Empty Epsilon: a fully open-source spaceship bridge simulator game
daid.github.io
daid.github.io
There's a Discord that assembles online games run by United Stellar Navy (it's officially an role-playing community, but the EmptyEpsilon games aren't heavy on it): https://www.unitedstellarnavy.net
They organized a few 50+ player games last year, which have some videos on YouTube. A bit chaotic without context, but if you want to see the upper scope of gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHExJWYB8CM
EmptyEpsilon also has traction as a LARP platform, thanks in parts to being pretty straightforward to modify in source, using Lua to script scenarios, and having a rudimentary optional HTTP API to trigger scenario events, manipulate game state, and control player stations.
A Finnish group used EE in their large 2019 LARP event Odysseus: http://www.odysseuslarp.com
The custom backend for the tech, which included several systems and physical interfaces outside of EE that interfaced with the game, got a good talk at RopeCon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE7j1SgUpKs
A French LARP scene has an active fork with features more geared toward that usage: https://github.com/tdelc/EmptyEpsilon
Recently, the most involved bridge setup for Artemis I've ever seen - present at Convergence and other geek conventions in the Midwest - was given up for adoption, owing to its enormous size and the owner's desire to reclaim garage space.
Truly huge, since it was room-sized. I would have liked to take it but I don't have the space.
By prettier, I mean the visuals, the models, the music, etc.
I used to play Starcraft Brood War at low-levels of competitiveness (maybe ~120 APM or so, D-rank Team Liquid. Very low end of competitive). I also enjoy Factorio and Pikmin, so I'm no stranger to multitasking.
Ideally, you want to have a game where so much is going on, that you *NEED* to split up the tasks to multiple teammates. I don't know, maybe have each of the players doing an "Overcook'd" style minigame, trying to do whatever their sections of the ship need to get done.
So the idea is that each player needs to actually focus their mind on their minigame, but _ALSO_ needs to juggle the discussion with the captain / bridge. I can't imagine how a game like that would work, but... sitting around calmly in a "Star Trek" style bridge isn't very fun IMO.
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I think we have an issue of expectations vs gameplay. Anything that requires a team of multiple humans would necessarily be incredibly hectic. (See DOTA, Counterstrike, Overwatch, and other team games).
But on the other hand, there are people who want to role-play Star Trek scenarios, which isn't... very realistic from a team perspective. Just as combat in Hollywood is unrealistic (1 vs 5 fight is really a sequence of 1 vs 1 fights 5 times in a row: every enemy waiting their appropriate turn with the hero...) Star Trek scenes progress logically and simply, for the audience to follow. Its almost the opposite of the chaos that requires a command structure of any kind.
"Archon" / Team Melee from Starcraft 2 / Starcraft Brood War was also a good bit of fun, since two humans playing 1-commander requires communication (make sure both players are going for the same build), and you naturally figure out how to split up work with your teammate.
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I guess a more appropriate "Bridge" game is "keep talking or the bomb explodes". At least for people who want "my" style of hectic team-based game with difficult communication going on. If someone can amp up the "difficulty" of bridge games up to this level, it'd be more interesting to me.
Minigames come up pretty often for EE, with one problem being that they aren't fulfilling when there's less to do and overwhelming when there's more. The only station that has them in EE is the Relay/communications station, which models hacking other ships with puzzle minigames.
EmptyEpsilon also has a few PvP scenarios.
I used to develop simulations as part of the combat systems development team of a military ship builder. I have assisted to actual training which I guess you could view as the ultimate bridge simulator. I think the main issue with bridge simulator is that you can't really simulate a bridge without the complexity which requires having multiple people on the bridge but at the time you can't ask your players to follow days of formation before playing.
It seems to me that in the game simpler model, the roles which end up assigned to players are always somewhat arbitrary and convoluted. As they are so artificial, it's not surprising some people end up with little to do.
As an aside, amusingly, all the bridge simulators seem to have user interfaces which are both less user friendly and older looking than the actual ship interfaces I used to work on. I find that endlessly funny.
I think s/formation/training/ (or study).
Puzzle Pirates really nailed this for me; each ship had a number of action stations (with different kinds of puzzles) that did different tasks, such as providing speed/maneuverability to the ship, pumping the bilge, or keeping the cannons loaded. This all came together in ship-to-ship combat, where having the crew man the stations appropriately was integral to the captain being able to fight other ships... and then boarding was another game.
It appears to be alive today: https://www.puzzlepirates.com/
I haven't seen any other game that is this stressful/hectic, to the point that we typically take breaks between rounds because many people find their heart rates/stress levels become uncomfortable while playing.
You need to embrace the whole experience. Your RL STDs? You've just been to a planet where you encountered a very demanding warrior queen. Can you get medical to sort it out before it wipes out your crew or your extracurriculars? Can you get Comms to alter the ship records? All the while acting normal at your station?
There's also Guns of Icarus[2], where you are a crew member on a flying steampunk airship. You move around between stations, which let you pilot, shoot, repair systems, which does have more of the asymmetric break down of responsibilities. It sort of feels like you're playing a FTL character, in a 3D, steampunk, desert planet environment.
Overall I think there's a lot of interesting opportunities in asymmetric gameplay, in exploring how to game together by creating different roles that have to collaborate.
Each of the 4 weapons platforms faces a different direction, so you need to run around to cover everything. And then there are engines and shields and the map and superweapon
Not like any of the games being discussed here, but this made me immediately think of Tribes 2. Each class had a role in winning, and you couldn't win without a team comprised of most of them. (Or maybe you could, but it was very, very difficult.)
VGG!
And to be clear, I actually value the "modifying" part more then the "paying" part. If someone sends me a patch, it definitely makes my day.
There's also the possibility of open sourcing the engine and keep the art or servers paid. Also consider Ryzom.
Since I first made Artemis, the option to open-source has been available, and I had several reasons not to do so. First, I've always been a very lone-wolf coder, and I find it hard to collaborate on big projects with anyone. Either they don't move fast enough for me, or I lose interest entirely. It's a real personal failing.
Second, my code is embarrassing. I've come a long way since I started Artemis 11 years ago. But I now treat my own Artemis 2 code like a toxic waste dump; I don't wanna go back there. So the idea of exposing anyone else to my codebase isn't exciting.
Third, I've actually made very good money from Artemis. I don't make much now, but at the height of Artemis's popularity in 2013, I made over 100k that year. I did it by asking for the sale, DRM-free, money-back-guarantee, and ensuring people that the project was still alive. Donations are great, but there's nothing wrong with asking for an honest sale.
Honest question: suppose Artemis was created by a small game studio. Suppose the studio maintained paid to use servers for people to play it on-line with most server-side processing so cheaters wouldn't have any advantage. Also suppose the entire art not freely available. Would open sourcing it affect how much money could be made from it?
I hope you're doing well, though. But I was sad.
I wouldn't either.
But you've already got two open source alternatives to Artemis, and you're asking this guy to risk his job on a gamble in which the odds are incredibly stacked against him.
I mean, if you're on the open source bandwagon, that's great, but just go with one of the open source alternatives that are right in front of you. You don't need to badger techbear.
We played Artemis in the NYC Board Game group, connecting multiple bridges together. At one point we had four bridges talking, with Communications officers on Mumble talking to each other across NYC, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
I have very strong positive feelings for it, and have purchased it at least twice. Thank you for not DRMing it.
You've certainly done an amazing job of capturing the feeling of Star Trek without impinging on copyright. That's not easy.
That said, besides the moral issues around Free/Open Source software- the reason I initially switched to EE was both practical and moral. I'm a Free Software guy, but also, Artemis under WINE is not very good, and EE has builds for every platform other than iOS.
I wonder if you might find a better model that would let you work on it without making it proprietary. For example, might Patreon give you that reliable income source? I'm genuinely asking.
Hacker News does have this thing where if you see one story you like, people often post similar stories in the hours following.
To Empty Epsilon's ranks, I'll add a few computer games I've come across:
- Pulsar: Lost Colony (https://youtu.be/p0HW9-VTCZg?t=110)
- Carrier Command 2
- Space Crew
- Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
- Captain Sonar (board game)
- Barotrauma (sort of)
- Starship Horizons
Any good ones I've missed?
- Space Nerds in Space (previously on HN)
- Thorium https://nova.thoriumsim.com
- Objects in Space (abandonware) https://store.steampowered.com/app/824070/Objects_in_Space/
There's also a hard-to-find book from 1978, "The Complete Star Ship: A Simulation Project" by Roger Garrett, that included a pseudocode implementation of a bridge simulator. https://www.biblio.com/9780918398109
Loved Objects in Space (wish they'd open-source it or let modders at it) but it's single player.
Unless… maybe my definition of bridge simulator is wrong? I thought they're inherently multiplayer, and having hardware tie-ins (which I what Objects in Space had) weren't a core feature of the genre.