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Jumpgate Evolution Dev Interview, Dogfighting Video
Massively recently interviewed Hermann Peterscheck, a producer for NetDevil's upcoming space-fighter MMO Jumpgate Evolution. He talks about the UI and the huge level of customization, as well as basic flight and zone design. Also available is a video showcasing space combat inside an asteroid belt.
"We're still sort of working on [ship progression], but the idea is that you pick your first ship at level five, which is about an hour or so of gameplay. Basically there's sort of forks, so you start out in kind of a beginner ship and then there's like fighting types of ships, mining types of ships, cargo haulers and within that there's sort of sub-classes. So like, there's light fighters, medium fighters, heavy fighters, bombers. There's haulers that carry a lot of stuff, but move kind of slowly and there's haulers that carry lost stuff, short little courier shuttles that move really quickly."
When I hear of space fighter dogfighting I'm expecting to see something I can pull out my old underused Logitech Attack 3 to play, something with a damn cockpit view. That trailer does NOT deliver the goods I'm looking for in a space shooter. Boo.
You'd expect to 'hear' explosions as well - albeit some time after the fact. You'd (in theory) get a spherical, diminishing pressure wave travelling at the space equivalent of the speed of sound - which would cause a rumble or thud as it passed you.
My understanding is that the 'speed of sound' in space is a hell of a lot higher than on earth due to the lack of dampening. That being the case, explosions at least make sense.
If the onboard electronics were detecting and amplifying such sounds, then you'd also be able to hear some types of weaponry fire, although not until the projectiles had reached (or passed) you anyway.
Engine wakes and reaction thrusters (and, therefore, other ships) would be detectable in the same manner.
Quoted from a comment below the article on Massively.com:
"Understand a few things before you QQ (listen up, it's important). You are looking at a newbie mission - in a Solrain newbie shuttle. This is the equivalent of "Go out and collect me 10 boar tusks young one; gain a level while you're at it. Congratulations, you're two!"
The flight mode is using "dampeners". That's a jargon way of saying flight-assist mode is turned on. This allows new players to spend their first few missions learning the game instead of learning how to fly. Once you disable dampeners you enter into a Newtonian physics based flight sim in Space."