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Comment by h2s | Hacker News Reader

This is the one thing stopping me from reaching 100% rabid-fanboy-mode about this news. We already have Quake in Space, WoW in Space, and Spreadsheets in Space: I hope this doesn't turn out to be "Assembly Programming in Space". This quote gave me hope:

> A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfully cloak.

I'm hoping that "dim lights" means actually dimming the lights inside and being less able to see, and that the fact it's mentioned is a sign that this is their intended direction. I really hope Notch nails this. Give me a chilled-out space MMO that lets me have a friend ride shotgun and take over the controls to check out the awesome spaceship I just bought and then help fight off some attackers Millenium Falcon style. Please.

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> I'm hoping that "dim lights" means actually dimming the lights inside and being less able to see

What if "dim all lights" means that the player must dim the lights in their actual, real-world room and the game will use a webcam to sense that the lights have been adequately dimmed?! :)

A hundred HCI researchers are now excitedly writing NSF grant proposals and getting in touch with their PIs.

While thousands of gamers stock up on small blankets to drape over their web cams :)

I was under the impression that a typical gamer never switches the lights ON?

Screen = Sun If you own more than one screen your room is a Solarsystem with multiple Stars

Sounds like Notch has played some Star Fleet Battles, where Cloaking does indeed take almost all your power.

In fact the best thing about SFB was how power was a limited but very flexible resource -- should I go faster, overload weapons, reinforce shields, power special maneuvers, tractors, repairs, etc. I can see how you could build a great MMO around this.

I completely agree, except I would extend this to say that all genres beyond space games should consider more "in ship/plane/building" type of interaction.

For example, I've long wanted a submarine and/or battleship simulation that would provide a true feeling of being part of a huge ship, with players assuming various roles as necessary. Add a MMO element and it'd be just amazing.

Problem is, most things on a sub (et al) are boring. Clean this, cook that, monitor this, listen to that. You would have to constantly be under attack with only brief respite to repair your ship. Listening to whales, cooking with lard, and mopping the floors wouldn't make a compellin... actually, people pay to do menial tasks in MMOs all the time right now. How many chefs were there in Runescape, or dedicated crafters in WoW?

You might be on to something.

Exactly! I think in a weird way the mundane elements of the game could even be fun, provided there was a strong MMO backbone to it with guilds, clubs, etc...

After reading Niven and Pournelle's 'Mote in God's Eye' I thought a simulation of the MacArthur (a space-going battle cruiser) would make for a keen game. Captain types 'prepare the ship for spin, 1/4 g', screens flash, animated guys all over the ship jump into action. Twenty minutes later the ship is spinning, providing 1/4 g on the outside decks.

I have odd notions of 'exciting' I guess.

Adding the MMO element ... a warship depends on top-down control. The captain gives orders, and a lot of which involve turning valves, pushing buttons, watching screens. Hours pass ...

Okay - make the job exciting so players stick around. So when the captain says 'fire torpedo' there is a player there to load it up.

Sure it can be done, but how? A small fortune to the fellow who figures it out, I guess.

Puzzle Pirates made jobs on the boat interesting - granted it was far from realistic. Each job was just a different puzzle game, and depending on the efficiency of the player at their "job", the better it would be for the voyage.

http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Puzzle#Duty_Puzzles

Would this work in an environment that was attempting to be more realistic - probably not - but I am sure a similar dynamic could be used to make a task interesting. This is after all intended to be on star-ships well in the future.

Out of curiosity what is classified as "Quake in Space" and "WoW in Space" ?

Quake in Space is maybe Shattered Horizon? "WoW in Space" is either Star Trek Online or Star Wars the Old Republic.

Shattered Horizon isn't nearly as fast moving as Quake. It's more BF2142 In Space than Quake In Space.

Vendetta Online and Star Trek Online.

I've played VO on and off a few times now. The combat and physics are really excellent, and the backstory and aesthetic are captivating as hell, but it falls short of that escapist 'real place' feeling for me because if it were real you would be playing some sort of slave-pilot lashed permanently to the controls of their spaceship.

Ah yes, Vendetta Online was an absolutely brilliant game. I wasted way too much time back in the day blowing up traders in Sedina B8. I might have to check it out again sometime soon, I'm under the impression it's still being actively developed isn't it?

It's still going. B8 is less populated around 10am GMT (Aussie evening) than it used to be, though.

That would be pretty awesome. To have different sizes of ships that require different amounts of crew members.

To have a big ship, you'll need lots of friends to perform all the jobs, and you can take shifts in flying the ship (or set it to autopilot) or cleaning the space showers.

I hope its not only possible to acutally explore the ships but to integrate the virtual CPU to the controls and environment. Like guns, stearing, doors...

The virtual CPU could then be used to control the ship guns. A better software would mean more accurate hits or perhaps improve the power / force / firing rate ratio by adjusting it automatically. People could even create their own auto pilots.

That remembers me of the SW:TOR games, where doing stuff inside your ship had a really cool and inmersive feeling.

I know this was a week ago, but I had this saved for later and just got around to reading it. It seems that you will be getting what you want.

One of the screenshots off the website is this: http://0x10c.com/screenshots/006.png

Are there any games currently in existence that would allow someone to fly a ship ala space sim and also move around in their ship interior?

An RPG'ish space game that just let me tool around as if it was Han Solo inside the Millennium Falcon, exploring the universe would be really sweet. Doubly so if it let me and a buddy fly inside a tangible cockpit.

I'd love to know if such a game currently exists.

EVE is close- it's a fly-your-spaceship MMO and you get to move around the inside of space stations

Though http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Walking_in_stations was roundly criticized for soaking up so much effort yet going out in such an incomplete state (you literally can't leave your quarters and see another player yet). Me, I just hope http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_514 (the ground battle spinoff) doesn't remain limited to console gamers.

I have a 50m SP character in Eve Online, I'm desperate for something that has real cockpit interaction and exploration.

The station avatar stuff ended up being boring garbage with no real substance. It got multiple people fired at CCP.

Noctis does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctis

However, it's a bit... idiosyncratic?

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