Work in Progress. The content here is copyright Kevin Glass. If you feel like implementing this idea, let me know - there's lots more detail.

Overview

So, the new game idea is a space trading game based around PSI 5 Trading Company. In some ways similar to Elite but without the complicated to implement bits ;) I'm guessing given my track record it won't go anywhere, but it's fun to think about.

You're a space trader in a sci-fi universe filled with corrupt corporations, planets, mines, pirates and all that good stuff. You're task is to fly between stations buying and selling cargo, or completing missions to earn money. This is of course online, with a bunch of other people flying round the same universe who you might run into on your travels - or on sub-space chat.

Target Audience

The game's audience is based on the enormous success of Runescape - these players are mainly under 18 males. The game appears to appeal to player's who are looking for a cut down and accessible version of the larger MMORPGs (although it was developed before most those were created). The speed of play and the constant advancement appeal to this audience along with the cheap and cheerful access price. It is important that a free version of the game is playable until the features are fully exhausted.

This game intends to provide a more approachable version of the online space trading games such as Eve Online. This version aims to have the same appeal as Runescape in comparison:

• Accesible
• Simple to Play
• Constant and Easy Advancement
• Cheap to maintain and hence to subscribe. Free play must also be available.

Technical

The game is to be implemented as a Java Applet to provide ease of access while maintaining the chance of building a rich client. The applet should be implemented in Java 2D with no use of natives or large libraries, again small size should improve accessibility.

Ideally networking should be achieved over HTTP to include those behind firewalls and proxies (complete a mission in lunch time at work?). This should also make it possible to use standard server technologies and hosting. However, if this is not possible the goal must be an push/pull style protocol that is light as possible.

The server is to be implemented in Java using Hibernate for universe persistence. The server data model is likely to be extremely complicated and is expected to evolve. Care must be taken to provide a maintainable framework in this area. It may make sense to use an application server variant.

The Game

The game is to provide a mix of the following elements:

• RPG Party balancing/advancement - your crew can be views as a traditional group of adventurers
• Exploration - as your ship and crew develop new sectors of space will become available to you.
• Tech Tree - your ship and it's features are upgradeable. As the player gains cash and higher level crew the ship and features can be customized.
• Social - global, bar and ship to ship communications will be available to interact and make new contacts.

The Crew

So what makes this game not Elite? Well, primarily the way you control the ship. You don't. You hire a crew who you order to take actions. Each of the crew has can be viewed as an RPG character. They have a level in each of the crew posts and can be leveled by using them in your ship to carry out missions and cargo runs. Current plan is you have the following:

Pilot - plots the route from the current location to another. Level will decide which star bases and system they know about. It was also determine whether they can fly though certain areas of space - i.e. a level 5 pilot can't fly through a level 6 Nebula. This means that areas of space can be locked off from low level characters, and that as you get a higher level navigator you can take shortcuts. The pilot is also response for actually flying the ship in combat situations. Their level contributes to how often the ship is hit by enemy fire.

Scanner Operator - uses the ship's scanners to detect ships in the local vicinity. Scanners detect the state of ships (to warn you of attacks) and are how the locks are provided on enemies. The better the level of the operator the more information provided on ships, the earlier warning of change, the more types of ships that can be scanned and more easier a lock can be achieved and maintained on a enemy.

Weapons Officer - responsible for firing the weapons configured on the ship. The officer skill level controls accuracy (it will be possible to choose to target weapons, engines, cargo, energy core) and the ability to use certain weapons. The player will instruct the officer which ship to target and where. Combat is purely strategic.

Engineer - repairs the ship and maintains the engine/energy status. As the ship is damaged in combat and wears out during normal use the level of the engineer will control how fast the ship is repaired and how long components will last. The engineer's level may also provide an extra energy output based on the star trek notion of running the engines at 105%.

So you have your crew. Your job as captain is to interact with each of the members, telling them what you want doing. In addition you manage energy usage, pushing different amounts of energy to different areas (shield, engines, weapons, scanners) based on the current environment. The level energy given to a system will also change how effective that station is.

Crew Recruitment

Crew members can be recruited at the many bars, tarverns and lounges dotted around the starbases. Recruiting crew is a simple matter of viewing the applicants and making an offer. Crew payment is a percentage of the profit from making a run, whether that be through cargo trading or mission completion. The more experienced and higher level the potential crew member the higher percentage will be expected (this is augmented by several other factors, see below). The use of percentage is for two reasons. First the percentage prevents the player having to find a certain amount of money each cycle. Second it provides a way of limiting how much a given player can make on missions.

Whenever the player's ship is docked the existing crew members will be on much needed shore leave. At these times they will likely frequent the bars and be available for other captains to recruit. There must always been a based set of crew members available in the bar, however it's entirely possible that on docking the player's high level navigator is recruited by another player leaving you without a navigator.

While it is possible to fly without some members of the crew (weapons officer for instance) this will be risky.

Crew Factors

The crew will be modelled based on personal characteristics called factors. Each of these factors will be derived based on their race and history. The factors include:

Morality - A highly moral race may take exception at piracy. However, they may be pleased with missions of a humanitarian nature. A crew member that has remained with a ship that has often taken morally dubious actions will find their tolerance to piracy etc has been raised. So, as a player you may be able to train your crew to accept negative acts if you catch they early enough in their career and pay them enough of a percentage of the takings. [this is to encourage a sense of story/world]

Loyalty - Again different races have different natural loyalty factors. The longer a crew member is with the player (and is happy) the high the force of loyalty (scaled by their race loyalty cooefficient). If a player develops a low level crew member all the way to a high level crew member, it is less likely they'll be poached by a rival. However, a newly recruited high level crew member is likely to leave at the next good offer. [this is to encourage character development rather than simply buying high level character from other players]

Commercialism - some races are focused on making money. This factor is affected both by the amount of a crew member is being allocated from the profit and the overall profit being made. So if a crew member feels they are under paid or that the captain is not completing enough missions or making enough profit the factor will drop. The inverse is also true, a captain making a lot of money is more likely to keep crew members who race based commercialism disposition is high. [this keeps the player focused on the overall goal - or forces them to take the decision to change goal and use a different type of crew]

Exploration - most crew members have some need to explore the galaxy. Again some races have a greater need to feel like they're exploring than others. This factor is effected by how many different places and routes the captain elects to take. A crew member who doesn't feel like they're seeing the galaxy is more easy to poach, and vice vesa. [this keeps the player from finding a single profitable route and exploiting it]

Technology Tree

Ships, Cruisers and Freighters

There will be many different ships sizes and types available. However, all ships require the same crew members to operate. Factors that the ship selected provide are:

Base Energy Output - while the engine can be augmented with upgrades to produce more energy, the base output is defined by the particular ship.

Weapon Bays - the number of weapons that can be loaded is defined by a ship.

Base Cargo Size - while the cargo bay size can be augmented by upgrades, the base size is defined by the ship type.

Manoeuvre - the ability for pilot to move the ship in and out of situations is based on the type of ship and nothing else. A small fighter will be able to dodge and weave, a large freighter is a sitting duck.

It should also be noted that certain weapons are only effective against given classes of ship (see below). This leads to a need for the player to balance the variation in types of weapons carried against number of slots available.

Weapons

Weapons have two primary characteristics. First a weapon can either be projectile (torpedos) or energy based (lazers). Projectile weapons tends to do large amounts of damage but are harder to use against against fast moving (relative to your own speed) opponents. Energy weapons are easier to target but in general (there will be exceptions) do less damage.

Each weapons array applied to a ship takes up a single weapons bay. Large ships may have around 10 weapons bay and so great variation of weapons can be carried. In contrast are smaller fighter may have only 1 or 2 weapons bays and so weapons must be chosen for the task at hand. The speed and manoeuvrability of these ships will however allow they to escape many attacks from large vessels. This leads to the importance of the pilot being higher in smaller ships.

Weapons have an associated set of criteria.

Targeting - how easy it is to target the weapon

Damage - the amount of damage relative to other weapons it's likely to cause

Power - the amount of power the weapon requires to fire

Recharge - the amount of time a weapon takes to recharge before being fired again

Class - the type of ship the weapon is designed to hit. This can be inferred from the other criteria but will be explicitly specified to help in understanding the purpose of different upgrades.

The weapons officer responsible for firing the weapons will affect the above critera, as will the amount of power being funneled to the weapons station at the time by the captiain.

Vessel Enhancements

Shields

Cargo Bay Upgrades

Engine Upgrades/Tweaks

Scanner Upgrades/Tweaks

Customisations - or, thats just so cool!

The Galaxy

Law Enforcement

The Military

Corporate Missions

Combat

Communications

Global Chat - OOC?

Bars and Rumours

Ship to Ship

Game Goals

Replay Value

Extensions

Timescales and Project Planning