OT: 2005 Games

[narf poit chez BOOM]

What we need is a concept-based program builder, like the enterprise holodecks, only much more primitive.

Serious, here. Something where you type say, "A ten-foot by ten foot room, six feet high", tell it to compute that text file, it makes a 3d box to the specifications you typed. Then, you change it too "A ten-foot by ten foot room, six feet high, stone walls, floor and ceiling, dark gray" Once that is tested, "A ten-foot by ten foot room, six feet high, stone walls, floor and ceiling, dark gray, treasure chest in northwest corner, goblin in front of the treasure chest. Player is human barbarian, near the middle of the south wall, in furs, carrying an axe"

And then you would get more and more specifc and instruct it to save details and such. It would end up being somewhat like writing a book.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Is anyone seriously working on such a thing?

[Caduceus]

Has anybody played Crusaders for XBox? It is RTS, but supposedly quite good.

*** And of course KOTOR II

[Hugh Manatee]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
What we need is a concept-based program builder, like the enterprise holodecks, only much more primitive.

Serious, here. Something where you type say, "A ten-foot by ten foot room, six feet high", tell it to compute that text file, it makes a 3d box to the specifications you typed. Then, you change it too "A ten-foot by ten foot room, six feet high, stone walls, floor and ceiling, dark gray" Once that is tested, "A ten-foot by ten foot room, six feet high, stone walls, floor and ceiling, dark gray, treasure chest in northwest corner, goblin in front of the treasure chest. Player is human barbarian, near the middle of the south wall, in furs, carrying an axe"

And then you would get more and more specifc and instruct it to save details and such. It would end up being somewhat like writing a book.

*coughelderscrolls3morrowindconstructionsetcough*

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Uh, that was a drag-and-drop map editor/height editor/data spreadsheet. We already had those, if not in that combination.

It is not what I am talking about.

[deccan]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
And then you would get more and more specifc and instruct it to save details and such. It would end up being somewhat like writing a book.

It seems to me that putting things together isn't difficult given the tools that we already have. The problem is getting together a big dataase of the objects required. What's a "stone wall", a "treasure chest", a "goblin", a "human barbarian", an "axe" etc.?

You'd need a big database of 3D models of all of these things, together with properties of the objects useful in the context of a computer game, i.e. a stone wall is harder than a wooden wall, a treasure chest is hinged and can be opened and closed, can hold things and can optionally be locked or unlocked etc.

After all, any computer program can't be expected to understand every word in an English dictionary off the bat, it must have access to a detailed database containing models and properties of all the objects Users might conceivably ask it to create, which is the real hard work part.

[brianeyci]

I could see some system working with drag down boxes.

Maybe player-added content keeping it alive, or professional modellers and a MMORPG style game (hey, you have to pay for quality).

I'm not sure that it could be a game though. More like a huge chat room where people waste their time and spend time designing their buildings/rooms. Maybe some game concept of "credits" could be built into the system. The more you interact with other people, the more credits you get, and you can buy better 3d models and build a better place to show off.

The key would be stunning graphics, and the ability to add EVERYTHING. From picasso pictures, bedsheets, individual books, even cockroaches and rats should be in it. Special items like a computer that you could interact with, etc., could also be incorporated for some interactivity.

Oh, and did I mention avatars? Designing yourself to look the way you want? This kind of game could sell, and could ruin a generation of teenagers/break up marriages.

<edit> Oh and it doesn't have to be limited to a modern setting, what would sell it would be the unique environments you could create for people to explore, like the inside of a spaceship, a dark dank dungeon crawling with scary sounds, etc </edit>

Brian

[deccan]

Sounds like Sims Online.

[brianeyci]

Sounds like it, but isn't really it. For one thing the graphics are hardly stunning, its not 3D, you don't seem to have the freedom to create truly huge complexes.

Brian

[narf poit chez BOOM]

The kind of compiler I'm thinking of would be able to search the internet/HD, find examples of what you're talking about, and extrapolate from what it finds - A VI (Virtual Intelligence), in other words. What you're talking about is one of the things that would come before that.

Right now, what I'm talking about would probably require a team of the best programmers and scientists from all sorts of fields and a supercomputer. It would have to be built up too, over years.