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.

Originally posted by firefly2003

This thread is still alive? By the way any new info about a beta or when its being released a link would be nice

In the next couple of weeks, NetDevil will be setting up their billing and account management systems for the US side of things. Then US community members will be asked to re-register in order to get their details into the system for the beta. This has caused...some uproar on the forums but nothing we've not seen before.

So to me, that's a BIG step towards beta. Still no firm date but it's a positive sign than soon(tm) may be sooner than we expect!

Check out http://jumpgateevo.wikia.com/wiki/Sector_Control

As of writing, control of sectors can change and will be factional. For how long, whether this will change during beta (it causes problems for multifactional PvP squads who can only claim sectors for the claimants Nation) and other elements of the PvP mechanic remain to be seen.

For more (again, still not concrete) information on PvP, check out http://jumpgateevo.wikia.com/wiki/Category:PvP - don't assume all space will be FFA PvP however.

There definitely is joystick support and support for a variety of hardware was a very early consideration. Back in March I played the early alpha client at Connect with an X52 and a mouse + keyboard. The thing that struck me, as a player that HATED the mouse control in JGE's predecessor, was how intuitive and natural mouse control was.

I'll be sticking with my X52 though I suspect

It will be sharded; how and with what rulesets has yet to be determined. Current estimations for population are 3K (or 3-5K, depending on which source you look at) online players per shard (though more than that as registered accounts per shard, naturally).

Of course they want to make money; they're a business like any other. I fail to see how a desire to earn an income to do the thing you love means that anyone that plays the game (or its predecessor) is a "second class of customer[s]".

NetDevil have turned around and looked at Jumpgate Classic and asked themselves "Okay, what are all the things we did right, what did we do wrong and what can we do to make an even cooler MMO space-sim this time around?" I'm well aware there are a dedicated hardcore group of die-hards that disagree with the way JGE is growing and would just prefer JGC version 2. It isn't going to happen. I love JGC, I still play it. Equally, I'm looking forward to JGE. However, I'm going to reserve judgement of the game until beta - something I wish more people would do before posting endless doomsaying threads poo-pooing the game mechanics/PvP system/insert topic of choice here.

Quick responses as I have to head off to work :)

1. There are no skills in JGE (in the sense of trained, statistically important skills). All the skill comes from the player, including the twitch combat skills. You may unlock licenses that allow you to use certain types of ship and equipment, however. But, there is no skill progression a la EVE.

2. The game is sandbox in so far as you do what you want to do. Levelling up and unlocking certs just by PvPing? Go for it. Want to make a killing on the cornering the market? Knock yourself out. There are no classes (again; certifications are the only vaguely similar factor). Ultimately, you are who you want to be and do what you want to do.

For a more up-to-date breakdown of the game, check out the wiki

Jumpgate Evolution Wiki

Slightly off-topic as you're talking about PvP penalties here, but I can categorically state Qmire that you will NOT see the kind of ball-achingly painful penalties for getting your ship blown out of the sky that you see in EVE.

It was tough enough in Jumpgate Classic. Without a good supply of gear, if you were shot down you were looking (at least back in the early days of the EU server) a good 30-40 or more minutes to get back into your ship of choice and gear it up.

Jumpgate Evolution, as of writing, should see you ending up back in your ship of choice when you get killed. Rather than needing to re-kit your ship, all ship hulls start with stock equipment. So you'll not need to fly around, get yourself decent engines, better weapons, etc. Basically, as I understand it you'll be able to "leap straight back into the fight".

Ultimately, the game not even being in beta yet, this is all speculation but that's how it's been hinted at by the likes of Hermann. As he once said in an interview (paraphrased) "I don't understand games that encourage you to PvP and then punish you for doing so."

We just migrated the community wiki over to Wikia (for some extra visibility) so you could take a look at the features list, etc. from there and make your own mind up

http://jumpgateevo.wikia.com/wiki/Jumpgate_Evolution_Wiki

In summary: no, they're two different games. They feature a number of similarities (mainly the genre) but I don't see the two as in direct competition. They're variations on the same theme - I see plenty of EVE players playing JGE and vice versa.

Don't forget to sign yourself up for the beta if you havne't already

No. Whilst NetDevil are continuing the Jumpgate story and an undisclosed proportion of Jumpgate Classic's DANCER engine is being used in Jumpgate Evolution, JGE is a new game. It is not "just" an up-to-date enhanced version of Classic. There are many features planned for JGE that would never have been put into JGC for a lot of reasons but it is a mistake to assert JGE is "JGC v2".

Additionally, there are changes to the mechaics. PvP, flight mechanics (dampeners on and off), combat, weapons - all of these are prone to change over the game's predecessor. That's not to say they'll be any less good than in Classic, though - which brings me to your final point.

Yes. Agreed!  Download Classic and play offline or subscribe and come fly with the rest of us. It's still a damned fine game and I still maintain that, even with very little detailed understanding of the flight mechanics in JGE, a skilled or even semi-skilled Classic pilot will find a way to get that edge in Evolution

See you in space, pilots!

As far as I'm aware, that would be Nefarian (profile), the Codies website monkeh. He was getting feedback and fixing bugs when the new site came online. Yeah, it does look pretty sweet doesn't it?

Originally posted by aztekkk

Looks promising. hopefully we'll see an open beta pretty soon. I hate paying for mmog's unless i've actually tried it first. I've played too many and wasted so much time on crap.

As a heads-up, JGE isn't even in closed beta yet. NetDevil and Codemasters are still working on alpha build after alpha build until they're happy to start the first waves of closed beta.

You raise a relevant point though (as a consumer). NetDevil are resolute that open beta will be for marketing and not a lot more. Too many games these days are rushed out of the door unfinished and unpolished (AoC?) or use a large, bug-riddled beta as a tool for testing their product (TR?). The ND folks really don't want to do that for the sole reason that, as you say, nothing's worse than wasting time on crap - and if that crap is being played by thousands of disgruntled gamers before the product even goes gold then you have a problem.

And here's the final product, folks:

Posted today on the JGE Facebook page here. Looks pretty cool and action-packed to me, even if it's missing some good old Quantar green.

Well, I played for a week a year or so back - just after the trial started, and I liked the game but never really got into it.

So I downloaded the client and grabbed an account on Saturday and had a play. Then played Sunday, with my wife who sqeuaked "ooooh, sounds interesting" when I told her about the freeform mechanics. Then Monday. Aaaaand again last night.

I love it - but then I love sandbox games and am most definitely not put off by an open universe where you can choose to do whatever you want to do. I'm primarily a sci-fi fan, so loved Star Wars Galaxies in the early days and am eagerly awaiting Jumpgate Evolution but SoR most definitely fills a void in my gaming life.

It has its problems and there are plenty of things I'd love to see addressed but they're all little, niggling things not game breakers. The community is quite simply one of the best I've experienced in many, many years of online gaming. My wife's character had an apartment bought for her yesterday when she headed off to the mainland and I've had numerous discussions with people about roleplaying, guilds, game mechanics and more - all friendly and approachable. As it stands, my wife's character is enjoying crafting and foraging and I'm bolstering my fighting and magical skills in order to survive exploring the main land (and gather materials for the other half). Strangely, in SWG she was the Master Tailor and I was the Master Bio Engineer...

So, new publisher/developer, you have two guaranteed subscriptions here. The only thing that concerns me is how stupid I've been to miss this little gem before.

That goes for people with guaranteed beta slots as well. If you picked up a key at Connect '08 for example, or have won a slot in a competition, you still need to register a Code M account and submit your details using the beta application form.

See you in space!

Quantar

Our squad from Jumpgate Evolution's predecessor is already contacting and recruiting its former pilots. We're looking forward to bringing our unique kind of sociopathic religious zealotry to this new universe.

As our squad leader once said: "The voice of the Skein is perfectly clear to the superior mind, which explains why Octs and Sols can't hear it."

There's the unofficial FAQ in this thread but it does appear to be a little out of date. More information can be found in the forums but it's a good point, it could probably do with collating. I'll PM Gizban later today and suggest the idea.

In the mean time, if you have any questions, ask away over at the official forums or here - there are plenty of fairly knowledgeable JGE community members lurking here at MMORPG.com (myself included; only just got around to registering) that I'm sure will be more than happy to answer any questions as best they can.