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[cameni]

Such a system would be possible, but making it robust and solving all the details won't be trivial. But yeah, if something like that was implemented, it would give another dimension to the game.

We are also thinking about a building generator that could probably use some floor templates to generate buildings, being able to randomize some aspects as well. It would be good if the system allowed both these modes - producing a custom template by the user, and randomizing and cloning it to produce cities.

[Abc94]

I don't know why I didn't think of something like that before, Shawn.  An in-game construction system with a planetary engine has lots of possibilities.  Haha, just add people and basic interaction with objects and you got The Sims 4!     It could then also become a Sims/Sim City hybrid type game, although I'm not sure if anything on that scale is actually possible yet.

I think by itself randomly generated buildings with interiors have a lot of potential, especially in FPSs, but would add a lot to any type of game genre.     I've never seen an FPS use randomly generated maps.  An Outerra FPS, for example, could pick a random location for each game (or round) then generate weapon and vehicle spawn points and, if necessary, randomly generate small or large structures for the game area.

[Michal]

You should check procedural buildings in Unreal Engine 3. UDK is free to download, and it may bring some nice ideas. Of course Epic has far more resources than Outerra team, and I'm not asking for similar tool in Outerra, but a simplified version may be a nice solution.

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildings.html

[C. Shawn Smith]

Heh, the reason I asked that question is because I've always considered what a large scale, real world "Sims" meets "Second Life" would look like.  If you recall the movie "Gamerz" (bad movie, but interesting subplots regarding that virtual world), I've imagined something similar, in which players could be anyone and anything, including building virtual bars, dance halls, schools, etc, and eventually perhaps "stores" where you could browse a company's items virtually, walk up to a virtual checkout, and purchase those items.  The store then delivers them to your doorstep .

Imagine being able to shop for souvenirs in France while sitting in your own home.  Imagine taking online courses from a college half a world away, literally sitting in a virtual classroom while the professor gives a lecture.

"Digital Reality"

*Edit* Wow, I didn't realize the Unreal Engine could do procedural buildings.  That looks pretty cool.

[cameni]

You should check procedural buildings in Unreal Engine 3. UDK is free to download, and it may bring some nice ideas. Of course Epic has far more resources than Outerra team, and I'm not asking for similar tool in Outerra, but a simplified version may be a nice solution.

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildings.html

Looks nice, I didn't know it either, thanks!

[Michal]

It's about a half a year since I've worked on Unreal Engine, but I still follow it's progress, and I believe it's the most versatile toolset available today - I'm not talking about engine's features which are impressive too (of course for it's own purposes), but about tools you have.

Back to topic - I'm really glad you've decided to make your own proof-of-concept game. I hope it will come with some kind of SDK to make additional cars, planes or boats.

[Aman]

The second you sell the Engine to a big Company like EA etc. it will be dead.
Those companys mainly create crap for lowbrainers. They are not willing to make something "new", theyre not willing to take any risks.
Games for the masses are horrible.
Please take your time to build a game by yourself. I can speak only for myself, but i WILL buy it anyway, no matter if it is a FlightSim, a HikingSim, a TruckTrialSim or whatever.
Im playing Computergames since 1977. I saw thousands of games and your engine is by far the best thing in all that time. No FanBoy blabla! There is so much potential in it.
There are countless possibilities for this engine. I can watch the videos over and over again and im still stunned by the beauty and realism.

[ZeosPantera]

The second you sell the Engine to a big Company like EA etc. it will be dead.

I don't think a company like EA would even be interested in this engine, they don't have tastes that good.

And further still if they did want to use it they would most likely license it leaving other companies to still develop under it. Kind of like what the unreal and source engine have done. However in the case that EA or more likely Micro$oft feel that this engine in open development and licensing would lead to competition to one of their products and overall hurt their bottom line it would be prudent therefore to make brano and pig millionaires in one evening and fullfilling all their boyhood fantasies by buying out the entire development of the engine is a terrible thought. For us at least

[SpaceFlight]

After reading the posts in this thread,
I thought I will try to compile some of the features "the game" might have as stated
by the developers and other people and
I will add some things I would like to have in an Outerra game:
the game should/could be:

- a hiking/driving/boat driving/flight simulator
- it should be possible to climb the mountains if on foot. 
  (Maybe that is something not so important right now,
  but I think it would be cool if avatars could climb later on)
- it should be possible to gather resources (wood, minerals, metals)
- to own land
- to build structures on ones land
- to take other peoples land by force (perhaps a single person can only own a certain amount of land)
- to hire guards (played by real people) to protect ones land
- to hire drivers/pilots (played by real people) to get gathered resources to markets in citites,
  where they can be exchanged for other goods or sold to other players
- there should be PVP areas (preferably the whole earth, except cities)
- there should be safe zones (major cities where the markets are located)
- city sieges
- it should be possible to take on different roles (hunter, miner, soldier, driver, pilot, land owner, constructer,
  mayor of a city)
- the mayor has to be elected by the players via a voting system
- only the mayor and its staff can authorize construction projects in a city
- constructers can build inside of a city, they can build roads and connect cities, if they have the approval of the mayor
  or his/her staff
- the mayor can set taxes on goods in cities
- there should be clans/guilds/corporations
- it should be possible to change the role if one wants to
- the military layer should consist of an army where one can be a pilot, infantery man, tank crew etc. (I think "Arma 2"   
  features these different classes)
- there should be some sort of quick travel between locations, no teleporting but rather flights with jets that fly via the 
  atmosphere to different locations around the planet (maybe it would take 90 minutes to orbit the planet)
- there should be spacecraft

Thats it for now,
(I am not a programmer myself and I am sure most of these ideas have been mentioned before
or are implemented in other mmo games)

greetings,
SF

[Matt6767]

After reading the posts in this thread,
I thought I will try to compile some of the features "the game" might have as stated
by the developers and other people and
I will add some things I would like to have in an Outerra game:
the game should be:

- a hiking/driving/boat driving/flight simulator
- it should be possible to climb the mountains if on foot.  
  (Maybe that is something not so important right now,
  but I think it would be cool if avatars could climb later on)
- it should be possible to gather resources (wood, minerals, metals)
- to own land
- to build structures on ones land
- to take other peoples land by force (perhaps a single person can only own a certain amount of land)
- to hire guards (played by real people) to protect ones land
- to hire drivers/pilots (played by real people) to get gathered resources to markets in citites,
  where they can be exchanged for other goods or sold to other players
- there should be PVP areas (preferably the whole earth, except cities)
- there should be safe zones (major cities where the markets are located)
- city sieges
- it should be possible to take on different roles (hunter, miner, soldier, driver, pilot, land owner, constructer,
  mayor of a city)
- the mayor has to be elected by the players via a voting system
- only the mayor and its staff can authorize construction projects in a city
- constructers can build inside of a city, they can build roads and connect cities, if they have the approval of the mayor
  or his/her staff
- the mayor can set taxes on goods in cities
- there should be clans/guilds/corporations
- it should be possible to change the role if one wants to
- the military layer should consist of an army where one can be a pilot, infantery man, tank crew etc. (I think "Arma 2"  
  features these different classes)
- there should be some sort of quick travel between locations, no teleporting but rather flights with jets that fly via the  
  atmosphere to different locations around the planet (maybe it would take 90 minutes to orbit the planet)
- there should be spacecraft

Thats it for now,
(I am not a programmer myself and I am sure most of these ideas have been mentioned before
or are implemented in other mmo games)

greetings,
SF

The perfect game.

I like your idea of PvP. Also any clan/guild/group based wars should be allowed to fight in any cities owned by them.

[Emil]

- it should be possible to gather resources (wood, minerals, metals)
- to build structures on ones land
- to take other peoples land by force (perhaps a single person can only own a certain amount of land)
- it should be possible to take on different roles (hunter, miner, soldier, driver, pilot, land owner, constructer,
  mayor of a city)
- constructers can build inside of a city, they can build roads and connect cities, if they have the approval of the mayor
  or his/her staff
- the military layer should consist of an army where one can be a pilot, infantery man, tank crew etc. (I think "Arma 2"  
  features these different classes)
e planet)
- there should be spacecraft

I think, why not make a simulator with all these funktions like beeing a builder, skrap collector, mine worker, mashine operator and all that in one big giant sim! think of it as sims where you only control one person but in first person and you get to choose your work and all that. it would be impressive, like war raging on one side of the earth whilst peasfull vications and dreamjobs on the other side. Just think of it.

//Lolich

[ZeosPantera]

like war raging on one side of the earth whilst peaceful vacations and dream jobs on the other side.

That is the benefit of a global engine like this. All the variation we find in real life could be maintained simply because of the distance between parties and the travel time between realms. However I feel there would be less security in OT then there is in real life so terrorist attacks would be greater. But there are less people to terrorize so you would have to find them first.

OH>>> How about an in-game news network. Just text scrolls at first saying whats going on eg ("Mr potter just found gold in the former San Fransisco area.. Also the mother ship hit its third highest population increase in a decade.. storms are likely in the former soviet union area... Resources are requested in Islamabad 839-Top credit paid - all help appreciated"). Then when billions of dollars are made with the engine there can be live news feeds with actors to read the news.

[Vicious713]

A great way to deal with alot of that is to give Death a very, very serious penalty.

[Mervenus]

An everything simulator.

[[deleted]]

So for online multiplayer will you have to pay ? Or just the game ?