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Elite for Emacs

sami.salkosuo.net

11–20 of 48 posts

Re: Elite for Emacs

#11
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly unrelated: if you're into "3D graphics with a retro vibe", check out "Return of the Obra Dinn" by Lucas Pope (of "Papers, please" fame): https://dukope.itch.io/return-of-the-obra-dinn It has nothing to do with Elite or space adventures or anything like that, though.

His development blog is awesome too, I specially liked when he was working out the best way to create effective looking dithering for 3D objects.

And then a mathematician who happened to read the blog started to think about it and created a new dithering algorithm just for him[0], which was pretty awesome.

[0] https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=40832.msg121280...

Re: Elite for Emacs

#12
post #9

I've always wondered if there is scope for a MMO version of Elite that is less ambitious (especially graphically) in some ways than the current Elite: Dangerous but still has the essence of Elite; I'm thinking 3D graphics with a retro vibe, maybe primarily text based menus for in-station activities (and certainly no desire for on-planet or first person shooter components). Even keep the generative universe of the ori…

Not MMO, OOlite can be "retro" with the right options on. Extensions (aka "OXP" or "OXZ" in Oolite lingo) can give you in-station text based activities (the extension is named "Life in the Frontier" IIRC) and planet descriptions, among other things (there are about 400 extensions available from the integrated package manager, not counting older ones that haven't been ported). Extensions are written mostly in Javascri…

I second Oolite. And in terms of adding networking, a game following the original Elite model should be fairly "MMO friendly" in that each system is basically closed - players can jump in and out, but there's no continuous flight between systems (unless they've added that to Oolite since I last checked it out), so e.g. scaling it to multiple servers can be done on the star-system level up until there's quite a lot of players.

I haven't looked at the extensions mechanism - it'd be interesting if players could "claim" systems and dynamically control gameplay capabilities in their system. Would create challenges with e.g. the economy/trading etc. (preventing users from setting up a server that gives them infinite credits to bring back to other systems) - perhaps that'd actually be a suitable use for a blockchain...

(Not that I have time to spend on something like this, but I'll back it in spirit if someone hacks Oolite or similar into a MMO... I might back it with money too if someone where to want to crowdfund something like it)

Re: Elite for Emacs

#13

I've always wondered if there is scope for a MMO version of Elite that is less ambitious (especially graphically) in some ways than the current Elite: Dangerous but still has the essence of Elite; I'm thinking 3D graphics with a retro vibe, maybe primarily text based menus for in-station activities (and certainly no desire for on-planet or first person shooter components). Even keep the generative universe of the ori…

I'd love a modern remake of Space Rogue

Re: Elite for Emacs

#15

I've always wondered if there is scope for a MMO version of Elite that is less ambitious (especially graphically) in some ways than the current Elite: Dangerous but still has the essence of Elite; I'm thinking 3D graphics with a retro vibe, maybe primarily text based menus for in-station activities (and certainly no desire for on-planet or first person shooter components). Even keep the generative universe of the ori…

I know what you mean. Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos [1] is very representative of that. Unfortunately, it's single player (there is a multiplayer arena but it's not great).

A few years ago a friend and I were working on a spiritual successor to EoC. When the Star Citizen kickstarter was announced, we gave up - no chance to compete with that, and we found they could apply our vision with a lot more money and a much more serious team.

[1] GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/independence_war_2 - Highly recommended if you're into space sims.

Re: Elite for Emacs

#16
post #10

They also just released "Getting work done" for vim

True, I think half the point of emacs is _not_ doing work but hacking on emacs instead :-)

See also:

M-x butterfly

M-x doctor

M-x tetris

M-x hanoi

etc. etc.

Re: Elite for Emacs

#17

I've always wondered if there is scope for a MMO version of Elite that is less ambitious (especially graphically) in some ways than the current Elite: Dangerous but still has the essence of Elite; I'm thinking 3D graphics with a retro vibe, maybe primarily text based menus for in-station activities (and certainly no desire for on-planet or first person shooter components). Even keep the generative universe of the ori…

Privateer would be fun transformed into a MMO, but I don't think graphics are much of an issue these days as you can pretty much scale for need.

The issue I see with Elite/Privateer/etc is that its hard to encourage group play which tends to be a near requirement for most MMOs to succeed.

If ships are the primary draw how do you group people up? Surely many would not want to just play a specific role or share a ship and even if they did there would be only so many cool positions to go around.

Re: Elite for Emacs

#18

I've always wondered if there is scope for a MMO version of Elite that is less ambitious (especially graphically) in some ways than the current Elite: Dangerous but still has the essence of Elite; I'm thinking 3D graphics with a retro vibe, maybe primarily text based menus for in-station activities (and certainly no desire for on-planet or first person shooter components). Even keep the generative universe of the ori…

I played that version in 1985.

Re: Elite for Emacs

#19
This is amazing.

Anyone know of any other text-based trading style games? I think there could be a market for this, as even Eve Online is nicknamed "Spreadsheets in Space", and I wonder if there are other games that have embraced that and left out the quasi-dogfighting mechanics.

Re: Elite for Emacs

#20
post #13

I've always wondered if there is scope for a MMO version of Elite that is less ambitious (especially graphically) in some ways than the current Elite: Dangerous but still has the essence of Elite; I'm thinking 3D graphics with a retro vibe, maybe primarily text based menus for in-station activities (and certainly no desire for on-planet or first person shooter components). Even keep the generative universe of the ori…

I'd love a modern remake of Space Rogue

Space Rogue was such an awesome game: it had action, it had (for Commodore64) revolutionary filled 3D vector graphics, but most importantly, it had an involved, mysterious, and compelling story. And it was a challenging game which made one play hard, but it rewarded that with lots of generated Endorphine. Anyone remember getting the neurostabilizer boosters, without the personal shield?

That is a game truly worthy of a remake, as is Battle Tech: the Crescent Hawks' inception. I'd also finally like to find my father with his Phoenix Hawk mech in a sequel to that game...

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