Voidspace: The Open-world Survival Space MMORPG built for Browser, desktop, and phone

Generally everything is made by players

Players will be able to rent out their manufacturing facilities to other players for profit. Some facilities will be very generalized, capable of creating a wide variety of objects. Renting another player's facility doesn't mean you need to give them the plans for your invention, you'll be able to produce your invention in their facility while keeping it private.

Players will be able to create protected cargo containers that are difficult, if not impossible to open without destroying what is inside. They will be protected by permissions set up by the creator of the container. This will allow you to transport valuable commodities while keeping them very safe from pirates, and allow you to stage a recovery mission if your goods fall into the wrong hands. Some examples of particularly important cargo could be:

• Plans for a very valuable invention
• A particularly difficult to make and/or valuable invention
• A character of some importance
• Raw materials that are banned by a particular player group or government

Voidspace will have a fairly extensive set of hacking skills. Every time a new hacking skill is obtained, it will always be for a specific piece of equipment or ship. For example, a turret was perhaps invented by xTheManx, and some other character might get an idea (and develop it into a skill) for overriding the permissions on that turret. The skill will ONLY apply to that specific type of turret invented by the player character "xTheManx".

Now consider that there will be lots of freely available skills for creating certain inventions simply because people will release the skill to the general public (out of the goodness of their hearts, or for other more malicious reasons). This means that the permission hacking skill for those inventions will very likely also be very common!

Due to the commonness of hacking skills for inventions that are essentially public-domain, a very real need for proprietary inventions that serve the same purpose will be there. In other words, it will be worthwhile for people to research and manufacture their own versions of the same equipment, just to ensure that they remain unique and much more difficult to hack.

Generally everything is made by players

Since there are no NPCs, there is also no supporting infrastructure in Voidspace. Players will need to create their own infrastructure in order to facilitate their own growth and progression in the game. Players will be able to build and manufacture their own buildings, outposts, bases, cities, ships, ship upgrades and equipment, and even ammunition.

Certain large scale projects will also require multiple characters contributing to it's construction. There is no centralized auction house which means the might a player possesses is really relative to his local area. One area might be lacking in ammunition production, so a player can take advantage of that and create the factories required to meet that local need. The alternative would be to have players trade ammunition brought in from the nearest manufacturing plant, which would raise the price of that commodity in the area.

Players will be able to rent out their manufacturing facilities to other players for profit. Some facilities will be very generalized, capable of creating a wide variety of objects. Renting another player's facility doesn't mean you need to give them the plans for your invention, you'll be able to produce your invention in their facility while keeping it private.

Players will be able to create protected cargo containers that are difficult, if not impossible to open without destroying what is inside. They will be protected by permissions set up by the creator of the container. This will allow you to transport valuable commodities while keeping them very safe from pirates, and allow you to stage a recovery mission if your goods fall into the wrong hands. Some examples of particularly important cargo could be:

• Plans for a very valuable invention
• A particularly difficult to make and/or valuable invention
• A character of some importance
• Raw materials that are banned by a particular player group or government

Voidspace will have a fairly extensive set of hacking skills. Every time a new hacking skill is obtained, it will always be for a specific piece of equipment or ship. For example, a turret was perhaps invented by xTheManx, and some other character might get an idea (and develop it into a skill) for overriding the permissions on that turret. The skill will ONLY apply to that specific type of turret invented by the player character "xTheManx".

Now consider that there will be lots of freely available skills for creating certain inventions simply because people will release the skill to the general public (out of the goodness of their hearts, or for other more malicious reasons). This means that the permission hacking skill for those inventions will very likely also be very common!

Due to the commonness of hacking skills for inventions that are essentially public-domain, a very real need for proprietary inventions that serve the same purpose will be there. In other words, it will be worthwhile for people to research and manufacture their own versions of the same equipment, just to ensure that they remain unique and much more difficult to hack.

You make your own routes

Long range shipping can be done if a player sets up a series of waypoints that his ship would navigate to automatically. Since there is no concept of "logging off", it is important for a player to prepare for a trip that could potentially be dangerous with pirates ready to intercept. Keeping with a caravan of other players, building defensive drones, and keeping the ships equipment up-to-date with the latest in offensive and defensive technology will go a long way to keeping a player safe on a long trip. If the player is offline when his ship is attacked, the players ship will automatically defend itself according to the rules the player has defined, or the default rules of engagement. If the player has Voidspace as an app on his phone, he will receive a notification about activity in-game like attacks and chats.

You can trade more than just raw materials and equipment. Players will be able to sell the rights to buildings and even entire outposts, managed completely by the trade window in-game. Players will also be able to sell ideas, skills, and even maps.

You make your own routes

Parts of the game world will have higher concentrations of certain raw resources than others. Mine and collect these resources and travel to distant parts of the game world to sell your goods at a premium. Furthermore, players can create factories, and even entire industries, manufacturing ships, equipment, and ammunition. These goods will also need to be distributed throughout the game world.

It will even be possible to ferry other players from one place to another. The game can undergo sweeping changes due to major player actions. Wars, for example, can change supply and demand of various goods and raw materials in an area. Traders not involved in the war could use it to their advantage by shipping goods to either side.

Long range shipping can be done if a player sets up a series of waypoints that his ship would navigate to automatically. Since there is no concept of "logging off", it is important for a player to prepare for a trip that could potentially be dangerous with pirates ready to intercept. Keeping with a caravan of other players, building defensive drones, and keeping the ships equipment up-to-date with the latest in offensive and defensive technology will go a long way to keeping a player safe on a long trip. If the player is offline when his ship is attacked, the players ship will automatically defend itself according to the rules the player has defined, or the default rules of engagement. If the player has Voidspace as an app on his phone, he will receive a notification about activity in-game like attacks and chats.

You can trade more than just raw materials and equipment. Players will be able to sell the rights to buildings and even entire outposts, managed completely by the trade window in-game. Players will also be able to sell ideas, skills, and even maps.

The only limit is your imagination

There are so many businesses that can be created, so here are some examples to spur your imagination:

• Allow players to rent your infrastructure to build their inventions.
• Sell your services as a defence contractor.
• Act as a maintenance crew for a base/outpost while players are away.
• Give other players rides from one place to another if they're without a ship or if you can offer a safer passage.
• Ferry smaller ships inside of larger carriers for a fee.
• Store offline players, their ships, and/or their equipment in protected facilities for peace of mind while they're offline.
• Offer your services as a guard or patrol.
• Offer your service as an intelligence agent and spy for weaknesses in other players bases.
• Start a package delivery service that delivers sealed containers with goods.
• Start a telecom company that delivers messages over a network of long distance communication nodes.
• Start a bank that secures in-game currencies.
• Provide loans and credit with interest.
• Offer insurance for aspects within the game.

Voidspace will allow for all of these types of businesses, and many many more.

With the exception of real-money transactions, there will be no currency provided in the game world. Player groups will have to create their own in-game currencies in the same way they invent any other object. Just like in the real world, the larger player organizations with a stable government and a currency with wide utility and acceptance, will likely also have the strongest currency.

Players will also be able to optionally perform real-money transactions between each other in order to purchase goods or services. This will open up the possibilities for players to earn money from playing the game.

The only limit is your imagination

Because there are no NPCs in the game, anything that the player needs to progress in the game must be provided by another player, or himself. This paradigm opens the world up to an incredible number of business types and business models that the players can create. A business can be created around any player need, and it is not just limited to the buying and selling of raw materials or manufactured goods.

The game will allow players to perform cryptocurrency transactions between each other. This will allow players to have in-game businesses that actually make them real money.

There are so many businesses that can be created, so here are some examples to spur your imagination:

• Allow players to rent your infrastructure to build their inventions.
• Sell your services as a defence contractor.
• Act as a maintenance crew for a base/outpost while players are away.
• Give other players rides from one place to another if they're without a ship or if you can offer a safer passage.
• Ferry smaller ships inside of larger carriers for a fee.
• Store offline players, their ships, and/or their equipment in protected facilities for peace of mind while they're offline.
• Offer your services as a guard or patrol.
• Offer your service as an intelligence agent and spy for weaknesses in other players bases.
• Start a package delivery service that delivers sealed containers with goods.
• Start a telecom company that delivers messages over a network of long distance communication nodes.
• Start a bank that secures in-game currencies.
• Provide loans and credit with interest.
• Offer insurance for aspects within the game.

Voidspace will allow for all of these types of businesses, and many many more.

With the exception of real-money transactions, there will be no currency provided in the game world. Player groups will have to create their own in-game currencies in the same way they invent any other object. Just like in the real world, the larger player organizations with a stable government and a currency with wide utility and acceptance, will likely also have the strongest currency.

Players will also be able to optionally perform real-money transactions between each other in order to purchase goods or services. This will open up the possibilities for players to earn money from playing the game.

Combat is skill based, but it's not the focus of the game

It is important to note a general rule of a Universe Project is that strength comes in numbers. Technology does play a significant role, but there is no greater power in the universe than when players unite with a single cause. The same goes for Voidspace in every aspect, including combat. In contrast, traditional MMOs tend to have highly exaggerated levels of defense and offense to the point where new characters are incapable of even touching even moderately high level characters.

There are going to be a large number of weapons, defensive equipment, and even special equipment. Here is a list of some samples:

Weapons

• Lasers
• Plasma Bullets
• Metallic Bullets
• Missiles
• Mines
• Attack drones

Defences

• Shields
• Armor plating
• Anti-missile laser turrets
• Escape pods
• Rescue drones
• Smoke bombs
• EMP bombs

Special equipment

• Ship cloaking device
• Hyperdrive
• Gravity wells/bombs
• Anti-gravity wells/bombs
• Communication jammer
• Tractor beam
• Optical displacement device

Large scale battles will be able to be waged with the help of some in-game mechanics. Groups of players can be given waypoints by their commanding players. This will allow the commanding players to play the game like a real-time strategy, moving groups of units around the battlefield with relative ease.

Being destroyed during combat is not necessarily the end of the line for you. Players usually will survive the destruction of their vessel, and continue to survive in their space suit. A player's space suit can be upgraded, but is generally fairly helpless beyond some basic slow movement. However, while you are awaiting rescue, you could potentially hide within the wreckage of your ship, provided your opponent isn't interested in collecting a little extra metal. Players in space suits will not show up on radar, and will generally be difficult to spot, and hit.

Combat is skill based, but it's not the focus of the game

Combat is done in real-time, similar to that of an arcade game. You control your ship, choose what weapons to fire, and try to avoid your opponent's shots. Since the player has to develop his own weapons, it is up to him to keep up with the latest technology developed by the players. He can do so by buying upgrades from players who choose to sell, or by developing technology on his own.

More than one player can man a ship. It will be possible to have a crew of players, all with different jobs micromanaging in order to gain an advantage during battle. It is important to note a general rule of a Universe Project is that strength comes in numbers. Technology does play a significant role, but there is no greater power in the universe than when players unite with a single cause. The same goes for Voidspace in every aspect, including combat. Traditional MMOs tend to have highly exaggerated levels of defense and offense, to the point where new characters are incapable of even touching even moderately high level characters.

There are going to be a large number of weapons, defensive equipment, and even special equipment. Here is a list of some samples:

Weapons

• Lasers
• Plasma Bullets
• Metallic Bullets
• Missiles
• Mines
• Attack drones

Defences

• Shields
• Armor plating
• Anti-missile laser turrets
• Escape pods
• Rescue drones
• Smoke bombs
• EMP bombs

Special equipment

• Ship cloaking device
• Hyperdrive
• Gravity wells/bombs
• Anti-gravity wells/bombs
• Communication jammer
• Tractor beam
• Optical displacement device

Large scale battles will be able to be waged with the help of some in-game mechanics. Groups of players can be given waypoints by their commanding players. This will allow the commanding players to play the game like a real-time strategy, moving groups of units around the battlefield with relative ease.

Being destroyed during combat is not necessarily the end of the line for you. Players usually will survive the destruction of their vessel, and continue to survive in their space suit. A player's space suit can be upgraded, but is generally fairly helpless beyond some basic slow movement. However, while you are awaiting rescue, you could potentially hide within the wreckage of your ship, provided your opponent isn't interested in collecting a little extra metal. Players in space suits will not show up on radar, and will generally be difficult to spot, and hit.

Get an idea and prototoype it to make it a skill

New ideas come to a character automatically, but they can be focused and accelerated through the use of a research facility or lab. Invent weapons, special equipment with special abilities, base modules, ships, and ammunition. Sell manufactured versions of your invention, or sell the ability to create them, to other players.

Become a scholar of a category of technology in order to boost the quality of your inventions within the same category. The spread of ideas, skill, and knowledge will be a very valuable concept within the game. It is very likely that players will create schools to educate and spread knowledge for money. Well established player groups may even provide education free-of-charge to new players in order to give their player-base an advantage in the world.

How it will actually work

As players go about regular activities in the game, their character will come up with an "idea" for a new skill or invention. This will happen at random along with a number of other influential factors such as:

• The character's intelligence
• A need that the character has been tagged with internally
• The availability of the materials required for the skill or invention, or the character's knowledge and experience with these materials
• Other skills or inventions that the character has available to him

However for the most part, the best ideas come from more focused research which the character can engage in using a lab or research facility. Generalized experimentation with materials is the first step, and once the character has a certain level of understanding of various materials, he will start to get ideas for actual working inventions that use those materials. Once a character has an idea, he can use the lab to try to create a prototype.

The prototype stage is the stage in which the character is trying to turn an idea into a reproducible invention or skill. It may take many tries to get something working, and the difficulty of coming up with a working invention will depend on the following factors:

• the character's intelligence
• the knowledge level of the category the invention falls within
• the level of knowledge the character has of the materials being used
• the general complexity of the skill

Once the character has successfully produced a skill or invention, he will be able to create or perform it at will. For objects or skills that are executed by the character himself (not by some completely automated, mechanical process) the result of the skill or invention will vary somewhat, and the character will get better at producing better and more consistent results through practice. For example, if a character is hacking a certain type of equipment, he will get faster and more accurate, and have fewer failures as he continues to perform that particular skill.

The player can then choose to create another prototype in order to get a better end product, by going through the very same process and hoping for a better result. For the most part, the resulting attributes of a skill or invention are random, but they will also be influenced by the 4 factors listed previously.

Ideas, skills, and inventions can all be shared freely or sold between characters.

In addition to skills and inventions, characters will be able to research concepts in order to open up to them more skills and inventions to be discovered. For example, The Void is a place where physics are different from the natural universe. Characters can use a lab in a research facility to concentrate their research on The Void itself in order to unlock certain concepts that allow for inventions that make use the discoveries made.

How it will actually work

As players go about regular activities in the game, their character will come up with an "idea" for a new skill or invention. This will happen at random along with a number of other influential factors such as:

• The character's intelligence
• A need that the character has been tagged with internally
• The availability of the materials required for the skill or invention, or the character's knowledge and experience with these materials
• Other skills or inventions that the character has available to him

However for the most part, the best ideas come from more focused research which the character can engage in using a lab or research facility. Generalized experimentation with materials is the first step, and once the character has a certain level of understanding of various materials, he will start to get ideas for actual working inventions that use those materials. Once a character has an idea, he can use the lab to try to create a prototype.

The prototype stage is the stage in which the character is trying to turn an idea into a reproducible invention or skill. It may take many tries to get something working, and the difficulty of coming up with a working invention will depend on the following factors:

• the character's intelligence
• the knowledge level of the category the invention falls within
• the level of knowledge the character has of the materials being used
• the general complexity of the skill

Once the character has successfully produced a skill or invention, he will be able to create or perform it at will. For objects or skills that are executed by the character himself (not by some completely automated, mechanical process) the result of the skill or invention will vary somewhat, and the character will get better at producing better and more consistent results through practice. For example, if a character is hacking a certain type of equipment, he will get faster and more accurate, and have fewer failures as he continues to perform that particular skill.

The player can then choose to create another prototype in order to get a better end product, by going through the very same process and hoping for a better result. For the most part, the resulting attributes of a skill or invention are random, but they will also be influenced by the 4 factors listed previously.

Ideas, skills, and inventions can all be shared freely or sold between characters.

In addition to skills and inventions, characters will be able to research concepts in order to open up to them more skills and inventions to be discovered. For example, The Void is a place where physics are different from the natural universe. Characters can use a lab in a research facility to concentrate their research on The Void itself in order to unlock certain concepts that allow for inventions that make use the discoveries made.

Game World

Voidspace takes place in The Void, which is an area of space the player's character has been unwittingly catapulted into via a network of wormholes that exist in the universe. Characters cannot escape it and are forced to live among eachother in The Void, fighting for the few available resources that manage to find their way into this desolate place through the wormholes.

The Void is also a place where the very physical nature of the universe is somehow different. The most obvious difference when you enter The Void is the drag your ship experiences as it moves about. The drag increases as you speed up, thus limiting the maximum speed of your ship. Energy weapons also seem to be impacted by this strange phenomenon as energy dissipates quickly as it travels through space.

Not much is known about The Void, and your character will need to perform research to study it and unlock its secrets. In doing this, you may uncover properties of The Void that you can use to your advantage, allowing for inventions that will aid you in your survival. Who knows, one day your character may even discover a way to leave.

Explore

Upon arrival, you will find that The Void is not as empty as it's name suggests. The wormholes have filled it with asteroids, gases, wreckage from civilizations, and even other players. Search The Void to find the materials you will need for energy and construction of your own ship equipment, buildings, outposts, and ammunition.

Find ancient abandoned player-made civilizations that you can research and study, acquire, or disassemble and recycle. There are no NPCs in Voidspace, instead, every man-made structure has to be built by a real player. There are circumstances that could occur to force players to leave an outpost they had constructed and for it to become abandoned permanently. This would allow other players to discover the abandoned facilities and begin to overtake and/or perform research on the technology the players created.

Certainly, one of the most powerful aspects of the game will be alliances made with other players. There is power in numbers. Discover other player outposts and possibly join another group in order to maintain your own security. Even if you don't want to join another group, having a safe place to trade goods can only help.

There are no maps given for the game, instead, players will be forced to create their own map of the area by exploring. Once an area has been explored, a player can then sell the map to another player, or share it freely. Established civilizations may want to make map sharing as part of their initiation process for new players.

Character Design

All players enter The Void through a wormhole and in a ship. You will generally start with only the basics although a new character spawning in a random location will generally need to work to survive for the first few minutes of the game. You will need to establish an oxygen supply, power supply, and generally repair your equipment as the passage through the wormhole will have been a violent one. Your character is actually a man inside the ship and you can exit your ship and enter another. Players will be able to dock with any space stations or outposts, and if the character has the appropriate permissions, they can take command of the structure's defenses.

Your character can even learn skills that give you an edge in the world. In addition to being able to research and develop ships, equipment, base structures, and weapons, your character will be able to learn other specialized skills. For example, your character might learn the ability to hack certain types of equipment or base structures. This could be used to disable key base structures in preparation for an attack from the rest of the character's group.

It is for this reason that it is important to keep your character alive and share your skills with others. Characters that have been around for a while could focus on research to boost the character's aptitude for invention. The more a character knows, the better he will be at creating something new.

Players are able to form groups in order to better manage their social systems. Groups can be created within groups to create ranks.

There is no single leveling system in a Universe Project. Instead, characters become more skilled at certain tasks through practice, and can train themselves into improving a set of base stats. The only way to improve a particular skill is by practicing it, or by practicing something very similar to it.

Players will be given a number of options when spawning a new character. In general, the options will be as follows:

• Spawn close to a small, medium, or large civilization
• Spawn far from a small, medium, or large civilization
• Spawn near friends
• Spawn into a major player organization

Each spawn setting will give a new player a different experience. Spawning close to civilization can and up being good or bad, depending on who they happen to spawn beside. Spawning far from civilization will give the game more of a single player type feel. While it's not impossible for you to be found, this setting will make it quite unlikely to be found for some time. Spawning near friends will allow you to choose who you spawn near. They will have to already be in your friends list for this option to work.

Spawning into a major player organization will be one of the more interesting options later in the game. Once players have established some infrastructure and government around their settlements, they may opt to accept new players into their organization automatically. Special spawning locations can be setup to allow this to work seamlessly within the player organization. The player org can then create an environment that is suitable for new players to learn the game and even to give them a head start with some basic skills and resources.

Early access is now OPEN to new testers. To keep the number of testers low, we require a $20 minimum donation for permanent access to the test AND the final game. Early adopter rewards are LIVE so check out the pledges page by clicking the button below for more details!

Even if you're not ready to join the test now, connect with us so you don't forget this project! You will receive an email with links so you can connect with us and our community!