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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.
Two of your complaints are valid, but seriously, would you enjoy playing a game where the only sound you hear is your pilot shifting around in the cockpit?
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
This is negated somewhat by the poor audience targeting. /. would rather play something like this http://www.vendetta-online.com/
I think most people on
If I made a fighter spacecraft or aircraft, I would also use audio to convey information.
If a fake sound helped identify the type of craft, I'd use it.
If a fake doppler sound effect rapidly helped convey that something is approaching (whenever fake sound is played it ascends in pitch) or leaving (descends in pitch), then I'd use that too.
I'd make a fighter spacecraft be able to shoot in almost any direction - in a vacuum you can shoot stuff sideways or backwards without the atmosphere causing "inconvenience".
BTW, I've always thought it might be interesting to have network equipment make sounds that are correlated to what they are doing - via say network monitoring software. Then a sysadmin could get used to a "normal baseline sound", and one day maybe the sysadmin might just detect that something is not quite right, way before things go belly up, and before the conventional warnings come in.
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."
Seriously, games are meant to be fun. That is their primary reason to exist. Thus that needs to take precedence over all other concerns. A highly realastic space combat game isn't likely to be any fun. I don't want a game that is concerned with having 100% accurate modeling of motion, I want one that's fun to fly.
All the space shooters that I remember the most fondly are quite unrealistic in many ways. Tie Fighter would be a great example. Love that game, probably the best space shooter of all time. However, nobody is going to call it realistic. The flying mechanics are something akin to being neutrally buoyant in water. There is no gravity, but there is friction that opposes your motion. Also, sound travels quite well, you hear enemy ships zoom by, hear explosions and that sort of thing. You can also change your view around to any number of external camera angles.
So it isn't realistic. Well, nothing about Star Wars is. However it is fun, and that's the reason I'll buy a game.
So if you are not going to buy a MMO because you don't feel it is real enough, well, good luck to you, I suspect you'll never play one then. The companies out there aren't in it to try and simulate reality, they are in it to entertain. Thus reality is going to take a back seat when it interferes with fun.
To me this is like whining that Introversion's Uplink isn't a realistic simulation of computer hacking. Well duh. Real hacking is fairly boring when you get down to it, not the sort of thing that'd make a good game. They made their game to be entertaining, not realistic (for example IPs aren't real in their game, with a select few exceptions).
If you want a realistic space sim, go play Orbiter. However don't bitch if it isn't exciting. Real space navigation isn't. If you want a fun space fantasy game, maybe Jumpgate is for you. However don't bitch when they put fun before reality. Orbiter is trying to make a rather accurate simulation, so accuracy comes before fun. Jumpgate is trying to make a successful MMO, so fun comes before everything else.
Why would it necessarily be a bad thing?
Because it would sound boring as hell.
Realism isn't the enemy of fun, it can even enhance it.
Realism is not the enemy of fun, but blindly applying realism is. I cringe every time someone cries that something in a game isn't realistic. It's not supposed to be realistic, it's a game. It's supposed to maximize fun, not realism.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Reading their Features page, this game seems just a clone of vendetta online. Twitch-based combat ? Three nations to pick from ? Bots-shooting grind ? Pirate minor factions ? Epic battles with capital ships ? Player-driven economy where you deliver needed goods to space stations ? The only feature missing is the asteroid mining.
"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"
Ah, yes, kinda like the Centurion, Behemoth, Raptor, etc...
Maybe we deserve this world ?