Distributed StarsSip

Distributed StarShip is a FARGOS/VISTA-based distributed simulation of a fleet of starships. The universe of planets, starbases and starships can be replicated across a fluctuating population of heterogeneous hosts. The processing workload is split across the participating hosts, which co-operate in a loosely-synchronized fashion. The computers control a fleet of starships that obey the same rules as the starships controlled by humans.

The graphic user interface is provided using post-2000 web browsers. The state of both computer and human-controlled starships is displayed using a combination of server-side-include HTML template and dynamically generated SVG XML documents (or Adobe SWF files, but support was withdrawn in 2020). The human players provide their command inputs using HTML forms and links within SVG documents or Adobe Flash shapes.

The Distributed StarShip User's Guide describes the game in detail.

Try it!

Want to start playing? Your web browser will need support for Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) images.

If your browser is good-to-go to use SVG, you will see an animated "Alert Condition Red" symbol to the left.

Once you have SVG support available in your web browser, you can proceed to the StarShip login page and take command of your own starship. Note: for reasons of privacy, all starship captains are anonymous and no inter-player communications are permitted by the public game.

A sample read-only view appears below, which illustrates a starship escaping back to a starbase to pick up new supplies: