L$1000 Contest

[Ethan Schuman]

At the last officer meeting, the idea of an Ordo mini-game was discussed. This would be something that our members could do in their downtime to keep themselves entertained. The idea of chess tournaments and other social activities was brought up, and may be implemented in time, but an Ordo game would be something unique. The concept being tossed around right now is a HUD based game in the spirit of Tiny Empires, though other ideas will be considered.

Requirements:

-Must be relatively simple, yet fun.

-Must be reasonably easy to develop and implement.

-Must have multiplayer support.

-Must be in Titan to play (Will also likely be keyed into Mercury to pause whenever attackers show up).

-Must be lag resistant/tolerant (I'm thinking something turn-based perhaps).

Suggestions:

-Team up/Co-operative play would be VERY nice.

-Ability to adapt a "civilian" version for retail would be excellent, but is not required.

Propose your ideas here. The winning idea will earn the person who proposed it L$1000. I'll be closing the contest a week from today, unless someone posts an absolutely AMAZING idea that we decide to go with. I encourage you all to work together, as the REAL prize is the game itself, the linden is just a little kicker. You may post as many ideas as you like, as many times as you like, and people can post ideas together (I'll split the linden among the team members). Don't worry about the technical aspects too much. Just focus on ideas.

[Kristian]

"My Ordo". as in "My sim".

Basically you get a hud where you get to start at the bottom of the rank chain just like Tiny empires. You pretty much start as a Schola cadet on the hud and then you get presented with several options that are like "attend a class to get promoted"said class would take you like 30 minutes to complete and the timer only counts when you are on Titan. Later on in the progress you have multiple options like "participate in a raid, host a Schola class, do paperwork, build an Aryte keychain. These options may be succesfull and award you experience which will cause you to rank up or they may fail (bad luck) and award nothing. The odds should be in favor of the succes. People would need to train their character to adapt certain techniques in order to rank up further or simply earn more exp for things. For example, combat training to improve the exp you get from raids, but combat training would take up time that otherwise could be spent on going on hudraids, or doing hud work that earns you exp. It's making choices. Pretty much pokemon on the Gameboy.

[Williamca Zenovka]

-I have yet to see something RTS Like turned based where you can build your base, build and research units. So what I am suggesting is something like this turned based building/researching/unit building.

-Having the option to ALLY someone like -ally Desereck Creegan but Desereck could decline via a blue popup. It doesn't have to be team based but they can work together if they desire.

-It would also follow a Rock Paper Scissor route, being the sort of "Machine gun beats RPG trooper, but RPG troop beats tank, tank beats machine gun." encouraging the use of counter units for each fight.

-Unallying someone would cause for a delay before you could attack them like a grace period so you don't move an army into your allies base then unally and just own them.

I plan to add more to this, but there is some ideas that I see somewhat possible.

[Xang Xiao]

My idea is like a tamagchi. Except instead of getting a blob you get a baby Aryte Clone. The object of the game would be to raise your Aryte until he is the Imperator. Then you can decide if he is a tyrant or a kind ruler. Team play could involve seeing which Aryte is the true Aryte. As you play the game you get free Aryte swag (IE a Aryte Keychain). Your Aryte can change color based on if he is good or evil. There could also be a tracking board for the most intelligent, evil, diplomatic, etc. Aryte. Also a leaderboard for which Aryte can kick the ass of the other Aryte clones the most. Yeah this is stupid and meant to be a joke.

[ZeroNightmare Kaventipovic]

what happened to minecraft ran by Keno and Desereck or who ever x.x

[Arc Vyper]

Keno blew it up. Also, I would totally play that Aryte chibi game Xang described.

Was thinking of a HUD with tons of little mini-games that you can play 1vs1 or 2vs2 that connect throughout the SIM to challenge other Ordo while staying at your post/assignment.

[ZeroNightmare Kaventipovic]

D:< lets make Dawn of war Bunny combat using the plushies of Aryte, Lestat, and Kytec with the legions of Space bunny Marines Vincent made to fight the eeeebil green orge bunnies and use a hud based chat command to tell the plushies to shoot a low prim gun at each other

Velocity would be 1 - 10

the plushies would need to have a sensor to detected the enemy

a colision detecter

probably a .05x.01x.01 bullet...

and a special board to ress all the peices :3 with a size of 4x4x0.125

OH!

and a timer event between each rez of units (cooltime)

BATTLE CHESS

QUICK ARYTE USE YOUR LAZOR EYES OF DOOOOOOOM

[Arc Vyper]

D:< lets make Dawn of war Bunny combat using the plushies of Aryte, Lestat, and Kytec with the legions of Space bunny Marines Vincent made to fight the eeeebil green orge bunnies and use a hud based chat command to tell the plushies to shoot a low prim gun at each other

Velocity would be 1 - 10

the plushies would need to have a sensor to detected the enemy

a colision detecter

probably a .05x.01x.01 bullet...

and a special board to ress all the peices :3 with a size of 4x4x0.125

OH!

and a timer event between each rez of units (cooltime)

BATTLE CHESS

QUICK ARYTE USE YOUR LAZOR EYES OF DOOOOOOOM

Like an Ordo Prim warz?

[ZeroNightmare Kaventipovic]

yeah sort of >_> ill explain it when i have the time kind of in class dorking around instead of writing programs

JAVA D:< THE SLOWER BROTHER OF C++

[Desereck Creeggan]

This is gradually based on the MCM operation we have going and combined with the little knowledge I have of a text based game I used to play, Evony and some W40k. A large map, with the number of "territories" based on how many people play so, placed around in a box or any type of polygon or pattern. Each player starts with one territory, his home territory, and gets a starting amount of resources to build up troops or fleets to field troops and improve their home sector. This may be a bit difficult with a lack of a dedicated sim but it may be fun. Campaigns are based upon world domination or control point domination. Points are awarded (insert number of hours here) allowing members to build more troops or buildings. Attacks can be made any time but the attacker has to have a territory touching the attacked territory, every attack has a timer of 6 hours so if you fail, you can not attack the same territory for 6 hours. Letting members attack other territories and possibly conquer them and allow a chance to rebuild defenses before being attacked again.. Members can ally or go to war with eachother. Allies can do wave attacks, moving through friendly territory and taking down the defenses before the other attacks. With more territories comes more points to build better troops and more upgrades to buildings ect.

Different troops can be built, stealing this idea from above but: Machine trooper beats RPG trooper, RPG trooper beats tank, tank beats machine trooper, airplane counters airplane, airplane beats tank, rpg trooper, machine trooper, SAM site beats airplane, turrets beat machine trooper, rocket turret beats tank, RPG trooper beats turret + rocket turret. Special troop (tank commander/field commander/air commander/mechanic) boosts certain attributes of different items if fielded. Air commander beats ground commander, mechanic boosts tank and turret effectiveness, ground commander beats mechanic. List can go on and on and on, it would be extensive, not so simple but I believe it would be fun.

Campaigns could last for a while, and members who join after the new campaign starts can become vassels of someone else which would allow them to fight. Allies can move through eachother's territory without triggering war and if someone is attacked with an ally touching the attacked territory, ally automaticaly sends reinforcements. Winner at the end of a campaign gets a little trophy or a prize pot and bragging rights. Allied victory is not an option (unless determined otherwise).

==================

Idea 2:

Based solely upon the text based game above and completely text based besides the hud background, textures, ect.

Players start out with about 3,000 planets and in Player Protection (PP) meaning they can not be attacked until they reach 6,000 planets (obtained by scouting and missions). Planets can be improved to provide increased income, resources and population and research can be done to improve ships. Players can build ships to defend their planets or attack other players to gain more planets. Ships have different weaknesses and strengths, so building a thousand of one type of ship can be beat by only several hundred of different types of ships. If a player drops below down to 0 planets, they must restart in (PP) and build their way back up. Players have "strength" levels or status, a player can not attack someone massively greater in size or someone greatly weaker than them. "Corporations" can be made and players have the ability to build fleets in a "reinforcement" reserve, so if an ally gets attacked they bolster the defense of the attacked player. When a player is elevated to #1 in the game (largest planet, population, and fleet size) they can research "overlord". This enacts a complete and total war upon the #1 player (and his/her allies if applicable) able to be attacked by everyone but disallows the #1 player to attack (and his/her allies if applicable). If the #1 player loses 50% of his planet, fleet, or population size (or a combination of all three) they immediately stop researching overlord and the total war ends until it begins researching again. If the player completes the research, he is elevated into the hall of fame and awarded a trophy, as well as possibly a special class of ships. Everyone is then placed back into (PP) and begins with 3,000 planets to build back up to #1.

More description of the ship types: Can build marine frigates to capture other ships (idea from homeworld2) and a planet bombardment ship which is vulnerable to all ships but can pack a devastating blow to populations on planets, ground marine frigates that can enslave planets and turn them over to the attacking force.

Planet capture is based upon your standing with the enemy, if you are below in standings by around 5, your number of planets captured will be greatly more than if you are above standings around 5. This game requires a lot of people to get intensive, but there can be civillian versions and a special ordo version, allowing ordo members to play on the ordo private "server" and on the civillian server.

Less intensive, but still as fun.

And Minecraft has died until someone tells me how to forward my port so others can connect to my server, until then no one can connect to my server meaning no one can play.

[Tiridates Mikadze]

"Who wants to be Interrogated by the Frumentarii Death Squad?"

Quiz game about Ordo, SL, and RL trivia. Wrong answers gain you heretic points. Too many heretic points (or in this case, kindling) and you get burned at the stake.

The game goes until you have either confessed to being a heretic, or you have acquired enough heretic points to be properly ignited.

"Pin the Medal on the Numerii"

We have a recent Numerii run back and forth dodging medal-launching muskets. First person to pin the Numerii get's a prize!

"Musket-Drill Revolution"

(this is an actual suggestion)

We run a full series of increasingly difficult musket drills for firing, marching, and defensive formations. Fun for officers and Enlisted, helps increase discipline on the battlefield, and it will make Napoleon Waterloo his knickers.

"Praetorian Hazing"

The whole praetorian guard stands in a line and beats you to a pulp with hammers.

"Zombie Horde!"

HUDs that divide up a group between Survivors and Zombies. Zombies have a chance to infect survivors, and every Survivor that falls, becomes a Zombie. Winning is based on reaching a set time limit in a defensive position, based on the ratio of Z to S.

[Agares Tretiak]

"Praetorian Hazing"

The whole praetorian guard stands in a line and beats you to a pulp with hammers.

THIS

[Keno]

Pacman, people dress up as ghost and Pacaman then chase each other around

[Nakita]

"My Ordo". as in "My sim".

Basically you get a hud where you get to start at the bottom of the rank chain just like Tiny empires. You pretty much start as a Schola cadet on the hud and then you get presented with several options that are like "attend a class to get promoted"said class would take you like 30 minutes to complete and the timer only counts when you are on Titan. Later on in the progress you have multiple options like "participate in a raid, host a Schola class, do paperwork, build an Aryte keychain. These options may be succesfull and award you experience which will cause you to rank up or they may fail (bad luck) and award nothing. The odds should be in favor of the succes. People would need to train their character to adapt certain techniques in order to rank up further or simply earn more exp for things. For example, combat training to improve the exp you get from raids, but combat training would take up time that otherwise could be spent on going on hudraids, or doing hud work that earns you exp. It's making choices. Pretty much pokemon on the Gameboy.

Yes, lets have a game about doing the stuff we do in a game already. Sounds like fun >.>

[Ethan Schuman]

Actually, Kristian's idea isn't bad at all. None of these are. I like the zombie survival idea as well. Keep em coming, people.

[ribena Homewood]

...Tiridates for President.

[Mith Wakowski]

I'm making my return from inactivity right on schedule.... or at least I'll return soon, after end of term tests, but this can't wait :D I love this kind of challenge, and with my experience with both HUD based games (I'm ranked King in Tiny Empires though I've retired) as well as a certain internet text based game I present you now with my idea of the perfect HUD based game for use during idle hours in Titan.

I am making this up as I go along but I will try to keep it structured:

"LitteOrdo: Imperial Wars"

This game is based on both Tiny Empires and the Text based game I mentioned, but the result should at least withstand copyright law :)

Players get options and news elements on the status of their own little Ordo.

They gain rank based on their standing in the leaderboards of total score. The highest player gets a corresponding high rank of Little Imperator or whatever seems prudent to name them. Players downward are named differently with more of the same rank as they go down.

Their rank is based on their 'value' as a leader of an Imperium.

A player will start out with a small squad of Schola Cadets and one plot of server space.

The plot will provide the player with space to settle some of his squad in the role of 'a production unit'. And the room to train an initial battle unit, namely a Schola Graduate, or a generic technical development unit.

The production unit will produce credits with which one can train/recruit new cadets. And buy new server plots. For balance I would suggest that there's no upkeep to the plots but every new plot gets exponentially more expensive to buy, as an incentive to go out and take plots from other players.

The Generic Technical Development unit will produce small amounts of 'progress points' which basically will at some point allow you to buy upgrades down into a tech tree that splits between defensive buildings, upgraded units with different specialties.

A few examples off the top of my head:

Frumentarii: Spy unit, will penetrate another player's defenses without more than a pop up message from the sentries: We heard some noises and the mug by the Mercury server was gone, we suspect a spy has entered the base. The spy report back at the player who sent it will contain the total acrecount of the player, the amount of his units and/or recent military movement. Depending on how far upgraded the tech tree branch of Frumentarii training is.

There would also be a special unit, the Hackers, the unit that will steal plots of server space from other players. But they have to be at the enemy server plots. They have hardly any health or armor and are distracted with stealing the land. Hostile units will find it easy to shoot them, unless an attacking force of combat units accompanies them.

Another unit would obviously be Praetorian. With the matched tech tree branch of praetorian training. (high up in the tech tree of course) Which would take a while to produce as well as train. Since you can't simply upgrade a Cadet to a Praetorian, you must upgrade them with the appropriate researched training programs through a few ranks of Astra Pilot or Terra Soldier.

I'll be making a tech tree and unit tree diagram purely because I like making stuff like this up.

My idea for battle units is the use of them. You stand near a user of the Little Ordo HUD or fill in a name of a fellow player, and given that you're not way too big and would utterly steamroll them. Based on your empire's 'value'. You send in a force of land stealers and soldiers to fight your enemy's defenses and hopefully get away with some land.

The units would have two traits. Armor and Health value. Cadets would have 1 point of each. Praetorians would have lots of health. Tanks would have lots of Armor. The order of attack for damage calculations would be determined from the initiative of the unit type. Nemesis fighters would attack first for instance. And defending units get the bonus that units of the same type fire first fromt he defensive and then the attacking units of the same type would attack.

I cannot begin to type everything going through my mind right now concerning damage calculations etcetera. But the concept is clear, you can build a small Ordo empire and do war with other Ordo who play this game. And every few months or so a player establishes himself on the number 1 place for so long and with so much land that the lower players don't have as much fun because they can't catch up and that's when you reset the game and let players try again to win by sending the most effective attacks and the fastest way down a tech tree without leaving oneself defenseless.(By not buying combat units and focussing on RnD.)

There is a lot more to this idea than I have now written. But I think the concept is clear. I think a hud for this could be realised with reasonable effort. Though I don't know how hard it would be in pure terms of programming because of the language it'll have to be in. I know from experience however that games like this exist on the internet that are small enough in interface and coding in php to support thousands of players on a two bit crappy server running calculations for ticks/rounds/turns of ten minutes.

ADDITION:

Some further ideas for options like team play. As a Little Ordo Imperium, you are still only one, while strength lies with many. So add in the option of alliances of up to 3-5 players who can send defensive forces to eachother for added defense agains attacks or even waves of attacks by other alliances.

To put it simply this game is a bit wide as I come up with more and more ideas. But not all ideas need to be incorporated for it to work well. A simpler version would probably be just as fun if not more. Plus it would be easier to create and have better tolerance of lag as each 5 minute round would require less calculations to send back and forth between server and hud.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Mith Wakowski

[Anlysia Gregoire]

Note that using as few prims actually rezzed in the sim as possible is a very important thing to care about.

[RazorFox]

Note that using as few prims actually rezzed in the sim as possible is a very important thing to care about.

Anly, remember that time I was working on an SL military-themed tabletop game and set of miniatures and you were helping me?

[Anlysia Gregoire]

Yes...I was designing that concept around small-scale (5/side) due to how many prims they were.

[Ethan Schuman]

Contest is over. Kristian won, but his idea isn't the exact thing we're going to do. I don't have the full specific details worked out, but I'll list what I do have so far.

The name of the game is Ordo Quest (Someone PLEASE suggest a better name).

The first thing you do is generate your character. There are six stats to assign points to.

Leadership - This is your raw charisma, and how effective you are at command.

Administration - Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. This stat controls how good you are at coming up with new policies, training routines, suggestions, and the like.

Equipment - Your equipment rating represents both your in game weapons and gear, and your computing power. This is a combat stat.

Prowess - Pretty simple and straightforward. This is how good you are at fighting.

Building - How well you build. This affects how long it takes you to build something, and its quality.

Scripting - Same as Building, but with scripts.

Once you have this done, you can enlist in the Ordo. You start off at the rank of either Cadet or Milites. I haven't decided whether to include Schola or not. Ordo Quest is a turn based game. Turns last five minutes, and are triggered by a clock in Titan. There are two parts of each turn. The first is Events. Events are a list of things that have happened in between turns. These events may prompt possible actions. For instance, someone may be given the option to lead a raid one turn. On the next turn, the raid will be announced and people can volunteer for it. Actions are a list of things you can choose to do. For instance, one option that will always be available is "Defend Titan". Depending on events, you may also be given other options, such as "Raid", or "Attend Class", or "Volunteer for Project". Certain events will have certain consequences, such as improving a rating if you attend a class, or giving a morale bonus if you defend Titan when it's attacked. I think you get the idea. There will probably be a max of five Events and five Actions per turn. Good so far?

Actions and Events help determine your Morale rating. Your Morale rating determines your rank. As you increase and decrease in Morale, your rank will go up or down. I haven't decided whether there will be flat level marks or whether the requirements will shift, but I do know that there will only be so many "officer" slots. The officers will be the top ranked players by Morale rating. The number of officer slots will be determined by the total number of people registered for Ordo Quest. In addition to the prestige of being an officer, officers will probably have other perks, like being given preference for taking actions like hosting training/raids. Morale will be calculated every turn, but officers and ranks will probably only be calculated at the end of each day.

Now, I'll bet you're asking what the purpose of the game is, and why people would bother taking some actions. Well, everyone's actions and events have an effect on the grand scheme of things. People will not just be playing for themselves, they'll be playing cooperatively for the Ordo. The Ordo will have points as well, divided up into three categories: Command, War, and Tech. Command is affected primarily by Leadership and Administration actions. War is affected primarily by Equipment and Prowess actions. Tech is influenced primarily by Building and Scripting actions. These three ratings will determine the Ordo's standing against other NPC militaries. The stats of other militaries come into play for the purposes of standing and combat. Specific calculations will be determined later.

The last thing I want to mention is that Ordo Quest will be tied in with Mercury. If Mercury's alarm goes off, Ordo Quest will switch into Defense Mode. In Defense Mode, there are no events and no actions. However, for every turn that your HUD is in Defense Mode, you will gain extra Morale, and other bonuses. There may also be rewards for being in an engagement from beginning to end. Sure, you can AFK during combat with your HUD on, but people will notice this and frown upon it. In addition to this, turns can only be given and used while in Titan. That means that if you want to play, you need to be in sim. Also, AFKing will do you no good. If you take no action, nothing happens for you.

That's about all I have in my head idea wise at the moment. Before I take it any further, I'd like to hear what you all think about it. If you have questions, please ask. Also, to restate, someone PLEASE come up with a better name than Ordo Quest.

[Arc Vyper]

- -- - Arcs' supa kewl naem sugestionz - -- -

1)Quest for the Imperium

2)The Ordo Sagas

3)Legends & Champions of (the) Ordo

4)Ordo: Dawn of the Imperator

5)Ordo: Conflict For the Grid

[Mith Wakowski]

Well since you asked for it. LOVE the idea. Especially since I see a lot of similarities to my idea and so I know I'll like this.

A quick suggestion or two though for your consideration, perhaps for a competitive edge to the game as well as the benefit of the overall standing of this Meta Ordo, which could well be the game's name. For short MO (em oh)

Simply put my suggestion is that Officers get extra options in ways of launching projects. For example, building a new weapon. Or some new bit of legislation. For which they need volunteers to help do the building, scripting, paperwork, whatever. Or to launch a raid, with a small complement of volunteers. And that they get to pick from the volunteers who they want for the job, based on a list of anonymous players and their stats displayed on the hud. Players with high prowess and equipment would obviously be picked for raids.

As you said players can select their skillset at the beginning of the game. But for a competitive edge for new players who will want to be able to grow in the ranks a slight bit faster a good balanced advantage you might want to give them is the simple report of MetaOrdo's total points on all skills. So when people get to generate their character the hud shows them that the Meta Ordo military has 300 points among all members on all except one skill, which, coïncidentally is at 220 skillpoints. (Which obviously is a big exaggeration.) Players joining then will know there's a shortage of players with a good amount of scripting skill in the game and lean more towards scripting, so when a project is launched they can volunteer for there are better odds that they'll get picked to help script it. The game will then be all about finding the balance between kicking ass at one skill like building stuff but only being able to help with building projects. (Because who would let someone launch a raid, or even join one when their prowess is quite low.) And having a balanced skillset but being one of the last to be picked for most projects and raids BUT have a moderate chance to be picked for a lot of different projects.

Do with it what you will, I figure ideas like this won't hurt anyone and might just make for a great thing to do during downtime.

[Desereck Creeggan]

Ordo Imperialis: The New Imperium

Ordo: Rising Forces

[Crash Silverfall]

Ordo: The Imperial Force.

Ordo: The Rise.