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Post by microfarad on Apr 20, 2010 17:58:06 GMT -5
Hi, in response to PW's explosive overgrowth, I am proposing a more structured RPG. I would write a program for it that would manage resources, ship movement, etc. Users would post a plot line, then commands for the program (such as those used to move a ship). The program will automatically process the posts and produce a regularly updated map (once a day, yay!). Progress will go on a real time scale. For example, people may be able to make a new ship once every 2 days.
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Post by Qwerty on Apr 20, 2010 21:05:48 GMT -5
Real time scale? Okay, if you wanna give it a try.
I'll join. Same deal with the Nonjas and the Solar System. This one is non-canonical.
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Post by ownedbyglove on Apr 21, 2010 17:40:58 GMT -5
Bring it on. I'll be the SR Empire, found in an Solar System Clone just to the left of the center of the milky way. The president is Lev Ivanov, a 50 year old former boxer.
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Post by Qwerty on Apr 21, 2010 18:21:40 GMT -5
50 years old? Wow, he's aged only a few years that whole time. Distant descendant, or time-warp incident?
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Post by General Veers on Apr 21, 2010 18:46:55 GMT -5
Users would post a plot line, then commands for the program (such as those used to move a ship). The program will automatically process the posts and produce a regularly updated map (once a day, yay!). Progress will go on a real time scale. For example, people may be able to make a new ship once every 2 days. Does this mean that any non-comment posts would have to be well formed in some kind of XML dialect specific to your program, or would you have to really strain through your program in order to make game processing more abstract (and ergo easier) for us? |
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Post by Qwerty on Apr 21, 2010 19:01:11 GMT -5
I'm guessing we do our RP stuff, but include a line at the bottom that tells the program what to do.
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Post by microfarad on Apr 21, 2010 19:08:28 GMT -5
It wouldn't be so bad. I am thinking polar coordinates so to move a ship...
Move: Name, Angle(degrees), DistanceFromOrigin
Move: Doodlebug, 30, 500
There will probably be organized fleets of ships. You can move a ship to a fleet name...
Move: Name, Fleet
Move: Doodlebug, DaEliteFleet
If a fleet bane does not exist it will create it. If you move a ship it will leave the fleet. You can move fleets as a whole.
Move: DaEliteFleet, 270, 200
You can move one fleet to another, merging them.
Move: DaEliteFleet, Pwners
And that's just the move command. One fleet or ship can attack another fleet or ship.
Attack: Yours, Theirs
Attack: Doodlebug, FleetOf200Strong
^^^
Suicide mission
You will probably be able to have command lists, to be carried out in a sequence. The program will start running each command list simultaneously.
CmdList
EndList
The whole thing will be separated into sections, a bit html like...
{EXTRA}
Extra stuff goes here, like "DUDE!, THIS IS A FUN GAME!" (I hope that happens)
{/} <---That ends a section, no matter what section it is.
{PLOT}
Plotline
{/}
{INST}
Instructions for program
{/}
Like that...
Also, about game play. I think it will be more "independent", users may control only a small fleet, and there will be shared bases. Also, I think the users will be fighting a common enemy. An empire, or invaders from another galaxy...
I will copy/paste each post into the program daily, if I get behind schedule then the game will probably be suspended until I catch up. The program will update all of the Stats and the map daily as well, these will go into files in a dropbox I made, and show up on the first post.
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Post by General Veers on Apr 21, 2010 19:24:21 GMT -5
I will copy/paste each post into the program daily, if I get behind schedule then the game will probably be suspended until I catch up. The program will update all of the Stats and the map daily as well, these will go into files in a dropbox I made, and show up on the first post. Okay, so you aren't doing what I thought you would do. I thought your program would parse through the posts on the website (using either an HTML parser object or an HTML parser of your own creation), look for specific tags or keywords, and then extract properties from those tags to truly automate the game updating process. If you were to do that, I imagine it would be incredibly hard to code. I am not yet familiar with reading (let alone writing) files with Java, and so I find it impossible at the moment to make any kind of parser. I don't know what doing the same task would be like in VB. I would be quite impressed if you did make a parser to automatically extract game data from online, but I won't be the least bit surprised if you must resort to copy and paste. |
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Post by microfarad on Apr 21, 2010 21:06:11 GMT -5
Well, I don't know where these files are, but it shouldn't be too hard. Most of my great programs are text parsers. Can u tell me how to find these data files??? PLZ???
Edit: Totally easy. Just replace the action=display with action=print, credit to Qwerty for that one. It's a piece 'o cake, or pie?
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Post by Qwerty on Apr 22, 2010 0:22:48 GMT -5
I prefer pie.
Anyway, it seems pretty neat. The concept of a co-op sci-fi roleplay intrigues me: We would have to (mostly) work together.
Anything for research, bonii, fighting?
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Post by microfarad on Apr 22, 2010 0:49:56 GMT -5
Yeah, I think it will work like this...
The program will generate profile pics for each captain (player). The profile pic will be updated each day and show the player's stats. Stats include number of ships etc. Each player will get so many credits each day. Credits can buy things on planets (engines, fuel, food, new ships, etc...). There will be different classes of ships. Minor Bases (ships can dock/refuel/trade there) which can move slowly and are not well defended. Fighters are fast, but have limited cargo and fuel. Cargo ships have no defenses, and are the only ships in the game that can possibly (randomly determined) sneak on to enemy planets and smuggle goods to/from those planets. Smuggling will be a major part of the game, as it can net great profits. There will be sub classes as well. Yes, it will be awesomesauceness.
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Post by ownedbyglove on Apr 22, 2010 22:06:26 GMT -5
It's been a long time. It's been a looooooooooong time. He's hard to assassinate. SO when are we gonna get everything sorted out and start?
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Post by microfarad on Apr 22, 2010 22:31:10 GMT -5
Who is hard to assassinate??? Anyways, I hope to finish an early version of the program this weekend. The graphics will be terrible, but the game play will all be in place. We can start the game as soon as the first completed version is finished. But don't quit because it looks terrible, it will take much more time to make the graphics and such nice.
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Post by Qwerty on Apr 22, 2010 22:49:41 GMT -5
Alright, can't wait.
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Post by microfarad on Apr 22, 2010 23:51:16 GMT -5
Oh gee golly, there's actually some complex math to do... My Dad got it first, but I got the solution as well, just a bit later. Somehow I got around using an integral though... My dad can't pass up a challenge. I'm just happy to know that I too can do the math, and without calculus. Don't you hate how worthless parents are at explaining calculus? And why do they always have to pull out their calculus books when explaining simple algebra? When I was in 7th grade I was working with some algebra and didn't get it. So I asked my dad. I look in his room a couple hours later and he's mired in scratch paper. He has two of his college books out, one on calculus, one on trig. And he still doesn't have the answer to my problem!!!
More about pencils: We have a pencil war going. He steals my pencils, I steal his. He looses all of his pencils, but makes me buy pencils whenever I run out. The result is that I am constantly draining my money on pencils which he steals, and then somehow looses. It gets pretty epic sometimes. We had a rubber band war once, I owned him on account of my semi-automatic, 20 band clip, Lego rubber band gun. I also employed a few Popsicle stick bombs as well. You know you can make logic gates with explosive Popsicle stick meshes? I'm writing a mock paper on the subject.
Woah, I really went off-topic there... Oh well, it's my board, feel free to be off topic at appropriate times.
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Post by ONYX on Apr 23, 2010 21:41:11 GMT -5
Can't wait for it
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Post by microfarad on Apr 23, 2010 21:44:06 GMT -5
YAY! So many people are saying they like it!
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Post by ONYX on Apr 23, 2010 21:51:08 GMT -5
Well, I'd love it, But I wanna see some true results.
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Post by microfarad on Apr 23, 2010 22:54:28 GMT -5
LOL, working on it... Phew 75 lines of code in an hour, not bad...
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Post by Qwerty on Apr 24, 2010 2:05:51 GMT -5
By the way, I think that that avatar is rather smashing. It brings out the best in the contrast between the colors of blue and green, and it matches your badge. As for the plane, it seems to be broken. This is a pity.
By the way, does it record the plot in a separate file, for storyline purposes?
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[M:7000]
[img src="http://i44.[tinypic].com/mrp7nr.png"][img src="http://i41.[tinypic].com/2cg1yww.png"]
