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[majikero]

I still think you have to feed them so it's a matter of logistics.

Still a slime plague eating everything is cool.

[Puzzlemaker]

I still think you have to feed them so it's a matter of logistics.

Still a slime plague eating everything is cool.

Ah yes, logistics.  But we are talking about having the ability to code AI for each individual.  It all depends on how mobile the resources can be.  If you can farm them somehow, and if you can move them around...

I mean, I already have plans on undead... Other then corpses, is there anything else you need to have them multiply?  Do you have to kill someone, or can you just use a corpse?  Can you move corpses?  Is there anything you need to have in order to maintain an undead army!?  SO MANY QUESTIONS!

Sorry I am getting excited.

[kilakan]

I am unusually excited about this.  I think I will send some cash when I get a chance.

I do have an important question:  Since some monsters can multiply without user input, it IS possible to have a plague of certain monster types, right?  Like, an undead plague or a spider plague?  What's stopping a giant army of spiders one player creates from destroying everything?  Is the answer really just "Other Players"?

If so, that is both awesome and horrible.

I was gonna buy endless space with the 30$ I added to paypal but if the answer to this is yes, topia is SO getting my cash

[Darvi]

Player type: swarm of *insert anything*

Heheh.

Actually I'd like to see a demonstration of the whole scripting thing. Just, ya well, so we get an idea how exactly it works.

[Kruniac]

I am unusually excited about this.  I think I will send some cash when I get a chance.

I do have an important question:  Since some monsters can multiply without user input, it IS possible to have a plague of certain monster types, right?  Like, an undead plague or a spider plague?  What's stopping a giant army of spiders one player creates from destroying everything?  Is the answer really just "Other Players"?

If so, that is both awesome and horrible.

"Other Players". There will be certain caps on things to prevent server problems, but in general, you can go nuts. Food will be the largest problem to overcome. To have X amount of spiders you would need Y amount of food, and Z amount of hosts for eggs to be laid in.

I mean, I already have plans on undead... Other then corpses, is there anything else you need to have them multiply?  Do you have to kill someone, or can you just use a corpse?  Can you move corpses?  Is there anything you need to have in order to maintain an undead army!?  SO MANY QUESTIONS!

Necromancers will probably require resources. Zombies I would think is a matter of transmitting an affliction of some kind.

I don't see why you would have to kill someone to turn them into undead. I mean, it's the same thing as their corpse.

I don't see why you couldn't move corpses

As for the upkeep on an "undead army", if it's magically based, you'd probably need certain resources to upkeep the "army". If it's a zombie hoard or whatever, I'd imagine food requirements would kick in and zombies would start falling apart. All of this is still in the design phase.

I was gonna buy endless space with the 30$ I added to paypal but if the answer to this is yes, topia is SO getting my cash

Hahahah. We appreciate it. Endless Space is a decent game, though. A little off for my tastes. It's almost like GalCiv with the "Stack armor of <type>. Stack weapons of <type>". Pretty generalized. I wish Sword Of The Stars 2 wasn't an utter failure. My life was ruined when that game was released. Anyway. Back on topic.

Actually I'd like to see a demonstration of the whole scripting thing. Just, ya well, so we get an idea how exactly it works.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

var tree = FindClosest({ tree: true });

if( tree ) {
    MoveTowards(tree);
    UseAction("Chop", tree);
}

That's extremely basic, and can also be used to interact with all kinds of things simply by changing parameters.

[notquitethere]

Well, I've always said that I'd only be interested in an MMO if it was consistent-world, player-led with perma-death. Oh and it has to be low-res enough to work on my crappy laptop. This ticks all the boxes, so consider me strongly interested.

[Puzzlemaker]

Now I have some other questions, hehe.  Sorry to bombard you like this, and thanks a ton for answering them.

A.  What does the underlying technology look like?  All scripts are run server-side, right?
B.  What language is it in?  It looks like javascript.
C.  Security is a very important concern for anything that can run arbitrary scripts.  What blocks do you have in place to stop someone from making a "Virus" object that can be passed around in the game, or from hacking into the server?  This is a very important.
D.  You mentioned spells... what is stopping someone from making a spell that just kills everything instantly?  How will "spell resources" work?  It seems gloriously abusable.
E.  How exactly will combat work?  Correct me if I am wrong, but combat is in two modes, overview mode and "fight" mode, or something like that.  You can do basic attacks in normal mode, but when you enter fight mode it becomes more tactical?  Is it treated almost like a pokemon encounter, where suddenly you enter a battle phase type thing?  What if there are multiple opponents, how is that handled?  What causes the switch to fight mode?
F.  Ranged weapons?
G.  How will taking over another players land work?
H.  Will there be any actions that only a player can do, or will everything be available in a script?

I think that's all for now. 

[joshrmt]

A.  The underlying technology is Javascript, HTML5, Node.JS, MongoDB.  All scripts are run server-side, except for the game interfaces obviously.

B.  Javascript for scripting.

C.  Scripts are executed on the server and can only use functions that are allowed.  They can't execute arbitrary code.  Malicious scripts will be voted and removed by the community, and the player will lose the privilege to post his scripts.

D.  Just like any other game, spell scripts will only execute if the player has the necessary skill and reagents.  There is nothing abusable about it.

E.  Although there are combative actions you can take in the main game world, full combat takes place in a real-time 'battle mode'.  Please review our wiki and forums for more information on how this works.

F.  There are ranged weapons.

G.  You can take over other people's land by physical force, or you can claim it using influence.

H.  Everything will be available via script.

[kilakan]

Will it be recorded in any way what your character does when you are offline?  For instance if enemy script #1 were to activate, lets say it's a script that when you spot another player attacking a freindly or commiting a crime on your property, your character then attacks them back.  Would you be told when you logged back in that your character got into a fight, and if possible with what and or who?

p.s.  I love that there is people who care enough about their games and fan base to actively answer questions :p

[Kruniac]

Will it be recorded in any way what your character does when you are offline?  For instance if enemy script #1 were to activate, lets say it's a script that when you spot another player attacking a freindly or commiting a crime on your property, your character then attacks them back.  Would you be told when you logged back in that your character got into a fight, and if possible with what and or who?

p.s.  I love that there is people who care enough about their games and fan base to actively answer questions :p

Absolutely. We plan on tracking stats for -everything- that goes on. Your hireling will be able to report all kinds of things, or simply keep a log of events.

And thank you. I'd want a developer or designer to answer my questions, so I figure you guys want the same.

[Poltifar]

Even though I am still not completely convinced that the game wont devolve into a grief-fest, it's certainly a novel concept that I'd love to support. Heck, worse case scenario is it does devolve into random killing, in which case I'd just give up on playing a human and instead script monsters, which are not prone to have their work destroyed randomly as they have no work to speak of other than causing general mayhem (at least, that's the kind of monsters I'd play/script).

At this point, I'm just waiting for the paypal option, as amazon payments never really works for me.

[Kruniac]

Even though I am still not completely convinced that the game wont devolve into a grief-fest, it's certainly a novel concept that I'd love to support. Heck, worse case scenario is it does devolve into random killing, in which case I'd just give up on playing a human and instead script monsters, which are not prone to have their work destroyed randomly as they have no work to speak of other than causing general mayhem (at least, that's the kind of monsters I'd play/script).

At this point, I'm just waiting for the paypal option, as amazon payments never really works for me.

We really appreciate your support. And yes, monster play is always an alternative. However, also keep in mind that monsters can also craft and build. Some of them, anyway.

[kilakan]

I'm not entirely sure if I get this;  So players can play as any of the creatures in the game right?  But are there creatures present even without players playing them, say no one happens to like orcs, will we still see npc orc spawns?  Or do you only get npc's in a sense when players create like.. the first of a race of say slimes, and then the slimes multiply, do they have to control every slime that splits off or is there a base npc ai for controlling the extra monster spawns?

[Neonivek]

Some of them, anyway

A certain part of me kinda wants to say that if you cannot make a monster worthwhile to play, then it shouldn't be available as a PC monster choice.

[Matz05]

Uh, not building makes it a not worthwhile choice? I don't understand that. I can certainly see it being limiting, but not everything could build a castle, or would even want one!