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self replicating robots


spaceDJ

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it can be OP as a resource gathering faction, but can be very weak in a strategic war, thus is inherently balanced by the mechanics the players are bound to. Imagine a bunch of ants playing the game.

 

what is a colony if the queen isnt around?

 

would be fun if you could hack in your favor that colony

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They mentioned in the kickstarter video that it would be possible, but very inefficient. Players doing the building would be much faster. They take the same stance on any action which might be automated. Mining has already been limited to players only. What they're aiming for is a player-built player-run emergent society. As I heard someone once say about droids, "We don't serve their kind here." Robots will be limited and play limited roles in DU.

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Wait, this isn't a joke? you are actually suggesting this?

I think they are taking this pretty seriously. I remember how hard people worked in space engineers to try to build a self-replicating drone ship, and they could get parts of it to work, but it turns out it simply wasn't practical without mods. Even then, 5 or more drones just tanked the sim-speed. Turns out autonomous non-player self-replicating drone diseases are bad for games that want to work :/

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I mean, maybe like a robot factory run by robots, but self-replication is unlikely for multiple reasons it seems.

 

I bet people will do that for sure. As I mentioned before, it won't be as good as if you had real players doing the work.

 

I have seen those Von Neumann machines in SE and that does bad things to game stability. Even if NQ did a perfect job with netcode, physics, and all the things, self replicating machines would eventually be able to tank the servers. NQ would probably step in before hand, but they would be smarter to just prevent it in the first place. Which is probably what the player-only mining limitation was all about anyway.

 

This is a game about players and player interactions. Albeit there is creation aspects, but allowing self replicating machines goes a bit beyond that.

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The "only player can mine things" sure might makes self-replicating robots more difficult to do but not impossible :

 

If robots (scripts) can sell items and load/unload cargos, then you would have to build one or multiple autonomous factories making popular items, selling them on the market and from the money generated acquire the resources needed to run the money-generating factories and the robot-generating factory. It would take a while but it would work.

 

In any case there would be multiple ways to make it stop :

- Destroying the factories

- Attacking the cargos of goods

- Harassing the factories enough to make the productivity drop to the point where they would lose money (no more money and they can no longer operate)

- Devaluation of the price of the items used to generate money (again to make their productivity drop)

- Total annihilation with superior forces

- ...

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The "only player can mine things" sure might makes self-replicating robots more difficult to do but not impossible :

 

If robots (scripts) can sell items and load/unload cargos, then you would have to build one or multiple autonomous factories making popular items, selling them on the market and from the money generated acquire the resources needed to run the money-generating factories and the robot-generating factory. It would take a while but it would work.

 

In any case there would be multiple ways to make it stop :

- Destroying the factories

- Attacking the cargos of goods

- Harassing the factories enough to make the productivity drop to the point where they would lose money (no more money and they can no longer operate)

- Devaluation of the price of the items used to generate money (again to make their productivity drop)

- Total annihilation with superior forces

- ...

What you are suggesting is for the devs to make it possible for the players to build PVE content into a game that is all about player interaction.

 

Shouldn't you be playing a real time strategy game? Or an MMO with some PVE? Because I'm fairly certain this game won't transform into the one you want it to be.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 months later...

what if you could make a self replicating robot that could mine fight and travel to other worlds it could take over plants it would be like a plague  

Wonder if the folks over at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) would have anything to say about someone stealing their Replicator idea.... ala Stargate....   :blink:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Do you want replicators? Because that's how you get replicators.

All joking and kidding aside... I've been a long term scripter in a VR sim called Secondlife... the devs of DU are going to have to be VERY careful if they allow any kind of device/construct/whatever to be self-replicating.  They require limits or they can quickly get out of hand and overrun things.

 

In Secondlife there is a scripting language called LSL (Linden Scripting Language).  You can create primitive objects using a build tool.  These objects do not require resources to make and they can be set to have different permission aspects (Copy/Mod/Transfer).

 

You can also add textures to such objects from outside, and they can have different resolutions.  You can also add sound effects in the form of .wav files and such.  

 

Primitive objects can have different attributes for shape, appearance, color, glow, shine, etc. 

 

Herein lay the problem.  Through scripting you could make a primitive object with full permissions to copy.  You could then place that primitive object inside another copy of itself. 

 

Next you could script it to spawn a copy of itself, pass the script to the copy, along with a copy of the internal primitive object.... rinse and repeat.  

 

So you start with one... it spawns a friend, then they both spawn two more, then all four spawn new ones, and so on and so on... all the while each object is covered on as many sides as possible with different high-res textures... each one is playing as many sound effects of max allowed size as possible at different speeds.... 

 

Pretty soon you have what used to be referred to on the Secondlife grid as a 'grey goo' attack... basically a self-replicating DDOS attack... and since objects could cross linked simulator lines it would propagate across what was referred to as the mainland area of the VR Grid until it either brought the sim down or crashed the viewers of those who were near enough to have their client try to render it.... 

 

As has been pointed out in these forums many times... VRAM isn't forever.  

 

If and when the devs allow some type of self-replicating devices (if at all) there are going to have to be considerations taken into account for limiting just how far-reaching such self-replication technology will be allowed to work, or it could be used as a devastating griefing tool by those that wish to make game-play difficult.  

 

"Oh, you won't let me play near your colony.... well watch THIS!"  BAM!  Enjoy your infestation of self-replicating nonsense voxels from H-E-double-hockey-sticks!

 

'nuff said!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Depending on the tools we are given, for example if sensors could pick up resources, then a coder could code the ship the to go there and send out other drones to mine it etc. Making a ship that replicates itself would be hard though, it would be easier to make a ship that makes smaller ships that collect resources to bring back to make more ships. If it was smart enough it could even send out an armada to fight some ships then turn up and eat the wreckage haha. It would be a huge technical challenge and to be honest, I don't think many people would bother attempting something like that. Depending on the way the worlds are loaded in it might not even work players too far away so it just stops working due to being unloaded from memory). Even if it did work, I would say a force of human ships could blow it apart rather easily unless they also write some awesome combat code. 

 

You know what..... even if someone managed to do this, I wouldn't be angry at all, even if it spread like a plague considering how big the game will be. It would be like some sort of emergent terminator faction haha

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