Introduction & Status
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:51 am
A tractor & The Universal have a long history that is somewhat difficult to summarise. Suffice to say these related games have been the bulk of the Old Man's spare-time work for the past 15+ years (!!), and hence they're .. mm.. multi-faceted. Despite the time spent on them they're still far from complete ; a combination of many factors, including my obstinate desire to avoid completing them and the nature of these particular beasts.
The goals and motivations behind these games have varied a bit over time, but the current intentions for them are :
A tractor : To provide a serious, social, economic simulation game, set in a world of trees, hills, farms and tractors, where (over the course of many weeks) the player gets to build a little house, a little farm, maybe a shop or a workshop, and drive about a bit in a tractor. When idling online the player can sit about and chat to other players, and then shoot them with remote-control drones. And maybe play hornball.
The Universal : A collection of player-created worlds spread across a vast galaxy. Players can explore the galaxy or create their own world, through a combination of generation settings, embedded game mechanics and a built-in scripting language.
Ancient History : The player starts out as a primitive caveman, progressing through phases of technological development and joining in with a semi-social civilisation until they reach the point of launching into space and/or destroying the world or something.
Right now, 'A tractor' is basically closed, waiting for me to build up the particular game-world I have in mind, and to re-factor some of the tech behind it in so that it can be done in a scalable way. Ancient History (which some players may recognise as an updated version of the previous history chapters, including 'Aramathea') is available to play, but very much under-construction, with a fair chance that things currently don't work at all and will likely be reset often. The Universal - as well as forming the global engine that is used by the other sub-games - is being re-made in a slightly different form and will be made available again towards the end of the year.
Forum Archive 2003 - 2015
The link above is for the previous forums hosted at theuniversal.net, which contain lots of info for those interested in the development of worlds (and 'TU' more generally).
The goals and motivations behind these games have varied a bit over time, but the current intentions for them are :
A tractor : To provide a serious, social, economic simulation game, set in a world of trees, hills, farms and tractors, where (over the course of many weeks) the player gets to build a little house, a little farm, maybe a shop or a workshop, and drive about a bit in a tractor. When idling online the player can sit about and chat to other players, and then shoot them with remote-control drones. And maybe play hornball.
The Universal : A collection of player-created worlds spread across a vast galaxy. Players can explore the galaxy or create their own world, through a combination of generation settings, embedded game mechanics and a built-in scripting language.
Ancient History : The player starts out as a primitive caveman, progressing through phases of technological development and joining in with a semi-social civilisation until they reach the point of launching into space and/or destroying the world or something.
Right now, 'A tractor' is basically closed, waiting for me to build up the particular game-world I have in mind, and to re-factor some of the tech behind it in so that it can be done in a scalable way. Ancient History (which some players may recognise as an updated version of the previous history chapters, including 'Aramathea') is available to play, but very much under-construction, with a fair chance that things currently don't work at all and will likely be reset often. The Universal - as well as forming the global engine that is used by the other sub-games - is being re-made in a slightly different form and will be made available again towards the end of the year.
Forum Archive 2003 - 2015
The link above is for the previous forums hosted at theuniversal.net, which contain lots of info for those interested in the development of worlds (and 'TU' more generally).