Star Trader - Express Boat Messages

rje · Post by **rje** » Tue Oct 06, 2020 7:56 pm

I am brainstorming about a SOCIAL aspect to my Space Trader game: the ability to send "Express Boat Mail" to other players in other instances of the game.

This is not a networked game. This is not a networked machine. So, any data exchange is going to be "sneakernet": sending PETSCII-encoded data, or copying files, back and forth. Maybe posting it to FB for anyone to pick up. In other words, the default mode is BROADCAST mode.

It's interesting because social interaction is

* fun or interesting

* a way to gain benefits in a game

* a truly random element of games

It's limited because

* it's hackable

* it's low bandwidth, so to speak

Consider that the limitations can actually be FEATURES. Hacking is encouraged. Successful communication might be difficult. The rewards have to be commensurate with social success -- how do you measure THAT? Answer: you can't really. But ... maybe some things can be encouraged without breaking the game.

For instance. Consider that just the act of SENDING and RECEIVING an xboat message is in itself worthy of a reward. In that case, the content is less important than the effort made to create the envelope and transfer the files (in and out). It doesn't even require a REAL recipient... but it WORKS with a real recipient, and the messages are bound to be better off that way.

I suspect the messages themselves will not be free-form. But I suggest that that could spike creativity.

Thoughts?

Starsickle · Post by **Starsickle** » Tue Oct 06, 2020 8:50 pm

HAHA! Awesome, here's some thoughts on the idea.

First, the acquisition of the file should be as straightforward as possible, incur as little trouble to the game as possible, and be as temporary as possible.

So, the way I see it is this - the user, having various usernames, constructs a mailbag of messages to be sent out whenever they want. This is an asynchronous activity, after all, so we need to support asynchronous methods.

They package up their mail and send it out. Users can download this file and read it into a mailbag, after which they go through it if any messages are for them. (Key needed, of course. Beyond my experience.)

Once the incoming mailbag is done being looked at? The file is useless. Repeat for more fun. Making it one way eliminates any need for keying, meaning that everyone's messages are for everyone else, which opens up other gameplay options for reading mail and acting on it. Perhaps some keys or options will trigger events in a local game? Up to you.

Now, this of course opens up a huge cheating hole, but hey - it's not like we're aiming high on security - just simple communication.

To summarize the player experience:

Go to Comms terminal

Make new message for mailbag.

Add Username, message, Gameplay Things - whatever you'd like.

Commit mailbag.

User uploads the file. Downloads a incoming mailbag.

Open Comms Terminal.

Check Mail

Read any messages, gain benefits.

Incoming mailbag disposes itself.

rje · Post by **rje** » Wed Oct 07, 2020 12:07 am

Okay those are GREAT ideas.

I really like the "Comms Terminal" bit. Injects a little old-skool mail kiosk goodness in there. Very nice.

Agreed that the program should just import messages without fuss. I suspect this means it doesn't care if the message happens to be formatted "WRONG" as well -- hey data gets corrupted during interstellar travel.

Keys are fine. I had thought about that, but I think I don't care for security. Like, AT ALL. So one problem avoided.

I especially like the transience of the messages -- the game reads MAILBAG.IN's contents, and deletes the file. That's nice. In fact, that could potentially open up the desire to *curate* messages outside of the game. Some people like to scratch that itch. No problem.

I just realized that this could be a way to partially save or transfer your game state... or at least the parts you want. I'll have to think about that too.

And yeah, the cheating hole is there. So I'll just make sure it adds to the entertainment value of the game, instead of breaking it. Don't know how, yet, but I will.

Some relatively innocuous messages would be

* posting a welcome to this particular system

* posting survey data about this system - this is nice in that it gives other players a leg up on a difficult data gathering task

* posting standard freight to be carried out of the system - not sure about this one!

It just occurred to me that the game itself can generate xboat mail. For instance, if a player is attacked by corsairs in a particular system, a news bulletin is automatically added to MAILBAG.OUT. This is also a way to propagate leaderboard stats.

Since the mailbag can be hacked, I suppose that means that the player gets a line-item veto when inspecting incoming mail.

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:01 am

I like the idea!

3 hours ago, rje said:

This is also a way to propagate leaderboard stats.

By the way Famicom Disk System used similar method: high scores were saved to disk, you could bring disk to retail shop, insert disk in special kiosk, and your achievements were sent to global leaderboard.