Sounds like a good idea, more teamwork would definitely improve MP Freelancer in my opinion. Be careful with the 3D system - done well it's great, but you can have a system-size spaghetti junction in no time if there's no obvious logic behind the placement.

Oh, and welcome to TLR

Making the systems in 3D wouldn't be too hard, but it might pose a few problems for the nav map. As for encouraging teamwork, you could simply up the numbers of enemy ships in missions or improve their AI. Another idea I've had (pro modders feel free to prove me wrong), if you set the visit = value of a thing to 128, does that mean that the nav map doesn't remember it? I know it does for systems, but what about things like bases? It would mean that you have to rely on your memory rather than the nav map's set best path function. What do you think?

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

Thanks for the replies....

I agree with the 3d system thing... It could get very unaccesible if its not done properly. Im gonna create a system on the weekend, and see what i can come up with. i think the nav map issue, with things getting cluttered is gonna be a difficult one to solve.

Yeah Teamwork would defiantely up the ante for Mp in freelancer. Although in many servers, there is some great teamwork in the clan contect, but what i want to do, is introduce teamwork into the roleplaying aspect of the. I want to see people of the same faction/house working together. I dont think that just upping the number of Npcs would cut it, as this would lag servers etc. Improvign AI would be a great idea, and i got a question about that.

Would it be possible to improve the AI for missions only, and leave teh Npc's which arent in missions stupid and feeble?

About the Nav map thing, i reckon it would be good, but for things like wrecks, and maybe certain bases. Im not sure about every base, as i think it would be a bit overkill. (and im sure people would get frustrated when trying to find it constantly heh )

Any ideas about how to disable the Datastorm thingy?

How about a system where major bases and planets are displayed, but bases which are quite obviously designed to be hidden don't appear? You could say they have some kind of technology or whatever that interferes with your Neural Net. As for only Mission npcs having upped AI, I'd say don't do that, do it for all people. That way, you're encouraged to go around in a group at all times in case you get jumped

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

yeah thats a great idea...

So bases which are hidden in asteroid fields etc, Radiation or magnetic fields could be said to interfere with scanners/neural net. The classic excuse

Hmmm, well ill improve the AI, and then hope that people travel in groups.

Another idea which i took from another thread, is this Money as a commodity idea. Sounds really good allowing for loads of cool stuff.

Problem is as its never been done (to my knowledge) then im not sure if it will either encourage Greater player interaction (one of the most important aims of this mod) or discourage it.

It might for example, encourage say Traders, to hire Mercs, as they would have a very high incentive not to get killed. (lose their cargo and a lot of the money they had.) At the same time it would give mercs a huge incentive to actually keep the Trader alive...(the Trader has his payement in the cargo hold.) AND it would also encourage pirates to hit these Traders, as the traders would have much more to lose, and therefore make it worth their time, isntead of pirates just doing missions in high paying places.

The problem is however, is that this rather increased incentive to stay alive, might detract greatly from Player Versus player combat... People would jsut refuse to fight as they might lose a lot more, which could make things very boring.

Any suggestions?

It might be that I'm just being dense, but I don't see the point in having money as a commodity to be carried from place to place - isn't it hardcoded into the game that you carry your money on you in a way that isn't lost when you die? But I think, if it was possible, maybe you could have a special PvP system, where there are stations you can "bank" your money on, and then head out to take on other people without the risk of becoming bankrupt

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

I think i will just scrap using the money commodity idea, theres just too many things which could go wrong or wont work properly.

Now for this PvP system, its a good idea, i think the trick im gonna have to try pull of is to somehow justify the system in a RP perspective, maybe a Big bussiness like DSE or Samura, bought it to create a huge arena, for Holovised battles etc. If it was just labelled PVP SYSTEM it would jsut be tacky....the crappy Tesco value jaffa cakes of Freelancer, compared to the high quality, real jaffa cakes. (im not sponsored by jaffa cakes blah.)

have any suggestions on how i could increase player interaction, and make them play together instead of on their own doing missions?

The money as a commodity idea would encourage greater teamwork, people would work together to avoid dying, which suddenly becomes a much more worrying prospect. Think about it - which would you rather lose, a shipment of boron or the boron plus a couple of million credits?

You could eliminate the navmap problem by making the lanes follow each other in the xz plane and meet at the same junctions, kinda like a cube instead of a square. At least that way there shouldn't be too many stray lines on the map.

Edited by - AccuShot on 3/24/2004 11:30:34 AM

Since this is a Roleplaying mod, there's more of a focus on exploration and trading. You could encourage teamwork by upping the profits available for the longer trade runs, while doing missions or randomly ambushing convoys will only let you scrape out a menial existence. That way, you're almost forced to run long trade routes. But, with the upped AI, you're unlikely to make it on your own, so you need an escort, then they get a share of the profits at the end

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

Since this is a Roleplaying mod, there's more of a focus on exploration and trading. You could encourage teamwork by upping the profits available for the longer trade runs, while doing missions or randomly ambushing convoys will only let you scrape out a menial existence. That way, you're almost forced to run long trade routes. But, with the upped AI, you're unlikely to make it on your own, so you need an escort, then they get a share of the profits at the end

So basically for the 3d system, just keep it orderly .

Although there is hopefully going to be lots of trading and exploration, really the main thing i want to get with this mod is increased player interaction. I want to see people playing together, i mean that is why we play on the internet right . I dont want to penalise PvP combat too much, by giving a too big an emphasis on Trading. Like for example if someone was roleplaying a police officer, or a xenos kind of person. These groups arent really involved in the trading cycle, what would they do? Maybe I could have these groups ingame offer fairly good missions, while factions which should be out pirating traders/Smuggling have less expensive missions. What do you reckon?

It won't penalise PvP combat, as people with convoys of valuable goods are more attractive targets, right? In fact, it would increase it even further: pirates would need to organise themselves into groups if they're to fight off all the escort and loot the cargo ships. That way, you get people interacting but you keep the PvP element

You could even have "Freighter showdowns" where each tries to make off with the other's cargo

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

Edited by - Darkstone on 3/24/2004 12:48:31 PM

I've never played on the internet so I don't know much about it but this idea sounds absolutely GREAT!

I only wish I had a good idea to post

Hmm oh, what do you think of adding some kind of NPC wingmen? They wouldn't be very good, but they would be cheaper than other players. For example: A freighter with two player escorts and five NPC wingmen are attacked by 3 player pirates with 6 NPC wingmen. These kinds of combats have the potential to become _huge_ and with all those NPC:s flying around it would be more difficult to concentrate fire on the player ships. This adds both excitement and makes it a bit more difficult for players to just concentrate fire and take out one enemy player at a time.

I can make the ship files, but I have not mastered the art of Hardpoint placing. E-Mail or PM me with the details I would really like to help.

Well this the NPC wingmen is a brilliant idea, and would be goddamn awesome, but unfortunately i havent got the skills or time to be able to do it. (i htink it would require editing the Games Exe files.)

Well sparky im just basically at the moment brainstorming ideas and such, just trying to plan it, so that i know what im doing...

At the moment the Goals of the mod are;

New universe to explore,
Greater player interaction, (i mean we play on the internet to play with other people right.)

Im still undecided whether to include the money as a commodity idea, or the 3D universe. Im not sure whether to release a more standard mod out first, just to get it a solid player base, and then introduce these ideas, or put these in straight away... There might be bugs with these things that might need to be sorted out, or that cannot work which might detract new players from playing it.