Don't you also miss those insane free-for-alls? The INM beating the crap out of the SAW? Well here is your chance to get SpaceQuake back. I propose to add a "Intergalactic Combat Training Network" (ICTN). ICTN is a communication network, spanning the entire known universe. It uses wormhole technology to link combat simulators in all known stations together. Pilots can go to the mission tab and select the ICTN mission entry. That will immediatly connect them to the virtual ICTN universe, which consists of the old sectors 40-47 (also known as racing tracks). This virtual universe is subject to the same basic rules as the real world, with a few minor differences:

* All conflict inside the simulator is virtual and does not affect faction standing.
* Money is virtual and is earned by collecting widgets from the circle of wealth (remember those?) in sector 40 (main entrace).
* Logging out from the simulator wipes your virtual inventory and your virtual finances (to ease implementation; might be not necessary though).
* Death is virtual and beams the player back to the main entrance (sector 40). To make sure players are not stalked in sector 40, weapons fire is disabled there.
* When docking inside the ICTN, the screen background will be blue, instead of black, to indicate that this is a virtual station. A similar indicator will be used in-flight.
* In the virtual universe, all weapons and ships are accessible to all players.

The main goal of ICTN is to allow noobs to learn combat in a safe environment, and to allow vets to beat the living hell out of each other.

Now, the biggest problem is that the devs are busy finishing more important aspects of the game. On the other hand, I would really love to have this feature and others would probably, too. One approach that might work is simply to pay for it. To be more precise, we would ...

1. Discuss in this thread the exact specification of this mod.
2. Ask the devs to price it in terms of man-hours and $$$.
3. Collect money through paypal. Implementation starts only if enough money is donated.
4. Profit! (... aehm I mean Play it!)

My guestimate is that it would take at least a full day of work for all 4 devs to implement this. While most parts are readily available, there is probably some framework stuff that has to be hammered into shape to make it fit. 2 full days might be more realistic.

I don't know of any MMRPG that ever tried a "pay-for-dev" model, so it might actually be interesting to try this.

FM: I posted this under General due to the "pay-for-dev" discussion. Feel free to boot me to Suggestions if thats more appropriate.

Great idea! However, I think this would be better as an add-on thing instead, after the game is finished. We'd already be paying, so what would the point be? Great idea though, maybe we could have the old sector 1-18 setup as an arena.

Not quite. I think that most people that are fond of fighting would start using sim to lower risk of loosing money/time/standings, leaving the "real" universe rather empty, way too friendly and probably boring. Boring games are no good, you know, so I think that this sort of game-in-game is a bad idea...

The trick is to make this sufficiently boring so that it doesn't take the place of "real" combat in the Vendetta universe, but to make it sufficiently interesting so it doesn't become useless.

Ideas: Both players agree on an entrance fee and pay it to access the simulation (there is a minimum).

X% of the fee goes towards the prize, and 100-X% goes towards outfitting a virtual ship. I.E., I challenge AlienB to a duel, and we agree on a 25k fee with 20% outfit. That means 80% of each fee goes towards the prize (for a total of 40k), and we each get 20% of our fees (10k each) to buy and outfit a virtual ship. The winner receives the 40k, and gets a place on the ladder. You could limit this to only players on a same team. Say, it's a requirement for promotion in a military tree. It wouldn't take the place of real combat because you can't battle your enemies--only your wingmen.

Camps has a good idea, but it's a bit too complex for the masses. Dumb it down a bit and it'd work.

Hmm, ok.

You and your opponent set a prize you both contribute 50% to, the winner takes all. You also agree on ship and outfit (they don't have to be the same). The winner gets a "win" mark in their "hull" (on the virtual ladder) plus the money.

To avoid all combat going to the simulator, you could require that both players be at the same station, both players be within certain levels of each other, certain players be on the same team, or limit the ships to four or five variations.

Again, with every possible idea, don't make it so complete that people avoid real combat for it, trading only to get money to gamble. And then don't make it as dumb as "roll the die and take the random numbers" prevalent in many games. Strike the balance. The beauty of such a system would be the organized cr... I mean, gambling. People could bet on contestants and the server would handle it all.

IMNSHO, bad idea. Space quake is gone. That's what the border missions are there for. Besides as I recall, there are other PvP missions out there now or soon will be.

It could be used until the PvP missions come out.

if you ant pvp, then start a group and kill each other relentlessly. And use the same setup, or from the same level...

Otherwise leave peacefull people out of it.

cheers

Amen renegade amen.

I am against this idea. Anything that further segments the universe (here, into real and non-real) is a not good idea imho. This isn't The Matrix : Vendetta, ya know.

I'm all for it. Mostly just because I've been playing for a while now, and I still suck at combat.

"The INM beating the crap out of the SAW?"
Yeah, right... well wait, you mean the self-proclaimed "new SAW", the infamous squad of rocket ramming n00bies? Sure!

The good olde (REAL!) SAW, though? Not a chance. >:]

Let's not get into that again.

Again, it's not a feature any player could access, just those in a military career with special credentials. Call it a "Military simulator." Even the real militaries use one. Guilds/Clans could test and refine tactics with them.

The end result would be everybody joining a combat guild and playing exclusively in the no-holds-barred "training" network.

At this time, I think it is unwise to even consider asking for new features. Let's let em focus on their current feature set and get the release out.

I heard that they'll be making capital ships as an addon in the final release, or so I hear.

An expansion pack AFTER the release, yes.

Hi, I haven't fully and completely read this thread, but I think I got the 'gist of it. Basically, I always wanted to implement a "simulator" that you could play in stations, which would basically encompass our older-style gameplay. These "simulators" would be linked together, perhaps, with other stations, etc. I think the Wing Commander series had something like this.. it's all very fuzzy in my memory (it's been twelve years since I played WC2). Anyway, I wanted it to function as an adjunct of the "Bar", kind of like an amusement that you'd find in a bar, that people rally around.

But yes, post-release addon. Sorry, no time now.