So for the past few days, I’ve been working on designing the social aspect of MMORPG Tycoon 2’s game systems, and I think I’ve finally figured out how to do it. What you see in this screenshot is the very first large gathering of simulated players inside MMORPG Tycoon 2.

There are definitely some little issues: First, they’re standing around half a circle, instead of a full circle (oops). Second, they’re standing much too close to each other (I hadn’t expected such a large gathering, and so hadn’t accounted for how far apart they should space themselves). Third, they aren’t facing the middle of the group. And fourth (not visible in this screenshot), they’re so happy to be in a big group that they’ll go from maximum loneliness to maximum social in about four seconds.

But with that said, this is a big step forward; I now have a working design for how social features will work in the game. This includes socialising (pictured here), forming teams, PVP, and other interactions between players. Socialising was the last big unknown area in the MMORPG Tycoon 2 architecture, and now I think I’ve pretty much cracked it.

So I still have some work to do around this, but I think I’m pretty happy with this approach, finally — this is the third implementation of socialising, and the first that has turned into something that really works both in terms of visible behaviour and in terms of game mechanics.

Now I just need to make these simulated players behave a little bit nicer, but I think this is going to work. :)

Big ticket items left for MS6 after this: Forming teams, and some combat logic around fighting as a team. And making towns a little more editable than they are right now.