When I was a younger man, before I became the old and decrepit 24 year old before you, there was a little-known game not much unlike this one. It was fun, nerdy, made by a small yet very active company (before Microsoft got it, I guess), and had a small, dedicated community of players. Okay, not "Holy crap there are 200 people on ICO at the same time?!" small, but you get the idea. The game was Mechcommander and one of the leagues formed around it went by the name of Steel Command.
The SCL was a heavily role-played league which used Mechcommander as a vehicle to wage an enormous interstellar war between the various Battletech factions (faction websites still exist today, in all their 1998 glory). Factions would fight for territory and resources. They would commit Mechs and other resources to battles, then play out those battles in the game. There was diplomacy and even an enormous map which was manually updated to reflect faction ownership changes (this was back before the web was "dynamic"
I think a league like this would work well in Sins for a few reasons. First of all, it is asynchronous. That is, factions can schedule games or just issue orders ("Explore this planet", etc.) and won't need to randomly have a whole lot of players on at the same time (this is the main reason clans don't work right now). Secondly, Sins is very customizable, which is required for this sort of thing to work. The Map Designer is quick and dirty, but the real power lies in Galaxy Forge (assuming it gets fixed) which allows maps to be custom-tailored to battles. With this customization combined with the fact that different battles can have different supply caps, sizes and so forth, games can be long or short depending on the battle setup and include any number of other variables.
Sins games can be incredibly long, back and forth, intense experiences even though the action isn't necessarily constant -- that's what I love about it. You have to make big decisions -- do I build up and dig in or rush? Do I save that planet being attacked or do I counter? -- which can affect where you are an hour later. But what if the game didn't end in an hour, a day, or a month? What if there were an entire Universe to conquer and not just a star or two at a time?
If there's a game out now that could be used to resurrect the enormous scope and breadth of Steel Command, it is almost certainly Sins. However, this is no minor task and will require dedication and effort from many -- not to mention players! I'm not sure if we have enough people yet, but we'd have to start somewhere. This would be a considerable undertaking and I am already extremely low on free time, so I'm putting this out now to see what sort of interest there is, if any. Please provide feedback!
P.S. If you're wondering who would actually make the site for this, the answer is me. I do it for a living so we've at least got that part covered.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
Like what you've read so far? Then check this out!
Okay folks, it seems like we have enough people interested to make an official inquiry here on the boards. The way I see it, we need a minimum of 25 people to start really getting the ball rolling in an official way on this thing. To that end, I have created a form that interested parties should fill out. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds and will give me a way to keep track of people with serious interest.
One of the questions asks what you want your "role" to be; I have created the following roles with my recommendation of minimum numbers to fulfill in parenthesis (assumes 3 initial factions; one for each race):
Fill out the form here: http://binjured.wufoo.com/forms/sins-league-signup/
Thank you in advance!
(Entrenchment required for membership for the time being; with more players, hopefully we can have two leagues... but that's a dream for now.)
SM, ironically i just got back from church-camp lol, so i kinda missed some stuff, something about a game, carbon..?
Chruch camp?????? YOU??? And you listen to Judas's Priest!
I can't believe it how you weren't struck down on sight!!!
SM ( and every1 else), how bout a game, later today or tomorrow, im thinkin we can use the Mad Scientist mod too, w/ dynamic comb., Which is what im currently using
Later today and tomorrow sound like fine options to me
Here is the public version of the universal map:
Next version is in the works: It will include the systems names, size( including stars and rough planets count etc).
WTF! We're green......come on! We deserve to be Red like BLOOD!
BTW can we start with a little less planets..we're supposed ot be begining our invasion.
If you want less planets ok, but it will put you even more at a disadvantage. We tried to give everyone about the same planets, TEC has a few more since both Advent and Vasair invaded. This map is just a local map for our 3 factions. I gave it room to grow incase we need to add more factions.
OK nvm then!
I'll keep those planets
Quite alot of planets there, for a second there i thought i was looking at a christmas tree of lights lol. But yeah, im okay with the allotment of planets but all of this is within one solar system im assuming?
No each white dot represtents a system.( or a in game map)
Each system will be defined by a rough planet count, star count (though all but a few will be 1 star to help the ingame aspect). We are currently in the process of naming every system.
Please note that the map only show what we fill are the 'major' systems. As to say if yall are RP'ing and wanna have a battle or whatever take place in a system/planet/part of space thats not defined on the map go ahead. We internally @ -Ue_ are assuming there are other smaller systems and other key points that would be hard to map on well the map.
The map is really to help the ingame aspect and give everyone for RP'ing purposes a referance to help tell where your stories are taking place.
This is not a final map by any means, but we felt that this was something close to the idea that was thought up. Constructive tweaking would be helpful!
I hope..or else welll be at it for YEARS
Come, SM, we must creep back to our den and come up with names for our systems =D Im assuming we get to name our own Systems, designate capitals. And maybe in the far-off future; industrial, colonial, and sciency-like systems?
PS, SM, time and/maybe Mods...?
Oh, i almost forgot to mention, Naut is going to step down as being the leader of the faction and in turn i will take the reigns. Naut will be busy with alot of matters that will keep him from the faction.
On another note, will we be developing a collective story among each of our factions? Such as writting out certain battles or events (even tho actual game may or maynot have taken place) as long as each faction agrees on it? I know i would like to add some inner conflicts within The Illumina and also write out some epic battles between our factions.
i think some story is needed as both the other factions have invaded the TEC, so there should be stories of early loses by the TEC and maybe some story where we actually held our ground, i think this would work well for all, and it can be talked over on skype and after a few rough drafts eveyone should be able to agree on some thing.
as for naming your own systems you control, i dont have a problem with it, but please if you can put it on the map and put your version up so then we can make all the maps come together for a finial form. i think all factions should have a "capital" although this really only makes sense with the TEC since others are invading, but we will need it for the gameplay aspect.
Ill come up with a rough draft/outline on the events or timelines even regarding The Illumina and some ideas overall. Ill work on names as well for territory under advent control. I think some areas bordering TEC territory should have a TEC-ish name as i can only assume that they were taken over by either Advent or Vasari.
I agree a capital planet is needed and as Xenon said it is more relevant for TEC but i think Advent/Vasari can have a "Base of Operations" instead of a Cap Planet.
Hopefully i can get something done before the holiday weekend
Yeah I dont mind help naming system, but like Xenon said keep them TEC sound-ish, after all this goes along with the invasion of TEC space. Yeah every faction will have some kind of Base of operation system, you can go ahead and claim one, but as for what each system will be planet wise, and econmic importaince to the out of game aspect of the league, Ive already started classifing systems into basic classes. We can later down the road further add on to the complexity of the systems.
And I really like the story idea, if you need help with anything for our faction let me or Xenon know!!! If nothing else I be happy to be sounding board for story ideas! And congrats I guess are in order to you Nyczzz, Sorry to hear of the change in command but glad to see you take the lead! Look forward to working and playing with you soon!
Thanks Carbon, i certainly will look foward to working with you and everyone else. Im glad to see that everyone is on the same page so im sure everything will move along smoothly.
I have read one of your previous topics Carbon regarding the UE Chronicles and i like what you did with the transmissions . I think something like that will go very well with first contact with the Sorrowsworn and The Illumina and will certainly add to the intensity of the battles that will take place (on paper).
Ofcourse when Shadow is finished with his end of the conflict between The Illumina/Sorrowsworn, i can post up the combined work to show a general idea of what im talking about.
Oh please note to anyone who might be interested in joining -Ue_ our site address has changed to: http://sins.mmobase.com
Like I said to my dear pal Desamator (coughs extensively)...LOOOL! I own Sword of the Stars Complete and theyres like thousands of names..so I'll post a bundle down and we can pick to your liking!
I will make the changes on our forums regarding your new forum page.
*cough our forum iz like dead cough* So carbon, would you like us to submit the names or/ edit the map and repost?
edit map and repost if posible, then we can take all maps and combine.
sorry know you where talkikng to carbon, but i know the answer so i went ahead and told you
It'sokay, I just kinda wanted to clarify it for every1 who was unsure (and myself), thanks
Just a quick note on names, remember that your currently naming systems and systems go by what their star is called. So easy way of say that was to say your naming stars. So they can be a bit odd or random.
We will get to naming the actual planets and such at a later date.
EDIT: Yeah what Xenon said, just use the map and add the names to your systems, and then I will redo the map with all the names so it all looks nice and clean.
Also Ive got 7 different classes of systems. Each class will give a very very basic compsiton of the planets and other bodies that make up the system. Im not going to far in depth with this. I want to leave room for us map makers to play around with. And speaking on that, the actuall ingame maps. Ive got an idea on how to set up the systems and ingame elements to simulate an invasion of sorts. Reminde me when we get to that stage to get all us Galaxy Forge map makers together on skype to hash out this idea.
Im off for a weekend BBQ trip with my g/f and will be back by monday. Hope everyone has a great July 4th.
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