Thought this was a new AWS product for half a second.
262 karma · joined June 10, 2016
Now that they own the SoC design pipeline, they’re really able to flex these muscles.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/when-did-marriage-become-a-...
My biggest regret is the database. During gameplay, the database needs to be in memory so the game loop has as little latency as possible, so the database is just for persistence when the app closes. I really should use something built for this purpose, like sqlite. But the database engine I'm using is designed to be transparent and convenient. It uses a JavaScript proxy to track any time a data mutation is made to the in-memory database, and dumps that to the JSON file on a throttle.
Everything else is meeting my needs just fine.
The hope is that the game can be hosted over the internet through port-forwarding or on a VPC. That "part of a larger event" is actually in reference to running the game over a LAN at a convention.
The USS Voyager is a physical bridge simulator in Utah, USA that uses the Thorium Classic software, the precursor to Thorium Nova.
Fortunately, the scope of this is significantly less than Star Citizen, since all of the first-person content of the game is supposed to happen in real-life, LARP-style.
We once did an away mission where the crew was stranded on a remote planet and running out of water. We split the crew, where one half we going to find a viable water source and the other needed to track down a local scientist who had the parts we needed to repair the ship.
After dressing them up in our weirdest costumes, we trekked them outside. The water group were sent to a local convenience store with a couple of dollar bills and told to "act natural" as they picked up some bottled water. I was happy to find that they absolutely did not act normal.
The other group went to a local staff member's house, which had been decorated to look like the scientists laboratory.
Needless to say, the whole experience was quite memorable, and highlights how the computer controls are only part of what makes the simulation fun.
So if you have fewer players, you can play on a smaller ship that doesn't have any non-player crew members. Or, conversely, a large group will have additional stations to spread the work out a little bit.
Hopefully everything feels meaningful and impactful at every crew and ship size and nothing feels like busywork.
If you want to help guide what's included and how they fit together, I'm happy to entertain proposals in the Github discussions or Discord.
I should add that Thorium Nova will include a lot more inter-ship controls. Things like security officers, system maintenance, medical teams, cargo transfer, power grid distribution - that kind of thing. Adding all of that will effectively double the max-crew size of the typical 6 you see in other bridge sims.
DMX and other show-control features will come much later, after the main gameplay features are completed. But they're my favorite part, so I'll definitely get to them eventually.
The only difference is all the other players only need a web browser to connect. But you can play the game from a single computer if you want.
It's also open-source, so it's free to download! Alpha are in the Github releases page.
The goal for Thorium Nova is to create that iron-clad simulator that you're looking for, where every crew member's job has a real impact on the overall simulation. Right now I'm working on the power grid simulation, which will have huge effects on the rest of the ship. The quartermaster will have to keep fuel and coolant stocked in the reactor room, the engineer will have to monitor the reactor's usage and heat to make sure there's enough capacity for an emergency, and someone else will be in charge of answering the captain's call to "reroute all power to the engines!"
Building these simulations is an interesting balance of realism and gameplay enjoyment. Hopefully I get each of those right.
Thorium Classic has been in development since 2016 and is primarily intended to be used in brick-and-mortar space centers out in Utah, like the Space Place[1] and CMSC[2]. As such, there isn't a lot of content and documentation to get newcomers up-and-running with it.
Thorium Nova is currently under development and is intended to be used by a broader audience. It will include much more content, pre-built missions, and more integrated tutorials.
The project is open-source, so anyone is welcome to contribute[3] and follow along with the progress of each alpha.
1: https://www.thespaceplace.org
I've got a quick demo of the current alpha here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li51J9c1Wpo
https://gist.github.com/alexanderson1993/5e280410dd10639555b...
A multiplayer spaceship bridge simulator game, where your crew each takes a different position on a futuristic spaceship, explore space, meet aliens, complete missions, and hopefully keep your ship in one piece!
If you've ever played Artemis, Empty Epsilon, Starship Horizons, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, heck even SpaceTeam, this is in the same genre. It's pretty much Space DnD, with the option to have a Game Master role.
Still under development, but by the time its done it'll have a 3D universe simulation, crew and ship systems simulation, interactive controls for a whole bridge of friends, and an interactive mission designer.
I've got a handful of donations coming in through OpenCollective, but I just about break even with my hosting and Apple Developer program costs.
Source: https://bytes.dev/advertise
I’m the developer of Thorium, a little-known bridge simulator that’s primarily used for school field trips out in Utah. I think the time has come for something different though. I call it Thorium Nova.
It will be centered around the 3D star map and an internal ship map, and will have a focus on narrative rather than just action. Instead of just simulating what’s going on outside of your ship, the crew that live on your ship will affect how ships systems operate. It will also feature prominent Flight Director (game master) controls to facilitate more engaged storytelling.
If you are at all interested in what’s coming for Thorium Nova and want to learn more, follow this link and sign up for the newsletter. The number of newsletter signups will help me know how many people are interested in the project, so share it with your friends.
If you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll get access to special Thorium Nova channels in Discord to discuss development progress, along with other exclusive material provided only to newsletter subscribers.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.