Not sure where you're getting your information (cite some sources would be good) but the game wasn't formally announced until the tail end of 2007/start of 2008 and was firmly described as being in alpha in March 2008. I'll happily cite my source: Scott Brown over a drink at the end of the Codemasters Connect '08 event - that was 14th/15th March 2008 and was the first public showing of the game.

The layoffs were at Slipgate Ironworks and the studio wasn't closed [source] - this doesn't affect NetDevil in any way, except I guess if any of the developers that were moved around internally ended up on ND's development team.

The game is still very much alive and the last few months have been spent reworking chunks of the game based on feedback from the F&F tests earlier this year. As soon as the powers that be are happy to announce more concrete news, they will do. Anything else you hear are, as you say, just rumours - unsubstantiated and baseless.

Originally posted by hellaskan 

So you're going to try to tell us, that the games i listed above.. bear no resemblance to one another? Even while some are related, and some devs worked in both houses? You don't think the art style, feel, lack of polish, look, gameplay amongst the games i listed are similar to one another at all? In saying that, the games I listed above failed, are failing, will fail or only did mediocre..

(when i say fail like that, i am not saying that with a happy face nor do i mean nobody bought the game, they did.. but not nearly in numbers.  I wanted AA to be awesome, i wanted TR to be the next big thing..I wanted CoX to have some depth and replayability..but that never materialized...and those titles were very related across the board. )

and JGE doesnt seem far removed from those titles. holy hell, i want it to be though, i want a fun space-based MMO.. and not a job (looking at you Eve). 

No. I'm trying to tell you that NCSoft have nothing to do with Jumpgate Evolution and had nothing to do with Jumpgate Classic (the progenitor of the Jumpgate "franchise", even though they're two very different games).

So when you say "Also, if you're a knowledgeable gamer, you'll know how cheap, copied, and related all Net Devil/NCsoft games feel. I hope Jumpgate Ev doesn't feel/play/look like:" I'm just pointing out that saying "Net Devil/NCSoft" doesn't make much sense. In fact, it's one heck of a straw man argument.

But I do agree with your sentiment in that I also want a fun, space-based MMORPG.
 

Originally posted by hellaskan

Also, if you're a knowledgeable gamer, you'll know how cheap, copied, and related all Net Devil/NCsoft games feel. I hope Jumpgate Ev doesn't feel/play/look like:

-snip-

The only connection there is AutoAssault. NCSoft have absolutely nothing to do with NetDevil any more, nor Jumpgate Evolution; nor did they have anything to do with the original Jumpgate.

Teala, I understand your point - maybe because this is new server, new start and I've not played since 2005 it does seem fresh and interesting. But with no personal commitment to an Outfit (yet...) I don't really share your concerns. Not for now anyway.

I was there for the battle in Solsar (in between re-certs) for around five hours and yeah, we were pretty much pincered between VS and TR, but it was still fun. I can only speak for myself but I probably fall into the "casual hardcore" crowd; I tend to only get in game now and then due to real life commitments but play hard and to have fun when I do. The drop-in mechanic of PS (probably much like the Battlespace mechanics expected in JGE - even as a dedicated world PvPer) appeal to me.

I'll give it a play longer (about to log in now...glass of wine at the ready...) and see how I feel in a few weeks.

I might just hold you to that; in-game name is also Mulli - I had a play around with various basic certifications last night, starting with my usual Combat Engineer (still fun, love the "new" certs), testing out a MAX (never done before; hate it) and Heavy Assault (stacked up those grief points with the shotgun!). So tonight I'll have a play with a sniper/launcher loadout and see if I can do some damage from range.

I must head over to the official Jumpgate Evolution forums and see if there's any interest over there; a lot of the old Jumpgate Classic players played PS in the early days - might be we can get a few of the old players back onto Auraxis.

edit:

Hoo-rah! Lets see who bites; given the opportunity to blow the crap out of an Emissary, I'm hopeful

Yep, still in the Friends and Family stage of testing, which Codemasters and NetDevil indicate is going pretty well and they're gathering lots of good feedback. Beta will be announced when the powers that be feel comfortable to open the game to a wider audience; until then, there is no closed beta date (closed beta being the next official stage of testing).

100ms ping to Gemini from the UK last night and I was reminded of the old days; non-stop action all evening to the extent that "Uh, I better log to get something to eat...sweet gods, it's 12.30am..." 

Would be cool to get my characters from Werner merged, just for the kudos of the veteran's pips  Though that said, they're all incredibly low in BR - I pretty much caught up with myself in one night last night.I'll have to see how that works out anyway. In the mean time, I'll be having a blast as NC on Gemini. Again, thanks for the heads-up Neoki. See you on the battlefield...

Oooooh, good to know. I'll download for the wife and I tonight... fingers crossed this time I can get it working on Vista. None of the shortcut hacks worked a few months back when I tried...

Cheers for the heads-up.

-- Mulligan/ex-Werner

So, Khatie (NetDevil Community Manager) has posted up a couple of threads on the US and EU forums where you can post your questions.

Please post your questions for the development team here. I will close the thread this Wednesday, July 15, 2009. The team will read the questions and answer the one that they feel is most reflective about the current state of the game, or offers some key information we may not have heard from them yet.

Answer will be posted before next Monday.

Enjoy. :)

US thread here and EU thread here.

The more new and interesting (i.e. not "WHEN DOES BETA START?????")* your question the more likely it'll get answered. Hopefully, this is going to turn into a bi-weekly affair or similar - so if you think you have a burning question, get your thinking caps on.

* Still no firm date. When it's ready to be announced, it will be.

Originally posted by gestalt11 

 If JGE keeps similar tradeoffs, namely maneuverability vs number of guns/size.  Then it should be fine.  Although of course in order to take advantage of the maneuverability of the starter ships you need to be good at flying which is a bit of a paradox.

For what it's worth, it seems that they have. A recent interview with Scott "Scorch" Brown saw him describing the emerging behaviour in F&F testers flying "lights" and "heavies" (placeholder names?) in one of the Battlespace scenarios. Testers in lights would take advantage of improved maneuverability to try and drop in on the six of the heavies (also, I guess, avoiding the barrage of gunfire from the heavies). To counter this, in the indoor scenario heavy pilots would start hugging walls and using terrain to their advantage. Definitely one to look forward to trying out when beta hits.

Short answer: no - your ship is your avatar.

Longer answer: no one at NetDevil has stated they WON'T be adding player avatars at some point (one would assume they could re-use the assets from AA), but it seems highly unlikely. The focus is on fast-paced ship combat and personally, I'd hope that game/content updates and expansions after launch would focus on enhancing this core element of the gameplay.

edit: ships ARE your avatar or ship IS your avatar...

Originally posted by Auzy

If anyone has more info on the aiming style.... red box aiming (can you turn it off), recoil, missiles?  More detailed dog fighting than just point and click...?

As stated above, the reticle you see is a lead indicator. Your guns still fire at a point in front of your ship (I've no idea if there is any convergence involved) so you still need to be able to pilot your ship sufficiently well to ensure your shots land in the lead reticle. So not just point and click (e.g. Freelancer style tracking turrets) - piloting skill is involved as well. Taking into account a variety of ship types with different masses, loadouts, etc. I'd imagine there is some skill involved in hitting your target.

Assuming things haven't changed much in this respect since 2008, the reticle goes red when your active weapon is in range - nothing more. Missiles require time to lock on before you can launch them. We've been promised a variety of weapons (I assume different rates of fire, ranges, etc) but I've not heard anything regarding recoil. It has been confirmed that some weapons require ammunition which can be reloaded for a fee when docked at a station. Same applies to missiles (a divergence from Jumpgate Classic where missiles were a one-shot deal).

Hope this helps.

To echo the post above, here's the same thread on the US forums:

http://us.jumpgateevolution.com/forums/showthread.php?t=551

-- Mulligan

I never said there was a problem. I only just hopped into this thread to clear up a few misconceptions. For what it's worth, unless the HUD has undergone a drastic overhaul (and it could have since March '08) then that's exactly what you did see - a target list you could prioritise (enemies, friends, containers, etc). Much like EVE I guess but it identified nearby pilots as well.

It works like that in Classic (though you need to cycle through targets). I imagine something similar will be in place in Evolution. Personally, I don't want to see names above ships, but having named targets in a list or in your target reticle is a must.

Sorry, you misinterpreted my post. Enemy pilots will not be out of range/sight in seconds. This is not LOMAC, head-to-head with full afterburners and a lock-on at 15km. This is taking the Star Destroyer head-on, jinking to avoid the bogies on your six pumping magnetically-accelerated plasma into your tailpipe, in-your-face (or six) pewpew dogfighting. There is no evidence from pre-alpha demos last year (Connect '08) to recent videos that people will be able to break combat and disappear in seconds.

It's all about the furballs, baby!

When I played at Connect '08 last year, the scale was very much on a par with Jumpgate Classic. That is, I understand we're looking at weapons with a variety of ranges from close-range (800-1000m) guns to long range (4000m or more) slow-firing projectile weapons. The recent PC Gamer preview even mentions long-range howitzers with splash damage. There was no indication that outside of a couple of thousand metres a target was nothing more than a speck in the blackness of space, nor that a target could - in seconds - evade and put enough distance between his attacker and himself to make himself a miniscule target.

The game is still all about dogfighting; in-your-face guns-blazing fighter combat. ND aren't going to implement a mechanic that deliberately detracts from that philosophy.

edit: I hate the paragraph spacing on this forum

Originally posted by Agricola1

If this happens open space will become desolate and Netdevil haven't decided what rewards there'll be in scenarios. If they do implement it I'll wait until a month or two after launch before I consider a purchase, pulling this kind of crap to chase the big numbers is just gay in my opinion!

I disagree. This will only be the case if the benefit/rewards from instanced PvP outweight the benefits/rewards from open PvP. WAR's problem was that scenarios originally rewarded players much more than oRvR ever did, so people just queued for the scenarios and ignored the fun of keep sieges, etc.

And... it's 50 vs. 50 vs. 50 according to a recent interview. Three Nations, remember ;)

Nope. YOU are the class you choose. You want to fight? You get yourself into a fighter and you go out and fight. Want to mine and turn a profit? You get yourself into a miner and find a juicy asteroid field.

The closest thing to "classes" will be ship certifications which you unlock as you level up. So to get yourself into a heavy uber-miner you might need to unlock the appropriate certs to do so. I don't know the restrictions on certifications but there's certainly no reason why, for example, you couldn't mine if your primary play style is combat. Also, you will be able to own multiple ships, so switching roles is just a hangar away...

EVE isn't boring, but it's very different from JGE - and I say that as a JGC fanboi and EVE player.

Check out the wiki for more detail but it's not just a graphics revamp. Off the top of my head, some of the notable differences between JGC and JGE are:

- A whole different AI mechanic which ties into things like the mission generator. Conflux and other enemies that gang up, communicate with one another, fly from sector to sector, that sort of thing.

- More forgiving flight mechanics. Like JGC but also with dampeners that affect flight in different ways. I still think dampeners off (old JGC-style near-Newtonian flight) will be superior for the skilled pilot.

- An arcing storyline that ties into the nations, sub-factions and corporations as well as NPCs like the Amananthii.

- Crafting. Well, more like fabricating and manufacturing but no longer just a case of dumping materials on a custom producer or station and waiting for a production cycle to kick in.

- Lots of PvE and PvP content in addition to the open-universe PvP from Classic.

There's lots more (unfortunately I'm on my lunch break at work and don't have much free time). Bottom line is: it's a new game. Check out the wiki and the forums and you should see plenty of information.