Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Girlinhat]

I'd love some grappler action.  Chances are, if the game allows you to rotate pieces at all, I'm going to end up making grappler arms or otherwise "catchers" to help me grasp on to enemy/derelict ships.

[Baneling]

Now, what I'm still wondering about(not sure if I posted here)...

Will we be able to connect several DCPUs to create a more powerful computer? Is that a thing that can be done? I certainly hope so. Banks of DCPUs behind a monitor put together to create a SNES emulator. Best way to pass the time on those long flights.

[pilgrimboy]

I'm getting the feeling that this is less of a game and more of a toy for programmers. Am I wrong in that?

I actually really enjoy Minecraft, so I am not a Notch hater.

[Drevlin]

Some interesting things notch said (from the log of the 0x10c-dev chatroom)
https://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/192195959294402560 (<--- Proof that it was Notch himself)

On networking and power
<_notch> yes, you can network. If you want a HUGE ship in the multiverse, you will need multiple generators
<_notch> the monthly fee will cover one generator, and we'll work out the math so we cover the cost of emulating everything a generator can power   
<_notch> we did the math on cpus and such, and the monthly cost will be quite a lot lower than, say, wow
<_notch> plus the multiverse is optional
<_ikke_>   _notch: so paying for the generators stimulate people to coop to combine power?
<_notch>   hopefully, _ikke_
<_notch>   OH, also!! If you have spare wattage on your generators, you might want to use to to charge batteries
<_notch>   on the multiverse, power will become valuable
<_notch>   so you can sell charged batteries
-----------------

On "piracy"
<Mozzfly>   _notch: Will we be able to host our own little private multiverse?
<_notch>   No, Mozzfly. Or rather, that won't be officially supported
<_notch>   it would be possible to hack it, but don't charge for it or distribute hacked clients if you do
<Mozzfly>   _notch: Will you be fine with someone editing the net code to make there own server files?
<_notch>   Mozzfly: Well, yes, as long as it doesn't promote piracy
<_notch>   the game won't support that out of the box, though
<derinerkan>   notch: would editing the netcode after purchasing the game to run a custom server hurt mojang, or you? after all, you're taking loads off the real multiverse
<Mozzfly>   _notch: Sounds good thankyou for the answers.
<_notch>   No, it won't hurt us, but it could split the game up into too many shards
<_notch>   I have big plans for the multiverse
-----------------

On the multiverse
<_notch>   for example, even in single player, you will get to access parts of the multiverse
<Mozzfly>   _notch: for free?
<_notch>   if someone builds a huge trading station, and you have an internet connection, your client will download that station so you can use it
<_notch>   for no fee
<_notch>   of course, you using it won't affect the multiverse in the other direction, as single player games aren't verified serverside
-----------------

On gameplay
<_notch>   I'm hoping to do randomly generated abandoned ships floating around in space
<_notch>   you'll find loot in those. and aliens and robots.
<_notch>   fly in highly radiated areas, and random bits in ram will flip
<_notch>   oh, and floppy disks. THats how you carry programs around
<_notch>   one "goal image" I have is putting a dcpu on a platform with wheels and a large battery on it, giving it a mineral sensor and a digging module, then sending it off on a planet surface
<_notch>   I don't think the game will show any planet or star names at all unless you make your computer to do
-----------------

<_notch>   first release this year, no idea when finished


So, if I understand correctly: yes to networking and yes it will be a toy for programmers, but there will be a market in which you will be able to buy/exchange programs (power can be one kind of currency), so don't worry.
Also, there is no need to learn the dcpu assembly, since some people are working on the llvm backend, so you will be able to write programs in C.

[fenrif]

Has he said anything about a tutorial yet? Or is this game only for people who can allready program?

[dreadmullet]

fly in highly radiated areas, and random bits in ram will flip

That's amazing.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

will we have volumetric pressure and get sucked out into space?

Also, we have to pay for more generators? I know its necessary but man the blows. is it one time or additional monthly?

[Girlinhat]

Paying for extra generators sounds like a terrible idea, it just encourages people to "buy power" and lets real world economics change the game world balance.  And I'm REALLY hoping for private servers.  Bay12 IN SPAAAAACE!  That would be astonishing~

Also the "radiation RAM flips" sounds downright astounding.  I can already tell you, one of my first goals will be to hook up an extra set of computers on top of my existing network, allowing me to manually fly the ship in case the radiation is too high to automate it.  There will be the normal, massive network I use to automate the ship, and then a backup rig that's composed of hardened, bulky code that's more likely to resist radiation tampering.

I could see that being a big deal in the multiverse.  If my ship can fly through radiation and yours can't...

Also keep in mind what that means.  If RAM is flipping without warning, at the very least you're going to have things turning off and on at random.  lights_on may flip from 1 to 0 and your lights suddenly turn off.  Or your engines.  Or power is suddenly diverted away from your weapons and your cloaking device shuts down.  In worse cases, your large network may find itself squandering and shutting itself down, if the right bit of memory is tweaked in just the wrong way, your ship may enter "passive mode" that you programmed in and it may shut down all the weapons and shields.  Or it may activate the mining drill, causing your weapons to lose power and overcharge a capacitor somewhere and send a cascading issue through the whole ship!

Clearly, radiation will favor the simpler of designs.  In the multiverse, I would really expect to see radiation fields become gold mines as tons of high-tech ships are pulled in and end up destroying themselves.  Salvagers should be able to raid derelict player ships for especially higher tech equipment, since lower tech things are less likely to succumb to radiation.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Well here is a concept of my ship (Also posted elsewhere):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Its rather small (for a spaceship) and the habitable/maintenance areas will be somewhat compact, allowing for a network of redundant programs ranging in complexity to counteract rad flips.

Unfortunately there is no way to counter act the loss of some planned more complex systems (Turret aiming, homing missiles, automated maneuvering)


EDIT: actually I now suspect that its possible we could shield the ships from rads or possible select compartments

[Mongol13524]

it just encourages people to "buy power"

That's the whole point of buying the rights to build a generator.

[Girlinhat]

Well, I should specify, not "buy energy" but to literally "Use RL$ to buy equipment."  Energy/power will be a resource in the game, but at the same time, the overall idea of "I have a powerful ship" is still there.  To compare it to other MMOs, it would be as if you had to pay to advance every 10 levels.  Your monthly fee gets you up to level 10, but if you want to reach 20 you'll have to pay extra!  Whoever has the most cash becomes the most powerful, and that never works for any game design.

Also: I really hope we can't shield the ship from radiation.  It provides a very unique issue and a delicious set of problems that I hope never become undone.  If you can just toss on some shielding and dive into the heart of a radiation cloud, then things become too easy.  Of course that's the dwarf in me talking...

[Drevlin]

Also the "radiation RAM flips" sounds downright astounding.  I can already tell you, one of my first goals will be to hook up an extra set of computers on top of my existing network, allowing me to manually fly the ship in case the radiation is too high to automate it.  There will be the normal, massive network I use to automate the ship, and then a backup rig that's composed of hardened, bulky code that's more likely to resist radiation tampering.

Also keep in mind what that means.  If RAM is flipping without warning, at the very least you're going to have things turning off and on at random.  lights_on may flip from 1 to 0 and your lights suddenly turn off.  Or your engines.  Or power is suddenly diverted away from your weapons and your cloaking device shuts down.

If some bits in ram flip, the programs being executed are likely to crash. This means that the computers will become completely unusable (and therefore the entire ship) rather than things turning on and off. So, if you deploy another set of computers they are going to crash like the others, because sadly memory can be corrupted even by one single swapped bit.
Notch said that in every ship there will up to three computers, but I don't know if you can buy and install more of them during the game.

[Girlinhat]

I don't think he said "up to".  I think that was just the general idea to keep regular operations running.  I can't imagine a hard limit like that, especially in singleplayer.

And, computers may crash, which would be terribly unfun.  I'd much rather see malfunctions than pure crashes, one you can deal with, the other is an instakill.

[Girlinhat]

I'd rather have flips, because then you can manually shutdown the computer and run it by hand, or you can boot up your hardened programs and run those instead, with more limited functionality.  If your case, if you didn't want to accidentally shoot your allies, you should shut off your computer before entering the field and just run the rest by hand.  For me, I'd shut it down and move to hardened systems before entering the field, and keep going on a smaller computer network.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

This is all why I want radiation shielding for the ship