Massive multiplayer online cellular automata
Massive multiplayer online cellular automata (MMOCA).
In this thread I'll ramble on about various ideas in game design which might inspire novel ideas for MMOCA, or at least provide a modicum of entertainment.
- Post @ Twitter (25 October 2024)
Doom II
I first played Doom II around 1996.
I had always enjoyed video games, and other kinds of arcade games before the advent of Pong and its heirs.
Doom II's pseudo-3D added a vivid new dimension to video games — a harbinger of things to come.
Then I learned about map editing, and everything changed.
I bought Tricks of the Doom Programming Gurus and started making maps from scratch.
Soon it was all I could think about. Gaming didn't really matter any more. Only map making.
Half-Life
Then came Half-Life. Wow. I was hooked.
Not the first of the truly 3D first person shooters, but the first one I played for any length of time.
Scripted story-telling made Half-Life amazing. Again: Wow.
Half-Life shipped with editing tools; I was not slow to use them.
Soon I was making playable maps, mostly deathmatch mode to play with my buddies at LAN parties.
Shown here: single-player level with Chinook helicopter that I made in-editor from brushes.
Scripting
Half-Life introduced the most immersive video game experience I'd ever played.
Scripted actions made Half-Life so immersive.
Scripted actions for monsters and effects: monsters fighting soldiers, soldiers running for cover, rockets counting down…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z7rDHaBbOm4
Half-Life SDK
Then I discovered the Half-Life SDK:
New game entities, new game features, new game mechanics, on and on, via C++.
Wow. Instant obsession.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=O35oZGkSfpg&list=PLZmAT317GNn19tjUoC9dlT8nv4f8GHcjy
Truth be told, I didn't accomplish much with the SDK. Some simple hacks, like making the Tau Gun fire Snarks. Fun, but limited coding, mostly adapted from online tutorials.
Xen Rebels
"Xen Rebels" was my most ambitious project — new gameplay, a true mod, based on Team Deathmatch mode.
Two teams encounter each other in Xen space.
Xen exerts a constant health drain. If the players do nothing but fight, they will all die within minutes.
If, however, the two teams cooperate to neutralize the health drain effect, they can survive indefinitely.
They can even continue to fight, so long as they do not fight too much.
Among other influences, I was thinking about the Tragedy of the Commons.
Xen Rebels never launched.
It was only a beginning; much more work was required before it would be any fun.
I didn't have that kind of time. Work was taking up most of my time at the time, with little remaining for games.
Thought experiments
The last stage of this process was a series of thought experiments for mods which were far beyond my time and capabilities — anything goes, let the imagination run wild.
Which brings us near (or nearer, anyway) Massive Multiplayer Online Cellular Automata.
Scripted Sequences
I thought about the scripted_sequence entity, which makes, for example, a non-player character walk to an elevator, press, the button, wait for the elevator, get inside, ride upwards, etc. (That is to say, the scripted_sequence *and a bunch of other scripted entities* make the NPC ride the elevator.)
What imaginative new uses could I find for this code?
Science and Industry
In the original Half-Life, non-player characters (Barney, enemy soldiers) appeared in single player mode, not in deathmatches or other multiplayers modes.
Mods like "Science and Industry" exploited the (somewhat limited) AI of scientist NPCs.
Chess
I wanted to do something deeper with NPCs — a more radical mod concept.
I began to think about chess.
(Image: fully functional chess map by Reddit user DEfusion69)
https://reddit.com/r/hammer/comments/qhuevb/i_made_a_fully_functional_chess_map_for_half_life/
I imagined a chess-like game with NPCs only, no direct player interaction as a character.
The map, while based on a grid, would be more complex than a simple chessboard — there would be obstacles, cover, ramps, etc.
Stratego
Stratego as another inspiration. A grid game with pieces moving (generally) forward, like chess — but with secret identities unknown to the enemy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratego
Smess
I played Smess as a boy. Fond memories. Another inspiration.
https://aboardgameaday.blogspot.com/2012/06/smess-ninnys-chess.html
Deep FPS modding
Chess, Stratego, Smess — all of these were on my mind.
A Half-Life Chess mod already existed.
Stratego and Smess mods could be made in a similar manner.
But as I said before, I wanted to go deeper — to rethink the first-person mode itself.
https://reddit.com/r/hammer/comments/qhuevb/i_made_a_fully_functional_chess_map_for_half_life/
I rejected the idea of chess gameplay — players alternately move one unit per turn.
It's a fine idea for someone else, but doesn't appeal to me as a player (I'm not much of a chess player), nor as a game designer.
Correspondence chess
It occurred to me that we tend to think of chess as a real-time game. Two players sit face to face (or sit at their respective terminals) and play.
It occurred to me that people play chess by mail, even today. Real time can be slowed indefinitely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correspondence_chess
Correspondence first-person shooter
Correspondence First-Person Shooter
- CFPS
Imagine two gamers at separate locations with no Internet access, no server they can both access.
They need a Correspondence First-Person Shooter game.
Recap
Recap: after making maps and mods for Half-Life in the early 2000s, I did some brainstorming about radical FPS modification, e.g. Correspondence FPS.
I happened to be working with Half-Life, but of course we could imagine similar mods for any FPS.
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- [ Post] @ Twitter (8 November 2024)