Most active scifi games right now?

Jennkryst · Jul 12, 2017, 3:16 AM

Someone said space travel. Now comes my obligatory plug for HSpace flight and ship building minigame.

Also mentioned D&D, so another obligatory plug for Spelljammer.

Thenomain · Jul 12, 2017, 2:02 AM

Babylon 5: A single-station setting with a heavy exploration theme.

Buck Rodgers (TV series version): Takes place on Earth, much exploration.

golgoth · Jul 12, 2017, 3:16 AM

I miss Hspace, but I doin't think it has been actively developed on for some years now. I think grapenut had something sorta arcade-y up and running for Wing Commander, at one point. I'm sure it's still up. Same for Rince. Can't remember the issues that he was sorting out at the time. I know weapons had issues at one point... Or torpedos/missiles... or something.

Jennkryst · Jul 12, 2017, 3:19 AM

@golgoth I just want to sit in a ship object, and zoom around a space grid. With, like... scanning code and junk. Bonus points it it links to your sheet skills, but it doesn't have to happen. Just... something to do mindlessly when too tired to RP, but not so much to pass out.

Misadventure · Jul 12, 2017, 3:05 PM

May I suggest Super Star Trek.

RnMissionRun · Jul 12, 2017, 5:38 PM

Mmmm, Star Trek.

If only there were enough folks interested in playing on a Trek game, to make the effort of building it worthwhile.

sigh

Sparks · Jul 12, 2017, 6:27 PM

I still kind of want to see someone build an Expanse game.

Depending on where you diverge from the canon timeline, you could use either Tycho Station or the Ring Station as the main RP hub. (Ring Station in particular would be awesome, since you could have players trying to figure out how everything actually even works.)

People could also have 'ship crews' who would periodically go off and do other things—you have an alt on the RP hub station, and maybe an alt on a freighter like the Rocinante or on an ice hauler like the Canterbury or an MCRN ship like the _Cydonia...

RnMissionRun · Jul 12, 2017, 7:16 PM

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

I still kind of want to see someone build an Expanse game.

This is one of the possible settings that I'm considering for the Evennia based game that me and some of my friends have been working on

Sparks · Jul 12, 2017, 7:22 PM

@RnMissionRun said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

I still kind of want to see someone build an Expanse game.

This is one of the possible settings that I'm considering for the Evennia based game that me and some of my friends have been working on

I would be super interested if you did.

Thenomain · Jul 12, 2017, 8:01 PM

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@RnMissionRun said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

I still kind of want to see someone build an Expanse game.

This is one of the possible settings that I'm considering for the Evennia based game that me and some of my friends have been working on

I would be super interested if you did.

Guaranteed success!

Sparks · Jul 12, 2017, 8:27 PM

@Thenomain said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@RnMissionRun said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

I still kind of want to see someone build an Expanse game.

This is one of the possible settings that I'm considering for the Evennia based game that me and some of my friends have been working on

I would be super interested if you did.

Guaranteed success!

I won't lie, the idea of a spaceflight system written for Evennia excites me. You could even calculate the rough G force based on ship velocity, so you know if everything's on the float or whether you better be strapped into a chair and on the juice.

Heck, you could even use the web integration to make a live solar system map showing the position of ships and various solar bodies.

Thenomain · Jul 12, 2017, 8:28 PM

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Thenomain said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@RnMissionRun said in Most active scifi games right now?:

@Sparks said in Most active scifi games right now?:

I still kind of want to see someone build an Expanse game.

This is one of the possible settings that I'm considering for the Evennia based game that me and some of my friends have been working on

I would be super interested if you did.

Guaranteed success!

I won't lie, the idea of a spaceflight system written for Evennia excites me. You could even calculate the rough G force based on ship velocity, so you know if everything's on the float or whether you better be strapped into a chair and on the juice.

Heck, you could even use the web integration to make a live solar system map showing the position of ships and various solar bodies.

Aaaaaaaaaand volunteer coder achieved.

You, not me. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

RnMissionRun · Jul 12, 2017, 8:40 PM

That's already far more complex than what I was imagining!

I'm not sure that most folks will want that level of detail considering we would be primarily focused on RP. It's been my experience that most RPers hate simulated space travel (judging from the number of complaints I've heard about HSpace and such over the years). I do like the idea of a live, web accessible map though.

Three-Eyed Crow · Jul 12, 2017, 8:47 PM

My experience is more...

There's a certain audience for sim space (I'm not in this group).

There's a certain audience who prefer environments where travel is just free-form RP'd or done via GM fiat (I'm in this group).

The VEN diagram overlaps a little bit, but not very much, so if you make one type of game, it won't appeal to the other type of players. Some people will lump simulated space or grudgingly accept the lack of it, but I feel like this is just a different style of play at its core.

Sparks · Jul 12, 2017, 8:59 PM

@Three-Eyed-Crow said in Most active scifi games right now?:

My experience is more...

There's a certain audience for sim space (I'm not in this group).

There's a certain audience who prefer environments where travel is just free-form RP'd or done via GM fiat (I'm in this group).

The VEN diagram overlaps a little bit, but not very much, so if you make one type of game, it won't appeal to the other type of players. Some people will lump simulated space or grudgingly accept the lack of it, but I feel like this is just a different style of play at its core.

I like both, I admit. If travel isn't the point of things, I want to just skip from Point A to Point B.

But I really, really love the idea of an exploration system on a game. Whether that's a game where you search for resources (Mass Effect game set in London during the Reaper War, where you're scavenging for resources to keep your hidden refugee camp alive), a game where you find ancient temples and ruins and caverns, or a game where you're on a ship and can find derelicts or ore-rich asteroids or giant blocks of ice to haul out to Ceres or (god help you) Eros...

I like the idea of an exploration system because it gives people things to do that do not require GMs, and gives an interesting avenue GMs can use to introduce things (throw a GM'd event hook out there into the wilds to be found), etc.

Jennkryst · Jul 12, 2017, 9:49 PM

@Sparks You code the sheets and ships, and I will get off my lazy ass and @desc the shit out of everything. Because SO MUCH YES TO THE SPACEFLIGHT SIM.

Honestly, both can work. Auto-pilot travel for folks uninterested in manual flight... but tons of easter eggs and neat things hidden places for thosr who will manually explore all of the stuff. Easy enough to do.

Auspice · Jul 12, 2017, 9:54 PM

Honestly, space simulator is what made me interested in Evennia in the first place. I knew HSpace very well (I know the guide I wrote for Serenity MUSH pre-wikis was passed around long after I stopped playing, even). I love space systems on MU*s.

I began (before I got super busy with school when I began hitting 300/400 level classes) learning python... to perhaps help build space stuff for Evennia. So, uh, I'd be all about helping break shit for such a project. >.>

But there's a reason I've been obsessing over Elite Dangerous as of late.

RnMissionRun · Jul 12, 2017, 9:55 PM

Honestly, it's the first thing that though about too when I started tinkering with Evennia

Packrat · Jul 13, 2017, 12:29 AM

Personally my view of HSpace is that I remember thinking it was amazing when I was an idiot 19 year old student - so it is probably a terrible idea however impressive a coding accomplishment it is.

Chet · Jul 13, 2017, 5:34 AM

One planet, draw it from the classic mold of Tatooine or Corellia or Coruscant, depending on the level of development you want, and have it be sort of a Wild West format, where people pass through town. That way, you can have OOC vacations, character introductions, characters leaving with the possibility of return, combat and intrigue, and the element of space travel. It needs to be a nexus planet of some type, either for criminal intrigue, hiding out, smuggling, science, politics, etc., depending on what you decide fits with your plot.

The best system, I find, is a campaign system, like they had on SW1 back in the 1990s/early 00s, where the center of action shifts between planets depending on what the plot staff has to work with in terms of player interest, player type, and active PCs.