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BBS Missions in ROAM


Dr_Nick
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I've been playing ROAM for several days now and I've been thinking about an element of the game that I would love to see implemented...I know that this has been discussed in the past, but I just have to ask. It would be great if you could accept/reject missions at stations in space or on a planet when you check the news so to speak (BBS missions). I think it would immerse the player more so into the game...just some thoughts.

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Becouse you can do whatever mission you want deciding it yourself as comander of your ship and fleet (if you have the required rank).

That's all about roleplay.

If you want pregenerated missions just play the ACM campaign.

That's how the game was designed and how the SC wants it to work.

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I understand the notion behind ROAM. You are responsible for making the game happen. However, what is missing for me is the immersion of galaxy life. To expand on the idea of adding BBS mission, for instance, you cannot communicate with enemy ships. No discussion is possible to either threaten them, make them drop cargo, or to simply inform them that you are about to blow them to bits.

At this point the game is running very well and I enjoy it greatly. I've played the ACM missions and I like them. However, the same ideas could work there as well...

Just some ideas...

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If you had taken the proper time to SEARCH the board you would've discovered that BBS missions and those idea's where already discussed

Personally this game doesn't NEED BBS missions since it was made under the premise that people have a brain and an intelligence and know how to use it

The galaxy is full of life, you just need to fly around a bit to find it

My current character has 4 months under his belt, the galaxy is very much alive with traders, police, commerical, medical, what not flying around, docking at stations, landing on planets (even though you might not see it)

It's all about the imagenation and how you use it. You say your having fun, thats great, but this idea will NEVER be implimented, at least not in any single player game, perhaps in UCO (not likely, but it's a possibility since UCO is an MMO)

Anyway, my best advice is that when the SC says "Never" then don't argue with him

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You are right. I did not search the board for previous topics on this subject. The reason behind my lack of investigative energy is associated with the fact that I've been watching the development of this game since BC3K. I know that the SC has considered the option of BBS missions. I also know that even though the SC will take a hard line on a topic, he will consider what you have to say.

With that said I agree with what you are saying. There is life in the game. I would like to see more. The ambitious design that is this game has evolved into a highly stable, functional, and fun game. Yet it is missing certain elements of interaction that would enhance the game. Not to say that you do n ot interact. Of course you do, but it could be improved.

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There are lot of things in the game which can be improved. However, at some point, you have to know when enough is enough.

I'm done with these type of games, and as I've stated already, the UCAWA series is the last. Whatever I am going to be adding in the future, will most likely go into UCO or not at all. I have no plans to add anything further to any of the current gen games. Especially not a development and scripting resource hog such as auto-generated BBS missions. For what? Six to eight months just to sell a few more units of the same game? uhm, no thanks.

Right now, our focus is on XBox360 and thats where it is going to remain for the foreseeable future. Any game we do, will most likely be on that console first and if possible - or necessary - a PC port at a later date. Thats the reason why UCO is being developed. It is the last game of its BC/UC kind that I'm developing. Even the Special Edition (rather than a Gold) version of UCAWA which I'm thinking of doing, won't have any new Earth shattering features in it.

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Dunno why you'd need an Xbox360 Nick. The games were're developing for it aren't anywhere near what we've done for the PC. The XBox360 is a whole new beast. Plus, it is up to MS to approve what kind of games devs/pubs develop. Thats why they have a concept approval process. You have to submit dev designs and whatnot, then wait for concept approval before you even think of writing the first line of code. If MS does not approve it, you can't develop it for the platform or even announce it. Both of our XBox360 games recently announced had to go through that process.

So, it is highly unlikely that even if we ported UCAWA as-is to the XBox360, not only would it take a serious amount of hacking (due to the the lower memory, controller requirement etc), but they probably won't concept approve it.

Even Hostile Intent and KnightBlade, though based in part on our world, mythos and whatnot, are heavily console-centric and the PC versions (if I do end up doing them) won't be much different, since we're going from console to PC, rather than the other way around.

To give you an idea of the extent of complex console games, look no further than, say, the Ace Combat series from Namco. Those games, in terms of controls etc are the benchmark for complex titles on consoles. Anything beyond that would be unplayable and no fun.

Heck, imagine me trying to dumb down the ITD!! Something I've been wrestling with for the past month or so, as a proof-of-concept for another [exclusive] yet-to-be-announced episodic PC title we're working on for an online service. Sorry, can't say who just yet.

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It's kind of like what I have to go through to get human subjects approval for psychological testing. One of my friends picked up a new xbox360 and he showed me some of the games. The racing and boxing game was fun. The other games really did not intrigue me, short of Call of Duty 2. I just can't imagine that you would not make games for the PC since that's really the only platform that can handle the design concepts that you come up with. I can only imagine the conversation at MS about you. "Oh yeah, Dr. Smart is requesting permission to..." How the hell are you going to make a dumbed down game? You won't be able to sleep at night...

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Believe me, if I had a choice, I wouldn't be doing it. Fact is, I'm bored stiff with type of games I've been developing. Its like I've developed a case of developers block

PLUS, the money in PC games - and the hassles - just aren't worth it. Given how powerful the XBox360 is, I'm sure that I can come up with a game that is worthy of my talents. Sure, it would appear to be dumbed down when compared to my previous offerings, but it really won't be.

Sign of the times my friend.

As for MS, I have - and always had - friends there. MS is very - very good - to and supportive of their developers (internal, external, third-party or otherwise). So it has been smooth sailing really. Nothing to complain about TBH.

MS - unless they're spewing bollocks - are supposedly looking to ignite PC gaming with Vista. I wish them luck. They'll be needing it.

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Would it be feasable to put a screen on the menu that comes up when you dock with a station that will just read text out of a file in the game directory and put it to the screen? This way it would allow us to implement our own missions by changing whatever is in that text file (whether we do it manually or have them generated automatically). It would be up to us to decide if we completed the mission or not, and we wouldn't get any additional money or EP except for any we just happened to accrue during the mission.

I know that you are working on your new titles and have said that you're finished with changes to UCAWA, so I don't expect anything to come from this post but I figured I'd post it anyway.

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