General Discussion

Recently, Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down with Produceer Hermann Peterscheck to take a look at the progress of NetDevil's upcoming MMORPG, Jumpgate Evolution.

“Another area is "realism".” Hermann said to me as we discussed the subject of the game’s look and feel, “I kind of think that games are escapism. I know space is black and empty and silent and void of things. But I wish it wasn’t. I wish it was full of cool stuff to do and nice things to look at.”

“If you watch PBS specials you'll notice that they show space as full of asteroids and colorful nebulas... giant flaming suns and so on,” he continued, “they don't show the 99.999% part of space that is empty vaccum.”

The developers succeed in creating a more interesting and vibrant spacescape than strict realism might dictate, without making the game look cartoony and over-done. In the end, from what I’ve seen, the team seems to be striking a nice balance.

Read it all here.

"The good lord must have loved vaccum 'cause he made an awful lot of it." -Old Spacer Saying

I like the idea of having a more varied background in a spaceship MMO as long as it doesn't go over board.

I like the way this guy thinks about loot. Story-evoking "roleplaying" loot is always a nice touch.  It doesn't have to all be uber - a big pile of small stuff, so long as its stackable in inventory, is just as nice.

To put it in terms of what I'm playing now, I've gotten rich in LotRO off piles of crap mob trophies, and despite the fact that I can't use them (wrong crafter class), I've saved all the unique cooking recipes I got from quests in the Shire.

nice interview, apparently the game will be playable at Connect'08 in B'ham UK for the public.

  Loot a few cases of burbon off the pirates,Go back to station, Get plastard, All in All a good Day.

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Overall, I’ve enjoyed watching the progress of this game. It seems as though it is going to offer sci-fi fans an alternative to the games that are currently filling the genre.

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Huh? There are no games filling the genre. There's what... 2? EVE and Jumpgate itself.

The loot thing sounds very interesting. Looks like someone finally is getting past the anal retentiveness in MMOs. let's hope it catches on (Which is most likely won't because it's a good idea).

Thanks for the update!

Originally posted by phosphoros

 

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Overall, I’ve enjoyed watching the progress of this game. It seems as though it is going to offer sci-fi fans an alternative to the games that are currently filling the genre.

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Huh? There are no games filling the genre. There's what... 2? EVE and Jumpgate itself.

The loot thing sounds very interesting. Looks like someone finally is getting past the anal retentiveness in MMOs. let's hope it catches on (Which is most likely won't because it's a good idea).

Thanks for the update!

He said sci-fi, not space ( which there are 3 "major" space games at least when you count SWG:JTL). There are more than 2 sci-fi games (Anarchy Online being the most worthwile. but there is also SWG, Neocron 2, etc.).

Why do I get the feeling this is just going to be exactly like Auto Assault but in space....

This game will succeed even if they did a 50% improvement on Jumpgate.  I have some amazing memories from Jumpgate and I will purchase the new game in a heartbeat and I will still keep playing EVE because both games are very different.   I do remember I could only play JG for a period of 2-3 hours max because having full control over flying with all structures being hard meant you really had to concentrate.  You learn the hard way when you ram into a jumpgate or station but that is where this game is special.  Its ultra realistic and the dog fights were heart pounding affairs that required mass amount of skill.  I hope they keep some of my favourite stuff in the game such as earning badges for completing certain targets and alien motherships blocking jumpgates so players had to group and repel the attack.   Bring it on is all I can say!

The biggest hurdle they have to overcome is their past history. Autoassault was a fun game for a little while, but it wasn't meant to be a MMO. But far more problematic is their own hardcore small fanbase in JGC. These people won't accept any derivation from the JGC mold, and mercilessly flame and ridicule anyone who has the audacity to suggest a change or improvement to the game. NetDevil obviously learned their lesson about PvP and is trying to make a game similar to many others that has PvE areas and PvP areas so that a player can choose whether or not to partake in PvP. This drives that tiny group of JGC fans crazy. It is unfortunate that ND has to live with that history always there flaming them (Hermann himself has been vigorously flamed for his PvE and PvP ideas) at any sign of a change from JGC.

I think ND wants to make a successful MMO third time around. Not another failure. To do this, they must learn from their mistakes and not repeat them.