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Stargate Worlds: GDC Preview

News Editor Garrett Fuller had a chance to sit down with Stargate Worlds' Joe Ybarra, Vice-President of Product Development for Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. The pair talked about the direction of the upcoming MMORPG.



Okay Stargate fans, this is the article you have been waiting for. Today at GDC I got a chance to sit down with Kevin Balentine and Joe Ybarra from Cheyenne Mountain. The guys were very happy to discuss the game and many of its features. Loads of material that has not been known about the game will be known by the time you finish this article. Everything was talked about from game mechanics to character classes, races, PvE elements, and of course PvP between the dark and light sides of the Stargate Universe. Hold onto your weapons, we're going through the gate now!

Let us start off with character design. Players will have the ability to choose between two sides or factions. Cheyenne refers to them as the light and dark sides, but more closely tied to the television show they are the good and evil factions of the universe. On the side of light you can play humans, Asgard, and the free Jaffa. On the dark side you can play humans who have gone bad, Goa'uld, or the Jaffa who have remained loyal to their overlords. There are many class archetypes in the game that are defined by the races. Human players have the options of the classic Stargate team. Soldier, commando, scientist, and archeologist are all there as playable opportunities. The other races are more defined by the skill trees that represent their growth. The Asgard are defined as the scientists were the Jaffa are the melee fighters. Speaking of melee lets talk about combat.

Read the whole article here.



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Comments

  • MyrdekMyrdek Member Posts: 346
    Feels like another easy, quest driven game for the Forever Noob as I call them
  • AnagethAnageth Member Posts: 2,217
    Wow, I'm seriously looking forward to this. Huge SG fan here. I do wonder however, what "even the Asgardian weapons" meant. The only Asgard weapon that comes to mind is the Anti Replicator Gun (ARG), but that technically isn't Asgardian, as it was made by O'Neill.



    Stargate fans, any thoughts?

    No longer visiting MMORPG.com.

  • compooter41compooter41 Member Posts: 23
    The expansion pack to atlantis sounds great! I hope it's not just an "add-on" I would want them to put the same amount of time developing the atlantis game so it's like a whole other game universe to play around in.



    -Nate
  • thepatriotthepatriot Member UncommonPosts: 284
    That seems like a big list of features and content.  Many developers have promised a huge list and few have delivered on such short notice.
  • PaksPaks Member Posts: 263
    This sounds great.  I really really hope they do the SG world justice.  :)
  • MidavegMidaveg Member Posts: 296

    Damn delicious!! Looks promising and hope it deliver whats planned on the drawing board.

    All canceled. Waiting on Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning.

  • shem_13shem_13 Member Posts: 36
    Hmm, well the Asguard's had to have weapons. I'm guessing that they are more drone type ones, or possibly ones you can deploy then operate them from a distance. You have to remember that the Asguards aren't really ground-infantry types, so I can't imagine them having gun style weapons.



    As for Asguard weapons from the show, the only thing that I can recall is from SG-1 where they first met Thor. It was called Thor's hammer but I can't recall what it did exactly.



    But I'm definitely looking forward to this game. I love how they said that people will be able to play multiple characters because it won't take too long to get to the end-game. I hate how it takes like 5+ months to level ONE character just so you can have fun with the end-game, which usually isn't all that fun.
  • ZtyXZtyX Member UncommonPosts: 368
    Do I get to own a property ? Like a house ?



    Or is this strictly combat based?
  • skywisenightskywisenight Member UncommonPosts: 348
    They would probably have to tone the Asgard weapons down too.   You will recall in the middle/first half of the show that it was clear that their stuff was notably better than the Goa'uld, except for when Anubis came back into town and now Baal(s).
  • skywisenightskywisenight Member UncommonPosts: 348
    Originally posted by ZtyX

    Do I get to own a property ? Like a house ?



    Or is this strictly combat based?
    Who wants a house when you could have a cargo ship or Al'kesh.... would be cool if it were possible.
  • FoxDocFoxDoc Member Posts: 5

    Thor's Hammer wasn't really a weapon, per se.  It was the device left on a planet that sent Jaffa into a labyrinth and gave them the choice to let the symbiote die so they could be free.  Remember the Unas with James Earl Jone's voice that decided to stay?  Of course, SG-1 broke it and that led to issues later...  So SG-1 comes back to save the day again and they have to find the Hall of Might which was the puzzles Thor left behind...Jackson and Carter solved the riddle (it's all about pi), Thor said hello and wiped out the snake heads.  Pretty standard Asgaard technology to make them disappear and not come back, cool for weapon, not sure how fair that would be in PvP though...

    Ok, I'm obviously a big SG nerd, but so is my wife, so we're ok with that.

    Anyone else hoping to see real screen shots of this game in action?   Any ideas on when Beta will begin?

    FoxDoc

  • outfctrloutfctrl Member UncommonPosts: 3,619
    Wonder how beefed up your system has to be to play it.  Thank God SOE didnt make it.

    image

  • MeonMeon Member Posts: 993


    Originally posted by outfctrl
    Wonder how beefed up your system has to be to play it. Thank God SOE didnt make it.

    reqs just get higher and higher..sadly enough..
    Stargate does look promising in a way though.

  • notquitenotquite Member Posts: 17
    Originally posted by outfctrl

    Wonder how beefed up your system has to be to play it.  Thank God SOE didnt make it.
    Well yeah, SOE isn't developing it... but I worry that SOE has the rights to make the online trading card game already - is there perhaps a publishing deal in the works for SGW? Now that would be criminal, because on the information to date it's sounding like a strong title right out of the gate. Those worried about the long feature lists shouldn't be too concerned - the fact Cheyenne are using middleware to cut down on dev time means more time to spend on content etc. At least, that's the idea.
  • apocalanceapocalance Member UncommonPosts: 1,073


    The Asgard are defined as the scientists were the Jaffa are the melee fighters.

    I believe you meant "where", not "were". Also, I hope what's meant by this is the Asgard are naturally more scientific, but humans can also be scientists.

    I don't like the idea of Asgard being on an SG "team". While the Asgard have no doubt assisted SG teams from time-to-time, they're not going through gates leveling up with the humans. :)

    Asgard should have been an unlockable race with superior starting abilities and scientific aptitude, but not replacements for human field scientists. Tough balancing act, but it's my opinion so it can't be wrong!

    so...

  • pdm9pdm9 Member Posts: 2


    Well, there is precedence for the asgard working directly with humans on a regular basis - every human hyperspace capable starship has an asgard engineer.  No real reason not to take it a step further for the game.  Granted, I would rather have the tok'ra (sp?) than the asgard, since it fits the story better.



    I was puzzled by this part of the write-up:
    Plus he wants people to be able to play multiple characters without having to give up their day jobs. This is a wonderful feature for players who do not have a lot of time on their hands
    What is the feature?  This 'wonderful' feature is never described.  Or is he referring to the 200 hours to reach max level?  If so, that's hardly a feature.  That's faster than games like Vanguard or City of Heroes, but slower than World of Warcraft.  It taking 'only' 200 hours of playtime to reach max level is not going to lead to replayability for those who can't give up their day jobs.  At 10 hours a week that's still 5 months per character . . .
  • stargatesg1stargatesg1 Member Posts: 9
    omg i cant wait for sg worlds and so much good information
  • jasonjonjasonjon Member Posts: 1
    When have you ever heard the show say Asgardian? it is an Asgard weapon.... I really hope that was just you not knowing the show well, because if it was the devs who told you than this is going to be another SWG in IP terms, where the game does not really feel like Stargate

    the universe is perfect the world is not

  • GFullsGFulls Member Posts: 478
    To clear up a few things, the term Asgardian was my own; I should have just said Asgard. Joe or Kevin never referred to them that way. Also in regards to the Asgard weapon, the one I was refering to was the weapon they use to attack the Replicators. I apologize for not remembering the name. With all the information I had to write down, it was a missed point.



    Humans and Asgard will both have scientific career paths and yes there are drones.



    Keep in mind that the Stargate Worlds team works directly with the scriptwriters of the show and the people at MGM.



    They truly are working to keep the universe within the story lines of the show.
  • dalevi1dalevi1 Member Posts: 829
    Originally posted by apocalance


     

    The Asgard are defined as the scientists were the Jaffa are the melee fighters.

    I believe you meant "where", not "were". Also, I hope what's meant by this is the Asgard are naturally more scientific, but humans can also be scientists.

    I don't like the idea of Asgard being on an SG "team". While the Asgard have no doubt assisted SG teams from time-to-time, they're not going through gates leveling up with the humans. :)

    Asgard should have been an unlockable race with superior starting abilities and scientific aptitude, but not replacements for human field scientists. Tough balancing act, but it's my opinion so it can't be wrong!

      I do not understand the draw to correcting obvious spelling errors on a forum, but if it makes you feel superior it can't be wrong.



    Unlockable, ie alpha races/classes make zero sense. The Asgard had a slew of weaknesses in the series, up to and including logical mistakes. I think they will be an interesting addition to the game. If, and only if, they add them to "away teams," I think you would be surprised at how slow that team will cover ground (I would explain, but considering that if you think about it, and derive an idea, it won't be wrong).



    Played (more than a month): SWG, Second Life, Tabula Rasa, Lineage 2, Everquest 2, EvE, MxO, Ryzom.

    Tried: WoW, Shadowbane, Anarchy Online, Everquest, WWII Online, Planetside

    Beta: Lotro, Tabula Rasa, WAR.

  • daeandordaeandor Member UncommonPosts: 2,695
    I'm totally hyped about this game.  It might actually be a mmorpg my wife would join.  I personally don't care for the Asgard being a playable race.  I would have preferred it be human and free-Jaffa versus Goa'uld and Jaffa.  Essentially it would make life easy for them as they are all humanoid.



    The bad news is that I expect them to use the WoW template for "success."  Not that the game will be horrible under that template, just that it is not what I wanted for the game.  Fortunately for me, I did not invest much time or effort into WoW, so I think I could have fun all the same.  This editorial preview just brings up so many questions, I guess I have plenty of time to wait for the answers though.
  • HerrykHerryk Member Posts: 1

    There seems to be quite a bit of balancing needed for the races mentioned.  For some reason I get the sad feeling that I will be out on a quest and see either a squad of Asguard equipped with neuron plasma multi-phased rocket launchers, looking to go 'noob hunting', or having to argue with a Jaffa about the collective stability effect of adding positive charged matter to my generator core.

    While this is a more humorous thought, it stills lends itself to reality when races and abilities are not balanced effectively. 

    Otherwise I'm looking forward to this game as a fan to Star Gate.

  • PyritePyrite Member Posts: 309
    I'm a little disappointed that they're not going the FPS route.  It would seem like a logical choice considering how much ranged combat is in the TV shows.  Nonetheless, I will be keeping a close eye on the development of this game.  Best of luck to all those working hard behind the scenes.

    The most important part of reading is reading between the lines.

  • AnagethAnageth Member Posts: 2,217
    Originally posted by Pyrite

    I'm a little disappointed that they're not going the FPS route.  It would seem like a logical choice considering how much ranged combat is in the TV shows.  Nonetheless, I will be keeping a close eye on the development of this game.  Best of luck to all those working hard behind the scenes.
    I was thinking the same thing when I heard about the game, but in the end I was convinced the 3rd person route was best. When you think about it, if you want to make a game which features a huge amount of tactical combat, you want the player to be able to see the environment around him or her. If they had gone done the FPS route, you would have been quite limited to your field of vision.

    No longer visiting MMORPG.com.

  • sladey5sladey5 Member Posts: 7

    first playable version by the end of the month? pre-production to production already?...too soon!

    i pray this game isnt going to be rushed.

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