From the Brink website:
The Story
A man-made city at sea called the Ark, made up of hundreds of separate islands, is on the brink of all-out civil war. Originally built as an experimental self-sufficient and 100% “green” habitat, the reported rapid rise of the Earth’s oceans has forced the Ark to become a refuge for humanity. Crammed with the original Ark founders, their descendants, as well as tens of thousands of refugees, the Ark exists in total isolation from the rest of the world. With 25 years of social unrest, the inhabitants of the Ark have reached their breaking point. It’s up to you to decide the future of the Ark and the human race.
An interview with Edward Stern, senior game designer at Splash Damage, about the Bethesda-published game Brink, coming in 2010:
We haven’t had to make anything up. We invented one thing, our coral, which is the kind of trademark building material. The idea is that right about now, some scientist technologist ecovisionary starts experimenting with a test bed for sustainable construction materials, zero carbon emission, all the things that are going on now — wave farms, solar farmers, algae bioreactors to replace hydrocarbons. Our coral is a genetically modified coral. It’s like concrete except it doesn’t give off CO2 as it sets.
Everything else is actually being made and done. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Seasteading Institute. They’re looking at exactly this. It’s like, “There’s our concept. Thank you, we’ll take that and twist that.” That’s from a more libertarian political angle. We thought, “BioShock has really got that covered,” the Ayn Rand at sea thing.
All the rest of it is basically an excuse to import every possible social tension. I fell so much in love with Deus Ex, the way in which you didn’t have to put on your game mindset. Whatever your opinions, prejudices, suspicions about how the world works, you can bring them to the game.
Looks like rule 3 fail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_safety
Anyone who did this on my seastead would walk the plank.
Responsible guns owners would be welcome though.
Could be an interesting game. I need a new computer…
I’m an ex-army wimp with a weight problem yet I’d take out those guys in minutes. It looks like there’s no real tactical subtlety allowed in the combat and they haven’t tracked where weapons are going: smarter, fewer shots, smaller bang with a bigger kill and with non lethal options. Even assuming a libertarian access to steroids the build of those player characters are unrealistic. Strong but wiry is the key to future troops. Let the exo-skeletons and the robots do the heavy lifting. Anyone with that much meat can’t move fast.
What we need is a real depiction of sea steading and liberty in a game. I don’t see any such game out there. I have something in the works as a pen and paper RPG, I do that as a hobby, but it will take years to finish at this rate. It’s set on Mars and guns are banned (so you don’t pop the dome).
A flash game like Evony or M.U.L.E could work. (I can’t get M.U.L.E to run on my computer.) A web based flash game crafted with basic graphics might be a money spinner for the organisation. It would need to be a separate company.
If I had the time to design it I would go for a 2 ½D sea with several hundred tiles all starting as blue. The colour of the water would change shade indicating wave density, fertility and pollution. I would add fish jumping in some locations to mark fisheries. I would add a small popping bubbles to mark sea bed resources/ volcanism.
A sea stead would function as a starting unit. Add floating farms, kelp algae farms, ocean fertilisation, fish farms, seal farms, floating factory modules of various kinds and sea bed mines.
The player would have a small fleet of tugs, fishing boats, cargo lighters and security vessels.
I’d throw storms, pirates, illegal fishermen, and a rogue state navy at the sea steads as hazards.
NPC yachts, licenced fishing vessels and traders would come and go from the trade and tourism modules.
I would add a second layer selected from the sea stead which is a single deck sea stead layer with either full 3d or little people 2 ½D like the builders in settlers one. This would be the social networking site layer with a some player generated Role playing quests. I’d add opitional in game advertising.
I’d add a legal layer to these quests. Pollution suits, who owns what sea, etc. NPC criminals and private security would be thrown in for a bit of fun. Enforcement would normally involve Player verses Player micro-naval activity at the sea level.
Where’s a dot com millionaire or a 40 programmers when you need them. Lol. I’m not a programmer my self so laugh away.
For everyone’s information I was involved with the original Oceania Project in a small way. I’m also in several space organisations. And I have a Degree in sustainable Development, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy,water and sewerage.