaction can be encouraged to take place.   Over the years I have worked out a design for just such a game, and at various times I have conducted tests of various small aspects of the overall idea using whatever means I have had available to me. 

Many of you might have noticed the long-running Dynamic World Simulation thread where the theoretical possibilities of a game world developing completely based on player actions was extensively discussed and enacted mainly through written communication in conjunction with some very rudimentary programs that made various calculations to provide a very limited framework.

I personally do not have the resources either temporal or fiscal to even begin to bring this design to full fruition, but I have written a very basic test program using the systems available to me that I am currently familiar with.  As time goes on I would hope for a more robust self-contained program that would either run client-side or in a web-browser.  Even now that step is far away, and the steps beyond that?  Well let's just cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, if anyone is interested in participating in the current phase of this design test, just take a look at my blog here on mmorpg.com:  http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/ironore   and read the basic information there and then contact me if you wish to move forward.

We could also use this thread to discuss aspects of the design itself of the current test or even just the theory of the possibilities.  I have always enjoyed the creative environment I have found for the most part each time I come to mmorpg.com in the Developer's Corner.

Thank you all for your collaborative discussions and interest in this fascinating form of entertainment that has the potential for limitless possibility.

Originally posted by ironore

 

I have posted in the Developer's Corner forums for a long time now, mostly regarding the possibilities for the MMO genre in the area of the vast untapped potential that arises from the interactions of the players themselves with a dynamic world where their actions create ever-changing situations. 

I have also written extensively about how a dynamic natural economy of the game world is an important element on which dynamic interaction can be encouraged to take place.   Over the years I have worked out a design for just such a game, and at various times I have conducted tests of various small aspects of the overall idea using whatever means I have had available to me. 

Many of you might have noticed the long-running Dynamic World Simulation thread where the theoretical possibilities of a game world developing completely based on player actions was extensively discussed and enacted mainly through written communication in conjunction with some very rudimentary programs that made various calculations to provide a very limited framework.

I personally do not have the resources either temporal or fiscal to even begin to bring this design to full fruition, but I have written a very basic test program using the systems available to me that I am currently familiar with.  As time goes on I would hope for a more robust self-contained program that would either run client-side or in a web-browser.  Even now that step is far away, and the steps beyond that?  Well let's just cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, if anyone is interested in participating in the current phase of this design test, just take a look at my blog here on mmorpg.com:  http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/ironore   and read the basic information there and then contact me if you wish to move forward.

We could also use this thread to discuss aspects of the design itself of the current test or even just the theory of the possibilities.  I have always enjoyed the creative environment I have found for the most part each time I come to mmorpg.com in the Developer's Corner.

Thank you all for your collaborative discussions and interest in this fascinating form of entertainment that has the potential for limitless possibility.

Is that spin or are you just after some free consultancy ?

Originally posted by Isane

Originally posted by ironore

 

I have posted in the Developer's Corner forums for a long time now, mostly regarding the possibilities for the MMO genre in the area of the vast untapped potential that arises from the interactions of the players themselves with a dynamic world where their actions create ever-changing situations. 

I have also written extensively about how a dynamic natural economy of the game world is an important element on which dynamic interaction can be encouraged to take place.   Over the years I have worked out a design for just such a game, and at various times I have conducted tests of various small aspects of the overall idea using whatever means I have had available to me. 

Many of you might have noticed the long-running Dynamic World Simulation thread where the theoretical possibilities of a game world developing completely based on player actions was extensively discussed and enacted mainly through written communication in conjunction with some very rudimentary programs that made various calculations to provide a very limited framework.

I personally do not have the resources either temporal or fiscal to even begin to bring this design to full fruition, but I have written a very basic test program using the systems available to me that I am currently familiar with.  As time goes on I would hope for a more robust self-contained program that would either run client-side or in a web-browser.  Even now that step is far away, and the steps beyond that?  Well let's just cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, if anyone is interested in participating in the current phase of this design test, just take a look at my blog here on mmorpg.com:  http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/ironore   and read the basic information there and then contact me if you wish to move forward.

We could also use this thread to discuss aspects of the design itself of the current test or even just the theory of the possibilities.  I have always enjoyed the creative environment I have found for the most part each time I come to mmorpg.com in the Developer's Corner.

Thank you all for your collaborative discussions and interest in this fascinating form of entertainment that has the potential for limitless possibility.

 

Is that spin or are you just after some free consultancy ?

That is just where people can get the basic information...what's your point?

I just wanted to be sure that participants didn't get the idea that this was some full-fledged beta of an indie game or anything like that.  It is just a very simple test, like a MUD in some ways, only without being online so input has to be sent, updated and returned.

So if anyone is looking for a game, this wouldn't be it, but if anyone is interested in the concept of a dynamic player driven world, then you might check it out.  The blog has instructions for how to get started.

So basically a pen and paper type thing?   add in a bit of roleplay, and a goal of debugging player driven world mechanics.  Maybe getting closer to fixing some things like keeping away from grind, while having those who would gladly grind not completely take over the world.

Why are you trading files around for this? It would be really easy to set up a web page for it, or use existing technologies like a google spreadhseet. You could make a web form that emails you for the interface, and have a constantly updated google spreadsheet that shows the current state of things for each player. Also I think zoho has some pretty nice database technologies that you could actually create the whole thing with. Or someone could write something in php.

It just feels so 1990's to trade excel files around, and that kind of thing really turns me off, especially when there is so much free and easy technology around to make life easier.

I'd be willing to help set something up.

I actually just started the programming to crunch some numbers, but it ballooned into a workable test with multiple user input, but I just used what I had started with.  I have hopes of learning some more php and getting it all to run through a browser eventually.  I'm not sure of all the capabilities of google spreadsheets but I'm not sure if they can do indirect references, though I will definitely look into it.  I hadn't heard of zoho but it sounds promising.  I will have to do some more research.  Thank you for the information.

Isn't that the way of it?  Disappointment and setbacks.  It turns out that the program could no longer perform the calculations after just 5 character files were created.  Not nearly enough to get some really dynamic interactions going.  I knew, and made clear, that there would be slow-downs and crashes, but I had anticipated things working for at least a little while.  I may try again on a faster machine, but it is unlikely to make much of a difference.  

One thing I had hoped to do besides see the basics of dynamic player interaction begin to take root, was to balance some of the arbitrary variables, such as resource extraction, replenishment, decay, build rates, etc. 

Perhaps I will do some of that while I work on moving things to a better platform.  Any suggestions? 
I looked at zoho.com but it seems that most of their apps cost if they are to have full functionality.

I'm developing a MUD server system with dynamic worlds and ease of customization as my primary objectives (I've detailed the kind of game I have in mind in some older threads), and it would be a honor for me if you wanted to use it for your experiments. Gimme maybe a month or 2 to have a stable Linux version and translate the basic documentation to English.

One of our test servers even had its own dynamic climate and ecology systems; I'm trying to make the system as flexible as I can, so I need this kind of challenges.