Strategy Game Collaboration

Experimental RTS/Space sim Collaborative Coding Project.
The goal is to design a game with structure/settings/balance of Starcraft and scale of Eve Online(i.e. huge space battles, space empires,etc).
Though this wouldn't stop anyone from contributing code/feedback/criticism, i'll be coordinating the project.
All code/ideas should be posted in this and subsequent threads which i'll start as needed.
step #1: We will collaboratively create a name for our project.
Each suggestion must explain why this name fits the project and why its better then any other generic name.

Space battles? That's not realistic.

>>2 Game settings is science fiction. Some degree of realism is desired but not mandatory.
Anything which could exist in Startrek/Starwars without explanation is good enough for the game and its background story
(narrative element should be a strong point of the game, not an afterthought).


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Free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

I suggest using existing free software as a base. Might I suggest http://vegastrike.sf.net

>>4 I find this suggestion intriguing. Will could reuse some code and ideas from them, but this should be more of top-down design rather than a mod or fork of Vega Strike. These guys don't deserve to be plagiarized completely and their project could diverge from out goals. Here is roadmap:
First #1 naming the project. Unique,non-copyrighted name which sounds good.
#2 choosing a Language/Library platform from which we will code the project.
#3 choosing a common compiler toolkit, so that everyone uses the same version of design software.
#4 Creating or reusing existing engine into a space simulator.
#5 Adding physical effects and game features into simulator, until playable demo (single ship) is working.
#6 Adding player interface and dialog systems.
#7 Adding multimedia assets,character designs and unit textures.
#8 Multiplayer support.
#9 Distributing the alpha/beta via Sourceforge/Megaupload/Rapidshare/etc
#10 polishing the game so it has balance,intuitive interface and free of bugs.

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A State is absolute in the sense which I have in mind when it claims the right to a monopoly of all the force within the community, to make war, to make peace, to conscript life, to tax, to establish and dis-establish property, to define crime, to punish disobedience, to control education, to supervise the family, to regulate personal habits, and to censor opinions. The modern State claims all of these powers, and, in the matter of theory, there is no real difference in the size of the claim between communists, fascists, and democrats.

Oh, i would also suggest using the scrolling "StarWars"-esque text as intro for missions.



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A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting.

ihbt

fv, I don't know how you can honestly be real.  how anyone can honestly troll prog for this long, have sigs, etc.  is really beyond me.  I really feel kind of bad for you.  Really.  If you spent half the time on prog working on something productive like a job coding, you would really have it made.

honestly troll prog for this long, have sigs, etc.  is really beyond me.
What would i gain from trolling /prog/?  Perhaps its just me posting in style you find overwhelming for such a small forum.
If you spent half the time on prog working I prefer to be productive only when its required.
Here (in this project) is no deadline, everything is reviewed equally, no pressure to contribute anything.   

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It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.

>>5
You can still troll me what the hell?

You have no idea how to make a game do you?

>>9 No. I have a clear idea. It just i don't dive into specifics of all the aspects at once, just work it step by step.
Its collaborative game design. Your idea could be more valuable then my idea or vice versa. Every idea or suggestion has to be reviewed. 


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In the long run the sword is always beaten by the spirit.

>>5
I don't know why, but I'm feeling strangely compelled to HELP HIM!!!

Typically step #1 is to design the proposed gameplay in detail.

>>11 Thats "proposed gameplay in detail" is spread through entire project and will change multiple time.
After release numerous tweaks and mechanics will have to be adjusted due player feedback and updates.
Design isn't static. Making some static gameplay decisions before you have a complete working engine running a demo is silly. You have to start from the basics, the gameplay can be adjusted at will.


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There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.

You're going to be working alone on this, I hope you realize.  What would you even gain by posting about this idea of ripping of other computer games to make your own?  Are you trying to impress people?  Are you looking for other people to work on it with you?(and god help you if you're asking /prog/)  Are you going to sell it?  It seems like a colossal waste of resources to me to chug out yet another copy of a game that will have nothing unique about it and will turn out crappy.  I'm not trying to put you down, but making a game is not easy.  Making a GOOD game, is hard.  Doing it on your own is impossible, especially if you have no motivation backing it up like a deadline.  This project will turn into dust before your every eyes.

FV. I'm going to help you, because you have no idea what you're doing.

Step #1, design the crap out of your game. By that I mean have a fuckton of documentation for it. Everything should be documented in extreme detail and even have pesudocode completed for it.
Step #2, review and sta... You know what you've caused enough pain to me.

>>13
You're going to be working alone on this, I hope you realize. In case collaboration fails this would become a private project.
What would you even gain by posting about this idea of ripping of other computer games to make your own?
I don't intend to rip off anything. Its should be as original as possible. Reusing good game design and ideas from other games is perfectly acceptable. Even some code can be helpful.
 Are you trying to impress people? This project isn't aiming to impress but to create something which its developers like playing and answer all their gameplay needs.  
Are you looking for other people to work on it with you?(and god help you if you're asking /prog/)  /prog/ isn't that hard to work with. I have patience and free time.
  Are you going to sell it?  Its Free/OpenSource with GPL version3 license as all code in my blog.
 It seems like a colossal waste of resources to me to chug out yet another copy of a game that will have nothing unique about it and will turn out crappy. The game should be unique. Basic demo would be generic. Features will make it stand out from the crowd. Its called incremental improvement.
I'm not trying to put you down, but making a game is not easy.   I agree. I however don't think its impossible if sufficient time is dedicated to it. Even something no one here is expert at (like creating texture and 3-D models) can be solved(reusing other games models or algorithmically generating shapes and dynamic textures).
if you have no motivation backing it up like a deadline Deadlines are counter-productive. The project will have unlimited running time. Just like Linux kernel is improved every year so is this game.


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It is well that war is so terrible - lest we should grow too fond of it.

>>14 as a project coordinator i assure you i work by different methods. Methods which promote hacking over bureaucratic documentation and micromanagement. Extreme detail and pseudocode are going to occur in very few places if ever(and if they do they would be reached only in final design stages, when the code is 99% complete).
 


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When you can give the right answer, even though your past road was one of death, you open up a new road of life.

Will could reuse some code and ideas from them, but this should be more of top-down design rather than a mod or fork of Vega Strike. These guys don't deserve to be plagiarized completely and their project could diverge from out goals.
So you know what I meant when I suggest VS.

>>13
It's for fun. Fun for me means fixing various free software bugs.

Well we should first get to step #1: naming the project. Unique,non-copyrighted name which sounds good.
Try to suggest something related to space/astronomy/starcraft etc



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Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find, that money cannot be eaten.

>>16
Gamehood is not achieved by slapping a few independently-developed arbitrary mechanics together and releasing whatever it happens to compile into.  You need to design everything together while paying close attention to the user experience, possible strategies, etc., else it will not be playable.

>>15
This project isn't aiming to impress but to create something which its developers like playing and answer all their gameplay needs
So basically it's going to be as productive as jerking off.

>>19,20 Please leave these considerations until step #6
Its like arguing over which drawing style is more appropriate when you didn't bought the paint yet.


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When you look at the whole life of the planet, we - you know, man - has only been around for a few blinks of an eye. So if the infection wipes us all out... that is a return to normality.

>>21
Its like arguing over which drawing style is more appropriate when you didn't bought the paint yet.
Indeed, that is a very apt anOH COME ON HOW CAN THIS NOT…
…
…
YOU IZ TROLLIN`!

>>21
Buying the paint before you're sure what colors you'll need is like... it.

>>23 You should buy all colors you can possibly need, NOT limiting your talent/flexibility/artistic expression.
Buy only the colors you think about right now is very limiting and would be a hindrance when you have inspiration for something different. 



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A different conception of society, very different from that which now prevails, is in process of formation.

>>24
What about different types of paint/pigment?  How do we even know it's painting we want to do?

>>25 This analogue is akin to choosing compiler/library/engine in steps #2-4 not what would we paint.
We could paint anything. The canvas is the limit. Not the colors/paint.


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The crucial and monumental development in the art music of our century has been the qualitative change in the foundational premises of our musical language--the change from a highly chromaticized tonality whose principle functions and operations are still based on a limited selection, the seven notes of the diatonic scale, from the universal set of twelve pitch classes to a scale that comprehends the total pitch-class content of that universal set. We can point to the moment of that change with some precision. It occurs most obviously in the music of Scriabin and the Vienna circle, Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, in 1909-1910, and very soon afterwards, though less obviously, in the music of Bartok and Stravinsky. I think it is safe to say that nothing of comparable signifigance for music has ever occurred, because the closing of the circle of fifths gives us a symmetrical collection of all twelve pitch classes that eliminates the special structural function of the perfect fifth itself, which has been the basis of every real musical system that we have hitherto known.

>>15
with GPL version3 license
By the way, you lost me right there.  If there ever got to be something resembling a working codebase, I probably would have contributed, but there's no way I'm handing over my code's freedom to RMS.

>>24
No, you should plan ahead since your budget isn't limitless.

>>27 You can copy the game or code with whatever license you wish, as long as its freely distributed.
>>28 We would use only free software which will cost $0.


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Only the dead have seen the end of war.

>>27
Cool story bro

Name: RADIANCE
Reason: The name directly implies a sci-fi setting (i.e. a stars radiance). It also implies power and expansion, the essence of RTS games.

On a side note, I think this project idea is awesome!

>>31 Good name. Seems not copyrighted. Space-related.
Only mention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiance_%28software%29 is a ray-tracer(which is also Open-source so this wouldn't ever be a copyright problem).



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I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

Hmm... how about, Void Sanctum. In honor of the project's manager.

If there are no other suggestions, Radiance would become the project name.


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Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left.

>>33
I loled. I think I prefer >>31-chan's.

>>33 Void Sanctum seems disconnected from each in both terms: void is generic emptiness, sanctum is specific holy place.
Regardless http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctum_sanctorum is religious term and unsuitable for a game.


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Christmas is cancelled.

I'm sure some would like to suggest a better name later as this is not a very fast forum, but we can
continue to step 2+ as of now.
step #2 Choosing a language. A programming language will be the basis of this game and has to be :
1.Capable of 3-D rendering. 2-D and text games are not popular today.
2.Fast enough to multiplayer games. Performance of about 20FPS is minimum.
3.Support for libraries & graphics toolkits. Having a complete game engine is a plus.



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A different conception of society, very different from that which now prevails, is in process of formation.

These are the minimum requirements only. Some languages may be less suitable for game design(like JavaScript/Canvas) due performance issues. We'll collaborative decide which language is best for the task.
I'm not biased against LISP or Haskell being the language of choice, provided you supply some arguments for their worth.



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Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself.

>>38
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JASS. Jass, it's around your skill level.

>>39 The ingame scripting language would be more user-friendly then JASS.
Something based on BASIC or JavaScript. This would be added at step #6+ for maps and in #8 for  individual units scripts(non-hardcoded and scenario-based).



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http://xs135.xs.to/xs135/09042/av922.jpg
A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting.