User:Pyropossum

Purpose
This is just a concept paper for a game in progress. It is a referrence for a team working on the project as well as information for the fanbase. Any ideas or additions are welcome.

Concept Paper
Where is technology taking us? Technology is evolving. It's growing. What we are building today is already obsolete. Government secret projects are being exposed. Past technology is being revamped, militarized and open-sourced. What's next? It's the question the inner scientist in all of us asks. What's next for dinner? On TV? At work?

What's next for technology? We already know earth is having a population crisis. When there are too many people, it's because there is no possible way to support everyone for food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, etc. If we run out of room, where do we go? Some very interesting ideas are starting to surface RIGHT NOW. Independent inventors are building very unusual devices and posting results on youtube. Overunity machines, hovercrafts that float or even fly, ion thrusters and wireless electricity. And that's just what we have right now.

What will life be like 500 years from now? Where will we be?

I know where we'll be. SPACE

That's right, we'll be in space. Living, working, fighting, dying, crying, laughing IN SPACE. First the scientists will design sustainable life in space, then militaries will build space stations. Big businesses will start mining asteroids and it will be the dark ages of space exploration. This is where we're headed as a species. We are designed to evolve, adapt and grow. What will our lifestyle be like 100 years from now? 500 years from now? It will be something we would never recognize.

It's the perfect environment to start a new life. Everyone starts off on ground zero because no one knows what technology exists. Some planets produce food as a primary export, some planets are devoted entirely to the complaints departments of large research industries. Pirates occupy and operate entire solar systems using toll booths. Conspiracy theorists won't travel in space because they believe "Big Brother" flies around in invisible space ships watching them... and they might be right.

And you. Where do you fit into all this? Are you a president of a large business? Do you smuggle contraband for terrorists? No.

You're a mindless zombie.

Picture this. You've just be rescued from the wreckage of a war zone. You can't remember anything. Gas leaks on ships or simply running out of oxygen could have caused it, or maybe it was simply bumping your head in the escape pod. You aren't discovered for 3 days so when you're delivered to an international space station you're in a daze unable to understand what's going on and can't even remember your name.

This is your situation as a new player in this game. You're going to start a new life for yourself and YOU get to decide who you're going to be. You can decide to join a faction or just travel to a random faction's planet and planet independent of factions.

When the player wakes up, they can talk to others in the pub, visit the medic quarters and once they've decided on a destination refugee planet, they can visit the temporary quarters on the shuttle to take a nap. This is where the someone first learns the UI for character control. For example, how to open the inventory, move and jump and interact with the environment. When the player finishes the beginner tutorials, they may select their faction to join.

The refugee planet you chose to go to will be one of two "beginner zones". Each zone is part of an faction and each faction owns a set number of solar systems plus whatever they win in interstellar wars (pvp). The beginner zones and permanent territory are fully capable of sustaining life with basic agriculture, unique social architectures and cultural designs, etc. The zones they fight over are anything from giant asteroid belts to gas giants containing rare gases or even an ice field where there are rumors of "buried treasure" in the ice.

The galaxy is a spiral with nine arms. The beginner zones are on the outer edges of the galaxy with the more contested planets being closer to the core. The idea that protects players from themselves is that you need a stronger ship to fly closer to the core. This opens the idea that different ships have different abilities, which is natural. Also each type of ship has a range of specialties. For example: light fighters can be designed for high speeds, high maneuverability, high thruster power or very fast, long range damage.

You can chose to be part of your military (light fighters, heavy fighters), you can grow your bank (trader, freighter, professional space miner, etc.), or even offer services to other players (luxury cruise lines, "tow trucks", security for base stations, mail delivery). The list of features available that people can request is rather short to start, but that list will be in a "continual beta" so that we are always adding new features.

That's another feature of this game. The future is evolving too fast to limit to one team of programmers. Or even several groups. The original game with have it's own team of programmers. Then, there will be another team that translates the code for independent programmers that play the game. They will be responsible for building protocols to standardize the submissions from players for new features. If a player wants a feature implemented for something thats already in the game (such as adding a service for other players as described above) they can download the outline, fill in the blanks and submit it for approval. If approved by 25 1st level techies (volunteers on a testserver that use the feature) then it gets forwarded to the paid technical geniuses to review it and then it gets implemented in the next patch.

The goal of this game is to create a space simulator/first person shooter/massively multiplayer online game that rivals WoW. The initial game will only have 2 factions and as the fan base grows, we will open additional arms of the galaxy, or rather just establish new factions in 2 additional arms. Additional arms may be included in the galaxy for player created factions (a.k.a. guilds, legions, alliances, teams, etc.).