Anisble

[MacThule]

I suggest an ansible block to give players remote access to other ansibled stations, planets and perhaps even ships within their faction.

NPC crew control is coming, and we will be scrambling to keep the crews of our entities organized from sector to sector. This could also eventually be tied in to remote drone control and other things, lending a strategic potential to game play. If you are working in a mining station and a nearby planet you own comes under attack, you could enter the ansible and pseudo-teleport over to a defense station, order your drone fleet to head to that planet and engage, then pseudo-teleport/ansible over the defending planet and take charge of the defenses; managing NPCs, launching fighters, and directing surface cannons to hold off the aggressors until the fleet you dispached arrives.

Players would benefit from being able to project their consciousnesses and agencies to the various elements of their empires without shuttling a toon back and forth all day. This would be reasonable to implement using an approach similar to the Test feature of shipyards. Allowing players in ansible to project holograms of their toons to other ansibled entities (like the design holos in shipyards) would also be reasonable - and awesome. This is not unbelievable tech for a sci-fi universe, I believe the engine supports implementation, I believe that it would streamline and tie in a lot of the upcoming NPC/crew changes, and I believe it would take the game to the next level by opening a window on strategic level play.

Of course... some sort of ansible-jammer might be called for...

 

[Winterhome]

You just started reading the Ender's Game series, didn't you.

 

[MacThule]

You just started reading the Ender's Game series, didn't you.

I read ender's game like 20 years ago. I want remote agency, and it's the most appropriate term. Otherwise call it a "long-range remote communications device" or whatever. I challenge you to come up with something more descriptive and equally or more succinct.

Please don't hijack this thread with personal stuff.

 

[Valiant70]

ansible

Well, I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds like telepresence technology. Sounds cool to me. The server I play on would probably use it a lot to role-play AI characters who would always appear as holograms. Could just keep a toon in a server room somewhere.

 

[MacThule]

Well, I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds like telepresence technology. Sounds cool to me. The server I play on would probably use it a lot to role-play AI characters who would always appear as holograms. Could just keep a toon in a server room somewhere.

That's essentially the notion. Telepresence or super-high bandwidth remote comms that would allow virtual 3C of ships & stations, holographic meetings, etc. I like the idea of using remote holograms to "spawn in" NPCs for RP stuff - could be a nice fringe benefit.
[DOUBLEPOST=1451172002,1451171869][/DOUBLEPOST]Ansible

 

[NeonSturm]

Tech: You only have to transmit an 3D object (similar to blender) and body movements or bone positions if you couple it with holographic-transmitters as in StarTrek.

I like it.

Perhaps call implement it as remote-controlled android bodies.
Or like Zylons (from Battle-Star-Galactika)​

Another way to implement a part of what you suggested would be to let the character have a family with multiple playable members per real player.

Which would allow to join different factions too​

I think this -doesn't matter how it's done- increases the number of ships a player has and thus decreases the impact of old players against new (which likely focus on one ship first).

When you build an explorer-ship, you are not forced to sit in your super-titan, or go back to fly an assault with it later.

​

Any feature like this is needed for the final StarMade.

 

[Valiant70]

I like the idea of using remote holograms to "spawn in" NPCs for RP stuff - could be a nice fringe benefit.

That's not a bad idea either. I was talking about players roleplaying sentient AI characters though. (eg. Cortana)

 

[MacThule]

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Another way to implement a part of what you suggested would be to let the character have a family with multiple playable members per real player.

Which would allow to join different factions too​

I think this -doesn't matter how it's done- increases the number of ships a player has and thus decreases the impact of old players against new (which likely focus on one ship first).

When you build an explorer-ship, you are not forced to sit in your super-titan, or go back to fly an assault with it later.
​

Any feature like this is needed for the final StarMade.

The "family" approach is something that has occured to me as well, Sturm - especially if new family members can be created over long periods of time and preserving them gives the edge of a player being able to "be" in more places at one time (especially if those characters eventually acquire NPC-like skill advantages). It may be too exploitable though. Either way works, but I also think that some form of multi-locational agency will eventually be needed in Starmade to keep up with the way it is going.

Perhaps simply allow players to "possess" any NPC that belongs to their faction, regardless of location? Then instead of a new block we would just need a window or feature within the NPC control that allows us to examine a spreadsheet of all our current NPCs and select one to instantly transfer our consciousness into... this would have the excellent side effect of forcing players to treat NPCs with more respect and caution since you would never really know if the toon in front of you is a stupid AI you can kick around, or a real human waiting to open up a whole cargo-container full of pain on whomever crosses them.

 

[Bodhitron]

the better thing about using a block instead of NPCs is that you can make like a satellite to check in on planets, shops, sectors and stuff without manning it. like a spy satellite.
[DOUBLEPOST=1451330286,1451329801][/DOUBLEPOST]and, uh... you spelled "ansible" wrong in the thread title dude XD
just sayin'!

 

[MacThule]

the better thing about using a block instead of NPCs is that you can make like a satellite to check in on planets, shops, sectors and stuff without manning it. like a spy satellite.
[DOUBLEPOST=1451330286,1451329801][/DOUBLEPOST]and, uh... you spelled "ansible" wrong in the thread title dude XD
just sayin'!

Yeah I was in a hurry and can't fix it now XD

Spy satellites would be useful, but I think the main benefits would be 1) broadening the scope of gameplay to a more strategic level and 2) slashing the tedium of running internal errands (back and forth between your own ships, stations and planets).