Archived from groups: comp.games.development.design,comp.games.development.industry,comp.games.development.programming.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.space-sim,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)
DISCLAIMERS: My apologies for the heavy cross-post and semi-appropriate
email addresses. There don't seem to be many groups that I have access
to that are devoted entirely to game development, so I posted to those
that seemed at least partially related to this topic, and some of the
game companies included don't list email links that would be appropriate
for this. Note that this is not a solicitation - this proposal would
include no profit for myself other than the chance to play the game. I
just want to see it developed.
I will also point out that, blanket-post notwithstanding, I am an
experienced Usenet user (from way back in Gopher days), and while I will
be more than happy to answer questions regarding this proposal and/or
elaborate on the ideas therein, I will not respond to petty, off-topic
attacks on my methods, delivery, ideas, etc.
Okay, enough of that. Here's the proposal:
I recently finished reading a pair of novels by Larry Niven and Jerry
Pournelle (both leading sci-fi authors) that I believe would make a
fantastic game (probably multi-player, possibly massively MP) involving
civilization building, war, and politics. The books are called _The Mote
in God's Eye_ and _The Gripping Hand_, and they deal with man's first
discovery of sentient life beyond our own.
The discovered race, which we dub "The Moties" because of their
astrological place of origin, is just about as alien to our species as
one could get. From a physical standpoint they are only similar in that
they have two legs and two eyes - their anatomies are otherwise totally
unlike our own. In fact the Moties themselves are separated into several
sub-species that serve vastly different purposes in their society and
therefore tend to have different "configurations", but generally they
are built like so:
- One side has a very heavy, extremely strong arm (i.e., "the gripping
hand") used for lifting, bracing, etc.
- The other side has two or more very small, very fast arms that are
generally used for building and repairing things. They are aligned
vertically and get longer as they go down so that they remain mobile
even when bent at the elbows (in other words, they seldom get in each
other's way).
- The back/waist is braced not with a spine but with a complex
ball-joint that allows Moties to spin and bend in ways that humans
can't.
- No neck - their head is embedded at the top of their torso.
I am unfortunately unable to locate any actual Motie artwork on the Web,
but I understand the UK printing of _The Gripping Hand_ contains Motie
illustrations.
The primary classes of Moties are:
- Engineers: The first class (if memory serves) that man is introduced
to. This class lives for making things better and cares about little
else. They can streamline and improve virtually anything (anything
invented by man, anyway) with lightning speed.
- Masters: This is the "thinking" class that rules over all the others.
Like the other classes, they are focused only on one task - the
well-being of their "family", and they will do literally anything to
promote their own success.
- Negotiators: This class was created relatively recently in Motie
history. They are the diplomatic representatives of their masters and
are brilliant at their craft. They even speak a different language to
one another so that masters, who are far too demanding to make
compromises, can be in the same room and not have to speak to one
another.
- Warriors: Pretty obvious - these are the minions that are ready to
fight to the death should negotiations between families fail. They are
incredibly fast, incredibly strong and far more dangerous than any man.
- Brownies: This is the human-coined term for the rat-like class that
often accompanies engineers in their work. Although they are nearly as
deft at modification as engineers, they are far less mentally developed
and are generally considered expendable, also because they multiply like
rabbits.
There are a few other classes but their roles are less integral to the
story (and the proposed game) than these five.
The hitch to the Motie society (*** SPOILER ALERT *** This is a crucial
plot point) is that they *must* reproduce or they die - they are
biologically unable to make use of any sort of contraception. And as a
species they are locked into a relatively small area of space and do not
have the technology to expand beyond their system. The unfortunate
result of these two problems is that their populations grow and grow
until their resources are maxed out, and system-wide wars ensue that
generally decimate all of Motie civilization. The few left standing are
eventually able to return to their previous level of technology with the
help of their "libraries" - giant historical/technological vaults that
are maintained and fiercely guarded by a much rarer class (one that
doesn't reproduce at all) called Librarians. This constant
development/destruction pattern is referred to as the Cycles. Moties
consider these problems to be unsolvable, and any Motie that starts to
wonder about solutions to them is dubbed a "Crazy Eddie" and usually
whisked away before they can influence anyone else. Ultimately these
problems are alleviated with the help of mankind, which is fortunate
since the Motie civilization threatens to destroy mankind when they
finally do break free from their confines.
In any case, the rationale behind this game concept should be fairly
obvious at this point. I don't think there exist any games that employ
an environment quite like this. Star Wars Pit Droids and Lemmings are
somewhat similar, but those games are much more limited in scope than
what I'm envisioning. This would probably be a combination of that type
of game and the Civilization genre and could really be as complex as
you're prepared to make it (Motie-human relations would introduce
entirely different levels of game play). I figure the players would be
masters themselves and start out with a lowly family of one engineer and
one negotiator. If the game ends up being solo+MP then technology would
probably start out very early during one of the cycles and progress
rapidly, allowing you to absorb the technologies of other families and
develop your own. If after the cycle has ended your family remains
alive, you win. I'm not sure how well the concept would work in an MMP
environment, but it's probably possible. It would be interesting to have
an MMP game that works in cycles like that, so that there's ultimately
one winner. But I digress...
II realize that embarking on a project like this is a huge undertaking,
but I figure it can't hurt to put the idea out there. No doubt Niven and
Pournelle would expect some sort of royalties for the use of their
concepts, but I don't imagine the fees would be unreasonable. Feel free
to contact me with any questions/comments. Thanks for your time.
More Mote series info:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/The%20Mote%20in%20God's%20Eye
_____________________
w h i t g u r l e y
whitgurley@R-E-M-O-V-E-T-H-I-Shotmail.com
DISCLAIMERS: My apologies for the heavy cross-post and semi-appropriate
email addresses. There don't seem to be many groups that I have access
to that are devoted entirely to game development, so I posted to those
that seemed at least partially related to this topic, and some of the
game companies included don't list email links that would be appropriate
for this. Note that this is not a solicitation - this proposal would
include no profit for myself other than the chance to play the game. I
just want to see it developed.
I will also point out that, blanket-post notwithstanding, I am an
experienced Usenet user (from way back in Gopher days), and while I will
be more than happy to answer questions regarding this proposal and/or
elaborate on the ideas therein, I will not respond to petty, off-topic
attacks on my methods, delivery, ideas, etc.
Okay, enough of that. Here's the proposal:
I recently finished reading a pair of novels by Larry Niven and Jerry
Pournelle (both leading sci-fi authors) that I believe would make a
fantastic game (probably multi-player, possibly massively MP) involving
civilization building, war, and politics. The books are called _The Mote
in God's Eye_ and _The Gripping Hand_, and they deal with man's first
discovery of sentient life beyond our own.
The discovered race, which we dub "The Moties" because of their
astrological place of origin, is just about as alien to our species as
one could get. From a physical standpoint they are only similar in that
they have two legs and two eyes - their anatomies are otherwise totally
unlike our own. In fact the Moties themselves are separated into several
sub-species that serve vastly different purposes in their society and
therefore tend to have different "configurations", but generally they
are built like so:
- One side has a very heavy, extremely strong arm (i.e., "the gripping
hand") used for lifting, bracing, etc.
- The other side has two or more very small, very fast arms that are
generally used for building and repairing things. They are aligned
vertically and get longer as they go down so that they remain mobile
even when bent at the elbows (in other words, they seldom get in each
other's way).
- The back/waist is braced not with a spine but with a complex
ball-joint that allows Moties to spin and bend in ways that humans
can't.
- No neck - their head is embedded at the top of their torso.
I am unfortunately unable to locate any actual Motie artwork on the Web,
but I understand the UK printing of _The Gripping Hand_ contains Motie
illustrations.
The primary classes of Moties are:
- Engineers: The first class (if memory serves) that man is introduced
to. This class lives for making things better and cares about little
else. They can streamline and improve virtually anything (anything
invented by man, anyway) with lightning speed.
- Masters: This is the "thinking" class that rules over all the others.
Like the other classes, they are focused only on one task - the
well-being of their "family", and they will do literally anything to
promote their own success.
- Negotiators: This class was created relatively recently in Motie
history. They are the diplomatic representatives of their masters and
are brilliant at their craft. They even speak a different language to
one another so that masters, who are far too demanding to make
compromises, can be in the same room and not have to speak to one
another.
- Warriors: Pretty obvious - these are the minions that are ready to
fight to the death should negotiations between families fail. They are
incredibly fast, incredibly strong and far more dangerous than any man.
- Brownies: This is the human-coined term for the rat-like class that
often accompanies engineers in their work. Although they are nearly as
deft at modification as engineers, they are far less mentally developed
and are generally considered expendable, also because they multiply like
rabbits.
There are a few other classes but their roles are less integral to the
story (and the proposed game) than these five.
The hitch to the Motie society (*** SPOILER ALERT *** This is a crucial
plot point) is that they *must* reproduce or they die - they are
biologically unable to make use of any sort of contraception. And as a
species they are locked into a relatively small area of space and do not
have the technology to expand beyond their system. The unfortunate
result of these two problems is that their populations grow and grow
until their resources are maxed out, and system-wide wars ensue that
generally decimate all of Motie civilization. The few left standing are
eventually able to return to their previous level of technology with the
help of their "libraries" - giant historical/technological vaults that
are maintained and fiercely guarded by a much rarer class (one that
doesn't reproduce at all) called Librarians. This constant
development/destruction pattern is referred to as the Cycles. Moties
consider these problems to be unsolvable, and any Motie that starts to
wonder about solutions to them is dubbed a "Crazy Eddie" and usually
whisked away before they can influence anyone else. Ultimately these
problems are alleviated with the help of mankind, which is fortunate
since the Motie civilization threatens to destroy mankind when they
finally do break free from their confines.
In any case, the rationale behind this game concept should be fairly
obvious at this point. I don't think there exist any games that employ
an environment quite like this. Star Wars Pit Droids and Lemmings are
somewhat similar, but those games are much more limited in scope than
what I'm envisioning. This would probably be a combination of that type
of game and the Civilization genre and could really be as complex as
you're prepared to make it (Motie-human relations would introduce
entirely different levels of game play). I figure the players would be
masters themselves and start out with a lowly family of one engineer and
one negotiator. If the game ends up being solo+MP then technology would
probably start out very early during one of the cycles and progress
rapidly, allowing you to absorb the technologies of other families and
develop your own. If after the cycle has ended your family remains
alive, you win. I'm not sure how well the concept would work in an MMP
environment, but it's probably possible. It would be interesting to have
an MMP game that works in cycles like that, so that there's ultimately
one winner. But I digress...
II realize that embarking on a project like this is a huge undertaking,
but I figure it can't hurt to put the idea out there. No doubt Niven and
Pournelle would expect some sort of royalties for the use of their
concepts, but I don't imagine the fees would be unreasonable. Feel free
to contact me with any questions/comments. Thanks for your time.
More Mote series info:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/The%20Mote%20in%20God's%20Eye
_____________________
w h i t g u r l e y
whitgurley@R-E-M-O-V-E-T-H-I-Shotmail.com
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