Hello everyone,

Allow me first to introduce myself. I'm a 25 year old graduate student at Baylor University working on my masters in Computer Science.

I've been a LONG TIME EV fan since the original and have been a Nova fan since it's debut. Now, I have seen the many threads on here stating how a multiplayer version is impossible because the fact that ASW refuses to re-code the entire game. Ok Ambrosia, I can respect that, coding a game is a long process.

Enter TiG4.

Having this deep love for the game and online community play, I decided to start on my own project. Keep in mind, THIS IS NOT A COPY OF ESCAPE VELOCITY NOVA. I simply base the gameplay as such. The story line is different, ships are different, interface is different, everything from the ground up is completely different, but is still in a familiar type of gameplay (2D with a bit of 3D twists )

Now. How is this multiplayer you ask? Ok great, I was hoping you all were wondering. Well, it's an MMORPG. Yep, you start out with a basic character and develop your character depending on the path and role you choose. Our servers can handle thousands of players per server so it is quite a large community.

I'm sure your all wanting screenshots to believe any of this. Unfortunately I can't provide you with any. I need your help. Right now I'd say we are 40% complete with the code. While this may sound like alot, there is still ALOT to do. We have absolutely NO ship or planet art. As of now we are using wire-frame blocks to simulate ships and interactions.

Ok, your all thinking, "Great another guy who thinks he's going to make a great multiplayer game". Yes I do. But I'm not just another guy, I'm dedicated to it. I have a team of 6 people working on this game right now and it WILL happen. Don't expect a near finished version for a few months but rest assured there will be a release.

What I need from the community. Any artists, graphic designers, etc that are willing to work (FOR PAY) and can send me a portfolio of similar design. If you all are wondering how the game model will work. We will offer 1 month free online trial. After a month we will have a subscription price per month (price yet to be determined) but of course it will be reasonable.

I hope you all get excited about this as I am very excited, and ANY input you guys have about the game is welcome. We are making this for the community and it will be dedicated as so.

The release will be for Windows, Mac OS X Universal Binary, and Linux.

Hope to hear back from everyone.

Best,

TiG4

40% of the code looks like a good start.

I'm interested in your "storyline" part: how do you fit a storyline in a MMORPG like that? And what kind of storyline?


[if you need a writer, I might be interested ]

The storyline has not even been implemented. The 40% of the code has been mainly client/server type of code. Nothing that actually "defines" the game has even been setup yet. Since this is an MMORPG, we plane on handling EVERY aspect of the game server-side so everything is dynamic. One day a story could be one way, and tomorrow it could be completely different.

If your interested in writing I'd love to hear what you have. Anyone who has ideas PLEASE e-mail me at: george@pixlgeek.com

Tig

What do I have? Plenty of experience

Just go to www.arpia.be to get a taste, and check out the ARPIA2 plug-in when it comes out to see more

Everyone always looks for graphic artists, not writers. Though I am busy with Colosseum TC and other projects, though in the unlikely scenario that you need someone to write up a few descs or short missions, I can do so. I can provide a fair list of EVN plugs I have made, show off my Close Combat Guide, and show a number of non-EV related pieces. Or I could beta test when that day comes around.

Though I'll be first (and not last) to say I'm not going to have an interest in paying a monthly fee to play a game. I can easily afford it, I just have no interest in paying monthly for a game I've already paid for. No offense to you or any other MMO developers.

Well, any story writers, graphic artists, etc. are welcome to input anything into the game and will be paid accordingly.

Unfortunately, I obviously cannot make this game free. The servers alone are going to cost quite a bit of money. I wish that I COULD make this a non-subscription game but we just can't.

Tig

whats the webpage, tiga? is there any yet?

Not entirely free of course, charge for the initial purchase of the game, say like $30-$50. You could also support it with ads, just like Battle.net does, WoW aside.

Are you going to have in-game moderators and staff? That'd be something fun and helpful to do.

if we need to pay constantly for the game, they must then be adding things constatly for the game either, for example runescape, or world of warcraft.

I agree with JTH, make the game have an intial cost, like $40, then have the game have in-game ads. I wouldn't mind the ads if it meant no monthly fees.

Is the game 2D or partial 3D like EV? I have a few suggestions. THe game sounds great and I look forward to it, and hope to be a beta tester.


-Set up your own fourms, its a great way to start building a community to help the game along, and a community built gae is always the best. A supportive community can mean the differance between success/failure.

-Like others have said, no subscription. Look at games like Star Sonata, loved it until I hit level 20, I will not pay a monthly fee. I like the idea of an initial cost, with ads. Make subscription optional, subscription could remove adds, or maybe put a limit on the number of characters you can have on an account, and raise that number if they are subscribers. But don't make it manditory to have full access to the game.

-PM me! I could help you out with graphics, I have some 3D rendering experiance but am much more skilled with 2D art. I can provide advertising space to get the word out, I write storylines and missions, and could throw in alot of other suggestions based on experiance. I've helped out games in beta such as Star Sonata, Darkspace, Astro Battle, and am helping with Ruin Online right now. Pay not required. Email me if interested. Or contact by any other means for that matter. Let me know.


I'm looking forward to news about the development of the game!

EV has never been partial 3D or otherwise. It uses 2D sprites to animate ships. Although a hypothetical EV4 would use 3D graphics on a 2D plane for smoother turning.

And take the picture out of your sig before you get stabbed with a pitchfork.

What Jaca means by that is it's against the board rules to includes images in signatures.

Wow, this actually seems plausible. Congrats!

I'm just learning coding, so no help there. No graphics, either. I may be able to write some stuff, but I don't know.

whats wrong with images on signatures?

They're garish, and they stress the server because images take time to load.

in that case, remove your display picture

Hey.

Ok after reading the general concensis of everyone here, I realise that no one likes to pay a monthly fee. However, you have to understand the dynamics of server costs for such a project.

There is no way we can get enough advertisement to cover server costs. It just doesn't work on a new game that no company knows about.

Now, as far as a subscription. Of course content will be dynamic, that's the whole point of it being MMO. Like I said in my earlier post, all the content is handled and delivered to the client server-side, so day to day even hour to hour content will be changing and growing. New systems, planets, ships, etc on the fly.

Here is the question on my mind. What game style would you all see fitting? A "level" based system where a level 30 person greatly outweighs a level 2 person, or an experience based? I'm still not sure how to handle that issue really and it is the most underlying law in the game.

Also, we don't have a name for the game yet so any ideas are welcome for consideration. What he had so far as ideas, "Galaxy Online" (personally i think it's too much like Star Wars Galaxies), "Universe Online"...

Tig

F.Y.I. - My nick is TiG4 not Tiga (most just call me Tig)

It really depends on how everything is based. Is there a story? Are there missions? If there are missions, then experience sounds like it would be a good idea. Say, 100 experience for completing a certain mission. Then, get a certain percentaage of experience after killing another player based on the amount of experience that person has.

However, how will the player advance? I think some way of buying things would be best. Just like in EV, you have different ships, weapons, etc. Maybe you advance by experience but buy your upgrades with money. Better exp might give you better missions and access to better upgrades (in the forms of ships, weapons, etc) but money would allow you to purchase these upgrades. You would gain both by completing missions, killing/raaiding people's ships etc. Exp would also affect your status in a government. If you have a high exp and are a part of Gov A, then you would have a high status with Gov A. If Gov A is enemies with Gov B, you would have a really negative status with Gov B, etc.

It all really depends how you want to build the game. If you want a very neutral universe with a simple ascending class based system amongst players, either exp or levels would work. If you want a diverse universe with different governments, missions, playable ships, usable weapons, then I suggest some sort of mix of systems that I talked about above.


PS

If you need a graphical artist (for planets, buttons, weapon fire, or anything else that can be produced in Photoshop) or someone to help you with descriptions (planets, missions, overrall story etc) I would be willing. I have about six years of Photoshop experience and I am an English major with a love for EV.

thanks

Jive,

Interesting concepts. I think that having the game both experience and monetary based is the best. However, it seems a bit cliche. I want to think outside the box a bit...

Let's say someone chose the "pirate" class assuming there was one. Then how would he be ranked in a government? The government would not necessarily know who he/she was. Get what I'm saying?

I'd love to get help. If you could e-mail me some examples of what you've done we can definately work together:

george@pixlgeek.com

Tig

Eek! Spambot bait! You had better change it to user <at> domain <dot> com

Best of luck, TiG4.

I think you could actually base a lot of the workings on other normal RPGs.
Typical RPGs use experience milestones to "level up" and experience is gained only by killing monsters. In this case it isn't all about slaughtering everything in sight but I think it would still work if experience is handled the same way (like combat ratings in EV) and with each new level you can upgrade stuff or whatever. Killing other players is most certainly not the main idea and as with other RPGs there would be major restrictions on how that would happen.
Boarding a ship could be just like monsters dropping stuff. You have credits, cargo, fuel just like in EV but also the possibility of any type of outfit (including weapons and ammo) relative to the level of the ship you're boarding (all outfits and ships would have an internal 'level'). Perses might have multiple items and be more likely to have good stuff (you could have 'unique' items).

I'm somewhat useful for 2D, 3D, and writing and I would love to be a part of this.

You know, I wouldn't provide much in the way of direct help in making this game (my schedule's full enough as it is...), but I just had a thought. One that could DRASTICALLY change how this game is played.

The gaining exp. thing from killing...well, what if you were able to physically exit your ship and explore planetside? It'd require a lot of extra work, I know, but it certainly is worth mentioning. Your character could interact with port authorities, crew members...the list goes on.

What's more, you could personally deal with the lowlifes yourself, instead of landing and it tells your character that they did whatnot while on the surface.

But, yeah. Totally your decision on implementing that idea. Just my two bits worth, there.

I'd be interested in it. Sounds good. Reminds me of http://www.aresaxis.us/enigma/

I'm opposed to any level-up system except for something similar to the combat rating system, which affects (effects? I always get those mixed up) prestige with other groups, but doesn't actually have an effect on how one flies.

maybe a PVP arena that you can enter from a planet, or group missions, like WoW's instances?

Something like Comporellon in the Arena system, from the Clavius and Beyond plug for EV? Where you could take gladitorial combat missions for high pay?

OK!

One great idea I just had as a feature:

Ok you are all familiar with the gambling aspect of Nova, where you choose a color and 1 of 4 ships will win. Well, how about a gambling aspect, but we allow users to race. They will pay an "entry fee" to enter the race, and spectators can bet on who will win. The race will take place in a sealed "track" that will determin ewho won and pay out the appropriate money and the winner will get credit and whatever else.

As far as the experience levels go, I think I've decided on something like this:

The user starts out at a certain level lets say 1. He starts out with a simple weapon (defensive) and a light ship. He can then choose the "beginner's path" which is a tutorial in a way that will let him get used to the controls and gameplay, maybe some simple cargo runs or whatever. Just to gain experience. Then from there, the choice is up to them on which direction to go.

The user can gain experience by either completing "quests" or missions whatever we call them, killing an opponent of an EQUAL or HIGHER skill level than he is, (although it seems that this has room for abuse where two players could piggy-back off eachother to gain experience), or 3, completing in-game extras, like the races or whatever we add in.

Of course this is not set in stone but simply my mindset as of right now.

Tig

Definitely include racing. Don't have levels/experience, instead use combat rating, similar to nova.

But what if someone doesn't want to fight, but rather be a trader or merchant?

Going to try my best not to come off as argumentative, as thats not my intent. Just trying to be helpful and give you some things to consider. After all, I can't make your decisions and have no control over them.

MMOs like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 11, City of Villians, Second Life, and many more have the company and slogan name to get away with their monthly fees no problem. I bet many people would happily pay $25 instead of $15 to play WoW, simply because its a Blizzard and Warcraft game. Other MMOs don't have that luxary. Heck, the only reason I ever heard of Guild Wars was because it was free, and to date I haven't heard any other details about it.

Now these big guys are your competition. Like you said, you're a company nobody has heard of, so why would they want to pay monthly something they've never heard of? Thats where one of two things is going to come in.

Option 1 is free, probably ad and/or donation supported. It is entirely possible. InvisionFree has 14 servers with thousands upon thousands of users, and they don't charge a dime for their services, but rather use ads. I don't know what kind of deal(s) they have, but I'm sure some people pay up front for the ad space and others, like Google, pay them per purchase from being redirected through that site. My dad supported a few websites by allowing Amazon to advertise there, and he had money to spare. And theres other places that get away with it too, such as Battle.net, prior to WoW, GameFAQs, and several free online games.

Then theres option 2. You need a "gimick" that will attract players to your game and encourage them to pay monthly. Just giving them constant updates is not going to attract them, several MMOs already do that for free, and all MMOs have constant updates. So you're going to need something that stands out. You've already got a head start there with the EV style gameplay, which, if you're staying true to the style, is true real time, not click-the-monster-and-watch-your-guy-fight stuff. But that alone isn't going to do it. If you're doing graphics similiar to Nova's level, you'll have a chance of attracting players who want to play a MMO, but don't have a high-end machine to play the big names. And you'll need more yet, such as perhaps using some of the suggestions given for advancement, rather than a generic level/class system. After all, most MMOs use the generic system, but, if you could pull off earning weapons and then buying them rather than getting better by leveling, not only will your MMO stand out more and draw more attention, but you'll have the advantage of even more customization then most things on the market. And believe me, we players love to customize things. Otherwise Nova would not be so popular.

Though if you charge a fee, don't try something like $15, or heck, even $10 might be too high. After all, nobody has heard of you, so nobody is going to want to pay that much. I personally believe that $7.50 would be a good price, though $5 would be better. I wouldn't go lower then that if I could help it if you're seeking to pay for it with monthly fees. And its also better to wait to announce your monthly fee when you are 100% sure that what you say is going to be the price. Blizzard made that mistake, initially saying WoW would have no fee, followed by $5, $10, $12.50, and releasing at $15. It drove several customers away, though their big bad name saved them.

Whether what I have said is useful to you or not, its not my place to say.

JoshTigerHeart,

You make an EXTREMELY valid point and as a gamer myself I completely understand where your coming from. A subscription is just going to have to be put in place. Even if it is $5 a month.

Figure it like this. We don't charge a subscription and charge 19.99 for the game. Ok so the first month 400 people download and purchase the game, that's $8000. Ok seems like alot. Take into account, that each download may be in excess of 100mb. That's 40,000 mb transfered in the first month. Now, also take into account each client connected and playing. Let's just say we transfer 1 Terabyte in the first month because everyone wants to try it out. This is really adding up.

Not saying the free approach can't work because it obviously can, it's just that puting ads In-Game is not something I want to do. For gameplay purposes really, it kind of brings you back to reality when you are trying to imagine that you are lightyears away and then all of a sudden you see a amazon ad fly by.

Tig

What I would like to see, is an improved trading system, which rewards the player for doing cargo runs. In EV:Nova, there are no 'trader' missions. You do some cargo runs at the start of the game to build up some cash, and then you get into a mission string, which is predominantely combat-orientated.

A different spin on this, is perhaps a smuggling implementation. Players can buy(or steal) valuable cargo, and haul it to the highest bidder. You would have to avoid scans by the various governments where applicable, which would force you to take a roundabout way, which in turn means the chance of pirate attacks goes up.

I love trading commodities around in EV:Nova, but would like to see it evolve a bit, beyond just buy low, sell high. Quick idea, in EV:Nova, when you visit the trade center, you see various events, like minior droughts, etc... affecting prices. Have something similar, but more player based.

For instance:

Food sells for low on planet A, and high on planet B. Players take cargo from A to B. Eventually, the price of goods will drop on planet B, as they are receiving more of it. Pirate attacks would raise prices, etc...

I think you can work out what I am trying to say, I'm hopeless at wording my thoughts.

Yes this is all in the details really numein.

Right now I'm trying to get an idea of the overall system. How many races? What races? What classes? (merchant, scavenger, pirate, fighter, etc), how big of a planetary system? I still need to name the damn thing

How about a year subscription would that work?

No classes. Everyone gets to start out the same, and they can buy whatever ship they want when they afford it.

And classes sort of take away ability to fill in your own unique niche.

Yeah, I think classes defeat the point of EV. Instead, replace "class" with government/race. This gives the same general idea but still allows for major customization. For instance, a pirate government would have alot of raiding weaponry and fast ships yet another war like race may have slower but more powerful options. Now within each race/government there would still be a myriad of opions for weapons and ships, but they work to better suit each individual government. However, I think there should also be very basic ways to get some weapons/ships from other governments so one can mix and match.

To keep balance, certain government weapons/ships could only be gained by high exp or other such means. So the super mega death gun of one race can only be obtained if you do really good things for that race which would put you at odds with all other races, limiting you to only one super mega death gun.

All in all, my personal belief on how things should run for your run-of-the-mill govt is this:

Missions (both combat and trade) get you money and experience/status(I use the slash because they both effectively do the same thing, raise your status with your government while effectively raising the amount of experience you have as a pilot). Exp eventually opens up your weapon/ship options so you can use money to buy new and better things. Exp also opens up new mission opportunites.

Other ways to gain exp or money would be to fight. I like Tig's idea of only getting exp by fighting someone with equal to or higher exp (thus stopping people from destroying huge swathes of noobies and creating a challenge for those who want to gain more exp). Money could be gained by raiding a disabled ship (a percentage of the player's cash would be lost). To prevent stalking and other unfair treatment, a limit on how many times you could steal cash or get exp from a certain player would be limited to two or three times a day.


Lastly, there would of course be variations on this system. Like you said, Tig, pirates don't necesarily have a government. So there missions would be more like "<Item> must be stolen from a particular planet" and then your exp and money would increase. But exp for pirates would be more like clout with the other pirates as opposed to a governmental status and missions might still get bigger and more elaborate for well known pirates. And instead of weapons options increasing with exp, maybe they are totally random, completely based on what is available at the time (what they were able to scrounge together from their raiding missions and meager resources) and the only limiting factor would be how much money you had (makes sense right?)Also, maybe pirates would be less mission based and more combat based (again, makes sense). Plus, maybe they would get more Exp for simply raiding an enemy ship instead of destroying it.

This could lead to all sorts of options. You could get more exp for destroying a ship from an enemy govt. Or say there is an honorable race that will only give you exp for disabling ships, but very little for raiding or destroying them. You could even customize the system even more, however you like it, making a distinct and different way to get more status for each faction. Maybe one faction deals away with money all together and is sort of socialistic, giving weapons and ships only to those who havee truly proven their patriotism. Whatever.


I dunno. This just seems like the most efficient way. It still stays very close to EV with the possibility of creating a whole new dynamic for each player.

I have never played one of those MMOs (is that how you say it?), so I am a bit ignorant about this. I know you pay a monthly fee, but what are the expenses involved for the developer after accounting for the creation of the game and server costs? I am sure that in some cases, the creators keep adding new features, which takes time and effort. Also, what are these server costs?

Please understand that I am asking this because, however sensible it may be to charge for a service that is not free in itself, sometimes it is bad business practice to charge too much for a product that, as you mention somewhere else, nobody knows yet. So, what I am saying is that, in my case, I would be willing to pay a monthly fee, but it should be a moderate one. I've seen somewhere something like 20 bucks a month, which seems a bit too much, considering that I pay that much just to get Internet access. Consider too that there are many places online where you can play different kinds of games (like board games) for free. How can you compete with that?

Like Jive said, using a class system wouldn't seem like Nova or EV at all. I'd like a system like this:

Don't have "levels" in the way it's mostly used, but base the "Skills" a player has on the way he plays.
EX: Let's say you have following skill-threads:

Combat raised every time a subskill get's better. Allows you to buy "Combat"-Class ships
->Missile weapons (increases the effectivity of: Rockets, Missiles, Bombs etc)
->Energy weapons (increases the effectivity of: Blasters, Beams etc)
->Defensive tech. (increases the effectivity of: Scan/Missile Jammers, Shield upgrades, "Stun"<f.i. ionizing>)
Trading raised every time a subskill get's better. Allows you to buy "Trading"-Class ships
->Bargaining (buy/sell trade goods for better Profit- only works with Trade Goods, not with Equipment)
->Traveling (increases the effectivity of: Travel upgrades, also slightly increases the Speed while Hyperspace traveling)
->Mining (increases the effectivity of: Resource gaining equipment)
Diplomatics raised every time a subskill get's better. Allows you to buy "Interceptor/Diplomatics"-Class ships
->Scanning Tech (increases the effectivity of: Scanners etc)
->[Diplomatics, don't know a name ] (let's you fly through all Territories in which you are not KoS <even if you are disliked>)
->Something else...
Illegal raised every time a subskill get's better. Allows you to buy "Pirate"-Class ships and some other licensed ships, but more expensive than if you had the right license, and only at certain stations.
-> [Player can equip Scanners that scan another player's cargo hold] Is set to 1 when the Player is KoS with at least 1 Govt.
-> Something else...
-> Something else...

Now, if a player often uses a Light Blaster(successfully, shooting into nowhere is useless), his "Energy Weapons" Skill is being increased. All Skills start at 0 and can be raised to Max. 15 (in my example..), only one Skill in every Thread can be raised to 15 and only 3 in all threads can be higher than 10.
There are no "Skill Trainers", skills can only be raised by using them. Exception could be the Illegal skills that could be "bought" at Pirate Stations.

Equipment could have a "level", if your Skill is lower than this level, you can still use the weapon, but with big Mali, like, on a weapon, slower reload, more energy drain, worse aiming...

You could prevent special Items from being bought by new players by making them require a higher rating at the government.

Ok, that's it for now. I hope that wasn't too much, but i guess Tips are always welcome

-Lukas

I totally agree with lukasn about skill threads, that is a really cool concept.
You could, instead of gaining skills as you do actions (active learning), gain a certain skill over time (passive learning). So you would say ,train blah blah and it would then take a set amount of time to train.
There are advantages for both methods, so you would have to think about it.
Just my two cents.
Ohh and this game sounds like a great idea.

your projects seems pretty nice, everybody's here is very curious and excited about this, because our bible was no online evnova, so this changes a lot. Best of luck to you and your team job, if i knew how to, i would help you with the project, but im just a boy with no experience on that.

still, have fun and once more, good luck ;D

lukasn,

Interesting concept. I like the progressive learning aspect as it really simulates a real-life situation and not a click/learn type.

I have been making headway with some thinking, but I need everyone's opinion on something. The race aspect. Do we want everyone to be Human, or have the ability to choose multiple races (i.e. Human, Klingon, Wraith) for example.

I think it would be more interesting if there were multiple races and there could be like "special weapons" or "powers" for each individual race.

I don't know just an idea.

Tig

I say races should give little bonuses to various areas. For example, one race might be naturally good with money and economics as well as bartering, so they may be able to pay less and sell for higher. Another race might be excellent technicians, so perhaps their ship stats are a bit higher in any ship. A third race might also have the ability to slowly repair ships in flight without any special outfits. A fourth might be able to get more performance out of various outfits. A fifth might be good at managing space, so may get 10% more cargo and weapons space. And a sixth may have good soldiers, so their crew counts would be at some higher percentage. And so forth.

Different races should also be treated a bit differently in similiar scenarios. For example, Race 1 may be welcome on Planet A, but Race 2 may be viewed with prejudice and hostility and may not have certain services available. Perhaps Government L dislikes Race 3, so Race 3 cannot work for Government L. And especially if your races are not all humanoid, you might could have some races unable to fly certain ships. After all, it'd be hard for a human to pilot a ship designed for space blobs.

Probably'll take some work to implement. But then again, any good system for anything is going to take work to implement.

Edit: What do you know? Good timing with this post, I started it before Tig asked for opinions on races.

ups and downs on each race. sounds nice.
giving bonuses and bad aspects also.
and then u could do 2 empires,

empire 1

govnmt 1
govnmt 2
govnmt 3

empire 2

govnt 4
govnmt 5
govnmt 6

there also could be another empire that was indiferent to the others, and if the player picked 1 f the empires he would fight vs the other one, pvp

just some idea =D

ps: another idea, there could be a npc empire, common enemy to the others and could be missions that both empires will fight side to side vs the other one

(kinda like wow)

Well, the one thing I can do is cameos for this game. If you need a NPC person named Eddie, or an AI named 3dd13, I can do that.

Here's what I think i've decided on the race issue.

3 or 4 main races.

Each race will have a set of items that are equal to eachother, for instance:

Beginner Ship:
Race 1: Speed 1, Power 1, Damage 1
Race 2: Speed 1, Power 1, Damage 1
Race 3: Speed 1, Power 1, Damage 1
and so on...

So all the races will have different items of equal value, however each race will have "special" features unique to their own race. We could even have "pirated" or "hacked" versions of these unique items so that other races could use them.

I think by making one race better than the other will cause a sort of disadvantage for the others and make an unbalanced racial spread. So if the humans were better at fighting, then all we would see were humans fighting humans and not the more dramatic humans fighting aliens.

Get what I'm saying.

By making everything equal to begin with, we can allow the player to customize his character's ship by add-ons from his own and other races.

I view the race thing as more of a player customization feature than an attributes feature.

I need some more ideas on ways to visually customize one's character. Any ideas? What I had so far was maybe changing the thrust color, obviously we have the visual weapons etc but something like personal to you.

ALSO PLEASE SUBMIT GAME NAME IDEAS!

Tig

Velocity?

I can't think of any more.....

One possibility...

Rather than having a dynamic content driven game hosted on "official" servers, you could make it a game on smaller servers (I would imagine a maximum of 24 or so people on a server) run by individuals, something kind of like Until Uru back before GameTap picked up UruLive.

This would get rid of the need for you to run servers (as well as a monthly cost for customers), but on the other hand would be a very different kind of game from an MMORPG, basically drop the "Massive" part. So I'm not sure how practical a change like this would be at your current stage of development.