Wait, Tycho misspelled something...

And I never noticed it until now?! What next, I mess up my signature?

/ragequit Internet

-- Griffinhart

Tycho, how could you do this to us?! The world wasn't supposed to end till 2012. I'm not ready yet! I'M NOT READY! *Sits in a corner waiting on impending doom.*

Such small actions can lead to such severe consequences...

Just a couple ideas I had.

First: Sandbox servers. When you start the game, you get a free sandbox server (Uplink Test Machine), together with the tutorial (this is to make the game easier for newcomers, seeing as nowdays it's almost impossible to play if you haven't beaten Uplink several times already).
You could then buy, for a reasonable price, access to Sandbox Servers (of course, you could obtain them in alternative ways...). Sandbox mainframes, LAN's... you name it. The way I see it, this would be nice because you could - if you're willing to pay for that, of course - learn how to hack a type of server without the risk of being caught (you would only be informed of what consequences you would probably suffer if the mistakes you made happened while hacking a true server). Now, before everyone think "this will make the game too easy", Miah would then be able make the servers dastardly hard, seeing as people wouldn't risk game over every time they faced a new challenge.

There is a problem with this though - the fact that non-first time players wouldn't need to spend money on these sandbox servers. Maybe players could face it as a bonus, that would make them want to play more often. Also, the challenge of trying to hit new server types without training first in order not to lose money sounds awesome to me.



The other idea is:

You guyes ever played the awesome (free!) flash game Upgrade Complete!? It's awesome, you should try it before reading this.
You know the way everything is upgradable? I love it. Of course, the game is a bit exaggerated, but think of it - if you owned a company that builds gateways and takes profit from software and hardware sales, wouldn't you make everythig - from interface to storage location - upgradable, so people would spend more money? This would also open up even more room for hidden features.

You also have to realize that Uplink was written 10 years ago. Back when quad core procs were still the things of wet dreams. Dont give introversion such a hard time, If it wasn't for them we wouldn't have had Uplink, or Onlink. They had no idea how to implement a true multiplayer online experience back then, hell we have only had XP for 8 years.

They were worried about what other might think about a hacking game being played on the internet. Even today its still kinda murky waters.

However, having the ability to "hack" a users "computer" in game to steal data, however cool that may sound, is probably not an idea to be thrown around lightly. Consider if you pissed some one off in-game, and they decided to seek revenge on your actual computer. Not saying it would happen but it could certainly happen, given the demographic this game is marketed to.

I'm not trying to festroy the idea of multiplayer, just providing some ideas of why it you probably shouldnt get your hopes up too high.

I find this argument a bit invalid. I mean, it IS just a game after all - the way you hack in real life has little to nothing to do with the way Uplink works. So, to me, the chance of someone seeking revenge in real life (and succeding) for something that happened in-game is the same as in any other game.

Granted, someone could seek revenge for something you do in soc-com just as readily as Onlink. However, considering the fact that most if not all of us playing this game have a fairly large interest in hacking (I am in agreement that Onlink is nothing close to actual hacking), are hackers, or probably know someone that is. I'm not saying it would happen, I'm simply hypothesizing why Introversion didn't add it to Uplink to begin with. That was part of the legal issue I'm sure. You and I may be able to distinguish the diff between real world and make believe. There are some that can't. those are the idiots we have to be careful off. The guy that you piss off in CS: source that sends you a virus or something. I'm simply adding my two cents to the argument....

I know, I know - I read the locked thread, and I know that its not currently planned for Onlink. I'm not looking for flaming, I genuinely want to try to share some ideas. Think of it as brainstorming. I'm aware that this is beyond the scope of Onlink, but I'd love to see something like this one day.

I've played Uplink off and on for a few years, and enjoy it a great deal.

Obviously I'm not the first person to consider an online Uplink/Onlink game, but I have some ideas that I want to throw out there.

I've played WoW and a few other MMORPGs, and while I don't think that OnlinkOnline would be a "wow killer", I think that there's certainly a market for a game like it. The basic game formula could follow closely both with Uplink and with WoW. Uplink is already mission based, and revolves around hardware and software upgrades. This seems to give an easily translated foundation.

Obviously, it would require some serious expanding. I'm thinking of Nodes similar to LANs in Uplink, and comparable to Zones in most MMORPGs. Multiplayer would involve VoIP chat and clans and such, but the real meat of multiplayer would involve multi-hacker runs on Nodes/LANs. If the concept of the LAN and its challenges was greatly expanded, I could see teams of hackers taking on a LAN in a style rather similar to a WoW zone run. One player takes on the firewall, another the anti-virus server, while one goes in for the files and yet another keeps an eye out for enemy hackers.

I'd love to see some feedback - again, I know this is out of the scope of Onlink, but I'm wondering whether something like this might ever see the light of day, either from a small indie publisher or from a big one. This would be a game with a great deal less reliance on graphics, and more on depth and gameplay (I know, everyone wants graphics).

So, I'll beg one more time, if you're hitting "reply" in order to flame, please save your time and mine, I won't engage with you. Anyone have any ideas to share on this subject, or some actual conversation?

Thanks,

Onlink - well, forget that, Project Cerberus - has a larger scope than any of us can think of, so you might want to review your assumptions on this one.

About the rest of the post, and all posts regarding an Uplink MMO, turning this game into another MMO wouldn't be as much of a good idea as it sounds. First of all, I have never seen an MMO that was more about thinking than taking action; if I'm wrong, please link me to one, but as far as I know only the absurd realism of virtual reality would allow such a thing. Uplink is a puzzle game, something alien to almost all that is gaming.
What made people like a game that was nothing but a simple interface, with a bunch of "ifs" thrown into its coding, a huge success amongst us? The fact that its experience was unique. Introversion didn't make Multilink for a bunch of reasons; some were revealed and some were not. I'm pretty sure that they knew their game wouldn't stand a chance in the market if it didn't offer something new. An MMO wouldn't have the chance to deliver this experience.

Can Cerberus be multiplayer? Well, it sure as hell can - but old-style, like those games that have in their main menus the "Career", "Quickplay" and "Multiplayer" modes. Turning the game into an MMO would mean making it repetitive, and anything but unique.

About the flaming stuff, don't worry - people in this forum are (usually) quite civilized!





(On a completely separate note, if anyone is willing to point out my grammar mistakes, I would gladly accept the help. My english abilities are decreasing exponentially.)
*Fixed Career, thanks Hawk

The only one I can see is a mistype of Career. ^v^