Shadowrunner MMORPG Project Need Intersted Persons Options

[Ori0n]

I have a great idea, and a fairly good beginning plan to create a Shadowrun MMORPG.
I need people who are also interested to help me in this project.

This will NOT be a ground-up project as that I have found a decent MMORPG engine called

Realm Crafter

And a few other programs and webpages

Lead Wurks
and
MMORPG Maker

My initial idea is to create a simple Demo using a gaming Module.
Only one scenario, will make it easier to complete and see what we are working with.

If this gets off the ground, the software will be licensed [it's either free or cheap], and I will pursue permissions from WizKids.

I NEED

• Programmers
• Artists
• Writers
• Character Designers
• GM's
• LOVERS OF SHADOWRUN

Anyone and everyone please please PLEASE feel free to share your input.
My soul aim in this project is to be able to play SR as an MMORPG, and not to make money, I just want to play.

Thanks, and remember.... Stay Low

Ori0n :: AIM [2nd O is a Zero]
Indifferentbass :: YIM
roopjm@gmail.com

[eralston]

What edition or SR are you wishing to build from?

What expectations for mechanics or gameplay do you already have?

What experience in software development or game design do you have?

What is your timetable for this project?

[Ori0n]

I am most familiar with 3rd Edition, but everything is open for discussion.

I have no expectations for mechanics and gameplay, I just have the idea and desire to play. Though I know this is not an original idea.

I have over 7 years of software development experience in C and C++

Timetable?
I wouldn't know until the project actually began.
Perhaps, 2 years?

[eralston]

I have talked with two other SR MMO groups (SR online and another through sourceforge), but I either dislike their direction (SRO) or have no faith in their skills (SourceForge).

The latter has time to turn things around, but right now, as I am the only one with any documentation concerning game mechanics (that I wrote anyway), I am the intellectual core of that project and I could leave taking everything it has produced with me.

If you are not only serious, but also competent, you might be what I wanted from the other two projects. I find myself in a bit of a dilemma

[Straw Man]

And I'm sure any team would be praising allah for the bounty of your presence, if that's the sort of ethic you bring to the table, eralston.

I've been working on an SR MMO for quite some time, and I'm now reminded why it has remained a largely solitary endeavor. It takes a special kind of person to alienate both their current and prospective team members with such a short post. Kudos.

[eralston]

Perhaps your solitary endeavor has sheltered you from this, but...

When you're in a team and you're the only one working (as this is literally the case), it doesn't make you a little bit ticked? Ticked enough to just go "If it's just me, then why are you guys in charge?"

It's not like I signed on the dotted line, receive any form of compensation from them, or they will be irrevocably destroyed by my departure. I wouldn't want anyone feeling like a slave to one of my projects so I shouldn't feel like a slave to theirs.

[Mardegun]

[Kagetenshi]

A quick look-see of Realm Crafter does not inspire confidence.

~J

[eralston]

I think the logic for using the engine is more economically motivated than artistically motivated. Not that you ever do much more than naysay Kage

But hey, with the bar set so low by SR the FPS, one could make spider solitaire with the SR logo on the back and it would probably feel less sickening...

[Shadow]

You guys should try and look at it a little more realistic. Make the best game you can with what you have. Then show it to the ONLYpeople who will ever get to make a MMORPG Shadowrun game. Then they like what you have done, and hire/fund you to make a real game.

Realistically, you are not going to be able to create, fund, host, and administrate a MMORPG unless it is text based. But shoot to make a great game that a company with dollars would consider funding. This is not a shoot down I think you should do it, just be a little more practical about your goals.

EDIT: I am a writer and I would love to work on this in anyway. If you need my services just pm me.

This post has been edited by Shadow: May 11 2006, 07:46 PM

[Smilin_Jack]

Thats not entirely true...

Like I said in the other thread about this in the General Gaming forum - they can go the Multiverse route. They develop and administer it, but Multiverse would host it (with the associated hosting costs pulled out of the fees Multiverse collects for you of course).

[eralston]

Wow. That Multiverse thing looks interesting.

Hmmmm, given that, maybe we should do something like just make a manapunk game and in case microsoft sluffs us off (certainly, leaving the fruits of our labor up to the same people who think their current SR game is anything relating to good would be a mistake).

In the very least, it reiterates that now is the time to think big and go for broke on developing a community MMORPG

[Smilin_Jack]

Multiverse is pretty good - though the tools are only in the alpha stage right now, nothing like crashing every 25 minutes when you're working on something. :grr:

That being said, I much prefer working on the new Torque engine.

TSE - Torque Shader Engine.

Granted its not a MMO engine, but it is a decendent of the Tribes2 engine so it has fairly robust multiplayer functionality.

[Ori0n]

Like I've said originally, the main impetus of this project is something fun in the vain of Shadowrun. You have tons of medieval styled MMO's, all pretty much based on D&D in some vein, no matter how deep you may have to go.

So what should our story idea[s] be? I was going to base the demo off a game module, if I could find any of those little books of interest.

Should we start with archetypal characters? Or develop a character generation system.

How shall we go about designing the world?

Please toss out scenarios suggestions et all!


remember, stay low

[eralston]

Isn't torque not free? (~150 a license, that's a bit much just for fun, extremely cheap for an actual engine)

We should develop our own set of mechanics derived from our preferred edition of SR and attempt to make a platform we could develop scenarios for endlessly.

The thread in the Shadowrun section showed that most people play Shadowrun to:

1) Interact with others
2) Assume a character

Aside from that, people enjoy carnage and the ability to cause it on others.

I would suggest that any serious conversation on features happen amongst only people who are going to help you. Random people are gonna just come crap on your thread otherwise

[mdynna]

I agree with the suggestion to go the TSE route. The Torque engine is affordable for the private person and license-free. There is already a free MMO module (for the TGE) that can be plugged in that gives you a day/night cycle and random weather.

However, before you get your hopes up too much I'm pretty sure Microsoft has locked up the rights to Shadowrun for quite some time. Kind of ironic that they own the rights to make games based on this very rich IP, then choose to almost completely ignore when they actually do make a game.

[James McMurray]

If the engine used is free or someone wants to loan me $150 until I get a good job again I'll be happy to loan my 5 years experience in software to the project.

I'd suggest doing a manapunk game rather than trying to do a Shadowrun game. With straight manapunk you can work to avoid licensing issues fairly easily, and end up with something that just needs some name changes and maybe a few graphical modifications to become an actual Shadowrun game.

[Shadow]

Well I still think the goal of any such project would be to prove how much you could do with what little you have. Then go to Microsoft and say "think what we could do with real backing."

[ismodred]

I have designed levels for Doom, as well as 200 page pen and paper rpg.

[eralston]

I think we're officially morphing toward making "Manapunk" instead of "SR".

At this point I would be embarassed to say to a gamer friend of mine "Yeah, that SR game for 360? Yeah, I play the P&P version of that"

Anyone wishes to throw their hat in, you should probably list your preferred field AND/OR expertise

[Shadow]

Well if we go generic "Manapunk" how is it going to be like Shadowrun? Are we just going to change the names of everything?

[James McMurray]

Software Engineer with 5 years C experience, plus php, perl, and a few others. I've also designed a lot of runs and adventure modules for various games, although I usually do better when I take somehting someone else already did and modify it.

Differences from SR:

1) Still have summoning, but summon creatures instead of spirits. Let it work in a similar manner. I'm no legal beagle, but using a system based on services shouldn't be a problem. Have a few limited services available. I wouldn't have aid sorcery type stuff because that's a very SR concept.

2) Different names for everything. No Panther Assault Cannons unless they actual exist in RL.

3) Something hs to be changed about sustained spells, unless there are other systems out there already that let you keep up spells but they require strain.

4) The Essence stat and it's interaction with magic is a very Sr concept. There should be a limit to how much cyberware you can hold, but it should use a different mechanism. Tying it to your Fortitude (or Constitution, or Body, or whatever it gets called) might be ok.

Similarities to SR:

1) Drain from spellcasting is an integral part of SR, but is not limited only to Shadowrun, so shouldn't be considered as stepping on any toes.

2) Based on a team infiltrating and/or assaulting stuff. Preferably the content we do should be soloable, as that makes it easier to test.

3) Most of the cyberware could be ported over. If we use refresh timers on things like gun firing and spellcasting, then initiative enhancers can be easily modeled as dropping a percentage of the delay on all timers. For example, Wired Reflexes 1-3 would each drop 25% off of the cycle time on all timers.

4) Tech and spellcasting shouldn't mix. But without an Essence stat something else would be needed. Perhaps an increase on damage taken when casting?

5) Use social skills. Giving the characters a chance to, for example, take a dead gaurd's uniform and use it as a disguise based on an actual disguise skill could be really sweet. Likewise, negotiation should modify all cash transactions. Etiquette should increase dialogue options and Fast talk (i.e. Con) would allow for new dialogue options. For Con, perhaps an option on everyone that lets you try to con them out of money, but they scream for the police if you fail. Also allowing Con to help you schmooze past gaurds instead of fighting them should be cool.

I'm still in the process of downloading Realmcrafter, and I may have some more ideas after I play around with it some.

[Ori0n]

Wow, Thanks for all the input guys!

I'll be setting up a website this weekend with forums and blogs of its own that we can use in this project.

I deffinetly like all of your ideas and appreciate them very much.
Hopefully this can get started sooner than I thought.

Also I have found a bundle deal for RealmCrafter and Truespace,
I will most likely be investing in that before it runs out on May 18th.

Here's the link I was sent but it hasn't worked, maybe its just me

http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/career_rpg01.asp

Thanks again!

[James McMurray]

How should the game handle death? If we just have the character respawn somewhere it completely loses the feeling of danger that should be inherent in a cyberpunk / manapunk setting. Unfortunately, having death be a permanent thing makes an MMORPG really hard to play for people that want to keep the same character for a while.

I'm thinking that repawning might be the only real option, but we could put a limit to it somehow. Perhaps a drawback to when you die. I've got an idea rolling around in my head and will post it if I get to a point where I think it's workable.

Edit: No, the link not working isn't just you. It appears to be a dead link.

[Shadow]

I think a time penalty would be what I would want. But I also think death should be rare. It is on P&P.