On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Carlos Y. Villalpando
<carlos at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>
>  Lord no, then.  Netrek really needs a real mouse and keyboard.  I've
>  tried playing on laptop eraser mouses, and trackpads, and it just
>  isn't feasable.

If one were to port to the Xbox360 environment the idea would be that
you would adapt the client to the environment.  Yes, it'd be
different, but that doesn't make it bad per se.  I hated the Xbox360
controller at first until I learned how to use it.  Now it's actually
quite nice.  I still prefer mouse+keyboard setups, but I can't sit on
my ass with my feet up on the edge of my sofa and use M+K comfortably
- yet that 360 controller feels real nice, and I can easily take a
swig of my beer while playing.

>  On top of that, player messaging is vital, and you currently need a
>  keyboard for that.  "use voice!" you say?  Only works if everybody has
>  voice capabilities.

As I said in my prior post, there is a Chatpad that attaches to the
Xbox360 controller.  It's not perfect, but it'd work for
communicating.  And yes, I'd also say "use voice".

I was the raidleader of an EverQuest guild for five years.  I type
REAL fast.  I managed raids using three custom channels in addition to
the regular channels.  I had no problem controlling 72 people, the
leadership, and my team (pullers) at the same time.  When I moved to
WoW I kept the same routine.

Then Ventrilo came.  I didn't like it at all at first, but here's the
reality - chat communications are far superior for team games.
They're faster, they allow you to keep your hands on the controls
while communicating, and they allow you to coordinate with the
less-than-clue, the people who have a harder time reading fast
(dyslexic, etc), and those who are really busy (bases being ogged,
warriors tanking, etc).

As I also said before, I don't think that any implementation (if it's
even possible, I don't know how the server part would work out) should
be on the regular servers.  Thinking now I doubt that they could
co-exist.  But it's a neat idea and has some promise of addressing a
some of the issues affecting the community (namely lack of players~).
I think it's worth looking at, assuming someone gets a big enough itch
that they want to scratch it.

And for Cthulhu's sake, at least it's a lot more interesting than
everyone yelling at Rado.  :)

>  On top of that, Netrek is rather dense screen.  I figured one needs at
>  least a 900-1000 pixel high screen with small fonts to be useful, and
>  for that you'll need progressive scan for those small fonts.  Although
>  HD TVs are becoming more and prevalent, you couldn't play this on a
>  regular TV, or even a 720p flatpanel.

Make it only work on HD.  Hell, screw the 720 crowd.  Make it only
work well on 1080.  Boohoo if you're low-rez.  I mean seriously, what
happened to the Netrek community?  I remember not being able to play
trek effectively on 800x600 and getting NO SYMPATHY.  Are we getting
soft?  Real trekkers would plug their 360 into their LCD monitor to
play.  :-p

Anyhow, it's an interesting topic and I probably shouldn't imply that
the code trees would be that similar.  I'd think it a pretty
significant fork and I'm not sure how the XboxLive server architecture
works anyway - it's probably not possible to have a 3rd party server
piece interacting with Microsoft's environment.  Aside from security
concerns, there's the more obvious issue of the fact that M$ probably
doesn't want this kind of thing occurring.

Probably won't happen, but it's interesting to think of the
possibilities.  Console game platforms are really the future of team
games, especially sport-type games like Netrek (whether we like it or
not).  The only sport-type game type that's still dominant on PCs are
MMOGs, and to be honest that crowd is different from Netrek (more
emphasis on tactics, whereas MMOGs emphasize organization more).
Netrek is much more like a FPS in type of play.

Jeffrey.

P.S.  The next generation of players who would like a game like Netrek
aren't playing their games on a PC.  They're using the Xbox360 (which
is currently the platform of choice for team games).  This is the
reality.

-- 

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy
from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a
precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine