Civ as a MMO

[Denaz]

About the topic and forum: I do not know if this is the right spot on the forum for this topic. Please move it if you do not find it suitable. More over, I am not an English speaking native, so please excuse my bad English.

The dawn of Civilization – Civ as a MMO
I would like to discuss Civilization and the possibilities to make an MMO of it. It would be great if all of you who read this can pass on your ideas on it. Just for the fun of it of course!

It has been about a year since Sid mentioned MMO in media the last time, atleast what I can see on the internet. I think that Civilization as a game is just to good not to try to make an MMO of it.

There is something very intriguing with the dawn of civilization. To understand and play around with the ideas behind the couse of why people at all organized them self in cities tells us something about our societies today. There are a couple of inspiring books and TV-documentaries out there on the subject which are very interesting and all makes me think about Civ (and make me wanna play).

I got some thoughts about how Civ could look like if it would be a MMO:

1. Turnbased? This is one of the basics that makes Civ. I think that you should be able to make one to several turns each day.
2. Relatively short games – Since the game depends on development during passing of time it can not last forever. Therefore I think that “game over”, must be in reach. You should be able to jump on a new game after some time.
3. Massive amount of players must either make many servers and/or many players in either one civilization or in one huge map.
4. The creation of one civilization could be a choice of several players. To start one can be done by several critrias like amount of villiages, technology, common religion and language.
5. Civ with added feauters? Civ is much about exploration and exploring new land and finding new technologys is a big part of the game. This can be done through several ways, not only moving forces on the map like before but also through first person in a added mini-game which can be played for each turn. Maybe you can play a leader of a group of people (npc:s) who has cattle and farms or maybe you take control of a warrior who sets out to do a raiding-mission. Woman in particulary prefer to play as a character then an abstract.

Please comment and share some of your ideas. I would love to see a future Civ MMO!

 

[pesgores]

I don't know how the game would actually work...seeing Civ as a MMO is a bit difficult.

1-Needed a really huge map, for at least, let's say, 10k players. Maybe 100 times bigger than Huge maps for all those to fit in. Then, those maps would be divided into servers and maintaining a lot of servers is...not cheap nor easy.
2-Based on all Civ games engines, even the lightest one, needed a super-super computer to run. I think that turning Civ into a browser game would somehow break some basic concepts of the game, but would be the only way to run it. Similar game mechanics, but no complex graphics. Come to think of it, they're not really necessary, because you'll be playing 1 or 2 turns per day.
3-Diplomacy as we know it: no chance. I do not really know, because I never played multiplayer and never had diplomatic encounters with real players. But definitely different from the Single player one. That's for sure.
4-How many turns per how much time? 1 per day? Great, but slow. 2 per day? Great, but people sometimes only have access to the Internet 1 time per day.
5-Captivating newbies. If they start with a size 1 city, and take 30 turns to grow, that's a lot of time without anything to do. Yeah, they could give the newbies a size 5 one, but would be a bit different from original...

These are my ideas and thoughts.

 

[Lord Civius]

I have been working on something between a MMO and a democracy game. I am at the very early stages and its something I would love some help with. My idea is basically a multiteam demogame with a strong rp element. Each member could choose to join a civ or be non-aligned. They would choose a city to reside in and could own a house and start a business there. I have been working on a MOD for each member to have a personal unit within the game. There would be several unit classes with the ability to level up through the ages. Classes could be changed but the member would basically be starting over by losing all class experience. Each player could earn currency through private businesses, working for other members or being employed by their government (ie military officer, politician etc..). Like I said I am at the very early stages of the games development any feedback would be great. Also if anyone wants to join the project send me a PM and I'll send the website info.

 

[CrimsonEmperor]

Interesting. I had this concept for one of the campaign settings I had developed. I wanted to make it into a console MMO RPG with a very unique and active economy. The gambler in me wanted to make it a real cash economy, like entropia, but I have a feeling that would come about either way.

But essentially, the concept was this, the game had designated areas that were 'towns' these were determined by the general presence of law and order. At the start of a game, there would be several large established towns, and lots of wide-open land with a wild rating of like 100%. For every player character in a district, it would have its wild rating reduced by like 1/2 of 1%. The higher the wild rating, generally the more numerous enemy combatants, as well as the more powerful. Other events in the game could reduce this rating, like the stationing of a military unit in the region, building of a road, etc. After the rating gets low enough, say 20% or lower, then the national leader could order the construction of a small fort or guard tower. This would project an aura of town-ness, and you could watch as immigration along the road happened. The growth of the city would depend upon alot of factors, much like the health/happiness system in civ. At any point during the cities' growth, the regent for a nation could construct a governor's office, which officially incorporates it as a town.

Within the towns, NPCs would conduct economic activity (100-remaining wild rating as efficient as PCs). While PCs themselves could conduct various economic activity, as well as continue to adventure.

Of course, random events and the like would have a big effect. Suppose you had a vast jungle/swampland with a Lizardfolk tribe; the wild-rating would be like 250%, with a focus on lizardfolk.

Right now, its fairly simplified. I'd have to rework the concept so that non-human nations view the wild-rating differently, and maybe that there are different ratings based upon alignment and race.

 

[CrimsonEmperor]

Of course, this is more of a strategy-based MMO idea, than a civ-based MMO.

For a distinctly civ-based mmo, your gonna have to include some exciting activity for them to 'drone' away at while their city grows. Preferably, their success at this activity determines not only how fast they level up personally, but how fast their city grows.

Once again, back to the other game idea. They reduce the wild rating, which might increase the happiness of the city nearby. Or maybe they protect lumber shipments from a logging outpost.

 

[Lord Civius]

Pretty interesting ideas Crimson . Work is progressing slow on my Civ MMO project but I am beginning to get some of the core game mechanics down. It will be a browser based MMORPG using PHP and MySQL code.

Most of the art will be from Civ3 as it will be a 2D game, I wouldn't even attempt 3D. Using the grid/tile layout in the civilization series it will be taken a bit further. Most grids within the map will have another grid within it called a sub-grid. So a city for example would have a sub-grid of its own and buildings can be placed on the sub-grids. Larger buildings would encompass multiple grids, for example a personal residence would encompass 1x1 tiles, a Tavern 1x3 and a Library 3x3. Within the sub-grid each tile would have its own terrain that would need to be cleared before construction of buildings. Each terrain will have a price and time for clearing before construction that will differ depending on terrain type, NPC Worker experience and technology level. I will not get any more technical on the map grid system just wanted to give anyone reading an idea of the mechanics.

Note
Keep in mind cities can grow to beyond 1 parent tile, far beyond the 20x20 sub-grid.

Buildings would act more like the cities in Civ as they would have a building screen (much like the city-screens in Civ). Depending on the building type it will produce either commerce, research, culture, E.P.'s unless it is a production facility.

Production Facilities- Mines, forests and farms will produce resources in the form of raw material. The raw material is then transported and used at production facilities. Different production facilities will be used to produce everything from weapons to ships.

Each player will have one character and the ability to control NPCs. NPCs can constitute humans, animals, vehicles, etc. and will fall into many categories. NPCs will be doing the brunt of the work and construction and can also assist new players or be recruited to an army. There is really no limit to what NPCs can do, the sky is the limit.

I am working on a movement system that will utilize a delayed real-time system so that players all over the globe can respond to things without fear of death because they were not online. As a result of this, movement will tend to take awhile to get from point A to point B. basicly you will choose your destination in your navigation/movement screen and choose your movement type (walk, run, horse, etc.). Here is the eqaution used to decide your ETA:

Ground Movement Calculations: (still working on calculations and skill levels to be implemented)
The maximum speed for ground vehicles is equal to 200 km/h but limited to a maximum 100 km/h when inside a city.
Vehicle Speed: The maximum speed for vehicles is 100 km/h (or less if the vehicle speed is lower) when inside a city. Vehicles can use their full speed when outside a city.
Mounted Animal Speed: may move at a speed between 10 and 50 km/h.
Character and Human NPC Speed: may move at a speed between 4 and 24 km/h.
Distances: Each grid square within a City/Terrain is a 100m x 100m area.
Time to Move: Distance / Speed
Aborting Ground Movement: Travel on the ground can be aborted at anytime, it is instant, and you will stop at the square you are currently in. Travel is also aborted if a character exits the vehicle or dismounts his horse.

Example: Character A is new to this world and needs to travel 10 squares within the cities sub-grid to the train station , he has 1 point in the speed skill. 1km / 4kmh = 15 minutes

After I complete ground movement I'll begin working on sea and air movements as well as trains for ground movement.

Note
The maximum speed of a party will aways be equal to the speed of its slowest member.

Note
If you are under arrest, unconscious or dead, then you will not be able to move.

I hope that gives a general idea of where I am heading with the Civ MMO. I just do not have time to get into the government mechanics, economy and guild/faction aspects. I will post a brief concept summary of the entire game mechanics soon if anyone is interseted in seeing them.

 

[CrimsonEmperor]

Awesome. Im a very novice PHP/MySQL developer. I used to do Model and Control aspects of websites. I might be able to help, or at least give some advertisng presence for a new cool site like yours.

 

[Lord Civius]

I am in the very Alpha stage of the games development and I do not have the coding experience to design the whole game myself. This will be a long work in progress and it would be great for any help in its development .