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Notch's next game is an MMO

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Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#91

Post by viraptor »

someone13 wrote: post #35
jiggy2011 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It's just a big switch/case over the instruction set by the looks of it. Those things can get pretty damn large if your are implementing anything close to a proper CPU. It's just very condensed, I imagine so he can change a bunch of values and re-test quickly.

It's not quite as bad as it would be in a program other than an emulator, granted, but I can't imagine that it's easy to notice a bug in a 200-character line of: int pos=(ram[PC++&0xffff]+X)&0xff; byte v=ram[(ram[pos]&0xff)| And so on. It just seems like some sort of code generation would be much easier.

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 :-)

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#92

Post by jebblue »

If Minecraft was a hit then this sounds like it could be a mega-hit I mean a computer you can program in the game (I think I read that right), duct tape (how can you possibly keep a modern spaceship together without it?)!

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#93

Post by cpeterso »

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'm hoping that "dim lights" means actually dimming the lights inside and being less able to see

What if "dim all lights" means that the player must dim the lights in their actual, real-world room and the game will use a webcam to sense that the lights have been adequately dimmed?! :)

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#95

Post by moe »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #10
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.…

This essentially embraces "macroing" as part of the game. Something every MMO out there has tried to fight and usually ends up losing. Makes me wonder if he will provide a way for players to sell the programs they make for in-game resources. This aspect alone is enough to excite me, can't way to play it!

Perhaps we get a second-life that doesn't suck after all.

If there's a living designer who could pull it off then my money would be on notch.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#96

Post by joshu »

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…

I once had the opportunity to consider licensing Star Trek to do a game around.

Figuring I couldn't possibly do anything but fuck it up, I passed.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#97

Post by Steko »

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…

Sounds like Notch has played some Star Fleet Battles, where Cloaking does indeed take almost all your power.

In fact the best thing about SFB was how power was a limited but very flexible resource -- should I go faster, overload weapons, reinforce shields, power special maneuvers, tractors, repairs, etc. I can see how you could build a great MMO around this.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#98

Post by mml »

zackham wrote: post #8
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.…

Backstory is cool too and coincidentally appropriate for parent's username: "released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years."

space cowboys & endianness.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#100

Post by a1k0n »

cing wrote: post #12
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.…

Programmable 16-bit CPUs? Sounds like work disguised as gaming!

More like a massively multiplayer programming competition. I'm doomed.
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