First off, I will explain that I am making a text-based version of this game in Java right now, just to get the core data engine defined. I will run it on my site for awhile to see whether people like it or not, then begin to translate it into a 2d MMORPG. It is not like most MMORPGs because of the story-line. It is sci-fi, with a little bit of fantasy feel. By this I mean that it is set way in the future, and everything is backed by science to a small extent, but the weapons and buildings and political structures are a combination of medeival and classical themes. It is also different because it will not have human player characters, they will only be npcs introduced way after the game is started. If you absolutely despise dinosaurs, you might want to ignore this post. Introduction In the year 2136, humans had become unified under one nation, the Earth Confederation. The Earth Confederation knew that resources on Earth were quickly being depleted, and therefore directed its efforts toward space. Nearly a hundred years later, the advanced technology started by the Confederation had given way to miraculous breakthroughs. Humanity had discovered dozens of new colony planets on which new lives could be started. In a mass exodus, the people of Earth moved to these new colonies and established a galactic system of trade and travel. Soon, even our own galaxy was not enough to support the human thirst for expansion. In the year 2296, missions were sent out to all corners of the known universe. The Confederation now controlled planets in the range of hundreds, but one thing bothered the people of the universe. Out of all the inhabitable planets, none except for Earth had given rise to sentient life forms. After the technological advancements of the 22nd and 23rd centuries, an explosive leap forward was made in biotechnology. Scientists working on the planet Apollo discovered a means by which to create an intelligent race, but there was only one chance they had of doing it. The machine used to engineer a sentient race required the energy provided by dual supernovas at the same time in the same system. In the year 2335, such an event was set to happen in galaxy M-36. During the time between this event and the creation of the machine, a scientist made a discovery. The amazing amount of energy put out by the dual supernovas would not simply make one species sentient, but all species in a certain class would be made sentient. After many debates there were two obvious choices to create the widest variety of sentient species to accompany humanity in the galaxy. One was the class of arthropods, the other was the class of Dinosauria, an extinct but extremely prolific class for its time. Unanimously, it was decided that Dinosaurs would make far better companions than insects. The year 2334 came and the machine was moved into position over the planet Athena, the nearest inhabitable planet to M-36. Soon the day of the supernovas came. The energy released put out all communications with the scientific team that operated the machine. It was assumed that the blast destroyed the machine and its crew, so nobody was sent to investigate what had happened. Shockingly, the crew had survived, though the machine was damaged beyond repair. The scientists sat in the lobby on board the great machine, mourning the loss of their one and only chance to introduce the new species. As they consoled each other, a feeble cry came into their chamber from the hallway. They stood, and looked on in wonderment as a small Maiasaura hatchling walked clumsily into their room. The project had been a success! With great joy, the scientists made their way to the machine’s bridge. There was still enough power to land on planet Athena. They commenced the operation, and found themselves stranded on a planet that was barely known to humankind. The only life that had evolved on Athena naturally was plant life. The scientists all knew this, so why were there cries of strange creatures in the distance? Setting out on an expedition, the scientists discovered that the planet was now full of dinosaur hatchlings that needed their help to survive. The crew of the machine was small, only 34 in all, but they managed to bring back hatchlings from 67 different species of Dinosaurs. Using wood from the towering trees that grew near their landing site, the scientists built a home for all the dinosaurs and themselves. Time went on and the dinosaurs grew. With age, their sentience began to show and their craving for knowledge was on par even with that of humans. The scientists taught the Dinosaurs everything they could. They taught about agriculture, they taught about mathematics and art and other things. As the dinosaurs came into adulthood, they had all the necessary knowledge to create a flourishing civilization, in addition, there were many individuals of each species, and the possibility of a next generation was likely. A culture that rivaled that of ancient Rome spread across planet Athena and the Dinosaurs became feudal. There was unrest between various species and nationalism became a huge factor. The different groups of Dinosaurs separated out into myriad herds and packs, all the while the descendants of the humans grew fewer and fewer. Within 200 years of their landing on Athena, the last of the humans had died off and only 48 species of dinosaurs were left. Civil war erupted on Athena in the year 2543. By the end, casualties were great, but the dinosaurs had come to a truce. It was agreed that each herd and pack would be allowed to continue existence on Athena, but all sense of permanent nations on Athena was lost. The sciences of astronomy and metallurgy flourished in the absence of politics, but the great nation that had been built was lost and the cities of the dinosaurs quickly diminished until they were only small towns and villages. Outside of Athena, humanity had forgotten about their efforts in M-36. The plot will be continuously evolving and players will also have a part in the storyline because of the ability to become herd or pack leaders. There will also be a hall of history in one of the city''s that records the outcomes of every battle between characters over level 100 and the outcome of any inter-pack/herd conflicts. Very significant story changes will be introduced by me, and region specific story will be guided by friends and fellow team-members.

Although I''m mostly working from memory here, these are some estimates of the number of planets mankind would have to occupy to fill ''all corners of the known universe''.

Estimated number of galaxies in the universe: 100 billion.

Estimated number of stars in just our galaxy: 400 billion.

Percentage of those stars that are G-class(our sun, other classes might have habitable planets as well): About 3%.

Number of worlds that are habitable or potentially habitable (as far as we know) in the Solar system: 5 (Earth, Mars, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan). Probably more, especially with far-future technology.

So, if mankind did expand to fill the universe, we''d be living on about:

(1 * 10^11) * (4 * 10^11) * .03 * 5 = 6 * 10^21

or, 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets. A little over ''the hundreds'', wouldn''t you say?

Well, just giving you some astronomical perspective. On another note, the energy->sentience concept is intriguing, and I''d like to know a little more about it. Could you give us more info on the workings of dino culture/society as well?

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Omnipotent_Q
"Poor people are crazy. I''m eccentric."

wow...that''s a lot of babies born in just a century. The story is intriguing but hard to suspend the disbelief based on human nature and human history. it took a couple of centuries just to fully colonize the "new world" (i.e. North and South America) muct less many many new worlds. and if humanity really was the only sentient race in existance I have a hard time believing they''d want to create competition in what makes them "godlike". based on human nature that is.

Just in a story aspect, it would be easier to believe that dinosaurs are already sentient and already out in space (hence why they mysteriously disapeared from earth) and have probably evolved in the last several million years to something that is not exactly like the dinosaurs we know but does resemble them.

just my perception mind you.

Good point about the planets. I know a little about this, but I left it out. And the dinosaur society is almost exactly like medeival or Roman human society because the dinosaurs learned their political and technological skills. This was just a rough draft for the thing and I just plugged in numbers for everything. It is only supposed to seem like it has science backing it, not much of it actually will have real science backing it. Also, I accept that most humans wouldn''t want competition in the universe, however, there are a few scientists out there that really want there to be. SETI wouldn''t exist if there weren''t any people like this. In the story, I could change it so that a rogue group of scientists with a really, really wealthy supporter decided to go off on their own and create the sentient dinosaurs. That would make it even better because then the other humans wouldn''t even know about the dinosaurs, then later when they found them, there would be a lot of human political disputes and different social factions amongst humans and dinosaurs regarding the other species. I will post more pertaining to the levels of politics in dinosaur society as well. I''ll probably add about 500 years to every date too. It will make it a little more believable.

I like your thinking about the dinosaurs already being out in space and sentient, because I''d like to think they were that advanced, but it would be too hard to implement in the game because a lot of technological advancement would happen in 65 million years. It would make it so that any human wouldn''t stand a chance against dinosaur weaponry. Think about what has happened in just the 2 million years that man has been around, the technology would probably be so advanced that even the laws of physics would be bent(I think this is possible, though many people don''t, probably the ancestors of the guys that said men will never fly.) Thank you for your input though, hope I don''t look angry or anything, I just want to plead my case.

I like your thinking about the dinosaurs already being out in space and sentient, because I''d like to think they were that advanced, but it would be too hard to implement in the game because a lot of technological advancement would happen in 65 million years. It would make it so that any human wouldn''t stand a chance against dinosaur weaponry. Think about what has happened in just the 2 million years that man has been around, the technology would probably be so advanced that even the laws of physics would be bent(I think this is possible, though many people don''t, probably the ancestors of the guys that said men will never fly.) Thank you for your input though, hope I don''t look angry or anything, I just want to plead my case.

I like your thinking about the dinosaurs already being out in space and sentient, because I''d like to think they were that advanced, but it would be too hard to implement in the game because a lot of technological advancement would happen in 65 million years. It would make it so that any human wouldn''t stand a chance against dinosaur weaponry. Think about what has happened in just the 2 million years that man has been around, the technology would probably be so advanced that even the laws of physics would be bent(I think this is possible, though many people don''t, probably the ancestors of the guys that said men will never fly.) Thank you for your input though, hope I don''t look angry or anything, I just want to plead my case.

Let''s explore the "dinosaurs already out there" theory. we wouldn''t neccessarily have to assume they have had technican advancements. they could have suffered a terrible catastrophy. maybe in their attempt to leave earth their colony ship crash landed on another planet. perhaps they forgot all their technology over time and reverted back to primative forms and by the time humans start exploring the universe, perhaps the sentient dinosaurs have only gotton as far as roman/midevil technology. There are some theories out there that something similar happened to humans. that we aren''t "from" earth originally but have completely forgotton where we came from.

that could be plausible.

You are correct that it would be feasible, but I want the game to be launched with no humans in it. If the story hinged on humans finding the dinosaurs on the planet, then there would need to be humans in the game from the beginning. There wouldn''t be much room for background story in a scenario from the dinosaurs'' view.

you can start a good story without even mentioning humans. let''s say these dinosaurs have some vague reference in their religion about a great exodus from paradise into this word (much like the human concept of Eden). that could allude to dinos coming from another world. Then you let the player play the game. what kind of dino will he be? how will he play? once he has developed a raport with the game you can create some odd occurances. a shooting star that crashes in to a mountain side but the next morning no one can find a crater and no one can see any evidence of a crash (because they didn''t crash they landed). perhaps they see strange prints in the ground near the site. perhaps they create strange myths to explain these odd occurances. much like the faerie myths or something. Perhaps a dino finds a glove in a river and speculates as to what it is or what it does. perhaps someone in the village goes missing only to return later with crazy stories of being drugged and abducted by strange creatures who perform painful tests on him only to release him later. there are many ways to go from pristine dino-land to introducing human interference and you can even make that part of the game.

just and idea (and ideas are about the only thing in game making I am actually good at! LOL). if you want more ideas I''ll be happy to discuss it with you. my email is snowfie9@yahoo.com

Until then I shall leave you to your imagination.