Sins of Solar Empire MMORPG

I was thinking about it the other day when I was in a really long game with the AI that spanned over total of 40 hours. And my thinking was that wouldnt this game be a really cool MMORPG?

I mean the engine is pretty much there, needs some tweaking so it is easier to auto-follow your avatar-ship. But if done I think it would really be cool.

  • Start as a frigate in one of the empires and then move yourself up towards cruisers and then eventually capital ships.
  • Have the AI control the main empires but let players join in the battles and possible affect the outcome
  • Allow player corporations with alot of money to colonise planets and build starbases and then wage war against other corps.
  • Have uncharted space with pirates and other dangerous ships/entities for raid content.

I think it would be really cool. Question is, how much work would it take to evolve Sins to an MMORPG? Obviously alot of network code needs to be done and that 2 GB memory limit needs to be fixed as the server needs to use alot more memory than that so for sure it would take work. But what an awesome MMORPG it would be...

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Reply #1 Top

Well, not exactly a massively multiplayer, but more massively multiplayer than this, is the game Freelancer, which is still around since 2002, with a strong modding community. Its a single ship game which closely approximates the sins as single player ship idea..

Take a look here: http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?act=uportal for what is probably still the largest Freelancer community, with a few thousand actives on a server that can hold up to 200 people. I loved it for years.

Otherwise, you're describing Eve, and X2/X3 as well.

Reply #2 Top

X2/X3 has no multiplayer support, to my knowledge and Freelancer is way too outdated. Eve is the only one that has somewhat updated GFX but the game emphasizes economy and crafting much more than combat, which is kinda lacklustre.

I guess what my question would be if Sins could be modded to be run as a persistant game? Theoretically it should not be an issue since player hosted games are already possible.

So what needs to be done other than that is to let people log in/of but not lose their ships and belongings and a player only be able to control one ship. Ofcourse alot of other stuff is needed to make the game fun but is it at all possible?

Reply #3 Top

There is already such a MMORPG. Its called Eve online. And if u looks closely sins is based on eve a lot.

Its what i liked in this game at first. then i started to appreciate other things.

Reply #4 Top

That would be a pretty lame MMORPG if people had to fight AI.   The real Sins game is playing against human opponents over ICO.

Reply #5 Top

Ive always had this idea of 1v1 , but you have 5 players controlling each side.

It be really cool , because some people can concentrate on expansion and economy , others can uber-micro capital ships whereelse others can choose to work the smaller units.

Id come back to sins if they allowed this.

 The best thing is , if one guy drops , it wont make much of a difference.

It would be fun for noobs.

Reply #6 Top

P5yy u should return anywhay. It would be a great pleasure to play again with one of me teachers from the past.

Reply #7 Top

I think the op may have meant a MMO-RTS than a RPG. Although a MMO-RTS-RPG is possible, though when said out loud makes one sound special lol.

If there are any persistant servers operable then the possibilities for Soase can be endless. Imagine 3 or more players on a singular solar system, alliances may be forged and broken, trust gained or destroyed, one player may arise to be the dominant Emperor only to be crushed by a combined fleet of other players. Assuming the server can handle the load and more adequete defences/competant AI (when a player is offline his/her empire isnt buttraped) then such games will be amazing and knowing Soase each session/game will last hours on end. Think we can all say a little bit of backstabbing is nice.

 

Aethyr

Reply #8 Top

yeah u describe eve almost perfectly.

Reply #9 Top

Quar , Ive been bitten by the starcraft 2 bug.

Reply #10 Top

Ever played allegiance?

Its not really an mmo... but it does kinda feel like sins, but your a ship.

not quite enough capital ships though. 

http://www.freeallegiance.org/

Reply #11 Top

I've played some Allegiance, it was a pretty incredible concept that I think wasn't quite friendly enough to the casual gamer -- definitely hardcore gamer territory.

Reply #12 Top

ya, your preety right cykur.

 

but, sins multiplayer isnt really casual either... you gotta set up a few hours of open time just incase a game gets a little long epic.

Reply #13 Top

Yeah, it has been one of the reasons I just can't play much.  I had a 2v2 degenerate into a 1v1 one time where neither one of us would surrender and we kept managing to rebuff the other and make offensives.  The game went over 5 hours before I finally had to concede (my ally left me in a shitty position, but the other guy played incredible too). 

I have had many 5v5's go into the 3+ hour territory, even though most are over in 1.5 hours.  It is hard to set aside that kind of time these days.

Reply #14 Top

Well the reason MMO-RTS are so hard to create is that the moment you log of everything pretty much goes down the drain.

No, what I meant is actually an MMORPG where you control one and only one ship (plus fighters if you have a capital ship capable of housing them) and then you live in one of the three empires, who are controlled by AI, and try to affect the outcome.

That way you can engage into the many fleet battles that the AI take part in or make your own raid, deep in enemy territory with some friends. Likewise you may end up fighting other people doing the same thing you are but for the other sides.

I mean how much extra work would it need to make it possible? The GFX engine is really nice so not much improvment needs to be done there and the AI seems quite capable of fighting each other so I imagine the bulk of the work would be to create a server-client architecture where the server holds the state of the persistant world and keep track on the AI.

I for one would think it would be a great game...

Reply #15 Top

The old Starfleet Command starship simulators had a persistent universe mode that worked kind of like that....players would contest different sectors and destroy things like starbases or enemy patrols, sometimes fighting with each other.  Based on player actions, hexes would eventually flip to their empire.  They would also build up command and reputation from successful missions to get access to bigger and better starships.  With current technology, the whole process could be a lot more seamless.

Reply #16 Top

Yes I played SC 3 and it was pretty awesome with the multiplayer, persistant galaxy feature. Dont understand why no other game like it is being released.

Reply #17 Top

Does anyone remember Star Fleet I: the War Begins?  It was a BASIC game with simple ASCII graphics, but it rocked back in the day (oh, say, 1985).  Maybe Frogboy grew up blasting Krellans and Zaldrons, too.

Reply #18 Top

http://infinity-universe.com/

Reply #19 Top

Dont think Infinity will ever be released. It is being developed by one guy, part-time.

Reply #20 Top

Does anyone remember Star Fleet I: the War Begins? It was a BASIC game with simple ASCII graphics, but it rocked back in the day (oh, say, 1985). Maybe Frogboy grew up blasting Krellans and Zaldrons, too.

 

Yep, played it back in the day.  Here is a link to a remake of the game:

 

http://www.symbioticsoftware.net/starfleet/downloads.htm

 

Reply #21 Top

infinity now has financial backing, a team, and a corporate identity.  I can see it being released, and once it does it'll hopefully knock our socks off.

Reply #22 Top

If no one minds starcraft 1 style graphics, there is shattered galaxy. It's not in space, but it's sci-fi MMORTS.

Reply #23 Top

I thought about games such as this.  Although in my case I thought the empires should be controlled by players.  There would not just be captains of ships, but players would also be governors and politicians and fighter pilots, and maybe even researchers and ground fighters.