Dynamic Campaign Online-RPG/Sim

[Monsterfurby]

Yes, I still remember the days when some friends of mine and I played XWvsTF for nights and nights. Soon, however, skirmishing didn't seem enough to us and so we started to work out a Risk-ish system that incorporated many more factors than just the fighter battles, and played a somewhat basic "dynamic campaign".
The system was refined a couple of times and, in the end (we used X-Wing Alliance by then due to its skirmish mode) we even had details on planetary invasions. The wars we fought at some point reached quite an epic scale (one faction built quite a hierarchy and I can remember them talking some people at school into working for them as fighter pilots.. go figure..) and -if it would have been done as an RPG- would have been made for one war epic or two.

But to get to the point: I am thinking about reviving this concept and starting a similar online campaign. At this point, I can however only think of two game engines capable of that due to their editability and multiplayer support: Bridge Commander and Freespace 2. This time, though, I would base the whole campaign off a Role Playing Forum so that even players without the game in question would be able to participate - for example as Gunnery crews or Officers who, due to the limitations of the engine, don't have much to do in-game.
Would anyone here be interested in participating or helping me start a project like that?

 

[Jason_Ryock]

I'd like to see more details hammered out, at which point you might consider using us to host your website and Forums over at WCAAO, as this sounds exactly like the kind of crazy off the wall RPG Project we want to endorse.

Also, you might look into Freelancer as a game engine. That game is highly moddable, and has extensive multiplayer support, allowing you to run a dedicated server even when you're not running a mission, letting people getting time in the game and providing a great interactive enviornment.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Hehe Crazy suits it alright - I thought about using Freelancer for quite some time and, while it's engine is certainly well suited for a dynamic universe, it would be hard, though not impossible, to give the game a WC-Armada-ish mission based feeling. But, as I said, it will all-in-all depend on the general interest for the project. I personally am currently trying to reconstruct and -balance the old system we used in our private campaign

 

[ChrisReid]

Why don't you just use Wing Commander Armada?

 

[Monsterfurby]

Well WCA is somewhat limited in its possibilities, technical as well as gameplay-wise. Also, it does not allow to truly create a storyline around a campaign as basically you not only have but two players (if it does support multiplayer, which I'm not sure of), but also the game somewhat compresses a whole campaign into perhaps 2-3 hours of game time -consecutive hours, that is. It is too "simple", so to speak

 

[Peidu]

Ah, finally someone with a nice idea. I'm will to help you if you need it Monsterfurby

 

[ChrisReid]

Well WCA is somewhat limited in its possibilities, technical as well as gameplay-wise. Also, it does not allow to truly create a storyline around a campaign as basically you not only have but two players (if it does support multiplayer, which I'm not sure of), but also the game somewhat compresses a whole campaign into perhaps 2-3 hours of game time -consecutive hours, that is. It is too "simple", so to speak

I don't see how Bridge Commander or Freespace 2 really overcome any of these limitations, and since one of your prerequisites was an engine that could be modified, just going straight to a source Wing Commander engine seems like it'd cut out a hell of a lot of the middle work. Actual Armada campaigns last a good ten or twelve hours. Proving Grounds allows up to six person multiplayer. And isn't your story going to be in some sort of separate RPG setting with the game as just an element of that? It sounds like you didn't know you could play Armada online now, so hadn't considered it. https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/6735

 

[Monsterfurby]

Thanks for your support, Peidu It would indeed be great if you could help me with the general rules. I guess I'll put up a forum just for organization purposes so we can work out a solid foundation before starting the whole thing up.

Edit: Well, I do admit that I didn't know about that. I still don't know if the Armada Engine doesn't limit strategical choices too much - but I guess I'll check into that and try it out again - thanks for pointing that out!