Jumpgate Evolution

Well i think it depends on the world  max world size.

Eves 1.0 -0.0 space is a great example of flexibility for players of all walks. A trader can do his thing, a explorer can do his, a pvper can do his, with pressures depending on his or her tastes. 

If you don't do a system similar, then there is nothing stopping a large  guild from camping a starting area.. unless you do something unrealistic like make guard non-killable or drones that cant be killed... i think that defeats the whole purpose of a free for all space game.

And you cant rely on the community to hold back pkers that's just silly, unless your games only got 200 players, and even then there will b that one dude... or his guild.

Sometimes i like hardcore pvping and large scale wars, other times i like to be a little laid back and play the economic game and craft, or just craft to support my pvp.

Now understand, as I'm sure you do, EVE is absolutely Huge, and has the most powerful server system ever made for gaming. though the didn't start off that way.

Jumpgate has a hill to climb, But its got a bit going for it, and that is its combat mechanics. Ive always thought if EVE had combat mechanics  like "Freelancer" id never play another space game other than it. And that's saying a whole whole lot when your standing in my jaded assed shoes..

I mean Jumpgate is EVE's competition, a  redheaded orphan that was abandoned that's trying to show its worth a damn..

Ive always been a fan of the underdog, as long as the content keeps coming free and adds to the world and the world expands as it does in EVE, then i have no problem rooting for the little guy.

To bad about Auto Assault.. NCsofty blows a monster Wang anyhow...

I had to be real about it. A pretty dress and red lipstick dont mean shes tight!

And we all want a tight assed game with longevity.

I would reccomend having new players be unable to attack or be attacked by other players.  Now they have 1-2weeks, or until a certain level, until they are completely vaulnerable.  This will stop ppl that just train, while letting the new players get a chance to learn about the game beofre they die.

PvE space is a must to have a commercially successful MMORPG, which is what JGE is supposed to be.

UO is the perfect example of this: Before players had a choice of switching to EQ1, they stayed in UO. Once EQ1 opened up, UO lost over half its population, mainly because of the open PvP and all of its problems. Anti-PK guilds, etc, weren't enough to keep people paying when griefed by PKers. So UO created Trammel, and the remaining people in UO all moved to that side (No PvP). That's fairly telling about what the masses want.

In Eve, you can be killed as a noobie in a 1.0 zone.... but its so rare because the moment you open fire on a noobie, even in his cheap little ship, the police show up and light your griefer up like a christmas tree. The chance of being successful is very low, and the cost to the noob minimal (free ships after all). Anyone with a decent ship was practically immune to griefing in 0.5+ space. The only rare time would be a group of pilots all flying "suicide" frigates to try to take down a cargo ship or something. You'd really have to irritate an entire corp to have them try something like that to you.

Just like some previous posters said, something like in EvE-Online should work great?

In the center you have Empire space which is heavily guarded by security forces with several layers :
1.0 = 99% gankfree, even the biggest badasses and largests gangs normally dont think about ganking here. Because you have to basically alpha strike players, after which you get blown to pieces by security. After that your partner could go get the loot from the wreckage (which would also give killrights to kill the looter if I am not mistaken ). However a newbie would not have anything worthwile to loot. So someone just suicided his ship for nothing.
0.9 - 0.6 = 98% gankfree, still heavily guarded, only slightly toned down. Normally people dont get ganked here.
0.5 = 95% gankfree, heavily guarded, but people with good knowledge of the game, good skills and some cash are able to suicide kill transport ships or PVE ships with expensive mods, so they kill the mark, loose their ship and their buddies go fetch the nice loot. It has to be top of the line loot to make it worthwile, because it may take 5 strong ships to be able to kill the mark before the security forces take the agressors down.
Obviously a newbie will normally not be a mark, why loose millions to only gain a few thousands? And the more experienced players will normally use stronger and better transport / pve ships, which are hard to take down before security kills the agressors. So basically empire space is pretty safe, but NOT 100% safe.

In the 1st outer circle you have lowsec ( 0.4 - 0.1, where gates are protected by gate guns, but these are stationary so when you are far away they are no threat, plus they can be tanked by strong ships.
This is where things get rough and people get blown up.

In the final outer circle you have nullsec ( 0.0 )
You have 0.0 where corporations and alliances are in control, and they generally shoot anything that moves ( and they dont know ) but if you know them you can ask for safe passage.
And you have 0.0 that is not really claimed by anyone. These regions can be warzones, contested or infested with pirates, pretty dangerous.

It is a nice system, and like someone else mentioned, if EVE-Online had a combat system like Wing Commander ( or Freelancer, not sure as I havent played it ), I would never have played any other game.
So I hope Jumpgate will become EVE Online with Space Combat Simulation :p

Greetz

I just wanted to clear up some chaotic jargon in reference to "realism" in an online sci-fi based game.  First of, it's not real and it will never be real.  So if you want to base your statements on what is real and what is not you are preaching Christianity to a bunch of atheist.

Lets pick out some details for instance.  People state that there would be no safe place to be in space thousands of years in the future.  I have to say that is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard.  Imagine every time you go to the airport, is there a band of pirates waiting at the terminal when you go to board the plane?  If your answer is anything but no, then you are off track.

If you want to talk realistically, the government in the far future would have more power and control than ever before.  You couldn't even fathom the extents of control they would have on space itself.  You think the governments wouldn't maintain absolute control over all of their jump gate technology?  If a wanted fugitive even was dumb enough to go near one they wouldn't last 5 seconds.  The government having full control of the gates would not allow access to wanted criminals so if you think you can just fly around the galaxy killing anyone you want you'd better think again, because would find yourself with nowhere to go but in deep deep space where the governments in control of occupied systems would have little reign.

Let’s talk about PKing in a high security system.  Do you often walk up to people in public and just blow their heads off for no reason and walk away like nothing happens?  So why would you think doing that in space would be easier and less restricted?  Obviously someone under attack could just send out a distress signal and a fleet of blood thirsty officials would show up to smoke the hostility from existence.

If this was realistic, you'd expect the government to have way more control over their territory and would not waste a second to maintain 100% control over the regions they claim as their own.

If I was traveling in space and a wanted ship flew up to me I wouldn't waste a second calling for support.  That would be enough of a deterrent to keep people from wanted to be murders even in the future, knowing that it will just make your life a major pain in the butt, by loosing access to jump gates in controlled space and being a glowing red target everywhere you go.

That is realistic.  I think too many people were corrupted by the medieval structure of EVE.  Sure the game was big and had lots of things to do, but why would governments be functioning like ancient feudal society in the far future where massive governments/corporations control everything, not groups of lords and kings spread all over the galaxy. 

For a corporation or government to allow a freelance group to occupy and control portions of their space at their own discretion would be like the United States letting a bunch of foreigners create their own nation inside the U.S. then allowing them to succeed.  Does that make any sense?  Governments and Corporations are greedy and power hungry; they would NEVER willingly surrender their occupied space.

If you want realism, you can expect things to be boring in space, with random moments of frustration when invited.  That’s real life. 

Real life is boring and filled with annoying people who make you want to go postal when you go to work everyday.  Why in god's name would anyone pay $15 a month so they can get a double dose of realism? 

Let's face the fact that people play games to get away from realism.  So next to you want to preach about what would make a game more realistic, think about what you are trying to accomplish with your statement.  Would it make the game better for everyone or more of a pain in the ass?

Lets pick out some details for instance.  People state that there would be no safe place to be in space thousands of years in the future.  I have to say that is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard.  Imagine every time you go to the airport, is there a band of pirates waiting at the terminal when you go to board the plane?  If your answer is anything but no, then you are off track.

The last 50 years has seen a lot of terrorist plane hijacks. Ever heard of 9/11? The airport is not a safe place, which is why there are a lot of security in each one in order to crack down on crime, but it still occurs. Are cities in real life 100% safe? No, there are gun shootings and stabbings all the time! What the majority of us want is for pvp in 'safe' areas to be possible, but with an npc police ready to swoop in, making piracy in such areas moot except for the most talented and cunning players.

If you want to talk realistically, the government in the far future would have more power and control than ever before.  You couldn't even fathom the extents of control they would have on space itself.  You think the governments wouldn't maintain absolute control over all of their jump gate technology?  If a wanted fugitive even was dumb enough to go near one they wouldn't last 5 seconds.  The government having full control of the gates would not allow access to wanted criminals so if you think you can just fly around the galaxy killing anyone you want you'd better think again, because would find yourself with nowhere to go but in deep deep space where the governments in control of occupied systems would have little reign.

Oh right! Governments are all-knowing, all-power mega-entities....right. Here's yet another lesson for you: when the government finds a way to crack down on a problem, criminals always find a dozen different ways to get round it. You say they could jsut turn off their jumpgates to stop fugitives, but seeing as jumpgates would be major shipping routes and whatnot, that would be like shutting down an entire highway in order to catch one criminal...and you can't exactly program the motorway to not let criminals on.

Originally posted by Awenyddion

If you were a developer and you had to build in safe zones so that new players were safe from PK'ers, what would you do?

*  Regions of space have a PvP level in them.

*  Any player below that PvP level is safe from attack (unflagged as it were) unless they attack or flag-up.

*  Any player at or higher than that pvp level is subject to attack by anyone and everyone.

Fundamentally makes the whole universe PvP, but provides safety for lower level players until they are ready for the challenges.

Looking forward to trying JE
Best of luck going forward