Notch's next game is an MMO • Hacker News Board

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#211

Post by nknight » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 12:37 PM UTC

mfringel wrote: post #207

ddelphin wrote: post #131

While I'm def excited about this game, when I thought about it, how is this not just the second half of Second Life by Linden Labs? Second Life already offers an MMO with object creation (Minecraft) and scripting (0x10c). While the sci-fi story line is more appealing to me, the concept of building thing and coding their workings in a 3D MMO doesn't seem novel to me... Unless I completely misunderstood something.

Execution counts. A similar concept doesn't guarantee a similar user experience.

It's not even such a "similar concept". SL's "resources" are just... money. Real money. And it doesn't really have any inherent "gameplay". It's a pure sandbox -- with dollars for grains of sand.

Notch is talking about real resource management issues, combat as an inherent part of the game, random AI encounters, etc..

This is a game that happens to share some SL-like properties. SL is just a framework. Arguably that makes SL more interesting in some ways, but it's also a lot harder to "get" something out of SL other than pure socialization.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#212

Post by jentulman » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 12:42 PM UTC

Okay so I'm just a simple PHP dev, would someone be so kind as to point me in the right direction to start learning what I'm going to need to write for the in game CPU, so I can try and get a jump on things?

(0x10c.stackexchange one day?)

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#213

Post by kreeben » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 1:14 PM UTC

If someone will create a .net-like framework for me to run managed code upon, then sure, I'll play this game.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#214

Post by curiousepic » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 1:24 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #198

lloeki wrote: post #176

I was reading those specific two bullet points: * Hard science fiction. * Space battles against the AI or other players. which, combined with: * Lots of engineering. * Fully working computer system. reminded me of essays such as "Realistic Space Combat" [0]. I wonder if Notch considers such a thing. [0] https://gist.github.com/1526107

Just glancing at that essay it's pretty awfully written and repeatedly wrong. And my physics is extremely poo. Ever heard of a heatsink and then releasing it later? Decoys of simple complexity but same mass are as cheap to make as real ships of complexity? Nope.

You can start here: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/misconceptions.php

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#215

Post by curiousepic » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 1:26 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #176

I was reading those specific two bullet points: * Hard science fiction. * Space battles against the AI or other players. which, combined with: * Lots of engineering. * Fully working computer system. reminded me of essays such as "Realistic Space Combat" [0]. I wonder if Notch considers such a thing. [0] https://gist.github.com/1526107

Even if he has, I'm sure he will prioritize his vision of gameplay over realism. He's already demonstrated that by mentioning cloaking fields.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#216

Post by tomrod » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 1:29 PM UTC

tomrod wrote: post #126

thinker wrote: post #34

The creator of Minecraft is creating a space game!? He should totally call it Starcraft.

You sir, are the best hybrid of geek and reddit. Have an upboat. Shame the name is trademarked.

Wow, tons of downvotes. There goes 6 months of hard work. Bad way to start a day.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#217

Post by tchock23 » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 1:37 PM UTC

h2s wrote: post #45

cpeterso wrote: post #23

I was a developer for the ill-fated Perpetual Entertainment's Star Trek Online MMO (which was later sold and successfully launched by Cryptic Studios). Star Trek Online's #1 most common feature request from beta testers was "ship interiors." Players didn't want to play "WoW in Spaaaace " game. They wanted to play "The Sims meet Star Trek" and relive their favorite Star Trek TV episodes. That sounds like a pretty cool…

This is the one thing stopping me from reaching 100% rabid-fanboy-mode about this news. We already have Quake in Space, WoW in Space, and Spreadsheets in Space: I hope this doesn't turn out to be "Assembly Programming in Space". This quote gave me hope: > A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfu…

I completely agree, except I would extend this to say that all genres beyond space games should consider more "in ship/plane/building" type of interaction.

For example, I've long wanted a submarine and/or battleship simulation that would provide a true feeling of being part of a huge ship, with players assuming various roles as necessary. Add a MMO element and it'd be just amazing.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#218

Post by jimfl » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 2:11 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #57

samlittlewood wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There appears to be a 'CpuBuilder.java' on a tab a bit further along, so that code may be generated.

No, It's Java. CPUBuilder is most likely a class with a single method: buildCPU() { return new CPU(); }

Then there's probably an AbstractCPUBuilderFactory to go along with it.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#219

Post by ajuc » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 2:12 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #14

endianswap wrote: post #4

Technology of note: "The computer in the game is a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games on while waiting for a large mining operation to finish. [...] The cost of the game is still undecided, but it's likely there will be a monthly fee for joining the Multiverse as we are going to emulate all computers and physics even when players aren't logged in.…

I've followed his comments on Twitter. Apparently he considered doing a clone of a real CPU (6502), but it was too complicated to emulate efficiently. According to notch, the custom architecture he's inventing can run 2,000 DCPU's at 100kHz each and only use 50% of the time on a real CPU. Here's the first public spec from a few days ago, I think it's changed a bit since then http://notch.tumblr.com/post/20056289891/s…

He could just interprete code on clients :)

You have N players == N computers to simulate. Assign randomly 5 computers to each player to emulate. Choose the result that majority of clients return and optionally punish cheaters.

EDIT: apparently simulation will go on even when players log out, so each connected client may need to simulate 100 in-game computers to account for that. Still less resource intensive than running everything on the server. But Notch thought about that much longer and surely have great reasons for his architecture.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#220

Post by kingatomic » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 2:16 PM UTC

coopdog wrote: post #187

viraptor wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of code generation is unlikely to exist. Each line of that code has its own specific purpose, it's not some copy pasta. And surprisingly, it should be trivial to test it! there are no conditions of edge cases apart from the conditional instructions. As long as you test for ranges and off by ones, there's no space for mistakes really. I'd take that kind of code over usual "business logic" any time :-)

Off by one errors, maybe we'll even bring back the golden age of buffer overflow exploits, emergent realistic hacking gameplay mechanics, Notch you're a genius...

Part of the battle system could be causing segfaults in rival ship computers.