Multiplayer Starship Bridge Simulator

Community Game ideas
#1

http://artemis.eochu.com/index.php
Each console/role (tactical, helm, engineering, comms, science) is shown on one pc/laptop, all connected to a server. Captain orders everyone else around.

The software can handle multiple ships on the same server, so you’re only really limited by the available number of computers.

AI enemies are present, as well as environmental hazards and the like. Player ships can also fire on each other. Been playing the demo (managing multiple stations by oneself is challenging!), but it looks like great fun.

Could make for a fantastic daygame, particularly if multiple crews were able to be assembled. Or as part of a larger daygame, set on a space station, or at a starship academy, or the like.

#2

We looked in to an earlier version of this when we built the Nibelungen :slight_smile: Rad huh? We went for a more graphical single-machine alternative with room-wide analogue controls. Simming a spaceship is an ambitious endeavour, and what you end up with has to deliver crowning moments of awesome. Props to these guys.

#3

I really wouldn’t mind this being turned into a part, or just a small LARP. And joining in =D.

#4

Whatever happened to the Startrek Bridge replica Stella Nova used to have?

That might help the setting :slight_smile:

#5

The what!? Someone had a bridge?

#6

Yep, last time I saw it was over 10 years ago and it needed a few minor repairs but it was a mockup of the original Startrek bridge. Havn’t seen it since the modelling museum closed down (make that 20 years).

#7

If you video a group of you playing the demo version (captain + helm + tactical only), youtube it, and email the developer, you get a free copy of the game (where 1 copy = 6 installs, for a full crew + server). The server computer doubles as the main viewscreen.

#8

id be very keen to play this game

#9

Yep, last time I saw it was over 10 years ago and it needed a few minor repairs but it was a mockup of the original Startrek bridge. Havn’t seen it since the modelling museum closed down (make that 20 years).[/quote]
I’m dying a little on the inside. That would be so so so amazing.

#10

'twould especially be awesome if you’d have several ships+crews, who can then battle it out. Obviously RPing the hits, and breakdowns of things as well, for added dramatic effect =3.

#11

I’m so in
i was trying to get several other people interested in playing this and only got one person interested out of the six

#12

Played the demo with some mates over the weekend, it went really well. Very fun, particularly the manner in which everyone fell into their assigned roles (I played helm, others played captain & weapons), and the snarky bridge dialog flying back and forwards was rather amusing.

#13

I’d be keen to get this set up, wife is an advid Star Trek fan.

#14

I’ve always thought it would be cool to build a very small bridge module, like the one on the Millenium Falcon or an even smaller cockpit like in a two-person fighter ship, including custom-built seats. It could be completely enclosed, with screens built into the walls, so that players would only see stuff built for the game. I like that idea of being surrounded entirely by an environment built for the game. Something like that could be portable and packed away between games, and you could have more than one of them.

If you had a couple of cockpits, you could have people board them at a space station that’s made using a couple of set-dressed rooms where people can move around and roleplay more freely. I wonder if that’s possible with Artemis? Can you have a group of people “play” a stationary space station with defences, weapons, etc. and have ships dock at it?

#15

No, but you can have multiple player controlled starships on the same server. With the full version, the communications station can request that starbases build new supplies and so forth, but the stations are still NPC controlled.

That being said, having a station “set” in which different crews could mingle, have briefings, plan etc… could work quite well. In most of the artemis games I’ve played, there’s been several space stations, so one way this could be done is to designate DS1 as fleet headquarters (with living space, briefing rooms, and so forth), whereas DS2,DS3, etc… are simple supply depots, and don’t have facilities for crews to disembark. This would also provide added motivation for the crews to defend DS1 (yes, npc starships can and will actively attack and destroy space stations).

Apparently, on the hard settings, the odds are seriously against the player crews (enemy ships get larger, more numerous, and may have unexpected technologies), so having multiple player starships working together would enable cool fleet tactics to help them punch above their weight.

It should also be noted that player starships can attack each other … which could tie in really well with RP … ship to ship comms, diplomacy, and combat (because the translator never quite translates “we come in peace” correctly …)

Another way to tie it in could be in the setting of a fleet training academy, where the simulators are IC simulators too! The shared space then becomes the classroom/ready room or somesuch.

#16

So the ships don’t physically dock at the space stations?

Are there different types of ships you can control?

#17

I’ve only really been footling around with the demo so far, but I think I can answer those …

Ships must be within a certain range of a station, and then can request docking permission. From there, the station locks on with a tractor beam, and pulls them in close. Once in position, the station then refills the ship’s energy reserve, torpedos, and so forth. I think stations may also do repairs. A crew leaves a station by engaging their sublight engines.

When I was talking about designating stations as having various characteristics, I was meaning in a purely RP sense - in game, all the stations are identical in function.

Subsections of ships can be damaged - one of the major roles of the engineering console is to manage damage control & repair teams.

Additionally, ships burn energy (think “fuel”) constantly, and can only refuel at stations, so managing this can become very important on extended missions or firefights, as if you run out, you’re dead in space. Until some helpful enemies come along to “assist” you, anyhow …

As for ship types … I’m pretty sure all the player ships are of the same class, but I haven’t yet tinkered enough to say whether they have identical appearance.

Have I mentioned that it really is rather fun?

#18

Sounds like it has lots of potential as a tool for larp. I had a look at their forum and it sounds like they don’t have a GM function yet, but it’s on the list of stuff to do and the developer is working through that list. At the moment it’s more like scripted missions.

Is there audio or video conferencing between ships?

#19

I’m not sure … the comms station may be able to communicate with other player ships, but I don’t know what form that takes.

That said, it wouldn’t be too hard to run teamspeak, ventrilo, etc… (or even skype, although getting the video up on the main screen could be tricky) for ship to ship comms, and get the comms officer to manage that. Teamspeak, ventrilo and their ilk are generally free, and hosting one’s own server is pretty simple.

I think there are a couple of missions now, but the “freeform” game is itself pretty customisable. A lot of stuff can be changed regarding what level of threat is being faced, how the stations are spread through space, and what else is out there (asteroids, nebulae, anomalies and the like). It is still, however, essentially “defend the space stations” gameplay, but something could be crafted around that quite well.

#20

Yeah, there’s a custom mission scripting system.

Documentation here: http://artemis.eochu.com/forums.php#/20110412/mission-script-ref-136-496805/