All Posts by Newt

Originally posted by Scottgun

Too early  and not enough information to tell. Another post asked about August 2008 release. No way that's gonna happen with the current dearth of info they have released. (That and the beta hasn't even started.)

You would be surprised.  The developers have said betas (open betas) are only good for marketing, so having a long beta just because doesn't make sense.  They're using Agile/SCRUM, it produces results, but not the way you'd expect to see them.  Instead of doing big chunks of the game over a long period, they have a bunch of developers working on little pieces separately with alot of testing, then after their development cycle is over, they regroup, assign new tasks and get back to work.  IIRC they're on a 2 week sprint cycle with 40-50 developers/artist working on the project.   The game is in development/alpha, if you read the interviews, you'll get alot of insight into how the game is progressing, there have actually been alot of interviews about the game, just not pretty screenshots/videos.  They probably don't have time to show us stuff, but its really irrelevant isn't it?  The game isn't in pre-order, the marketing blitz hasn't started, and they're working from the ground up, so some of the pretty stuff like the UI and ship models may not have been started yet.  The most visible elements in the game are just polish and they're probably the last thing to be completed.  The interface  and models you see are really irrelevant to the bulk of the development cycle.  The indications are a release in Q4, which means beta is 'soon'.  But that doesn't mean everyone is going to get in beta, unless they do a short 2-3 week pre-release open stress test.

You must be coming from an EVE background, because well, the death penalty isn't that severe in Jumpgate Classic.  Losing stuff comes out to maybe 10% of the value of your ship.  And you get the same ship hull back, you just have to re-equip it.  JGE will have the same type of model.. insurance pays for a percentage of the value of ship, cargo and upgrades  AND gives you the same hull, but you'll have to buy the upgrades again. 

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by Eraser55

 

Originally posted by Ekibiogami

Cause Flying a Battleship with a Flight stick(Or Mouse/Keyboard) Would be Retarted... Nevermind Dreadnaughts....

 

Yes that would be retarted.. so there wont be Battleships.. only small single pilot vessels afaik..

 

The developers have been quoted as saying they one day envision large scale fleet battles that involve capital ships, so yes, there will be large ships that are piloted by a joystick.  Expect the handling to be a bit on the sluggish side.

 

The Devs have also said that capital ships will not be player controlled.  That leaves Cap ships as AI piloted, or static AI ships on a battlefield with fighters between them.

PM me a pass if you have a spare.

Originally posted by Velric

 

Originally posted by Nomatica

The only thing that bothers me with this game are the zoning after playing WoWs huge seemless world itll feel like im going backwards.

 

Ever noticed how WoW pulls off the seemless world? The game is comprised of chunks and uses a simple and clean graphics. You can't travel between zones from just anywhere, you can only do it from specific entrance and exit points. It's seemless to a degree, but not completely. Impassable walls around every zone does not a seemless world make.

in WOW - You CAN travel between zones at any point on the border.  You must have completely forgotten about the borders on regions like Westfall and Elwynn forest where they have a big river and a bridge.. you can cross the river or the bridge and get the same place.

They use those entry/exit points and ROADS to give a flow to each region.  To get from point A to point B.. to find the next town.. to locate the next quest. They use choke points and paths to give some direction to traffic.  If there were no roads/tunnels/door, the game would be kinda boring, most people wouldn't know what to do next because they don't want to explore a featureless map to find content/quests.

Just read what the developers have stated about the PvP idea for Jumpgate.  They want an open PvP 'frontier', they just haven't finalized the details for the 'core' sectors near the faction homeworlds.    I think all the posts about 'do what *I* want or your game will fail' are silly,  Netdevil has a plan for the game, and you don't work for NetDevil.  Go read developer posts on the official JGE forums if you wanna see what's really going on.

Originally posted by TheGreyMan

same idea behind eve? hope it is

Depends on which idea you're looking at.  Its in Space, like Eve and you can play different roles, like cargo hauler, miner, fighter.  But besides that, its very different from EVE.  In EVE you have a character that you 'train' to get specific skills/specials.  Jumpgate doesn't have Character skills.  Flying and fighting is all about PLAYER skills.  Jumpgate is a Space Flight Sim, like Freelancer, Wing Commander, Freespace, etc.  You don't have a skill tool bar and you don't get Rank 10 fireball or rank 5 Afterburner :) .  You can gain certificates to use different ships and you have a profile with stats like kills, deaths, medals you've earned and your faction standings.  There is equipment and ship variety, scouts, bombers, fighters, miners, transports, newbie shuttle  :)

Earth and Beyond was a point and click game.  Like World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc.  You had a toolbar for skills and you didn't really fly so much as 'move'.  Jumpgate is a Space Combat Sim, like Freelancer, Wing Commander, Freespace, etc.  You can get a 14 day free trial of the original Jumpgate at www.jossh.com.  You can also read all about Jumpgate Evolution at www.jumpgateevolution.com.  The stuff on this site barely scratches the surface.

Actually, this is the company that DEVELOPED AutoAssault, but NCSoft was the publisher/investor and therefore had alot of control over release dates.  Its generally accepted that NCSoft drove AutoAssault into the ground for releasing before it was really ready.

NetDevil developed Jumpgate and now JGE without outside influences.

Just have to say, low post count, but someone flaming a community because their own attitude isn't appreciated is just dirty. 

<- Check my join date, I'm not a newb.

My understanging is they're releasing on two dual-layer DVD's (8.9gig EACH). That gives you almost 18 gigs to fill up.  That could turn into 30gig on your harddrive if they compressed any of the files.  Its possible they're just future proofing and giving room for expansions, or like someone else said, maybe thats how much you need if you download and install.

I sent a PM with my email addy.