Forum - Space Odyssey MMORPG - a massive free online space game

I realize there was a thread already started here (http://forum.spaceo.net/index.php/topic,3771.0.html) and alot of good ideas came out of that including the interactive missions which have now been implemented.  I have some more ideas and wanted to start a new thread to see what other players thought. 

The main goals are:
Attract more players to SO and keep them.
Make the Gold Membership more valuable by creating more benefits.
Create more activities that can be done without turns and increase SOs playability without overbalancing the game.

1. Make a "Gambling" area where players can indulge in Blackjack or some other easy-to-code game of chance.  This would cost no turns and the Max Bet would be based on the player's Commander Level.  (Max Bet= Commander Lvl^2*5000)  Gold members have their Max bet raised by 200%

2.  Create a PVP Arena at an out-of-galaxy area players can jump to for 0 turns.  Once their fight is over they immediately warp back to the galaxy but are able to return indefinitely.  The Arena would be just like a system except that no 'real' attacks are possible.  If you want to fight someone you must challenge them and they must accept.  In the Arena no fights are real in that you do not lose your ships.  No real damage is dealt no ships can be captured and no marines are killed.  The Arena would NOT be somewhere to make money but more of a proving ground to see whose ships are best.  Gold members would be able to enter a tournament with 10 lvls of NPC fleets.  If you can finish all 10 levels your name is placed on the bulletin board in the Arena for all players to see.  How long it took, what power etc.  This would not affect gameplay besides allowing your opponent the chance to see what fleet composition you had.


3. Because the Interactive Missions are doing so well I thought we could expand on that idea.  In the Mothership Missions tab you could add a section with 4 headings:

Away Missions - Explore the planet's surface.
Scientific Discovery - Space based exploration.
Diplomatic Negotiations - Interactive story telling.
Weapons Lab - Crafting

Away missions would be at least 10 steps with many possible outcomes, but low success rate for a reward.  It could be nearly anything such as exploring a cave complex, long abandoned ruins, crop ciricles or whatever.  Rewards would be VERY basic.  (Hack Cards) (100-1000 workers) and based on your Commander Lvl.  Gold Members would recieve 200% rewards.

Scientific Discovery would be almost identicle to the away mission but based on spatial anomolies. 

Diplomatic Negotiations would be somthing totally different.  The mission difficulty could be based on your reputation and Gold members would have the ability to earn a valuable "Schematic" if they conclude peaceful negotiations with the aliens.

The schematics would be an item that could then be used in the Weapons Lab mission.  Without a Schematic the Weapons Lab is unavailable.  Schematics provide a recipe of trade goods that are required to build the standard items.  For example

Schematic Name:  Prophet's Dark Energy Ray
Item Ability: Attack +25%
Market Value: 500,000,000
Ingredients(each): High tech scanner * 1000, Super Conductors * 5000, Rocket Fuel * 100,000

The use of ingredients would give the trade goods more use and reduce the ability to use crafting as an exploit as long as the ingredient value was very close to the market value of the finished item.  Of course if a player wanted to spend hours buying everything on the market at a decent price to craft items for slightly less that is their option.  Each schematic would only produce 1-10 of each item and if you craft multiples you need more resources. 


Please post your thoughts and let's all help emi make SO the best game on the net!

Very interesting Prophit cool

Well crafting seems to be the next logical step, I have been contemplating a crafting system for some time now... still gathering all the ideas for the project...

The Interactive Mission will probably be those that will provide the blueprints for the items. Also, probably research of the blueprint, etc.
Also would like to manufacture trade goods from asteroid minerals and reprocess items back into trade goods and trade goods into minerals, not buy them on the market. CHOAM will intermediate all trades, like it does with items. So if you get a blueprint you could mine the roids, produce some trade goods or items and then sell for profit... of course some items would be more demanded then others...

Course you'll have to gather all the blueprints if planing to craft a nice item, e.g. if it requires 3 trade goods blueprints and the item blueprint. Or buy the trade goods off the market and use the item blueprint.  :)

So I guess there will be a new orbital structure, "Manufacturing Facility" where you will manufacture stuff...

some very good ideas prophet. the one about the challenge arena thing could do very well. it would help old players teach new players and also keep people playing

would the blackjack cards be shaped like spaceships

I like the crafting idea alot. It could help attract some players that are new to the sci-fi genre by giving them something familiar (to fantasy rpg players at least)

I would enjoy the arena very much... maybe you can get experience for defeating an opponent..or else there people will get bored of it the next day

Yeah a PvP Arena sounds cool too, commanders could join like a tournament were each have a certain fleet power they can use.
The tournaments will have a power level, e.g. 100.000.000 fleet power, 1 bil, 100 bil.

Then after 20 commanders join a tournament it starts. Then each of them is paired with another, so 10 vs. 10. After that the winers are paired again 5 vs. 5, etc. until the final, and the winner get CP and turns, depending on the tournament power... Everyone else gets 10 x regular combat experience, depending on what they destroyed and the outcome of the battle.

How it works:
The commanders deposit fleets in a ship pool up to the tournament power limit. The ships are transfered to the tournament to make the armada. The server pairs and displays the upcoming battles in advance on each of the tournaments. Battles are fought each hour using the ships deposited and results posted on the Arena board for all to see. Up to the battle, the commander will be able to change / add to the ship roster. After each battle, the winning commander has to reorder / confirm his tournament armada before the next battle can begin or else a forfeit will be issued. Each tournament will have one battle / commander per day in order to give them time to redo their fleets after the battle. One can also join more then one tournaments but will have to use separate fleet pools.

I like this idea, try and get it going as soon as you can emi  :wow:

i like the tournament idea. also, i like the other mission varieties but i think that, instead of creating mission types, the tools for generating missions should be expanded. features such as savable mission templates, mission linking and linking to previous steps could all add to this. linking to documents or " mission systems"would also be cool (this would allow creators to transfer schematics locations). on a side note, i think that the npc planets should be incorporated into missions and serve as the basis for a persistent plot-line (add more planets, give them governments and seats on the council). by doing this, it would become possible to also include galaxy wide events (such as alien invasions). note that if missions could effect players other then the participant, many more doors open up.

sry for the ranting format of this post... been a long day. thx for reading.

Crafting
There should be Interactive templates made for the exploration missions, one for each terrain/planet type and have the steps appear in random order to stop people from memorizing which steps lead to blueprints, workers, creds, whatever. 
         "Your away party lands in a large grassy clearing, you see desert to the north and jungle to the east." these two options could be randomly selected from a list or the potential reward found in these locations could be randomized.
If these missions are going to be 0 turn missions then the chance of success should be fairly low as well as the blueprints being a single use item to avoid flooding the market with hundreds or thousands of useless items.
A new station facility would be perfect and 'force' players to build stations if they want to craft.  However as stations are limited in use and availability (expecially at the begining of a round) by introducing the council planets into the galaxy they could also offer workspace in exchange for a cut of the profits (2%-10%)
This could also deserve it's own research branch "Crafting" giving bonuses to ingredients level -X%, item ability +X%, item yield +X%, Crafting XP gained +X%. 


Arena
I thought this would be popular!
I think there would have to be more restrictions as to what fleets would be allowed or have different "weight classes"  Ultralight - Swarmers (Hull <100) Total FP <1 000 000
             Light - Swarmers (Hull 101- 1000) Total FP <10 000 000
             Medium - Single fleet (Hull 1001-10000) Total FP < 10 000 000
             Heavy - Mix (singles or swarms) Total FP <1Bil
             Super heavy - Singles - No FP limit

Again, if the council planets were introduced I would imagine that is where you would sign up for a tourney.  The different classes may have to wait until there are more players interested.  Another possibility would be creating an Alliance Tourney, where the fleet capacity was increased and each alliance could enter their own fleets.  I think we need more Alliance based content to add more of social aspect to the game for those players that want it.
             

good idea prophet but i would ad section in the forum for win/loss ratio for competing alliances it might help with alliance pride and loyalty :21:

good ideas, though this game is becoming too complex and time consuming, one of the main reasons fewer and fewer can actually play it

i love the pvp arena idea, crafting would be cool too

Well this would all be nice....but I doubt if any could be added any time in the near future.   :wounded1:  Also if any of these ideas will be used it might be a good idea to come up with a specific theme... like instead of adding more tabs on to the game did it occur to anyone that it could be a structure located a every system as an encounter that never disappears.  It could look like a space station and when you click on it's picture it acts like a game within a game...

Say I found this encounter called "Space Station", clicked on it.  A screen pops up, it has a few options like: SHOP, Gamble, and VIP GOLD.

-SHOP contains:RARE Items you can buy or sell, special avatar pictures, buy banners and etc...other player designed, and etc for in game credits or CP.

-Gamble contains: card games, board games, and slot games:each with a different set of credit bet limits....

-VIP GOLD contains: extra bonuses for gold members such as: buy SP or AP items for ship designs, get enhanced gambling high-bet gambling games for gold members, and etc...

-Crafting area....
 
-and many additional possibilities can be extended onto to the "local space stations"....endless possibilities....

is there any chance that tournaments could be cross server?

No way, since servers are not in sync, number one player on first one could be 100 times smaller, than on the other.

ok, the gambling idea could work only if you have games of pure chance, like slots and roulette. Blackjack=worst idea ever, as winning in it is EASY. and that's without counting cards.

some of the other ideas sound pretty good though.

First of all, the easiest way to program Blackjack makes card-counting worthless. Second, if the odds were always in the players favor no matter what the hosts do, casinos would not have blackhack tables very often, now would they.

Not that I'm pro-blackjack or anything.

I'm talking about if you give it a standard deck. aka 4 of each card. Secondly, blackjack is easy to win WITHOUT counting. Most people who gamble are usually drunk, not thinking about their moves, or stupid taking risks they shouldn't. Black jack is about knowing how to play the cards you don't have, not the ones you do.

As long as it's games that the player has no control over the outcome (blackjack a player chooses to hit/stay/split/double up, ect)then it would work great, as everyone has an equal chance at winning.

However, I think we should avoid the gambling addition, as not all players are 21/legal gambling age in their countries, and we want to be kid friendly, lol.

Eh, maybe it is just me then. Because I always seem to loose money on blackjack in the long run.

It's all about the total, if you get a 10, a 9 or an ace, you split, and ALWAYS hold at 19 and up, 18 usually unless you feel lucky.

if you get 16, doule up, you tend to get 21 off of those.

hence why Blackjack would be a bad addition if we had a gambling part to the game.

Hmm, don't gambling laws only apply when something is actually bet?

When people gamble in a game like this, none of the stuff involved is their actual property, from a legal standpoint. I would think that there would not be much trouble from that direction.

legally, no trouble, but as a supposedly "family friendly" game, any gambling=not kid friendly. That's what I was meaning.

I guess you do have a point there.

ya, but idk how many kids/families actually play, so it may not actually be a problem. Idk, just figured it should be pointed out, lol.

Gambling's age rating in games is just 8+, and we have a 13+ joining age.
No biggie IMHO.
You could also make it so they have to turn it on from the account room before they can use it?
Plus it would give people something to do when they burn turns, lol.

Oh concerning how Blackjack "is so easy"...first of all I never played blackjack but I would suggest easier games have smaller rewards where as harder or more random chance of winning games pay out bigger....

PS: the nice thing about having it the way I suggested as separate rooms/areas  in a space station is you can set limits or age requirements.....PS: age required areas would ask for a players info before use....


Gambling area: could be split in to 4 areas<

1.)UNDERAGE GAMES -games not casino related...(emi and others could use other "flash games" as the basis....)
2.)VIP UNDERAGE GAMES- underage gold members only.  They can place higher bets on games that are found to be appropriate for their age bracket. (give more a selection)....

3.)OVER 18+ games- casino games and such normal limit bets based on probability of winning
4.) VIP OVER 18+ - must be gold members and must be over 18.  Higher bet limits. (Maybe a slightly better chance of winning a little overall)

And how will we verify? Anyone can give false info you know...

uh..in US, even online gambling of ANY sort is 18+, period. And as I said..we advertise the game as family-friendly. A lot of religions forbid any sort of gambling, so not exactly the smartest thing then, that was my point.

It's called a credit card/check number. a lot of places do this, and you don't need to charge them anything, called a verification charge, aka, $0.00 appears from whoever was checking to ensure it was real, if at all.

Wow, really?
The pokemanz games have gambling and they are just 8+ . But I suppose they do only have slots.
Gaia Online is another hugely successful 13+ game/community/thing, and they have a nice casino, lol.
We could just have lame arcade games for bonuses, or something like that, right?  :sweat

Well, you see, there is a difference.

Real Munniez ≠ Fake Munniez

Gambling laws only apply when you're actually gambling something.

It's called a credit card/check number. a lot of places do this, and you don't need to charge them anything, called a verification charge, aka, $0.00 appears from whoever was checking to ensure it was real, if at all.
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Um i love this game and have played plenty, donated thru payplal before so i would trust emi with a credit check.

BUT, some people arnt as trusting as i am and some people WHO are of age dont use credit cards or any plastic. so what do we do there?

Well, there's always the option of not letting them use the Casino section. Remember, the place will be nearly inconsequential, so it is completely up to them whether they want to do what it takes to gain access.

This goes for any method a designer may choose for verification, not just credit cards.

Of course, there may be less objectable methods for verification that greatly smallificates the group of potential skeptics. But there will always be a group that does not want to do that which you may ask of them. It is just a question of how big of a group is too big.

I said online gambling, lol. So places that have poker/black jack/ect and you can gamble. Since the gaia/pokemon games use stuff that can only be used in game, those are considered minigames, because US lawmakers are weird like that. I was merely pointint it out as something to keep in mind if we do it. I'm personally all for it.