EDIT: Added an impartiality poll option, and retitled post for more accuracy. Also expanded on one of the caveats.

I love single-player games, because of the high immersion factor many of them have. I usually find in the case of multi-player games, people do some action out of the ordinary which breaks this, however, the social interaction is a large benefit to many gamers. Because of this, I frequently have the idea across single-player games, to create a group for players to interact as a group, for fictitious benefits.

How do you envision this would work?

Each corporation would have a small website portal area, on a main website I'd create. For each corporation portal, there would be a roster, where people can sign-up to join. For the sake of an example, let's say two mining and production corporations. Each would have a forum area, and a form where people can list their profits, ore sales and the types sold, what goods were produced or sold and in what quantity, etc. In addition, any expenses, such as ship upgrades, repairs, and new ship purchases, would be taken from the corporation funds if the user and administration has signed that the worker has a certain degree of company funding. In all likelihood, this would apply to highly-profitable players, or players who excel in other areas for the company.

All this information would be calculated to give an overall profit graph for all corporation members to view. There would also be individual graphs per user to see contribution to the corporation. Each month, there could be a Worker of the Month, Executive of the Month, and One To Watch awards given out to people who fit such awards. There'd be some perk given to award recipients, something website-related, but that is for consideration later down the line. Corporations would compete for overall rank and exposure, as real corporations do, though obviously fictitious since it doesn't influence the game at all.

Members of certain rank could gather in a segregated part of the forums to discuss corporation business, overall outlooks in their 'sector' (this is technically their game, not the sector they're in. I'm calling it their 'sector' to keep it sounding one-worldly), ask for concessions if required for some of their intermediaries, etc.

If it all actually amounts to nothing, why bother?

Because some people, like myself, find it fun. It opens up a collaborative, social aspect to what is otherwise a single-player game. When it comes down to it, it's a public scoreboard that encourages co-operation between members for an overall ranking, and brings a little bit of player-oriented competition.

There have to be some caveats here...

Quite true. I currently use quite a good web host, which is surprisingly cheap, but depending on bandwidth I may be required to upgrade, and would therefore require donations to keep it afloat more easily. This may also involve advertising, but to start with there would be no advertisements, because we all hate them, don't we?

More importantly, I'd need to think of a way to keep users honest, so they don't just fill in each ore field with 999999999 sold for 181291218212 profits in the span of two minutes. Whether or not the raw value data could be exported is irrelevant, because people could just alter the output. Therefore, I'd have to think of other methods of ensuring accuracy. Perhaps corporations can have members who review submissions of screenshots...?

This isn't something I would use.

That said, I'm not against the idea (and voted accordingly) as long as it doesn't cost a lot of Josh-time and does not interfere in any way with the offline, single-player game I look forward to enjoying.

This is entertainment. If I can get what I enjoy, and you can get something different you can enjoy, why would I oppose that?

Flatfingers wrote:This isn't something I would use.

That said, I'm not against the idea (and voted accordingly) as long as it doesn't cost a lot of Josh-time and does not interfere in any way with the offline, single-player game I look forward to enjoying.

This is entertainment. If I can get what I enjoy, and you can get something different you can enjoy, why would I oppose that?

Understandable viewpoint. It would not interfere with the single-player game at all, it'd essentially be a hub of activities under groups, where users who are compelled to do so, can keep track of their ore mining statistics, as well as others in their group, and socialise on the side. Kind of like an in-game community, so while you play in single-player with an unaltered universe, you still have the social aspect of multi-player.

I'll edit my OP, but there's no real way I can control the data being uploaded anyway, even if it were exported because people could just alter the output. Therefore, I'd have to think of other methods of ensuring accuracy. Perhaps corporations can have members who review submissions of screenshots...?

Ultimately, it wouldn't need to involve Josh at all, unless we were to get the raw output data, but that could be altered and thus not a reliable source. So it's really a completely separate endeavour for those who decide they want some group activity and possibly voice chat on the side.

I have no real objections, but would like to add that I wouldn't be likely to use it.

Talvieno wrote:I have no real objections, but would like to add that I wouldn't be likely to use it.

Same here.

Behemoth wrote:

Talvieno wrote:I have no real objections, but would like to add that I wouldn't be likely to use it.

Same here.

Lemme just board this "same" train.

Its a perfectly fine idea, but I personally wouldn't do anything with it unless it offered a serious addition to my own gameplay experience.

Nice to read everyone's opinions, . Yeah, it is a bit 'out there', I just often chat through Skype with friends in single-player games to mimic working together, so wondered how many others would be interested in doing the same on a larger scale. It is a bit superfluous for many gamers.

Well ya know what would be particularly interesting now that I think about it... though I am not sure if it would even be possible with this kind of procedural system, but if you could in fact as a player download some of the assets of a faction in one universe, removing them from that universe, and injecting them into a new universe, where it would fly the same flag, and have the same goals, and develop a foothold in the new universe with the assets you injected... In that way you could I suppose all work for the same corporation in multiple universes... Forget multinationals, you would be a multiversal corporation! With our meatspace merely being the multiverse that the board of directors is in... Supposing you could make regular transfers of assets from one universe to another, you could really and truly function as a single entity, taking the profits from one universe and putting them into projects in another.

That's a cool idea, and even more closely tied together because of how the seeds in universe generation will work, I believe. Corporations of multiple players could decide upon a seed, then all play the one seed for even closer universe relation between players. As you say, I don't know how possible it would be to download specific data, however. Given that the game has an editor inside it, perhaps the editor could allow a script input to set parameters in one go, similar to how some mods do? That'd allow people to purely export their goods and products for cumulative sale in other games, as well as submission of funds to the corporation (lead player).

At the same time, though, it's as disjointed as my initial idea; people would really need to have the mindset of being social and contributing similarly to a multi-player game, but as a separate function, since it doesn't inherently sit within gameplay itself. But I think it'd be a fun extracurricular activity on the side of LT, personally. People could set their own corporation goals and 'missions' then, and just send over a script to load extra funds into the successful player, for example. Or for a social aspect, they could run LTBingo or LTPoker and generate scripts to load into the editor to receive winnings when they 'leave' the 'casino'.

I'm a big fan of trying to expand games within communities, so I like the idea.

There has been talk of members who will attempt to mod in TCP IP connections for LT internet games. If this does happen then this idea could be transformed into a persistent universe stat tracker. It will be difficult to know exactly what can be done until release.

Agreed, this poll was more to gather opinions as to what support the idea itself has, . It'll be interesting upon release, as you say, to see what is possible.

If multi-player itself via modding isn't implemented, this idea was created to mimic certain aspects, namely working toward common goals, live chat with corporation members while you play, and other possible activities to create community structures and reward systems.

Hmm... Not sure what I would use it for, but since it is completely community built, I'm not against it at all. One cool idea I had was to be able to share blueprint designs and star maps. There can be whole communities who help each other find great strategies, designs, and tactics.

CodeDecoded wrote:Hmm... Not sure what I would use it for, but since it is completely community built, I'm not against it at all. One cool idea I had was to be able to share blueprint designs and star maps. There can be whole communities who help each other find great strategies, designs, and tactics.

That could essentially be done within the corporations through my idea. People could all use the same seed and put topics up that told people such information, and other recommendations such as any profitable trade routes found, the best skirmish systems out on the frontier, the best way to smuggle into a particular secure system, etc. It'd be a way for people to band together and make a corporation, have a sub-forum, and plan everything out they needed in their own private forum section, including group statistics via submission of data. Kind of blurring the lines between single- and multi-player, so that there's still cooperative and social elements while playing.