Issue496

Title Proposed alternative to takeover game
Priority idea Status open
Assigned To Keywords takeover
Linked issues Watchers

Submitted on 2011-10-28 06h47 by hail, last changed by hail.

Messages
Author: hail Date: 2011-10-28   06h47
Alright, I can feel the negative feedback already, but bear with me.

The Problem
-----------

The takeover is a unique (defining?) characteristic of freedroidRPG. But it has some problems in 
my opinion:

- It's only vaguely analogous to real (hardware) hacking
- The outcome is largely predetermined and unvarying in any one situation
- It requires no planning
- It requires almost no skill
- The (small) amount of difficulty comes primarily from not knowing the game mechanics
- It is tedious, and one tires of playing it quickly
- It is impossible to win with too few cores
- You are guaranteed to win with enough cores
- It has no depth game-play wise (other than 'acquire more cores')

The list continues, but you get the point

The Solution
------------

Add a second (alternative) method of hacking a bot. This method will be more analogous to 
software hacking (i.e. vulnerability exploitation and remote code execution). It will be 
accessible to beginners who have never learned the first thing about computers (or even 
freedroid) while still maintaining an interesting level of depth to engage anybody interested in 
a dynamic challenge.

The Method
----------

Core Wars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War

Specifically, the '88 standard
http://corewars.nihilists.de/redcode-icws-88.pdf

A heavily stripped down, but still interesting version of the above. Players use programs 
(either written or supplied in-game) to fight programs for control of a bot. This would add a 
level of dynamism to the takeover process.

Hold on, that's awfully complicated! you might be exclaiming. Yes, it is. That's the point. 
However, to remedy the inherent complexity of such a system, a wide variety of pre-built 
programs can easily exist in-game. That way you'd never be forced to write your own program 
(warrior is the term used in Core War) if you didn't want to. But if you did want to, you'd have 
the ability.

I'm also suggesting that the instruction set and game mechanics be trimmed down to make the game 
accessible to non-computer scientists (ideally even just smart children).

I haven't worked out the exact mechanics of a boiled-down version as this is just a whim that I 
had while smoking a lot of reefer today. I would also like to reiterate that I think such a 
system should be added _next to_ to the current takeover system, rather than replacing it. One 
hardware hacking skill, one software hacking skill.

I think such a game mechanic would widen the audience for freedroidRPG, and is a unique enough 
gameplay feature with rich and varying possible levels of difficulty to make it stand out from 
really any other action rpg ever made. I can not say the same for the current takeover game.

Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts (criticisms and assertions that it won't work) so I can 
respond to (refute) them. Thank you for your time.
Author: ahuillet Date: 2011-10-28   07h10
The idea isn't bad - we've had a "more minigames for takeover" project for years.
But talk is cheap, code is what matters - and at the moment I don't see us
having the resources to tackle this, especially seeing that I'm likely to block
stuff that isn't for 0.15 until we can get it out. :)

Thanks for the idea - I'd like to see it in action!
Author: hail Date: 2011-10-28   17h41
This is definitely a post 0.15 project. I'll get started once the release-
blocking bugs are out of the way.
History
Date User Action Args
2011-10-28 17:41:56hailsetmessages: + msg1792
2011-10-28 07:10:22ahuilletsetmessages: + msg1781
2011-10-28 06:47:40hailcreate