Arcanum as free MMORGP ?

Really now, there should be no visible LO in the multiplayer game. The LO could be anywhere, nowhere, alive or dead. It's not the concern of the multiplayer group. Simply mentioning the possibility of the LO would be enough, methinks.

 

Perhap if you ditched the entire campain story, you could make it into a MMORPG, but you'd basically've WOW in a Victorian setting, at that point.

 

What is LO ?

 

LO = Living One

 

It's like LOL, except it isn't loud.

 

Hold on a minute. I'm all for the multiplayer, but I'm not sure so much of the Arcanum module itself can be rewritten to change the story. That's a gigantic undertaking, about trying to decide who is the LO or not. I think it would be interesting to put a twist on it and all, but maybe if you think we should be creative about it, it might make sense to start from scratch rather than add a huge expansion, PLUS changing over the dialogs to handle multiple PCs. I think Vormantown's scripting and dialog is a good example of how it can be done, but obviously Vormantown is pretty damn linear.

I think the modders here, if we worked together, could make a new mod with a world map that would be fun for 4-6 players, and damn hard too. If you just cut out a lot of the time spent on dialog and go for a lighter sort of build, it could come together pretty fast. In fact, my second project was exactly like this, a worldmap thing but a bit lighter on the dialogs, and then, of course, I found out that not only were there no servers, but you can't just connect to someone and host a big game.

I would like to even see a couple of super-small mods that are just free-for-all. Sure, Arcanum's combat isn't its strongest selling point, but i think it would be fun to play against real people in this game that all of us have played solo for so long. I wonder how free-for-all would be different than co-op? Just drooling over the scripting stuff here... I think "Escape from Tarant" would make a good backdrop for a mod that could be done in a few months, if someone could get network games going

 

Did you read anything in any of my posts?

 

Something weird happened, and this isn't the first time. When I posted that, it was in response to the second half of DarkForm's post about 7 posts up:

I don't know what the deal is - this has happened to me on rpgcodex as well. I was actually about to respond to the last 5 or so posts just now when I discovered - surprise! - that I had somehow posted after them...

Or, maybe I was drunk? No, I don't think so.

What do you mean by this?

I really agree with this. I think the only place that would need a significant change in the LO theme would be at the Crash Site, and that would mostly be a rewording, not a significant departure in theme. Virgil is jumping in between a headlong plunge into worship and expressing doubt. Actually, what I would really like is the option that if some NPC asked me if I was the LO, to be able to say that yes, I definitely am, and if any of my friends here tell you otherwise, they're full of it.

EDIT: It might have something to do with the fact that my settings for the forum somehow ended up being GMT+1hour rather than GMT-1hour. Hopefully this won't be a problem with this post.

EDIT 6/16/08 - Changed the quotes to reflect that DarkFool was the author, not Darkform. Sorry for the confusion.

 

I happen to've a server, among other things in here. It's old, but I think it'd be able to handle a 4-6 person game. Also, if anyone could help me figure out how to program it to function as an Arcanum server, I'll host it. You just've to make the mod (and help me sort out how to use it, lol).

 

Yeah, I can do the modding part, just give me a few years to get back to you on that

I can't remember who it was, but someone said in the last 6 months or so that they used some kind of connection software to create an Arcanum game over I.P. rather than a local network. They even posted screenshots of Vormantown with 2 players.

Even better, maybe someone needs to talk to someone from Troika or Sierra to "lose" the old Arcanum server software in the internet somewhere. "Oh no, we got hacked! What are we going to do now that people can play a game we no longer support, using software that no one is using and which we can't possibly profit on! Call the lawyers!"

 

I'd support that. Hell, I'll "accidentally" load it onto my server, and "unknowingly" run it.

 

It's the "misplacing" of the server software that's the tough part. Hell, there are so many things that Troika had that I want. There is the real art editor and creator, including what the headers mean, so you could indicate what's a bed or where the blocking tile is, etc. There's probably a facade editor as well, and you can just dump that image and throw down some blocking tiles and decide what the tile sound effects are. There's the source code, which I would, uh, learn to program for.

 

the Darkform quotes in your post are actually from Darkfool not me Darkform.

 

I play Magic World Online, and mainly dick around. I've met a decent number of entertaining people in the game, so I'm continuing to play for that reason alone. Team A: I'ven't dusted my server off in awhile, and I don't really've time to until sunday at the earliest (high school graduation for friends = drinkin' weekend!). I'll look into what it'll take to host a game, and try to run a game between one or two of my computers. I'll let you know how this goes.


Yes, I know, it'sn't normally my thing, but they offered to buy me exactly what I wanted to drink, if I'd drink. So there should be a bottle of Skyriver Sweet Mead just for me!

 

wow... yeah <-- new. and i havent played the game yet even... but it really sounds like most of you are letting your views of current mmo's influence your opinion here. forget about the 'massive' part, i dont think the world is gonna come knocking down the doors to get at an arcanum mmo. so its just a multiplayer online rpg. in a steampunk setting. would you play that? if you got the source (or even simple rights to use it) you could ditch the whole story line altogether, and run your own rpg in a setting that obviously has a cult following. come up with your own story lines. make a truly open ended rpg by dealing with other real people. make the focus the rp rather then the stats, or the official story line.

i dont understand why more isometric games arent looking at this as an alternative to simple mods. thats pretty much exactly what im looking for anyways. screw the big money grubbing companies, and their big budget graphics!

or maybe im totally off base here. probably. such being the case please ignore this.

 

It's doable. I'll donate my crappy old server, if someone can procure the server software, or can tell me how to configure my server to host games.

 

He's refering to that fact that MMORPGs most often severely lack anything resembling an engaging plot. They're basically large communty sandboxes where everyone runs around like fucktards screaming about selling shit, or standing around town watching their bullocks grow with the next 1337 wepponz tey findzorrz, or just spending hour upon hour bashing the living fuck out of anything with a respiratory system in order to 1) find more 1337 1007, or 2) melt their faces off on the ol' XP grindstone. It's funny how RPGs these days have so very little to do with actual fucking role playing.

Now, I've never even watched someone else play WoW let alone taken the plunge myself, but from DarkFool's reference, I would immediately assume that WoW, like so many others before and around it, has about zero to nil plot. And I'm fine with that. Really...I am. Because I'm not the one blowing my money on it every month. It also gives me a greater appreciation for the pure gems of the genre like Arcanum and Fallout.

 

Agreed. Also, I've re-installed NWN, and am in love with it again.

 

I recently got the hankerin' myself. But I want to wait until 1.69 final patch is released. Bioware's been working on it for a long time now, releasing beta after beta to the community to bug test and just going over ever last little detail with a fine-toothed comb. Lot of good stuff coming with this last one.

 

Meh, I'm running it as/is, and will update to 1.69 when it comes. I'm just hoping that the modding community will regain it's heartbeat with this patch... lots of new content but no modders just sounds like a waste.