Sandbox

[Drako Slyith]

Okay so I'm trying to kick Sandbox development back into gear, so I made this thread to help organize it.

For those who don't know, Sandbox is a mod idea to have continuous gameplay, so there is not winning, but you can continue to play and have fun forever (optimally, but obviously after beating everything, there won't be a point)

Here's what we need:
Topology- Galactic layout
System topology- this includes basic and special systems
Missions- important to keep the player interested longer, so probably a lot of random variables.
Sovereigns- while it uses the same base sovereigns, we probably need some extra content for special systems
Economy- the economy really needs some development so all the station don't get bought out

And several minor projects:
Rebuilding stations- a system for stations that are dead to repair, so that the player can't kill everything.
Player expansion- stuff to let the player own a little part of the universe. (purchasing stations, ships, maybe even systems(?).
New devices- mostly to make the galaxy have new things.
In-Game development- by this I mean that the sovereigns start with a low tech level and improve their stuff (rather ambitious, I know, but it could be possible with installing weapons and enhancements, maybe some code in the weapons)

Any other ideas are of course welcome.

If you think you could work on this, your help would be appreciated.

[Aury]

umm, isn't there a sandbox thread in official development? Not sure, and forums are being slow for me today, so I won't check till later

[Drako Slyith]

I have no idea. I haven't heard anything about sandbox in several months, so I posted a thread in the Drawing Board. I'll go check if there is one.


EDIT: I checked, there isn't one there. (in Official Extensions, which I think is what you were referring to.)

[Aury]

Really? hmm, ok, go ahead then.

Is this still pegasus galaxy sandbox?

[Drako Slyith]

I think so. It's the one with the three main factions (Commonwealth, Ares, Ringer) each having their own arm of the Galaxy and in the Triad Confederacy(?)

[Aury]

yeah, the 7 primary factions:

The Tinker-descended Architects (central Triad authority)
The 3 triad factions (Each controlling 1 arm of the galaxy, and competing with the other 2)
- CW/Charon descended
- Ringer/??? (Ferian?) descended
- Ares/??? (I don't recall) descended
The 3 secretive anti-triad factions (each with their strongholds located in the "uncharted" systems)
- Black Market/Outlaws (loosely tied to the Underground) - between CW & ringers
- The Underground (resistance movement, directly in conflict with the triad) - between CW & ares
- The Ranx Directorate (more interested in waiting for the galaxy to destablize itself before moving in to pick up the pieces, rather than directly confronting the triad) - between ares & ringers

[alterecco]

But honestly. The sandbox did not really go very far, so just take it any direction that you would like. Perhaps don't bother with story, until you have a couple of working sandbox systems. I think it is more important to build the mechanics that allow for continuous play than to create another storyline adventure extension.

[Amariithynar]

I agree: With the barebones story as it is currently, it's a good start to then create the flesh of the expansion, before laying down the skin of story that encapsulates it all.

[Drako Slyith]

That's what I was mainly working on. My computer is still down (11 days!) but before it went down I had a very bare topology, and I was working on adding some systems into it. I also had some rough coding (not working) to make some stations rebuild. So I really have very little so far, but once I get my cpu back I can get a lot of work done (now that I'm on summer break).

P.S. I hate using my parents' computer. I have a phone with more processing power. I actually used task manager and found out that it was using 100% processing power to close a web page.

[shanejfilomena]

yeah, the 7 primary factions:

The Tinker-descended Architects (central Triad authority)
The 3 triad factions (Each controlling 1 arm of the galaxy, and competing with the other 2)
- CW/Charon descended
- Ringer/??? (Ferian?) descended
- Ares/??? (I don't recall) descended
The 3 secretive anti-triad factions (each with their strongholds located in the "uncharted" systems)
- Black Market/Outlaws (loosely tied to the Underground) - between CW & ringers
- The Underground (resistance movement, directly in conflict with the triad) - between CW & ares
- The Ranx Directorate (more interested in waiting for the galaxy to destablize itself before moving in to pick up the pieces, rather than directly confronting the triad) - between ares & ringers

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I do not know if you remember the "conversations" on the forum of the war against Mars :
I have always had a ext called The Auviq that takes off from there: I am Nerfing it now , but it does play into the same story ( since obviously there are only so many ways to tell it? )
Take a Peek at the back story I wrote up for the ext. maybe it will give the rest of you ideas too:
http://paste.neurohack.com/view/YBM2T/

[RPC]

My plan for contributing for Sandbox would be to make normal mods for Transcendence that are more or less frameworks so that all we would have to do would be to tweak some numbers, and we're set.
Here is how I'll contribute:
1. make an interesting mod, something broad that can be applicable to the Sandbox
2. upload it to Xelerus
3. When I'm satisfied with the mechanics, propose it for Sandbox
4. have the mod incorporated into Sandbox.
That way, I can release mods and work on the Sandbox at the same time and at a steady pace. The point is that I can break the huge chunk of what I want to do (make Transcendence Sandbox a living, breathing, dynamic universe ), release it as a mod, and hope things run smoothly.

Things/ ideas I want to incorporate into Sandbox:
1. Dynamic Systems mod (complete with tactical and over-systems AI-- I'm currently working on respawning stations)
2. economy-- I want to revive this guy's mod-- I've been greatly inspired by it (don't necro the thread though) Living Universe
3. working fleets- I've managed to have ships work as a squadron, all that needs work is some basic flanking maneuvers.

[Prophet]

I thought I heard someone mention sandbox..... My trans-sense was tingling!

[digdug]

Prophet!
welcome back

[RPC]

I was just wondering about Sandbox, and I realized that to make a fun sandbox, we'd need to introduce new dimensions of interaction to the player.
In D&O, the only interaction past St.Kat's is basically just blowing things up and selling, etc.
What other awesome, fun and exciting things should the player expect to discover in Sandbox?

Ideas I'm throwing out here:
- space anomalies, (come on black holes)! I'll see if Singularity could help with that.
- make up? new factions
- trade with previous enemies by making them neutral (Ventari [why are settlers -enemies?-], Heliotropes and the mining outlaws come to mind)
- stranded ships, stations
- the Triad sounds like a nice location to implement a dynamic economy.
- research stations like the Taikon and explorers like the Svalbard
- maybe Sandbox would be where all our Wild Mass Guessing comes to life... make the what-ifs come true with the magic of a Sandbox.

I'd like to also encourage the idea of exploring the galaxy, and hopefully this post will spur people's imagination.

[Ttech]

Well the name for the core group - I forget the name but they were made up of the tinkerers and similar groups would be doing research but to what end and if it is ultimately good is unknown as of yet. I do like the idea of stranded stations and we would need to expand upon it to make it useful in the game being as it is a sandbox, they should appear at random and with random things to be expected as much as possible.



The key thing I think we should remember for the sandbox is that the possiblilties exist to do anything and there are no required objectives to complete anything.