It goes without saying that LT will be awesome, and I think that Josh is creating one of the best games of the decade. However, more options for gameplay to accommodate different styles and different moods can only be a good thing. Let's keep the new stuff to a minimum though and try to get as much out of what we already have as possible, so these suggestions are primarily taking some aspects of what already exists out, or emphasizing what already exists to get new styles of gameplay, new game modes.
Let me begin with a hypocrisy, and suggest a mode that may be both difficult and add some radically different mechanics. I do this because it is such an awesome possibility that it should at least be considered, because if LT does this, Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous will be jealous if they can't do it too.
Moviemaker/Customverse Mode
I briefly brought this up with Josh in IRC, but while he showed some interest, it was neither the time nor the place to really get into it, so I fleshed out my ideas here.
I imagine that like many games with emergent content, players will encounter stories they want to share, or they will want the tools to share stories of their own creation. I am suggesting that a distinct mode exists, separate and independent from the rest of the game where players can manually create, edit, any possible asset, environmental setting, or AI subroutine system by system (acting as sets), creating their own custom universe, or importing a section of a PCG universe in which they can tell and record their own stories that can be uploaded and shared with the world.
Development and Post-Production;
Storytelling begins before this point, but I think there are plenty of programs out there which can accommodate this, if desired, Josh could go so far as to make an entire production program embedded in LT, from storyboarding to music and voiceover dubbing. This would of course make it easier and more convenient, getting more people to make movies in LT, but even without that level of detail, I think most people inclined to produce a movie will be able to do so without these aspects.
Set Creation;
In my vision, set creation along with asset creation should be quick, easy, and random with the option to be meticulous and highly detailed. Anything that can be PCG, should potentially be able to be manually created or imported straight from a living universe.
People should be able to generate a random nebula background, a star, lighting, and the whole system, until they have something they are happy with, save its various ID's and use them later if ever they want to.
People should also be able to create maps, tech trees, markets, databases, factions, etc. whether fake (appearances only) or genuine (using the same world generation as the full mode)
People should be able to generate at random or customize everything in on their sets with a few buttons and sliders (or just math if they want) - from the position and appearance of the planets to the color of the nebula to the structure and texture of a ship or station to the assets of an individual or faction, to the power of an individual thruster or weapon.
Of course, people should also be able to create or destroy additional sets, and connect to them by how else? Regular old wormholes.
Sound like a Dev mode? Essentially it is
, it is merely taking everything that PCG can do and letting the player hand craft as much or as little as they like
This just by itself could be quite fun even without movie capabilities. (move a wormhole next to the sun and laugh as invaders pop out and burn without warning?)
Production;
After initial set up, You could just let the game run, but if you are telling a story, you might want more control.
The first and most important aspect of control is the ability to undo and correct mistakes. This is accomplished by save points; if something goes differently than you wanted, you can go back to the save point and do another take. I don't know If LT can run backwards in time, if it can, this is less necessary, but can still be quite useful.
Second is the ability to control the flow of time. Whether for analysis of what went wrong or for slow motion capture, controlling time is a valuable tool.
Third is the camera. I believe that most of the camera controls are in place already, but to be sure, a camera should be able to take different perspectives, track an object, follow an object, pan, zoom, rotate, Yada Yada, there should be multiple camera save positions if not multiple cameras. Cameras should also have possible filters. Flatfingers suggested some fantastic ideas
here and I'm sure GJ could come up with some great ideas too.
Fourth is the ability to direct and control the actors. The AI in LT is quite powerful, and it may go off and do the logical thing instead of doing what it is told. Because of this, it may be necessary to lobotomize them in various ways, and make them blindly follow orders. I suspect that you can do this with your own assets in LT, so this may not be particularly difficult, but I think it would be good if any aspect of any individual AI brain could be turned on or off at will, from pathfinding to long term planning to delegation, that orders could be as specific as "fire 5 shots at X" to "bring down faction Y at all costs." Order queues should also be included with the flexibility to give a queue that says "Fly in circles around X for 30 minutes, then fly towards Y, en route eject 2 units of vitrium every 10 seconds for 5 minutes, on arrival at X put out a Hit on Z for 1 million credits, and then blow up the nearest station, then join faction W, then make money but you can't use weapons or transfer beams"
Fifth is Omniscience filters, the ability to see anything you want or to filter out everything except for what a single individual knows or can see. Pretty simple ya? also pretty useful for making a movie.
I think that with this level of control, players will be able to really tell just about any space based story they like (minus things the LT engines can't handle), and to be honest I think that this isn't really asking for that much more than what already exists.
Game modes are essentially stripping some aspect of the engine out, or giving a dev ability/slider to the player. They vary by world structure, world rules, or breaking player symmetry. I suspect that it would be possible to combine any or multiple structure, rule and asymmetry options, but I also suspect that some combinations will be less fun than others.
Default: The beautiful, fantastic Game that Josh has been building all along, Infinite, fully procedural, lots of emergent gameplay.
World Structure Variations
In the Beginning: Spare the history generation, and start at the beginning, with lots of wild places to discover and colonize, build the first empires!
The Miniverse: The universe is not infinite, it is however more detailed. All this is, is limiting the size of the universe to the number of systems your computer can simulate without ever pausing and utilizing history generation. all systems are being simulated at all times, just mostly in low LOD.
Johnny Wormholeseed: save for the starting system, the rest of the universe does not exist until you visit it. You the player create wormholes and only once you have done so, will AI use them. when you create a wormhole, it pops you into a new system which has undergone centuries of historical simulation, but has been totally isolated, what will you find? how will the natives react (if there are any)? what strengths and weaknesses has their isolation caused? Do they even have space flight? How will they and the AI from previous systems interact? Are you the accidental Savior or the harbinger of doom? no one knows! (may require player immortality)
World Rule Variations
Eternal Peace: No weapons research, ever. (may require other commodity sinks to replace destruction)
Bloodlust: Weapons are far easier to research and/or far cheapest to produce than all other technology, making violence the cheapest way of doing business.
Techwarp: Random or manual selection of tech branches that are far easier to research and cheaper to produce (May or may not be the same branches for research and production) while others are far harder/expensive.
Punctuated Tech: For most of the time, the world exists in a dark age, where research is almost impossible, the players are stuck with the blueprints in existence. However, every so often, for a short period of time, Technology is very easy to discover, and yields far more advances than tradeoffs, but only those who are situated to research will get them. because the window closes as quickly as it opens.
Moodswings: At any point, any AI has a small statistical chance of having a major personality change and will redirect their assets/projects accordingly (random or modifiable to control how chaotic the universe is)
Faction Limit: Set a maximum number of factions that can exist at any time, this creates the equivalent of teams/races. If limited to 2, creates a Black v. White or Good v. Evil distinction. If also done in a miniverse, you can conceivably conquer the universe!
Player Asymmetry Variations
Doppelganger Start: Start with temporary Omniscience, find any Npc you want and jump into their head. Become the NPC. Take over all their assets, relationships, missions, responsibilities, and problems. (Want to be a faction leader? be careful what you wish for)
Doppelganger Mode: Same as above, but without the Omniscience and you can do it anytime. Your old self just becomes another AI.
Silver Spoon: Start off with as many credits/assets as you like, whatever technology you want… Start with a fleet of battleships to conquer the area out of nowhere, Somewhat of a cheat, but even Vast starting resources will run out eventually.
Easy Street: Boosts your relationships with NPCs, your weapons do a little more damage, you can go a little faster, research a little faster, find a little more ore, etc... Scalable sliders for customized ease.
Hard Knox: Exactly the opposite of the above.
Personal Time Machine: At any point, start up historical simulation, freezes player in current ship for chosen duration HG Wells style. simulate a day to try and escape an enemy... simulate a week to skip through waiting for your faction to colonize a system, simulate a year to watch an empire crumble... But be careful, just because you are frozen, you aren't invisible... And you may wake up surrounded by bounty hunter, waiting just for you!
So, any thoughts on these? Any more ideas?