EmptyEpsilon open source spaceship bridge simulator
daid.github.io161 points by mmooss 2 months ago
161 points by mmooss 2 months ago
EmptyEpsilon is used for a couple of interesting large scale or commercial immersive experiences, including the Odysseus larp and Bridge Command. I’ve written up both:
Bridge Command: https://mssv.net/2024/07/31/bridge-command/
Odysseus larp: https://mssv.net/2025/03/19/the-collective-ambition-behind-o...
There’s a discussion on HN about the latter, too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43414992
Odysseus is the one of the few things to get me truly excited an quite some time. I will most likely never be able to attend one but by god I would love too.
I want to try get involved in the local event scene to get some experience. I think the only way I will get to experience something like Odysseus it is to run my own.
Do you know which EE scenarios do they run?
We wrote our own custom scenarios. They are all in our (forked) EmptyEpsilon repo: https://github.com/OdysseusLarp/EmptyEpsilon/tree/master/scr...
I’d imagine it’s highly customised for both. They also have live GMs running the game, too.
This is one of those things that would have been fantastic in university, but now the idea of getting 6 adults (parents) together in a room to play seems like a nearly insurmountable task.
You can get by with 3 or four people. A few can be kids! It is intended to be played in person, but we started playing it remotely for "team building" in mid 2020. It works great over the internet, if everyone is technical enough to run two clients: one for your station and one for the "main" screen. If you have multiple monitors it works well. We've found all remote or all in person work well, and mixed makes comms frustrating.
There are still lots of people playing DnD so not all hope is lost. Or just do 6 kids and play with them, true it’s a long term investment just for one game :D Seriously though the instructions say you can play over internet too.
I mean, it’ll be fine again when they’re older, they won’t want anything to do with their old man. But right now it takes all the time you have ;)
Ah, but then you might want them around. Better to play games occasionally, give you a chance to hang out for a bit.
It appears it uses AI only to operate additional stations and ships, while it could be interesting to have it also create random universes, or expand known ones through wormholes. Then add RPG capabilities, FPS and... ok, that would be too much.
Are there any reviews of how the actual game plays? This sounds right up my street, but I'd need some idea of what I'm getting before I get my friends to invest their time in playing it.
Does anyone know if it supports networked play (eg fleet operations or even ship vs ship)?
Oooo, as someone who's played a fair bit of Artemis SBS in the past (and bought a license in the super super early days), but who _constantly_ lamented its closed-source nature, this is super intriguing. On the other hand, I've been out of the 'verse for a while and haven't been following developments.
These simulators are so much fun, even the crappy ones, I don't even what to compare them to. It's a whole new kind of game, and it plays really well in a conference room after-hours, just sayin'.
> These simulators are so much fun, even the crappy ones ...
How? Why? Tell us ... :)
Have you ever run a three-legged race? Your ankle tied to your friend's ankle means you only get anywhere if you can learn to cooperate, quickly and efficiently. Get a bunch of people doing it and it's hilarious.