God Game MMO?

March 25, 2008 LHStaff General 0

What would it take to take a game like Civilization, Starcraft or Sim City and turn it into a MMO, but keep the God like power one has it these games? Instead of controlling one character you control an entire civilization in a MMO style game. All the same features you find in RTS games and MMOs would be there. Leveling up your civilization, controlling your army and civilians, researching, epic large scale battles and complete customization.

There are text based games around the internet that are similar to this, but usually these games are played in rounds of 1 to 3 months long, then the game resets and everyone starts all over. Could this work for a graphical MMO? Playing rounds that only last a month?

To take a RTS game and turn it into a MMO is no small feat as there are many things to consider.

  • What happens if your civilization is destroyed? Do you start over or do you have to wait for the next round?
  • Can you be Switzerland and be neutral? Perhaps an economic power and not a military power.
  • How many players per player universe? Can you have 1000 civilizations in one world or does a limit need to be imposed? Can servers handle that kind of processing load?
  • What happens when you log off? Can your civilization be attacked?

Some hurdles definetely need to be resolved before a game like this could be made. What do you guys think? Would this be something that you would consider playing or does this sound like a very very long RTS game?

7 Comments

  1. It seems so many of these debates are popping up now – quite amusing and some interesting stuff. The MMORTS genre is 10 years old this year and its a wild year for new releases. The technology is available to realise all the genres hopes on a never been seen scale. We will be covering it fully at http://www.mmortsgamers.com and are happy to help with any debates. As this is a well worn path for me – i will stand aside for some fresh ideas before commenting.

  2. There really hasn’t been a hit MMORTS on the market which is why most gamers are oblivious to the fact that there are MMORTS games out there. Looking though your game list, I noticed that most of the games are still in Beta or Alpha. The only game I’ve even heard of was Shattered Galaxy, which I thought was just a RTS game.
    Do you have a MMORTS that you could recommend that sounds something similar to what I wrote? I’d love to take a closer look at the MMORTS scene if you do.

  3. Well, SAGA has been well covered and has many reviews, Ballerium is another Fantasy title in full release. For SciFi fans, and my personal recommendation, I would try and jump on the Beyond Protocol Closed Beta. Mention me as referrer ;) Sure you will get on. Released SciFi titles that give a good taste of persistent RTS are Boundless Planet, Mankind, Time of Defiance and The Far Reaches of Space. First three are released but, tbh, kinda static dev wise. Mankind has no demo. Far reaches is in early BETA but growing weekly.

    The game receiving the most of my attention is Beyond Protocol – answering many hopes we had playing the other games. And MMORTS are demanding time wise, so this limits my ability to play a few to any degree of seriousness lol.

  4. I decided to go with Beyond Protocol even though its still in beta. Once I get a few weeks into it, I’ll write up a review. thanks

  5. If you have not played MMORTS before – I think you will love it and be amazed. If you have played MMORTS before, I think you will recognise that this game signals the end of the selfish, solo game. Cooperative play and player created story lines will demand socialising on a scale most MMORTS gamers haven’t achieved before lol. We are hoping for an influx of RPG and FPS community to help us kick start all this.

  7. Good Questions….

    And ones we considered early in the design of The Far Reaches of Space.

    http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/

    Although not a God-Game, it is a strategy based MMO, and fits with many of the questions you have posed.. I’ll take them one at a time.

    “What happens if your civilization is destroyed? Do you start over or do you have to wait for the next round?”

    Start over. You’ll have some of your assets, which may, or may not be useful to a starting player. In a true persistent environment, there are no rounds.

    “Can you be Switzerland and be neutral? Perhaps an economic power and not a military power.”

    Yes, our strongest player fits this category.. Although there are plenty of opportunities to rise thru military action, you can raise an empire (and a better one?) with economic action

    “How many players per player universe? Can you have 1000 civilizations in one world or does a limit need to be imposed? Can servers handle that kind of processing load?”

    Yes. The difficulty is in the initial design, a game space big enough to accommodate that many (and more!) players, all having at each other. The processing load is a programmatic issue, and with proper design, mixed with good technique and implementation ,this can be achieved..

    “What happens when you log off? Can your civilization be attacked?”

    Ah, this, was the crux of the problem.. in the real world, or a persistent game space, people do not wink out of existence when they step out. The problem is making assets behave as you would want them to, when you are not around. Economic units keep about their tasks, Military units keep on defending, but the real issue, is having your units know when to go on the military offensive, or at least call for reinforcements. The flip side of that is having your economic assets make a run for it when danger is close by.

    Far Reaches continues to expand, and grow, as we wrap up or Beta. It’s free to play, and the community just keeps on growing..

    http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/

    Dan
    Aka Sideovs

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