Any updates?

[shaddam]

I haven't yet talked with adept about it, but I think you may have a very good point. IS(2) will be released into a world with a fair amount of similar gameplay out there; IS(1)'s main strengths were in its "hard" science fiction feel and its emotional atmosphere. Classic science fiction (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke...) has always dealt with the psychological possibilities of technology, and working with -- or around -- a mentally stressed crew focused on survival is a great way to enrich it.

Now, sophisticated chatbots are difficult, and earlier in discussion we've been relegating to the "later on, if we have the time" pile. I'm starting to think they might be worth prioritizing a bit higher -- if we do a good enough job, they may be the most notable characteristic of Ironseed and even make it popular outside its niche.

That said, the game won't be a Sims In Space... but if (and I know it's a big "if") we can create engaging dynamic dialogue, combined with the different-each-time technology tree, we'll have a pretty spectacular game with boundless replay value.

Let's drum up some excitement.

...sounds promising!
On the crew chatting, I would enjoy dynamic and adaptive communication with the crew.
In IS(1) (to use your notation ) i accepted and enjoyed the even static predefined 'dialogs' with the enocdeded crew. For me it was understandable and fitting that the 'damaged' and limited encodes was acting ....yes... pretty limited on questions ... still i tried hard to get more information about the overall ('earth!') and their specific personal history and background ... after the tricky part of getting some information from the complete crew, the history keeps beeing mysterious with several fragmented story pieces only... i liked this kind of background building (similar to tolkiens silmarilion), fragmented and incomplete and even conflcitiing story pieces.

Yes, hard-SF might be another well characterising term for overal IS(1)... the technical aspects and complex modellation of the ship (really a crew!,2 kinds of power, inertia, limited fuel and storage) and universe (real 3D!, real time passing by... with al the painful effects, resistance of space! (no cheating by 'instant space-jump'), all ressources are limited (information, energy, time, ressources,crew) and decaying...)) ...was a important fascinating point for me on IS(1).

... some kind of multidimensional (economy-simu, tactial war game, adventure, RPG, 4X ...) star ship simulation in a mysterious dark universe.

[Schmendrick]

...sounds promising!

Well, "hopeful" is probably a better word at this point. I'm not promising anything!

On the crew chatting, I would enjoy dynamic and adaptive communication with the crew.
In IS(1) (to use your notation ) i accepted and enjoyed the even static predefined 'dialogs' with the enocdeded crew. For me it was understandable and fitting that the 'damaged' and limited encodes was acting ....yes... pretty limited on questions ... still i tried hard to get more information about the overall ('earth!') and their specific personal history and background ... after the tricky part of getting some information from the complete crew, the history keeps beeing mysterious with several fragmented story pieces only... i liked this kind of background building (similar to tolkiens silmarilion), fragmented and incomplete and even conflcitiing story pieces.

We do hope to have a better fleshed-out world and history, though it will be mostly for flavor/appearance's sake (the politics on Mars centuries ago won't matter today!). At most, maybe two officers with different political backgrounds might have negative things to say about one another.

As for talking with officers, we hope to be able to disguise the very simple "keyword leads to a prerecorded response" system in IS(1) but we're not writing any groundbreaking artificial intelligence, either. After a brief look at existing chatbot technology, I'm starting to think that we can probably come up with something that sounds reasonably human, so long as you don't structure your sentences too nonconventionally (don't talk like Yoda!). And of course like any chatbot it won't handle "foreign" subjects very well ("What is your favorite pasta?" will be deflected with a standard "I don't think that's relevant / I don't understand" type comment).

The bad news about the chatbot system is that it will make localization difficult or impossible (or maybe foreign versions will get a system just like the original IS).

The faster that other, more game critical elements get done, the more time we'll have to work on the chat system. Since the chatbots are basically entirely cosmetic, we will probably use the simple "keyword" method until the rest of the game is mostly done. I'm excited about it, but it's definitely an "extra" feature.

[ktulu]

I just got an e-mail notifying me that there's a new site, the forums are alive again and the project is resurrected!
I'm really glad that Ironseed is not dead and I'm looking forward to news about the projects.

[adept]

You bet! We've got a ton of momentum and a solid plan in the works. Thanks for coming back. Make sure you subscribe to the site feed so you can stay up to date. And don't forget to keep posting! We need to keep things active so we can drive interest.

[Therlun]

Heh, I didn't expect this to ever take off again.

[Schmendrick]

It certainly felt that way for a while.

[DkTempest]

I'm looking forward to see what comes of the Second wind. Since I wasn't around 3 years ago, I'm fresh blood.. Heheh.