The Universe Project - Games

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dREeDjQ0jIg[/media] I'm not really sure whether to promote this game or to make fun of it. It seems like a great idea, but it'll be really, really hard to develop. They don't seem to be putting a lot of work into the project so far - no blog, no real website, the video was done for $5 - and [URL="https://twitter.com/i/#!/UnivrseProjects/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2Fd6Djgvi6"]the concept art[/URL] looks like an RTS from the 90s. They also keep tagging their tweets #ThoughtsDuringSchool and #minecraft. This might just be an ambitious teenager with some money. But I dunno, we'll see where it goes. It's at the pre-kickstarter stage right now, and they're using a referral system to get more people to sign up. I won't be an asshole, so here's a non-referral link: [url]http://launch2.universeprojects.com/[/url]

Seems extremely over-ambitious.

is this another peter molyneux game

Seems like the game of my dreams ... and extremely far-fetched. If they managed to pull this off I'd probably spend most of my time playing it, but they're promising a whole lot which I'm not sure they can put into reality. Either way, good luck to them, they'll definitely need it.

Ahaha oh wow, Unless they plan on making this a text based game then current tech isn't ready for this yet.

I can tell this will be good by the fonts and doodles

Hahaha from their youtube video : [img]http://i49.tinypic.com/27zhr3b.png[/img]

[QUOTE=meppers;38694443]is this another peter molyneux game[/QUOTE] They have trees - that GROW - in REAL TIME!!!!

It is possible but the amount of time and effort that would need to be put in is ridiculous. Games like Space Engine exist with an entire universe, you have programs like Outerra with procedural Earth like planets, open world survival games like Minecraft and Starforge with terrain deformation. I can see something like this existing eventually. That is only the engine requirements though, there are so many other issues in terms of gameplay and progression that it doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.

The only way I could foresee this working would be to have it be really, really open ended. Just implement the earth, walking, talking, killing, and crafting?, and then leave everything else to the players. Building a city wouldn't be a planned game action, it would be some guy saying "I'm your ruler, let's build a city." Still leaves a lot of problems, but at least it's less of them.

Either way, This is going to be hilarious.

I have to agree with E7Fan. If someone could implement a physics engine, a multiplayer client, and a building system into a world like Outerra Anteworld, then acquire servers around the same caliber as Planetside 2 and Molyneux's Curiosity, then it is possible in theory. Still, Molyneux only updates about once every 5 minutes, and Planetside 2 only holds 2000 people at a time. This guy looks like he's looking for 10,000 at least. I think this is going to end up like OnLive; a very, very good idea that would work awesomely if executed well, but our peasant technology isn't there yet. Maybe if the market was for people with supercomputers living near an ISP relay, but I think we're just going to have to wait one more decade before we can play this.

[QUOTE=supersnail11;38695300]The only way I could foresee this working would be to have it be really, really open ended. Just implement the earth, walking, talking, killing, and crafting?, and then leave everything else to the players. Building a city wouldn't be a planned game action, it would be some guy saying "I'm your ruler, let's build a city." Still leaves a lot of problems, but at least it's less of them.[/QUOTE] Building huts, homes, and cities wouldn't be hard as it has been done in plenty of games. The only part of this I find very intriguing would be the space part. If you allow players to build from scratch how do you get from basic city building to space flight in a reasonable amount of time and how do you prevent a large group of players from building rockets first and effectively bombing everyone else continually. I guess that is part of the challenge though. [QUOTE=TurtleeyFP;38695394]I have to agree with E7Fan. If someone could implement a physics engine, a multiplayer client, and a building system into a world like Outerra Anteworld, then acquire servers around the same caliber as Planetside 2 and Molyneux's Curiosity, then it is possible in theory. Still, Molyneux only updates about once every 5 minutes, and Planetside 2 only holds 2000 people at a time. This guy looks like he's looking for 10,000 at least.[/QUOTE] Player count becomes a real issue when you throw in all the physics calculations required to run such a program. The engine would need some pretty crazy levels of optimization to be able to hold large amounts of players, store all the information for deformed terrain, render all the buildings/homes/lights/textures/ships, and all at the same time be interacting with all the people playing the game. To me it just doesn't seem economically feasible by a small group.

Yeah I can also talk, but for such a large and ambitious project, I'd really like to see some actual work before pledging any amount of cash on it. A good example is Star Citizen.

[QUOTE=E7Fan;38695519]Player count becomes a real issue when you throw in all the physics calculations required to run such a program. The engine would need some pretty crazy levels of optimization to be able to hold large amounts of players, store all the information for deformed terrain, render all the buildings/homes/lights/textures/ships, and all at the same time be interacting with all the people playing the game. To me it just doesn't seem economically feasible by a small group.[/QUOTE] You could do it like Spore did; they simulated an entire galaxy one one computer. If I recall correctly, they used levels of detail for physics and AI and such. For instance, the planet you were currently on would have everything simulated accurately (well, as accurate as it got). The planets closest to you would have a rough approximation of physics and AI. The ones that are far away from you might not even be simulated, and when you got in range of it it simulated everything that you missed. That could work for a very large world like the earth; but it would be very difficult. I have a book about spore around here somewhere, lemme look...

Something tells me that they would actually only start with a continent (Or large chunk of one), and when someone begins a large trek to another land, that is when they begin to add it into the game. Piece by piece. [editline]3rd December 2012[/editline] This game screams Peter Molyneux so much it might actually take his form and likeness with time.

[QUOTE=supersnail11;38695625]You could do it like Spore did; they simulated an entire galaxy one one computer. If I recall correctly, they used levels of detail for physics and AI and such. For instance, the planet you were currently on would have everything simulated accurately (well, as accurate as it got). The planets closest to you would have a rough approximation of physics and AI. The ones that are far away from you might not even be simulated, and when you got in range of it it simulated everything that you missed. That could work for a very large world like the earth; but it would be very difficult. I have a book about spore around here somewhere, lemme look...[/QUOTE] -Got my answer

Server shouldn't be handling graphics. The client should just take the data from the server and render it.

[QUOTE=supersnail11;38695774]Server shouldn't be handling graphics. The client should just take the data from the server and render it.[/QUOTE] I mean more in terms of physics. Server has to know where things are and who and what are interacting with them then report this information to the players in the area.

[QUOTE=E7Fan;38695802]I mean more in terms of physics. Server has to know where things are and who and what are interacting with them then report this information to the players in the area.[/QUOTE] Realistically, in an MMO, the server shouldn't really be handling physics that accurately. You'd have a bounding box around mostly-rectangular objects and a very low detail physics mesh for everything else, including the world map. Each of the clients handle their own physics, and the server just knows where the object is and what it's doing (velocity, weight, direction, etc). The server can then use the low detail meshes and bounding boxes from before to verify that the client is roughly in the area they should be. This would allow for a somewhat-accurate anticheat system, while removing tons of load from the server. You could implement some p2p stuff to handle syncing physics with all of the clients.

Shores of Hazeron did this already. Just without planets the size of earth.

This is the pinnacle of over ambition. I support the project however, its definitely a stretch and would definitely be a game worth playing.

So basically haven&hearth + Outerra, at early stages? I support. They don't need to make a complete game from get go. They could add stuff as the world develops. It would be amazing if something like this could incorporate games into one. Like use KSP game as space age stuff, use LFS or something similar for car simulation, etc.

oh boy this game will not last 5 minutes once players figures out how to make nukes

That picture looks like its from diablo 1 or age of empires 1. Anyway wurm is kind of like this except its not this complex and doesnt have the features this promises. Also this is a game ive been dreaming of all my life and well i'd really love to see this come true but as others said our tech is just not there yet. Oh and outerra is aiming for a game that is something like this. And they already have the whole earth in its real scale.

I was skeptical until I saw the Xbox at the end. Then I knew nothing would come of it.

Fuck this. Its a cash grab guys go home. We dont have any technology for this to work yet, atleast not at home. Come back in say 25 years and we might have something. And even then dumb gray haired men in black suits that has never touched a game before will dumb this down to shit. If you are lucky you might get another Second Life or EVE: Online, set on earth, with shitter secondary servers that you have to pay for to get on to.

This is like the game I have always wanted, but until I actually see something other than spinny text with a brown background i'll be saving my money. There are a thousand different ways this could crash and burn.

The problem I see with this, is if they make it as big as intended, there simply won't be enough players to substantially populate the game.

are they using the inovae engine or what