We are approaching the point where the in-game universe will begin to take shape.
I thought I'd spend a moment explaining my plans so that you can better understand what will happen in the coming weeks.
How much space do we have?
I have created a coordinate system that encapsulates an entire galaxy.
The dimensions are 100,000x100,000 light years across.
Each quadrant is 50,000x50,000 light years across and contains 6,250,000 sectors.
A sector is a 20x20 light year region of space with an average of 9 star systems within it's borders.
You will not be able to visit every star, but it does give you an idea of the scale of things.
How long does it take to travel between sectors?
A standard shuttle will take ~5 minutes to cross an entire sector.
Special space vessels can go faster, but are more rare/expensive to use.
There are also other factors to reduce the travel time, such as transwarp conduits, wormholes, etc.
How is everything connected together?
Almost every location in the galaxy is connected to at least one other location by free shuttle routes. You can hitchhike across the stars to your destination, or use a private space vessel to take a more direct route.
The galactic model is comprised of a series of hypothetical hubs and nodes.
A hub is a place that tends to act like a connector to several other locations.
A node is something that is connected, like a planet or a moon. It is somewhere to visit.
Professions such as mining need places to mine/fish/collect plantlife. How are these locations arranged?
These locations are called Resource Nodes. They are not to be confused with the nodes referred to above.
Lets have an example:
You are a Miner. You are looking for some Copper ore. You need to find a copper resource node. The node might be against the wall of a cave, in a mine-shaft, etc.
Resource nodes are spread far and wide across the galaxy, in many different locations. The FutureRP Wiki will act as a travel guide, listing useful locations in proximity to you.
Some locations are for low level players. I wouldn't want to go there. How do you share resource node and shuttle routes without forcing high level players into lower level regions?
This is something that caused my great difficulty, however, I have a workaround...
Every player in the game is fundamentally constrained to the 'level curve'. This is something that is used in RPGs a lot.
Basically, low level players can increase there level faster than higher level players. In other words, it becomes more difficult to level-up as you become more powerful.
This works to the game's advantage, creating a 'curve' upon which players are bound. At the bottom of the curve, the levelling happens very quickly over a short time. At the top of the curve, the levelling gets slower and slower.
What's so great about this? Well, the low level players don't stay low level players for long, so I know NOT to make a great deal of maps for them.
At the top of the curve, players start to 'clump together' as it takes longer to hit the next level. This is the place where the in-game content must be most dense.
There are people high up on the leaderboards, but they are a minority, so they do not deserve the largest portion of map content density either!
The conclusion:
- Low level players need very little map content.
--- Reason: because they aren't low level for very long.
- High level players need very little map content.
--- Reason: because they are a minority and level-up very slowly.
So who do we cater for? Well, everyone in between!
Look at the image below. It is the FutureRP galaxy.
Light red indicates the depth of content for the LOW LEVEL players.
Dark red indicates the depth of content for the HIGH LEVEL players.
Notice that the majority of the map caters to the 'everyone in between' but there is a small pocket of content for the low level players and slowly expanding pockets of content for the high level players. Bare in mind that high level one month is not as high level the next month, so these pockets will continue to arise over time.
What is needed is for me to determine the level range which is most common and regard that as the 'standard level' when building space stations and maps.
There is no reason for a proper space station to sell items for level 30, 40, 50, etc.
I thought I'd spend a moment explaining my plans so that you can better understand what will happen in the coming weeks.
How much space do we have?
I have created a coordinate system that encapsulates an entire galaxy.
The dimensions are 100,000x100,000 light years across.
Each quadrant is 50,000x50,000 light years across and contains 6,250,000 sectors.
A sector is a 20x20 light year region of space with an average of 9 star systems within it's borders.
You will not be able to visit every star, but it does give you an idea of the scale of things.
How long does it take to travel between sectors?
A standard shuttle will take ~5 minutes to cross an entire sector.
Special space vessels can go faster, but are more rare/expensive to use.
There are also other factors to reduce the travel time, such as transwarp conduits, wormholes, etc.
How is everything connected together?
Almost every location in the galaxy is connected to at least one other location by free shuttle routes. You can hitchhike across the stars to your destination, or use a private space vessel to take a more direct route.
The galactic model is comprised of a series of hypothetical hubs and nodes.
A hub is a place that tends to act like a connector to several other locations.
A node is something that is connected, like a planet or a moon. It is somewhere to visit.
Professions such as mining need places to mine/fish/collect plantlife. How are these locations arranged?
These locations are called Resource Nodes. They are not to be confused with the nodes referred to above.
Lets have an example:
You are a Miner. You are looking for some Copper ore. You need to find a copper resource node. The node might be against the wall of a cave, in a mine-shaft, etc.
Resource nodes are spread far and wide across the galaxy, in many different locations. The FutureRP Wiki will act as a travel guide, listing useful locations in proximity to you.
Some locations are for low level players. I wouldn't want to go there. How do you share resource node and shuttle routes without forcing high level players into lower level regions?
This is something that caused my great difficulty, however, I have a workaround...
Every player in the game is fundamentally constrained to the 'level curve'. This is something that is used in RPGs a lot.
Basically, low level players can increase there level faster than higher level players. In other words, it becomes more difficult to level-up as you become more powerful.
This works to the game's advantage, creating a 'curve' upon which players are bound. At the bottom of the curve, the levelling happens very quickly over a short time. At the top of the curve, the levelling gets slower and slower.
What's so great about this? Well, the low level players don't stay low level players for long, so I know NOT to make a great deal of maps for them.
At the top of the curve, players start to 'clump together' as it takes longer to hit the next level. This is the place where the in-game content must be most dense.
There are people high up on the leaderboards, but they are a minority, so they do not deserve the largest portion of map content density either!
The conclusion:
- Low level players need very little map content.
--- Reason: because they aren't low level for very long.
- High level players need very little map content.
--- Reason: because they are a minority and level-up very slowly.
So who do we cater for? Well, everyone in between!
Look at the image below. It is the FutureRP galaxy.
Light red indicates the depth of content for the LOW LEVEL players.
Dark red indicates the depth of content for the HIGH LEVEL players.
Notice that the majority of the map caters to the 'everyone in between' but there is a small pocket of content for the low level players and slowly expanding pockets of content for the high level players. Bare in mind that high level one month is not as high level the next month, so these pockets will continue to arise over time.
What is needed is for me to determine the level range which is most common and regard that as the 'standard level' when building space stations and maps.
There is no reason for a proper space station to sell items for level 30, 40, 50, etc.
Invisible War ][
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited by Cyberkilla @ Wed Jan 28 11:32:27 EST 2009
very good thinking cyber, it makes sense to cater to the mid-range players considering the reasons you already stated.
