Waldo Posted September 2, 2006 Report Posted September 2, 2006 Been messing around a lot lately with an MMO engine called Multiverse. It's not complete yet (closed beta state), but has some interesting potential. The basic business model is that the tools to develop new games as well as the server are free. The company also has a single client application that is used to play any game written for their technology. Multiverse then acts as the proxy between the client and servers. If you create a new game and charge for it, they take a cut and make their money. If you charge nothing, they dont' make anything either. It has a "steam like" system built in to allow you to download new and updated game content from servers whic I must say is pretty nice to anyone running a game that updates. Website for the company is http://www.multiverse.net. They are doing a presentation at the Austin Game Conference and I'll be semi-fortunate to have a short trailer shown on a project I've started that's a Mars colonization themed MMO, PvE & no PvP, realistic sim set in the near future (2050 or so). Target is for entertainment gameplay, educational use and also possible NASA visualization tool or platform for collaborative development and planning of future missions. Links to info on it and a shor trailer I slapped together on their "Games Built on Multiverse" page. Here's a screen from in-game - part of a "small" test map that is 40x40km. BTW the estimable David "Zafod" Marsh is my brainstorm buddy on this project.
von*ferret Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 Hey Waldo! Looks very interesting. But when is your book releasing? I've prebought my copy and now am waiting patiently
Waldo Posted September 3, 2006 Author Report Posted September 3, 2006 Hey Waldo! Looks very interesting. But when is your book releasing? I've prebought my copy and now am waiting patiently lol god I knew someone wuold ask :^O Let's say that i'm working madly on it, it's late, and i've never done anything quite so challenging in my life. That said I've learned a LOT making this book.
Bic-B@ll Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 i got a 404 for the "games built for multiverse link" picture looks neat though, good to see people making innovative games/learning tools or whatever. all we have on mars is doom, and that's hardly relevant. i might purchase a copy of your book as well :^)
FrieChamp Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 I'm also getting 404's all over the site, the business model does sound interesting though. Any MMO that doesn't involve orcs and elves is interesting to me, especially when it involves colonizing!
Furyo Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 Tim coming back to its old love i.e. mapcore? I can't believe my eyes Good luck with this project, as you know I'll be keeping in touch
Zyn Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 Multiverse eh? Why do I think of the movie "The One" with Jet Li? :wink:
wacko Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 You know they had another MMO engine that was free that was made by the guys who made that Ryzom MMO it was pretty interesting. Was a little more graphical I think in my last viewing. you gave a nifty project I will say. I noticed James Cameron was on there Advisory board So I am sure it can't be 100% ass and OMG how can you not have PVP for god sakes PVE is lame... LAME!!!!! Its like what the hell is the point of playing an MMO when you can kill the otherside. I mean look at WOW, PVE blows because once you get to the top level and then you get all your raid gear YOUR DONE, thats it there is nothing left to do. Now with PVP you are left with something to do. Now if you had a good world PVP model, that did not suck total balls, something where like it was a specific zone per say that players had to pass through in order to get to something... I am going to use my l33t paint skills for this folks. http://www.thewacko.com/pvpmap.jpg The reason this works so well is what ever faction is controlling the world PVP section gets some affect on there side, the reason why this would work out well is you could quest and stuff in the non-pvp areas and then when your all done with that stuff you have something to do. I mean there is a reason why PVE servers have like million of high level characters because there is nothing to do and its so easy to level. I just thought I would comment on that. Anyways nifty project keep us posted on its status and good to see ya posting again, and tell David Marsh HE ROCKS!!!!!
Dodger Posted September 3, 2006 Report Posted September 3, 2006 Please dude when you are talking about an engine don't talk about money, just cut out that part. From my point of view this may be interesting project but I'm not sure this will be used by Nasa.
Waldo Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Posted September 5, 2006 Please dude when you are talking about an engine don't talk about money, just cut out that part. From my point of view this may be interesting project but I'm not sure this will be used by Nasa. I dunno, this company has done pretty well making essentially a really crappy/dumb game. Also check out http://www.driveonmars.com/index.html - another "are you kidding someone paid for this?" game. blah blah bla PvP! blah blah James Cameron! Like I was gonna quote that! NO LINE BREAKS MAKE BABY JESUS CRIE! OK. So no PVP. if you're at all thinking of making anyone inside of education or NASA etc. interested, you can't have it. No explosions, no deaths, nobody even gets hurt. Boring yea, but there are actually games out there that do pretty well without it. Second Life and A Tale in the Desert are two. I actually REALLY like EVE Online though haven't touched any of hte PvP side of things (happy miner am I), but I can understand the draw. Ah and the James Cameron thing. I had no idea about that until I'd started up my project. But that guy it ends up is (or was) REALLY into Mars for a while. Some articles like http://www.newmars.com/archives/000014.shtml.
Taylor Posted September 5, 2006 Report Posted September 5, 2006 The project, concept and business model sounds interesting, but the site needs to be something other than a giant 404 error for me to find out exactly how much. Amazing derail about PvP: I think PvP is needed in a MMORPG (or MMO-anything), for various reasons - the main being it gives people something to do. I think WoW was never intended to have such a big PvP aspect, it was more a mini-game that got built on heavily once Blizzard realised their casual-friendly game actually only tailors to hardcore players once you hit the maximum level. I imagine Tigole was too busy making raid instances to care, so someone else developed it to try and stop everyone quitting. It's PvP system also isn't very good - in fact it's terrible: Bad class balance, even worse item balance, and no World PvP to speak of. Yet people are prepared to play it until they hit High Warlord, a feat that is only capable if you play until you are in a serious state of unhealth. WoW also implemented a 'world pvp' feature not too long ago, which is not completely unlike the one Wacko is decribing. It's simple enough in concept and required no new features to be added to the code. You hand in resources (sand, in a desert) or capture towers and everyone in the area gets a long-duration PvE orientated buff. But his basically boils down to a constant buff to whoever has the largest faction and was not recieved well by the players. Of course, if this is meant to be educational. An emphasis on blowing each other up might not help its cause.
zaphod Posted September 5, 2006 Report Posted September 5, 2006 this game really wouldn't be targeted towards hardcore people who live to pvp in mmo's. It would be more of a social/civ type game. From what I have seen so far of multiverse, they have a really interesting direction but the tech still has a little ways to go before it's ready for someone to just sit down and make a great looking game with it. That said, there really aren't many other options for an independant mmo engine. And wacko, I think you need to cut your daily monster drink intake down to a few cans a day! I'm thinking about your health here buddy
mikezilla Posted September 5, 2006 Report Posted September 5, 2006 I think building a big colony on mars sounds very interesting. I don't quite understand where everyone gets off explaining how important pvp is to an mmo, when really the entire point was how important pvp was to WoW. I heard no such close-minded ramblings when we all collectivly rejoiced at the genius of Spore (which apparently encourages players to fly to other planets and destroy whatever beautiful creation they worked hard on.) Anyway, I've always been intrigued and excited by the concept of a co-operative mmo. That being it's main function. I remember jumping for joy years ago when I heard about Uru, and how cool it was gonna be "from the maker's of Myst." The idea of getting dropped into a strange world with my friends and running around together to solve the puzzles of the world was really neat. Coupled with content drops coming in "seasons" like a tv show, so we could continue exploring deeper and deeper seemed too good to be true. And it was, it was a total failure and almost a deliberate lie. However, I'm still waiting for that co-op mmo that encourages players to work together to solve a larger mystery (think about how crazy Lost fans are about the show and try to satiate that demographic.) Ramblings galore! Good luck, and I'll check it out in Austin tomorrow.
FrieChamp Posted September 6, 2006 Report Posted September 6, 2006 Oh and all the lies SOE told us about Star Wars Galaxies...man I was really looking forward to that title, building guild towns on different planets and all that
Taylor Posted September 6, 2006 Report Posted September 6, 2006 I don't quite understand where everyone gets off explaining how important pvp is to an mmo, when really the entire point was how important pvp was to WoW. I heard no such close-minded ramblings when we all collectivly rejoiced at the genius of Spore (which apparently encourages players to fly to other planets and destroy whatever beautiful creation they worked hard on.) DAoC, Warhammer, Planetside, Eve, Guildwars... there are alot of other MMO games that have been kept alive, or will keep alive, due to a PvP system. I used WoW as an example because it's the most obvious: it has 7 million subscribers and would've been dead without its PvP system - even though it is a complete mess. I'm sorry the example was a case-of-point and therefore much more close-minded than... um, Spores unique PvP system nobody knows anything about? Though I regret using big words like "needed" now I come back to read my posts after I've had some sleep. I recall Everquest and a variety of MUD's doing quite well without any real PvP emphasis... No, it's not essential, it's just an easy way to keep people hooked. I would continue to add that it is competition and not necessarily actual PvP combat that fuels this, and that it could be incorporated in different ways. But I don't like the way this is going, and it's moot to Waldo/Zaphod's game regardless.
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