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When are we going to get some basic info?
raykor
Member UncommonPosts: 326
After watching the recent video interviews and reading as many previews as I could find, it sounds like this game is not all that far from release—maybe a year or so away.
So when are we going to get some basic information on the game? Let me emphasize BASIC info as their current website looks like it was put together in 15 minutes.
I never played the original Jumpgate and I'm sure I'm not alone. The only thing I know is that it is a space game with PvP combat and twitch controls. That's it.
Comments
If you've seen some recent interviews, read the articles, and looked at information about the original Jumpgate game, what "basic" information do you feel you are still missing? If appropriate, we'd like to be sure to provide it through our future media contacts.
If it's dates you're after, I'm afraid those are not being bandied about until we're ready.
I've quite a few (likely too specific) questions. Still, here's the first 10 15 I can think of.
1. Will we be playing in the same sectors of space and will new sectors be added from what was in JGC?
2. Will the original three factions all be returning, I've heard mention of Quantar and Solrain but haven't heard anything on Octavia?
3. Will the Conflux, Amanathii, and Hyperial be back?
4. Will Hyperial or Amanath be playable, and was that a Hyperial ship on a few of those screenshots?
5. Will ships continue to be 'color coded' by faction?
6. Will live events and a 'living' story arc continue to influence the game directly?
7. Will the services offered at Player Owned Stations be upgraded and will they gain new capabilities?
8. Will it be possible for a squad of pirates, conflux sympathizers, ect to survive in unregulated space, or will they be forced back into regulated space from time to time?
9. Will there be anything done to prevent the NPCs from overshadowing the players when it comes to mining, transport, and production?
10. Will there be any new factions appearing?
11. Will artifacts and artifact hunting still be part of the game?
12. Will it be possible for sectors of unregulated space to be claimed by a powerful enough squad and (this is the important bit) will this claim be backed up through any kind of in game mechanics?
13. Will Player Owned Stations be destroyable if they are known to house squads of pirates, conflux sympathizers, ect?
14. Will there be some kind of way to defend a Player Owned Station if it does come under attack by players or NPCs (besides the obvious 'fight them off with your own ship' approach)?
15. Will there be any kind of multiple pilot ship such as a fighter with a tail gunner or even, perhaps, the occasional capital ship?
Anyhow, there are a few of the questions I could think up in the early morning.
-Bri
The Conflux are your friends....
Unfortunately, Schist, I don't really imagine those are the "basic" questions raykor was interested in. Yours are mostly specific gameplay questions, and I know everyone in the Jumpgate Classic community would love some answers. As much as I'd love to deliver some of those answers, I can't touch most of these, because we simply know most of the answers would change between now and the time of release, and we don't want to give out info that ends up being wrong.
For the questions you asked, safe topics are few and far between. Here are the comments I can probably offer without being yelled at by management:
I know you were digging for a lot more info than this. I'm sorry. There will be more information available as time passes and more systems we are reworking get nailed down into what we think will be near-final forms.
I'm still really curious what the "basic" information was that raykor didn't think was appearing in the various articles and interviews. If it truly is basic, we'd like to make sure the information is being communicated.
Hi. Do you agree with me that it seems that this game is only about a year away from release? If so, don't you think their web site should have more than one page and five screenshots?
Much of the information I am looking for is probably available on the original game's site but I never played that game and it seems silly to do research on a game that is soon to be replaced. I would have no idea which of the features of the old game are important and being carried over and which are trivial—the way an experienced player might.
To be clear, the info I am curious about is a simple F.A.Q.-styled description of the game's main features: races, classes, skills, zones, economy, combat system, factions, missions, guild support, etc.
Raykor, thanks for replying in this thread. Though I cannot talk about our release schedule, we completely agree that fleshing out our website has become a priority; other people at NetDevil outside the Evolution dev team are working to get something done with that as soon as possible.
In the meantime, let me try to offer an interpretation of the general topics you appear to be interested in.
Both the original Jumpgate and Jumpgate Evolution are action-based spaceflight simulation MMORPGs. Flying your own ship directly (by joystick or by mouse and keyboard) is a major feature of both games. The original Jumpgate concept was based on gameplay from single player action space combat and trading games such as the Elite series, Wing Commander (especially Privateer), Freespace, the XWing series, Freelancer, and Tachyon. Jumpgate has some things in common with both EVE Online, and the now-defunct Earth & Beyond (for instance... space), but in neither one of those games did you fly your ship manually. In Jumpgate and Jumpgate Evolution, you do.
There are three playable factions in the original game, and at present we certainly expect all three to be available to players in Jumpgate Evolution. These faction choices dictate some of the characteristics of the ship types available to the player, though all major kinds of ships (such as fighters, scouts, bombers, miners, transports, etc.) are available to all factions. There are no concepts such as race, class, or skills in Jumpgate, at least in terms of the "character" you might be role-playing. The factional choice is more like the nation and kind of "culture" your pilot comes from, instead of race or species. You as a player might prefer a role such as fighter pilot, merchant trader, or miner, and set up your ship appropriately, but you aren't locked into anything by that choice. You fly your ship. You choose what you do. You can refit your ship's gear (or get another ship) to do something else when you feel like it.
We're building a more detailed mission system into Jumpgate Evolution, so I can't speak in great detail about that at the moment. In the original game, there were six basic kinds of Civilian missions: Combat missions, Patrols, Scout missions, Transport (package delivery) missions, Cargo (mercantile) missions, and Mining missions. There were also seven kinds of Military missions, available to pilots who'd signed up with their faction's combat arm: Espionage, Recon, Raids, Procurement, Patrol, Courier, and of course, more Combat (PvP this time). All of these activities are expected to survive into the new game in some form, though they are likely to be presented differently. Missions, of course, are not the only thing to do in the game, either. Jumpgate Evolution will contain a mix of PvE and PvP combat that allows the player to choose what to do to either advance his own career, promote his faction within the game environment, or ideally, both at the same time.
The combat system doesn't involve clicking on a target, selecting skills, and waiting for the target to die while you occasionally change up your choice of attack. Combat gameplay in Jumpgate comes from those single-player space action games I mentioned above, and involves piloting your ship against AI or other players, and having the personal ability to put your guns on target and keep them there until the target is downed or has fled.
The original product certainly supported player guilds (which we call "squads"); a great deal of the PvP activity in the original Jumpgate derives from squad rivalries. For Jumpgate Evolution we're planning a considerably more enhanced and better-supported squad system, which we intend will provide players in those organizations with more tools to operate their organizations as well as better instruments with which to influence the game environment.
I hope this description begins to answer some of your most basic questions about what Jumpgate Evolution will be like. Since I'm forced to speak only in general terms, I'm sure it will just create more questions. A lot of the specifics for Evolution features haven't been settled yet, so I can't discuss anything in deep detail. But since we're building on the framework of an existing game, that lack of definition doesn't mean things are as nebulous as they would be if everything were really being created from scratch.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I'll definitely be trying this game and look forward to the expanded web site. Neocron and PlanetSide are my two favorite MMOGs so it is safe to say I enjoy PvP and skill-based (twitch) games.
By the way, the company that created Neocron is developing a new twitch, space-based game called Black Prophecy. It seems pretty similar to your game although they have said there will be multiplayer capital ships (up to 10 people) and I believe your game only has individual ships.
Neither game has avatar combat and that really surprises me. PlanetSide launched 4 years ago and they offered equally rich vehicular AND avatar combat. I can't wait until someone makes a space game where you can actually get out of your ship and assault a space station corridor-by-corridor on foot!
If you're planning to try out Jumpgate Evolution, I would encourage you to sign up for the beta test if you haven't done so already. The beta, of course, hasn't yet opened.
I've heard about Black Prophecy, and it looks like it will be a nice product. The biggest difference appears to be that Black Prophecy is planned to make heavy use of instanced combat, while the Jumpgate games are both persistent-universe MMOGs where everyone's playing together and can potentially interact in different ways essentially all the time.
I played Planetside for several months, back before the mechs were added, and it was an excellent MMOFPS. The main reason I imagine no one has developed a spaceflight game that also includes avatar combat is you're effectively talking about two complete sets of functional game mechanics: one for in your ship and one out of it. Developing and polishing either set in a full and complete fashion is a big enough project for most development teams. You've got to essentially make a second game in its entirety to properly do the other part you're looking for. Star Wars: Galaxies made the attempt to graft spaceflight gameplay onto its avatar-based main game, but most opinions I've heard are that the spacefight subgame is considered inadequate, especially to people raised on the excellent XWing series of combat games. There's no doubt someone will do exactly what you're talking about, eventually.
Given that the Evolution team is building on a very solid, though little-known, spaceflight game, our product is on a fairly fast track. We have the intention that post-release development on our title will include additions of further, very significant feature sets, potentially even on the scale you (and others) are fantasizing about.
Done.
Good point. I absolutely abhor the heavy use of instancing in MMOGs.
Yea, eventually. I know I'm not the only person interested in space MMOGs but a little turned off by the prospect of constantly "being a ship."
Tease!
Yes, it would be nice to have an avatar to walk around with. But trust me, when you launch out of the tubes of the spacestation.. in JGC your not the ship, you have a cockpit view... and with the near real physics of space flight, you end up focusing on piloting. You feel like a pilot, its very unlike "Eve" in this manner. Eve, is a great game.. but space flight in Eve imo is dull, mouse clicks = dull.
The AI in JGC could at time present a challenge, but nothing like going against a hardened veteran player pilot. Your heart will race, your hands will sweat, and your wife will be screaming at you to keep it down cuz your going to wake your kids up with all the shouting your doing.
I gave SWG and their version of a space sim a try. Sony's version of spaceflight was at most, entertaining.. at times. A little excitement here and there, but overly simplified. While in JGC, twitch skill and tactics proved who would win a fight.
Its been a couple years since Ive played JG, and I can still remember the names of pilots Ive engaged; Tesrend, Rollio, Morgan, Ixholla, Ranger, Frog, Tex... to name a few. What I'm saying here, is that the engagements tend to stick with you.
Man, I hate to sound like a fanboy.. but when it comes to JG, I just am.