Tragedy of the Commons: An Exploration of a GUI Universe

Discussion in 'Other' started by Keithblu, Feb 27, 2012.

?

Do you as a gamer want to see a visual representation of the available server/personal 'seeds'

  1. Yes, lets have a Universe GUI for easy navigation

    100.0%
  2. I'm not sure what you mean, can we get more info on this?

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  3. Not really, I like the server lobbies/systems that I'm used to and confident with.

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. This isn't an issue for me, because I mainly play games like this alone for their sandbox qualities.

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Keithblu

    Keithblu Void-Bound Voyager

    A result of so many people wanting to use one space is that space becoming occupied by too many at once, and/or a reduction in its usefulness. More simply, if too many people want to use the same place, it gets wrecked for everyone.

    Starbound appears to be seeking a resolution of this phenomenon in the form of players generating their own random world 'seeds' coordinates, which will provide access to that world for other players who want to visit, and will essentially allow that world to coexist with all the other players' worlds in one cohesive universe.

    A problem arises when one considers servers. If these world are open to all, are they unilaterally capable of being affected by everyone, or does the 'seed' generating player preside over those permissions?

    I suggest this be left entirely to server(s), and for extensive work to begin on server controls now in preparation for this system. Thing is, this might get big, and it might require a number of servers just to accommodate the number of players, but I don't know.

    This quasi-universe with all the worlds in it should be divided into quadrants and sectors for a more structured navigation of the (no doubt) thousands or millions of worlds that will be generated. The structure should have specific allocations for server worlds, and individuals' worlds to exist in. This way it is clearly visible what a world is and the online navigation of servers can be well-served with a visual component. Tying worlds together with this structure is very useful as it will allow the developers to create a GUI for their server lobbies that can seamlessly function as an access to both server worlds and players' individual posted 'seeds' coordinates of worlds. They could conceivable just make it look like a single galaxy, or they could attempt to represent the Universe as a whole. They could also shoot for something in-between such as the local cluster of galaxies, or the local supercluster of galaxies.

    Given enough working information of the game, I could program the GUI(not the server or seed related code) and integrate the graphics myself, as this is the area of game development I have the most experience in(in terms of actual implementation).

    I glanced at the scrolling forum background, and realized that it resembles a 2D starmap, with lines linking some stars(like constellation representations almost). If this is a representation of what may be in the works for the game, it is possible the dev's have already thought of this. If so, disregard most of my suggestion, but I still think it should be integrated smoothly between servers and individuals' worlds if possible.

    The poll is more something for the dev's to get an idea of where their fanbase's opinions lies in terms of server navigation and such.
     

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