8Dromeda Blog

The Soilnar plan of 2015

I want to get Soilnar: Danagen Industries to a long-term playable state as soon as possible.

This is how I plan to do it:

So, to start, I don't need to work on the basic mining, fighting, cargo management and whatever until later. It works on a basic level and can be improved later. In fact, I should not under any circumnstance work on them because I would be neglecting more important things.

The strong points of Soilnar, that people actually have a reason to care about, are resource gathering, the creation of unique things from the resources, and the defending of the resources and creations, in a maximally dynamic persistent multiplayer environment.

I have to maximize the need for resource flow, and maximize the footprint that a player can make for others to experience. Any game mechanic in the game should be designed to enhance either of those things, or ideally both.

Very importantly the initial player experience must be consistent with how the majority of the game plays like. Soon I will also aim to host a persistent world.

Each new player starts by spawning in a non-mobile landing capsule at a random position in the world, with a set of cargo. The cargo consists of pieces, from which you can craft your chosen style of mining ship, with which you can drive away with the full power to do anything with anything you come across, only limited by the game's universal rules.

I have to modify the world so that different ores are generally positioned apart from each other, in a way that creates a natural need for resource flow.

Crafting of things from resources creates most of the resource flow. Crafting can only happen once someone brings the resources together. Complex crafting trees are not needed; complexity will arise from this being just one additional dimension amongst others.

Crafting of big structures will be possible by building them from various tiles. You are free to use natural tiles or craft stronger or more interesting tiles.

How do people co-operate in an MMO that usually has zero players? There actually is a simple way to solve this: universal storage facilities with integrated access control.

A player will be able to build as many as they want, and set who is able to access each of them. Those who are allowed access can transfer cargo between their vehicle and the facility. Stashing things until later usage by a friend becomes trivial and natural.

Soilnar: Danagen Industries is not a bad game right now, but these are the small things it requires to become great.

Ready... set... go! I already have the landing capsule and a suitably simple crafting system implemented. You can go try them at http://play3.soilnar.net. I'll be rigorously implementing this plan before doing anything else so you can expect to have a rather full experience in your hands in a matter of days, or weeks at worst.

Then it's time for me to look at what to polish next; but only then.