General Discussion

In this Developer Journal, Herman Peterscheck, the Lead Producer of the upcoming MMORPG, Jumpgate Evolution, takes the time to talk to us about AI for the space-based game.

I can distinctly remember this scene from 2010; and it is a most amazing moment in a Science Fiction movie, I find. Amazing not only because it shows some kind of sentience in a machine (we got plenty of that in 2001), but because of the response. Nobody knows why. When you consider how things in games work, that mantra comes up over and over again. Most things in games are the result of nobody knowing why. Why is that wonderful thing that happens when all the pieces come together and things just seem to work. It’s a moment we all work for. It’s a moment we all hope for. It’s what games are all about.

Let me back up a few paces and go over why we thought AI was necessary in Jumpgate Evolution. The obvious reason is that you need to have stuff for players to do. One of those things is to blow things up. In order for blowing those things up to be interesting they must behave in some kind of predictable or unpredictable way. They need to fly, shoot, miss, hit and vary in difficulty. All of this is pretty much expected at this point. But we wanted a bit more than that.

Read the whole thing here.

This sounds pretty cool... especially if it also worked the other way around e.g. a player who wants to trade or mine should be able to hire NPC escorts to protect him against pirates or alien attacks.

The AI in mmorpgs so far has been horrid, the basic algorithm was spawn, fly to the player, shoot him. Even the original jumpgate used this algorithm.

If the new jumpgate creates proper AI this will be a real fun game, personally I cant wait to see it :)

This does indeed sound impressive and interesting...

I think they read my Blog on my Trade Routes system.... jk

A MMO where the AI creates its own goals and objectives, then allows the player to have a fundamental impact on those goals/objectives is already well on its way to being the most dynamic and interactive MMO ever created... I hope they aren't just 'tooting their own horn' and the example given in the interview is a serious probability

I just hope the NPCs won't be using any non-standard ship configurations (e.g. oversized engines or shields) to cover a poor implementation.

I'd also like to know if there will be NPC-only ships (apart from aliens), and if the AI can be tweaked enough to be useful for RP events, removing the need to "man" those vessels with GM staff.

What about AI and a players faction with it? I would think that faction would have some play in how the AI would react with a player. Would an AI cargo ship call for help from a player that had bad faction with it's company, or fire at the player once he/she arrived on the scene? Would an AI cargo ship give a bigger reward to a player that helped?

I really have high hopes for this game. I was in the orginal Jump Gate beta, and the DEV team was always around asking players how they like this or that. They even took suggestions from players and acted on it.

The problem with MMORPG's is that most of their own staff, don't even play their game. I know that this wasn't the case with the orginal Jump Gate.

"The final step in this experience is to communicate the state to the players. For example, when a hauler is docking, having a nice sound play that it’s requesting permission to dock. If a hauler is under attack have it radio you for help and ask for it".

in EVE online we have a similar NPC system but most in time the NPC´s are just a useless "phenomenon" - you see NPC haulers and traders docking out from a station but you dont know where they are flying to. at the stargates you see only a few times one of em, most in time there are only police ships who patrolling arround there.

it´s a cool feature to let the players interact more with the NPC´s

Is this going to be a new jumpgate, or a revamp on the old jumpgate, if it will be brand apnking new, i will look forward to playing it.

Originally posted by boognish75

Is this going to be a new jumpgate, or a revamp on the old jumpgate, if it will be brand apnking new, i will look forward to playing it.

The following is from an interview with their new Community Manager, Nicole Hamlett: "There is a bit of a misconception that it's an expansion to the original Jumpgate. The JGE team is actually creating a new game entirely."

When you play a new game you always compare it with similar games.

In my case it was 'mankind' (arround 2000) and 'eve-online'. But honestly the only feeling i got  with the old  Jumpgate was 'this looks like space invaders'...

So i hope that they are able now to create a better feeling. The graphics are exellent...if they're not artistic images only...