mMO = mini-multiplayer online game I have a few designs floating around in my head for a mMO game, but keep running into a few design issues I can't find a great solution for. I'm envisioning a game broken into instances/shards/whatever each supporting a number of players in the 10-30 range. The players would be grouped into a small number of teams (2-4). Each instance would support a single game lasting from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Either tick or turn based. A few core game elements that contribute to the problem: - A world that can change. Cities can get burned down, etc - Players are on teams. Success of the team depends in part on each individual - The game doesn't wait for missing players. Now, the problems I'm imagining arise from: - Player abandonment - Player absences (vacations, busy week at work, etc) - Snowball effect of player abandonment (a team gets behind so players drop out, resulting in further losses, etc) Traditional multiplayer games have 'static' worlds. So if The Undercity gets raided and all the merchants killed, they just respawn in a few minutes and no lasting harm is done. Other massively multiplayer games (I'm thinking of Urban Dead) have a large enough player base that poor play by a few individuals can't significantly impact the result of a mall siege (for example). Two-player games don't suffer the problem because if one player quits, the other player wins by default. Some games (PBEM Diplomacy) hold up the game until replacements for players who are tardy/gone. With a larger number of players, that's not feasible. A few ideas I've had are: - Allow players to designate team members to order their units during absences - Allow a 'team commander' to issue high-level orders for all players' units which are used by a rudimentary AI in case the lower level player abandons or doesn't issue explicit orders - Use some kind of point system to reward players for sticking with games & especially for filling in vacancies Can anyone point me to successful games that have worked under similar constraints? Any other words of wisdom to share? thanks Snak

Your post gives me a good idea of what you want in your game, but as far as giving me an image of what the game is like your description serves about as well as the definition of the Mazur-Banach game. I understand you want to be vague and conceptual, but in all practicality posh intellectualism probably won't get you anywhere. Could you please elaborate on your concept? What is the goal? What makes the multiplayer so minuscule? After answering those questions I think I'll have a better idea of why, say, it'd be advantageous to have destructible levels.

But, in my regular effort to be helpful:

This is a very different example from what you describe, but Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in its online mode, implemented a feature in its online mode where if a player drops out of a match, due to cutting off power, losing internet connection, &c., he would be instantly and seamlessly replaced by a properly balanced CPU character.

Consumable Content.

A persistent, but not permanent world. That's been my dream for a long, long time.

If you figure this one out, be sure to send me a PM, I'm very interested.

The thing is I have several different ideas circulating, and didn't want any responders to focus on genre details. But I understand your point, here's one to help the conversation.

Picture a sci-fi setting where each player is a member of a interstellar empire. Some players command infantry, others command fleets of space ships. One or a few are commanders issuing orders to subordinates.

Gameplay involves players resolving the war. Fleets travel through space, fight off defending fleets, and drop their invasion forces. Invasion forces duke it out for control of a planet over the course of (real time) a couple of weeks. Commanders have some limited ability to funnel reinforcements, but chiefly serve to provide some level of coordination between players on a team.

This could be done (by someone) as a proper MMO, but I have neither the time, ability, or resources to build that. Thus the low player count.

thanks again