RE: [GD-Design] Off-line vs. on-line play and cheating

[Brian H. <bri...@py...>]

> one issue of balance here has to be: can you play the game 
> offline and _never_ come online?

In theory, yes.  Take a game like Elite, StarFlight, etc. then imagine a
menu item that says "Go on-line".  That's basically what I'd like to
achieve -- make the game fundamentally interesting and playable for
single person, but allow for a social aspect as well with on-line play.
I think this is what Blizzard accomplished with Diablo, although I'm
aiming for something with a larger scale in terms of universe.

> irritating to have everything you'd ever discovered 
> permanently listed as 'claim pending'.

I'm procedurally generating a BIG universe -- millions of star systems
and millions of planets.  The odds of two players claiming the same
piece of rock are very, very slim.
 
> possible solution, but maybe too intensive: part of the claim 
> verifying process downloads a replay of the claim, and plays 
> it back to make sure it's not a complete fib.

I'm not too worried about this part, it's actually things like "Hi, I
just logged in, check out my Armada Buster Level 999 Battleship that I
acquired after hacking my data files" that have me more concerned.  But
in the end, it's all the same thing -- hack the data files locally,
connect on-line, and then throw the universe out of whack.

So as stated in another post, I don't think solving this with technology
is going to be tenable in the long run, I think something with the
design should arbitrate this.

Brian