Firefly/Serenity the game!!!!!
POSTED BY: MayoDeftinwolf
UPDATED: Friday, December 5, 2008 01:54
VIEWED: 7082
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Right now hosting isn't a problem. I set aside a gig or two for it and have unlimited bandwidth so I am content there. And I was exaggerating a bit with my code. I do put in some comments here and there but since I have never had a class it comes across chaotic. I was actually surprised that after 6 months of not touching it I was able to get into the code without any trouble.
The first page has my TODO list that I will update and there is both an in game message board and a general message board for people to complain. :)
Biggest problem I have is getting sidetracked with individual little projects. Right now (and I am giving it up for now) I have spent the last 2 weeks looking for a character creator that can create good looking characters randomly and save them in jpg/gif/png format. Right now the crew generator I created is incredibly limited, but it does work so I am gonna move on from it and start work on the NPC's. That is gonna be the framework for a lot of the more firefly-esque parts of the game.
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I tried making a Firefly game in Flash a couple of years ago, but my programming experience was lacking. You can see the partial game here:
http://wydraz.110mb.com/firefly/ffgame.html
I'd be interested in doing some graphics work for a new Firefly game, or even working on that flash with a programmer who knows Flash actionscript.
(a.k.a. wydraz)
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That's not bad at all. Maybe we can figure out a way to integrate some flash into the game. Graphics would be a big help, just have to figure out what is needed. :)
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First thing I see from looking at your manual is a need for more planet graphics.
have you considered making a map of the verse to resemble the "official" version being offered at QMx?
http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/2008/11/map-of-the-verse/#more-634
I just registered and joined a game. I like the setup!
Hmm, looks like I already donated some graphics! The 'ship info panel' uses the graphic I did for my Hornet ship design. Looks good!
(refer to: http://wydraz.110mb.com/firefly/index.html)
I'd be glad to donate more 
(a.k.a. wydraz)
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I need a credits page. The manual is waaaay out of date. :) I got all the ships from a web page that didn't have any credits on it, so I figured someone would eventually tell me who made what. :)
I modified the map to be what I was able to find online (which wasn't much). I'd love to use the new map, but alas I have a budget of $0.00 to spend on any of this. My server is for other stuff so I am just using it.
Eventually I'd like to add as many ships as I can find. Maybe even incorporate some of the random tables and stuff. :)
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I think my main beef with the way this game works is the way space travel works. It just steps you along, grid point by grid point, and you won't know that you've been attacked, gotten a message, etc, until the next page load. Using a similar technique to what is used for "instant messaging" with AJAX would work, but there'd still be significant lag and the web server would get hammered when a larger number of people are logged in. So, that may or may not be a good solution depending on what number of users your expecting. Or you might just not care about that and are content to leave things the way they are.
But, if you want to change how things work, I'd be willing to donate my server and my time to develop a continuous (instead of the current discrete) space flight element. I would probably want to use cryptographically signed data to ensure that the person was indeed landing on a certain planet when communicating back and forth between the two servers (php's openssl extension makes this trivial i.e. openssl_sign, openssl_verify).
I'll leave it at that for now. But, I do have an idea of how this would work. I highly doubt it'll cause you much work and our work would basically be independent of each other. If you want to hear what I have in mind, let me know.
----
I am on The Original List (twice). We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"
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I will have to give this some thought. The main problem with this is that the entire game is a turn based game and this would change how pretty much everything works.
I do know what you mean and have a few ideas on how to work this out. Just have to continue giving it some thought.
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Fair enough. Let me know.
----
I am on The Original List (twice). We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hardcopy:
The main problem with this is that the entire game is a turn based game and this would change how pretty much everything works.
It really isn't a turn based game, though. I mean, the interface given to the player, and how it works, that is turn based. But, when one considers that other people are doing the same thing at the same time, not taking turns "round robin," then fundamentally it isn't a turn based game.
This isn't limited to just space travel either. The same thing is at work when making purchases, etc. This is essentially why I think that the way the game framework (I know it's not your fault, you're just using someone else's framework) is set-up is fundamentally flawed and as soon as a larger number of people start playing it, this will really start to rear it ugly head.
I really hope that if you go another route to a solution, that it fixes all the above. Because, if you don't, those demons will not be nice to deal with.
----
I am on The Original List (twice). We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"
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Well it is a format based on the game Tradewars from old BBS days. What you are talking about is a fundamental change in how it works. I really don't see this becoming a huge problem because the community just isn't that big. I'll be surprised if there are more than a dozen people on at any one time. If it ever gets that big then I will be happy to recode the entire thing. Though this time I will do it in Perl because PHP gives me a headache. :)
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