<strong>[Community -> Update]</strong>
I came across this page by accident. It's a site called <a href="http://www.vault52.net/index.php">Vault52</a>, and it seems to be a community site that also has a Fallout MUD in progress. The home page proclaims the site is "<em>built completely in flash and java</em>", but don't let that put you off. Doing some searching on the site came up with this:
<blockquote><em>What is
Vault52.net ?
Vault52 is the latest project of Philip Luppens.
The goal is to make an online adventure/rpg/simulation
in a post apocalyptic setting. We are currently
working to create a bigger world, with more terminals,
computers, rooms and content.
It is important to know that this is a non-profit
project, being created in our spare time only.
We can use any support you can give us. So please,
if you think this project is worth a look, please
tell your friends.</em>
</blockquote>
The site then links to somewhere called <a href="http://www.vaultnet.net">Vaultnet.net</a>, which has a dead link on the main page but a forum that was recently updated with screenshots of an <a href="http://www.vaultnet.net/snipsnap/space/start">upcoming Post Apocalyptic RPG</a>.
I'm not sure if this is the same as Vault52.net's online game. I just
found the whole site a bit bizarre, especially since I'd never heard of
it before.
The real FOOL?
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Mr. Teatime
- Righteous Subjugator
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King of Creation
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Well, the ownder, Phil, done a lot of good work on that project.
You could go in, make a charecter and explore around a virtual, there were some quests you could do. Pretty impresive 3D renders.
If you had clicked on Enter V52, the game would open: http://www.vault52.net/vault52.html
Try it out.
You could go in, make a charecter and explore around a virtual, there were some quests you could do. Pretty impresive 3D renders.
If you had clicked on Enter V52, the game would open: http://www.vault52.net/vault52.html
Try it out.
Yeah, we've been around since the last days of v13.net, I'm surprised you didn't found it before.
Let me give you a couple of updates: we're not dead. We've never been. I've been working on 2 PA projects for over 4 years now. V52 was the first, and its development has been suspended in favor of the second project: rpg.vaultnet.net, the 'real FOOL' project.
I've been working on it quietly with some friends from V52 and advice from the roleplayers at http://www.vault0.org to create our own version of FOOL - no 'l33t' 3D graphix, no simplifications, no fobos shit, no upcoming(?) Interplay mmorpg shit. The project is a (nearly) full implementation of Fallout PnP, translated into a library, and run asynchronously on a server from my company. It's no http://blackout.gamedale.com (=(simple) webbased RPG), it's a 'state-of-the-art' enviroment for roleplayers. Let me fill you in.
In rpg.vaultnet.net you take control of a party, consisting of several characters. These characters are built using the special system, and can be anything from humans to mutants to radscorpions to robots to crows (of course we limit the choice, but all races available in the game are technically playable), and have things like resistances, advantages, traits, etc .. the original fallout skill list has been altered, and can now contain an unlimited amount of skills. This is necessary, as starting characters have to learn certain skills before being able to handle an item (eg. a gun or a book). So you get skills like truck driving, farming and assassination.
The world consists of a map of nearly unlimited size (we could map half of north America), with several (big number) of locations. The map is fully dynamic, and not only shows the locations, but also your position, your travelling destination, but also all those who have the same radio frequency as you, and within an X mile radius (if you have a radio - finally a good use for that item, right ?). The map is a flash app that resembles the original fallout version. Pretty sweet stuff, you'll agree.
Now, when your party travels to a certain location, it travels at a certain speed (= slowest member of your group, unless your party owns a car and has fuel). Game speed is set at 6x normal speed, so you get 4 days in one real day. Regular, normal locations are about a week away (when travelling on foot) in game time, so think twice before you send your characters off into the wasteland. We also have seasons, weather forecasts, etc ..
As soon as your characters get within a certain radius of a location (depending on the size, minimal level, etc ..), it will turn visible, and you can 'enter' it to see the different places. Places consist of several buildings, shops, etc .. , and you can see all players & npc's at the location. Some locations are hidden, and you'd have to travel to a specific point to see them.
You buy your stuff in shops, who are controlled by regular characters (could be a player, an npc, ..), some shops might not be accessible (you have a ghould/mutant in your party, and 'we don't sell to muties in here'), or you need to be a member of a certain clan, etc.
Ah, the clans. Your characters can become members of a certain clan/guild, if they want to and are accepted by the leader of the clan. Besides some disadvantages such as monthly fees, these clans give cheaper prices, protection, a custom symbol, and respect. Not all clans are public, some are well guarded, and it takes a lot of time to 'work your way in'. Clans have a headquarter at a certain location, and can control certain locations.
Fallout was brillant, not only because of its storyline and character building, but also its combat.
So, I rebuilt it.
Simple, no ?
Let me explain. It's no 'typical webbased' combat where you press a button to heal, or to attack. It's WAY more complicated than that.
First of all; it's automated. Fully automated. A major fight takes about 1 sec of CPU time. Major as '8vs8' characters.
Before you start shouting 'we want control', pause a second. Your characters aren't poor sitting ducks. They have an 30x30 map, use advanced pathfinding, hit-and-retreat, snipe, flee, use grenades, attack the weakest/strongest/.. . Of course, it all depends on your intelligence when it comes to advanced tactics, but if you're a level 30 badass in a power armor with a minigun, you don't need advanced tactics.
So, then what happens ? Well, there are the occasional random encounter when at certain locations. These happen instantly. But now imagine you challenging some NPC (you can attack any character within a 10 mile radius). Then what ? Well, a message gets posted at the current location with details regarding who's going to fight, and when it will happen. Now, you against a poor level 1 shop owner isn't a fair fight, right ? So, other characters get some time to 'intercept', and subscribe chracters from their party to the fight. But, they might choose either side ! Now, that opens a LOT of possibilities !
Let me give you an example from our faq:
"suppose you're living in a small town, inhabited by a couple of farmers, a mayor, some merchants and a guard. There is a raider town nearby. Now, there may be several high-leveled thugs over there that act as leader. The AI may determine that they want more money (high greed level), and prepares a an attack on your peaceful village. The AI posts an event at the location, explaining its future actions. One of the game masters picks it up, and decides to take control of a raider. The GM orders the npc to travel to your town, and warn the mayor. Now, it's up to the mayor to take action. What will he do ? Will he hire mercs to defend the village ? Will he order his farmers to arm themselves ? If so, do his merchants have enough weapons in stock, or would they have to send an order to a mjor city to order stock ? And will it arrive in time ?"
Now, the funny thing is: there is no 'order stuff from a nearby town". If you want stuff from another location, you'll have find a way to pass the message by sending a character/party over there, and give him money to buy the weapons. But, what if the player decides to run off with the money ? Can you trust him ? Will he chicken out ? Etc.
The possibilities are ENDLESS. There is no predefined 'quest' or plot. You are simply part of a huge group of living beings in a big, big world. You want something ? Well, promise some money for it, and other players will have quest to fulfill.
This also means that there are no 'important npc's'. Any npc can be killed, and another npc/player might take his place. So, choose your own destiny; what will you be ? A level 30 thug ? A wandering mutant ? A local sherrif ? A car salesman ? A doctor at a BOS station ? Etc ..
There are a lot of other things, such as jobs, dialogs, children, .. but you'll all get to see that when we launch.
Now, the purpose of the whole project is to 'roleplay' and most importantly: WRITE IT DOWN. MAKE FANFIC. Tell the tale of your party and what happened to you .. that's why we created this world. It's fully driven by an AI, that can do nearly anything; from launching nukes, to increase radiation, to spawn new critters, and to launch attacks on poor farmers
We've kept the whole project pretty much a secret, since we've all seen our share of big announced projects that died after a few months. Not here. We've been around for a long time, and we're here to stay. Stay tuned.
Btw: the url to keep track of some changes: http://blogs.vaultnet.net
Cheers,
Phil
Let me give you a couple of updates: we're not dead. We've never been. I've been working on 2 PA projects for over 4 years now. V52 was the first, and its development has been suspended in favor of the second project: rpg.vaultnet.net, the 'real FOOL' project.
I've been working on it quietly with some friends from V52 and advice from the roleplayers at http://www.vault0.org to create our own version of FOOL - no 'l33t' 3D graphix, no simplifications, no fobos shit, no upcoming(?) Interplay mmorpg shit. The project is a (nearly) full implementation of Fallout PnP, translated into a library, and run asynchronously on a server from my company. It's no http://blackout.gamedale.com (=(simple) webbased RPG), it's a 'state-of-the-art' enviroment for roleplayers. Let me fill you in.
In rpg.vaultnet.net you take control of a party, consisting of several characters. These characters are built using the special system, and can be anything from humans to mutants to radscorpions to robots to crows (of course we limit the choice, but all races available in the game are technically playable), and have things like resistances, advantages, traits, etc .. the original fallout skill list has been altered, and can now contain an unlimited amount of skills. This is necessary, as starting characters have to learn certain skills before being able to handle an item (eg. a gun or a book). So you get skills like truck driving, farming and assassination.
The world consists of a map of nearly unlimited size (we could map half of north America), with several (big number) of locations. The map is fully dynamic, and not only shows the locations, but also your position, your travelling destination, but also all those who have the same radio frequency as you, and within an X mile radius (if you have a radio - finally a good use for that item, right ?). The map is a flash app that resembles the original fallout version. Pretty sweet stuff, you'll agree.
Now, when your party travels to a certain location, it travels at a certain speed (= slowest member of your group, unless your party owns a car and has fuel). Game speed is set at 6x normal speed, so you get 4 days in one real day. Regular, normal locations are about a week away (when travelling on foot) in game time, so think twice before you send your characters off into the wasteland. We also have seasons, weather forecasts, etc ..
As soon as your characters get within a certain radius of a location (depending on the size, minimal level, etc ..), it will turn visible, and you can 'enter' it to see the different places. Places consist of several buildings, shops, etc .. , and you can see all players & npc's at the location. Some locations are hidden, and you'd have to travel to a specific point to see them.
You buy your stuff in shops, who are controlled by regular characters (could be a player, an npc, ..), some shops might not be accessible (you have a ghould/mutant in your party, and 'we don't sell to muties in here'), or you need to be a member of a certain clan, etc.
Ah, the clans. Your characters can become members of a certain clan/guild, if they want to and are accepted by the leader of the clan. Besides some disadvantages such as monthly fees, these clans give cheaper prices, protection, a custom symbol, and respect. Not all clans are public, some are well guarded, and it takes a lot of time to 'work your way in'. Clans have a headquarter at a certain location, and can control certain locations.
Fallout was brillant, not only because of its storyline and character building, but also its combat.
So, I rebuilt it.
Simple, no ?
Let me explain. It's no 'typical webbased' combat where you press a button to heal, or to attack. It's WAY more complicated than that.
First of all; it's automated. Fully automated. A major fight takes about 1 sec of CPU time. Major as '8vs8' characters.
Before you start shouting 'we want control', pause a second. Your characters aren't poor sitting ducks. They have an 30x30 map, use advanced pathfinding, hit-and-retreat, snipe, flee, use grenades, attack the weakest/strongest/.. . Of course, it all depends on your intelligence when it comes to advanced tactics, but if you're a level 30 badass in a power armor with a minigun, you don't need advanced tactics.
So, then what happens ? Well, there are the occasional random encounter when at certain locations. These happen instantly. But now imagine you challenging some NPC (you can attack any character within a 10 mile radius). Then what ? Well, a message gets posted at the current location with details regarding who's going to fight, and when it will happen. Now, you against a poor level 1 shop owner isn't a fair fight, right ? So, other characters get some time to 'intercept', and subscribe chracters from their party to the fight. But, they might choose either side ! Now, that opens a LOT of possibilities !
Let me give you an example from our faq:
"suppose you're living in a small town, inhabited by a couple of farmers, a mayor, some merchants and a guard. There is a raider town nearby. Now, there may be several high-leveled thugs over there that act as leader. The AI may determine that they want more money (high greed level), and prepares a an attack on your peaceful village. The AI posts an event at the location, explaining its future actions. One of the game masters picks it up, and decides to take control of a raider. The GM orders the npc to travel to your town, and warn the mayor. Now, it's up to the mayor to take action. What will he do ? Will he hire mercs to defend the village ? Will he order his farmers to arm themselves ? If so, do his merchants have enough weapons in stock, or would they have to send an order to a mjor city to order stock ? And will it arrive in time ?"
Now, the funny thing is: there is no 'order stuff from a nearby town". If you want stuff from another location, you'll have find a way to pass the message by sending a character/party over there, and give him money to buy the weapons. But, what if the player decides to run off with the money ? Can you trust him ? Will he chicken out ? Etc.
The possibilities are ENDLESS. There is no predefined 'quest' or plot. You are simply part of a huge group of living beings in a big, big world. You want something ? Well, promise some money for it, and other players will have quest to fulfill.
This also means that there are no 'important npc's'. Any npc can be killed, and another npc/player might take his place. So, choose your own destiny; what will you be ? A level 30 thug ? A wandering mutant ? A local sherrif ? A car salesman ? A doctor at a BOS station ? Etc ..
There are a lot of other things, such as jobs, dialogs, children, .. but you'll all get to see that when we launch.
Now, the purpose of the whole project is to 'roleplay' and most importantly: WRITE IT DOWN. MAKE FANFIC. Tell the tale of your party and what happened to you .. that's why we created this world. It's fully driven by an AI, that can do nearly anything; from launching nukes, to increase radiation, to spawn new critters, and to launch attacks on poor farmers
We've kept the whole project pretty much a secret, since we've all seen our share of big announced projects that died after a few months. Not here. We've been around for a long time, and we're here to stay. Stay tuned.
Btw: the url to keep track of some changes: http://blogs.vaultnet.net
Cheers,
Phil
No 'true' AI - it doesn't learn - our AI simply consists of a number of entities (=gods) that are responsable for a certain 'field'. Depending on the enviroment, it might trigger something.
Example: the god of weather will rise the temperature. Another part of the AI will notice a raise in temperature, and will respond by ordering the gecko's in a certain area to start breeding. Another entity will notice the increase, and respond by ordering the gecko's to attack a small town 3 months later. Or not. So, there is no telling what the AI will come up with (well, it IS limited, but I'm not an AI programmer, and regarding the small size of the dev team (=1), and the fact that it's completely unneccessary to have a more advanced AI for this kind of world (after all: we have game masters keeping an eye, and interfering if necessary, and a big part of the world consists of human controlled characters, thereby eliminating the need for advanced AI on character level).
Example: the god of weather will rise the temperature. Another part of the AI will notice a raise in temperature, and will respond by ordering the gecko's in a certain area to start breeding. Another entity will notice the increase, and respond by ordering the gecko's to attack a small town 3 months later. Or not. So, there is no telling what the AI will come up with (well, it IS limited, but I'm not an AI programmer, and regarding the small size of the dev team (=1), and the fact that it's completely unneccessary to have a more advanced AI for this kind of world (after all: we have game masters keeping an eye, and interfering if necessary, and a big part of the world consists of human controlled characters, thereby eliminating the need for advanced AI on character level).
so its really governed by a set of deterministic rules and really isnt AI at all, just enforcers of certain well, rules.
Im not saying its bad or anything, Im merely saying that I dont consider it AI, and thus I wanted to point out that it shouldnt be called AI.
your thingy seems good enuff for its purpose, I just get this funneh feeling in me pants at times.
Im not saying its bad or anything, Im merely saying that I dont consider it AI, and thus I wanted to point out that it shouldnt be called AI.
your thingy seems good enuff for its purpose, I just get this funneh feeling in me pants at times.
Mjeih. I simply called it AI because it takes decisions that are not controlled or enforced by a human player (it is possible, though).Mismatch wrote:so its really governed by a set of deterministic rules and really isnt AI at all, just enforcers of certain well, rules.
Im not saying its bad or anything, Im merely saying that I dont consider it AI, and thus I wanted to point out that it shouldnt be called AI.
If I was to be programming a full blown AI, I'd be making at least triple of my current wage, and I had a team of programmers at my disposal. It would take 3 months of work, and since I only have 3 hours a day to work on v0 after my job, that's not likely to be added in the near future. Too bad though, would have been sweet, I admit.
Btw, You should talk to Ash - he's been programming on a (real) AI for his webbased rpg. He explained his concept to me, and it seemed pretty solid.
