Why? Anyone care to comment on your drift away?

Also, how much of a pain is the double registration required for these boards. My guess is that it's a huge pain for new players.

In which case I may just write my own.

Personaly, I didn't find it a pain. But I'm weird, and that just may be me.

ppl always come and go... they find something they like better and move on... perhaps they saw ripspace, that it looked good, came to try it out and found out it wasn't there cup of tea (or other drink... tea... yuck ) no matter what kind of game you make, or how good, your going to have drifters.

After running Tararus for 9 years I understand the need for new things, and also the fact that people like to try something for a week or two.

BUT, I personally think it's a GREAT little game (well the core ship mechanics are). But in order to fly it needs at least 15 full on players. And that is proving hard.

Which is why the drive for removing dull bits. But I think I also need something else - mappies idea of automated enemies so that you are always fighting is possibly it. I hoped Open systems would be a good breeding ground for combat...

I'm waffling again.

I think its the personality of the players, and how vocally the project this in an outside forum rather than the rules that tempt people to play and gets them to remain.

It was the war-cry initially in tartarus that prompted me to play that game. The jestress specifically (with the undead one a close second). They were enthusiastic, the had stories to tell, great tales of victory or loss, or custard pie throwing, and I wanted to be a part of the game that they were playing as a result. I stayed playing that game much longer than intended due to the personalities that the players had and projected to others rather than the game itself.

Not sure how you'd inject the same level of enthusiasm into this game. Its more like lots of 2-3 player games, and if you're playing lots of those the details tend to blur and you don't get the same emotional investment. You need a protagonist really within your fleets, a ship to care for and nurture.

Yep. I agree entirely.

I was thinking that Epic levels would do this. But it simply does not happen.

I also think the way I have closed the map in solar battles doesn't help.

I have twice now toyed with the idea of getting rid of the galactic map - basically the systems would exist on a VAST plane. But the problem with that is mega battles. IMHO.

The other thing to do is create a narative, ie several vast epires own the galaxy, and your little fleet is a sponsored race, part of a larger conflict...

Strange that I keep circling round the solution.

It could be I'm right about the galactic map though - that could be the fatal flaw. I don't even need to have 1 grand plane, I can simply insist that ships can only exist in systems, and must jump N,NE,SE,S,SW,NW to the next system in that direction. And that would be that.

LockDown drones may also be a flaw. I can change the Epic rules to be if your ship is in system with another of 10 of more DL, and you jump out, then they gain 1 DL, and your ship is reduced to 2 DL.

On the one hand it would make games more fluid. On the other it would make running away far harder - linking battles together far more easily.

Removing the ship class to system would have to be part of this.

Hmmm.

Interesting idea. Right, so small battles, on a vast plane. Hmm, okay, try this. Its an oldie, but it does the job.

Change the game map in each system to a big 'hexagon'. Change 'trade gates' to 'boost' gates. Your ships within the scanning radius of your boost gates can go inter-galactic, moving in that direction on the galactic plane at a rate of 1 hex per galactic turn until it reaches an open system. At which time, it enters the new system from the direction that it has come from.

Note: this means that you don't need a gate in the system you are entering, only the system you came from. It also builds in a time delay on reinforcement and resupply. If you wanted to, you could then restrict the how/when rules for building and using them. (e.g. the boost gate charges over time based on the population within the system. The greater the charge, the greater the point value of ships that can be sent intergalactic.)

I'd keep the galactic map (for reference), but I'd have no ship construction, and only show trips travelling between systems on it. More for the 'empire' feel of things and planning long-range tactics.

I played with that kind of thing before - I think the problem is that in means you need to invest too much energy (ie RL time) to have a simple skirmish.

Hey ho.

Fair enough.

Written a few things here, realized that what I'm writing is pretty much the rules for the first 'Master of Orion' game when it came to travelling the galaxy. Oh well. That was a good game too.

I'm going to drop the topic for now and think about it properly!

It could simply be I need better graphics. Ulp.

hey, stopped by to see how things had changed. I thought I'd drop a couple comments.
The graphics are fine. We all loved Atari and nintendo games, some of us still do- the key was having a strong game.
Get the gameplay, and (as an MMO game) a couple strong players and larger groups will come.

More to answer the actual question, I quit partially for outside reasons (time constraints) and partially because the game seemed to be moving in a direction that de-emphasized growth, building, and exploration without preventing the ability to constantly replenishing ships...
ie; the game began to feel too 2 dimensional- ongoing, permanent, unwinnable conflicts in some systems, without larger real goals I could attain or that would have any actual effect on my game experience.

going over the new rules proposed and instituted, I think the most exciting thing I've seen is the Epic blooms.


I long ago suggested that movement directly between systems be allowed for a number of reasons (I would also leave the "empty" systems between to travel through), though I would agree with mappie that getting rid of the Galactic is unnecessarry. Its part of what gives RipSpace its feel and interest, it does create a sense of space and, before galactic turns became economy turns, a sense of time...


As for "narrative," I strongly believe it will arise when empires are given ways and reasons to strive for goals and objectives. And, being player driven, will be more compelling than a background narrative could ever be.

hurrah! Very constructive. Thanks.

The direct movement thing I'm very unsure of.

i.e. the need to travel through empty systems would slow the game down some. The current use of the gal map is maybe flawed, but at least there is no real delay in getting into battle.

Hmmm.

I agree that Epic blooms (must get a better name) should be fun.

Actually, I think that allowing direct movement would have the opposite effect. This is because of the ability to fast-time systems. Before the galactic became free-move, when people were complaining about jump-to-conflict speeds, I suggested allowing ships to start in-system and have direct movement- because you could fiddle to fast-time across half the map to bypass the hard time of the galactic.
in other words;
IF you want to play with ships *now* you fiddle but get to move faster.
IF you want to get there, but not fiddle, you use the galactic and get there when the galactic moves.

Sort of the ability to choose between RTS strategy (with little or no unit AI) and turn-based strategy style in the between-conflict movement.

But that was before free-move. Now, it'd still allow you to bypass Currents/leave your Current network.

ya... that could be really interesting

actually... I was thinking not getting rid of the galactic plane but instead not allow ships in it at all... ships start of next to your homeworld and jump directly from system to system using the ripcurrents... you would still need the galactic plane however as a map and easier to see where stuff is. if it comes to it you could then have an additional 'ship yard' construct as a new spawning point for new ships, with good limitations of course.

but the ability to travel using the galacticplane just only with the galactic tide... hmm... perhaps you could set ships to travel from point a to point b, where they would wait for the jump time to actually move... perhaps keep it where ships are jumped out still after 2 days and use the galactic plane there to let ships sit in 'time-out' until they are ready... I dunno. I kind of ended up leaving because I found something that I didn't have to wait 24 hours to make a move that I was also waiting for years to play but I agree you have some really unique and interesting games here.

and no matter what, it's the ability to hang out with people that keep them in the game... not having a very good way of communicating in game probably doesn't help... the forum is good, but it's my experience with other places that you get 3k, even 10k people playing a game, you may find only 20 actually visiting an outside forum.