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GDC Preview: Stargate Worlds
News Editor Garrett Fuller had a chance to sit down with Stargate Worlds' Joe Ybarra, Vice-President of Product Development for Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. The pair talked about the direction of the upcoming MMORPG.
Okay Stargate fans, this is the article you have been waiting for. Today at GDC I got a chance to sit down with Kevin Balentine and Joe Ybarra from Cheyenne Mountain. The guys were very happy to discuss the game and many of its features. Loads of material that has not been known about the game will be known by the time you finish this article. Everything was talked about from game mechanics to character classes, races, PvE elements, and of course PvP between the dark and light sides of the Stargate Universe. Hold onto your weapons, we're going through the gate now!
Let us start off with character design. Players will have the ability to choose between two sides or factions. Cheyenne refers to them as the light and dark sides, but more closely tied to the television show they are the good and evil factions of the universe. On the side of light you can play humans, Asgard, and the free Jaffa. On the dark side you can play humans who have gone bad, Goa'uld, or the Jaffa who have remained loyal to their overlords. There are many class archetypes in the game that are defined by the races. Human players have the options of the classic Stargate team. Soldier, commando, scientist, and archeologist are all there as playable opportunities. The other races are more defined by the skill trees that represent their growth. The Asgard are defined as the scientists were the Jaffa are the melee fighters. Speaking of melee lets talk about combat.
;)
Joe was very quick to bring up three key points in the development of the game that they are really trying to stick with. Those are modern combat, exploration, and re-playability. Joe's hope for combat is dynamic. There will be weapons going off everywhere, players will have the option to duck and hide for cover. There is everything in the game from rifles, staff weapons, hand grenades, even the Asgardian weapons. The team is working on balancing combat as best as possible. At the same time they want the in your face fighting experience. The game is not a first person shooter though. It will however be combat heavy and the four man teams (think SG-1 squads) will have to work together on the battle fields to fight it out against NPCs as well as the dark faction of players. Yes folks, the PvP will be intense.
;)
Moving on to exploration, the game will try to capture the feel of being able to go anywhere in the universe just as the Stargate allows. The game will take place in the time period from season three to season nine of the SG-1 show. With the first expansion planned as Stargate-Atlantis. The main reason Joe pointed out for this time frame is that so much went on in the Stargate world at this time. The Replicator Wars, the rise of Anubis, the appearance of the Asgardians, and humans learning star travel all play a major part in the story lines of the game. While exploring the universe there are two story lines you can follow. The dark and light paths that you choose to walk with become an epic adventure that will carry you throughout your levels. Also there are class storylines, race storylines, local and larger area quests to follow. The PvE side of the game is all about exploration and that is what the team hopes to bring to players. The key here is that the storylines will drive exploration. Worried about the time it will take to explore the whole universe? Don't, the team hopes to have a two hundred hour in-game time frame for players to reach maximum level. This leads to our next area, re-playability.
Joe wanted to stress that players should not feel bogged down into reaching the end game. He wants players to go through the world and enjoy the content. Plus he wants people to be able to play multiple characters without having to give up their day jobs. This is a wonderful feature for players who do not have a lot of time on their hands. The other main goal of the team is to continue to add content on a regular basis for players to explore, even going back and adding content to areas that players may have already gone through so the play experience will never be the same. With loads of PvP fighting planned in the game it will be great for players to enjoy different characters on both sides of the war.
In regards to PvP combat Stargate begins with its two factions. Small squads or four players will work together or players can join the fighting solo. Commands will make up the larger teams (think guilds) and players will be able to go out and fight it out all over the universe. One of the goals of the team is to have Command vs. Command wars waging all over the universe by the time players reach the end game.
;)
There is a unique area in Stargate where players will get a chance to not only feel like part of the game, but part of the show as well! Joe was quick to say that MGM has been working hand in hand with Cheyenne Mountain to have the show and game work together on developing the universe. Yes, I know, SG-1 is over, but Atlantis is still going strong, also MGM is planning a third Stargate series which will tie into the game. There are also two DvD movies coming out in the Stargate universe. Needless to say, fans of the series will be very happy to have the game elements shown on TV, as well as television elements shown in the game. This feature of Stargate Worlds may prove very exciting indeed. Along these lines, Joe did say that Cheyenne Mountain does see the Stargate scripts when they are written up so that they can work together with the series to bring the best entertainment experience possible to players and viewers.
Whew, still with me? Okay, the good news is that the game expects to have its first playable version by the end of the month. This takes them out of pre-production and into full on production of the game. The development team has set high standards for game design, artwork, and performance. With more people coming on board to perfect artwork, design, game mechanics, and features the game is moving along very well in its development cycle. After speaking with Joe and Kevin, there is know doubt that these guys are very excited about Stargate and the game they want to give to you guys. Thanks again to the team for taking time to sit down with us. I know I dropped a lot of information in this article, I also know that it is probably not enough. We will certainly keep watch on Stargate Worlds throughout development and continue to give you the news as it comes to us. For now, enjoy the show, who knows your character may be a part of it one day!
Stargate fans, any thoughts?
-Nate
Damn delicious!! Looks promising and hope it deliver whats planned on the drawing board.
As for Asguard weapons from the show, the only thing that I can recall is from SG-1 where they first met Thor. It was called Thor's hammer but I can't recall what it did exactly.
But I'm definitely looking forward to this game. I love how they said that people will be able to play multiple characters because it won't take too long to get to the end-game. I hate how it takes like 5+ months to level ONE character just so you can have fun with the end-game, which usually isn't all that fun.
Or is this strictly combat based?
Thor's Hammer wasn't really a weapon, per se. It was the device left on a planet that sent Jaffa into a labyrinth and gave them the choice to let the symbiote die so they could be free. Remember the Unas with James Earl Jone's voice that decided to stay? Of course, SG-1 broke it and that led to issues later... So SG-1 comes back to save the day again and they have to find the Hall of Might which was the puzzles Thor left behind...Jackson and Carter solved the riddle (it's all about pi), Thor said hello and wiped out the snake heads. Pretty standard Asgaard technology to make them disappear and not come back, cool for weapon, not sure how fair that would be in PvP though...
Ok, I'm obviously a big SG nerd, but so is my wife, so we're ok with that.
Anyone else hoping to see real screen shots of this game in action? Any ideas on when Beta will begin?
FoxDoc
reqs just get higher and higher..sadly enough..
Stargate does look promising in a way though.
I believe you meant "where", not "were". Also, I hope what's meant by this is the Asgard are naturally more scientific, but humans can also be scientists.
I don't like the idea of Asgard being on an SG "team". While the Asgard have no doubt assisted SG teams from time-to-time, they're not going through gates leveling up with the humans. :)
Asgard should have been an unlockable race with superior starting abilities and scientific aptitude, but not replacements for human field scientists. Tough balancing act, but it's my opinion so it can't be wrong!
Well, there is precedence for the asgard working directly with humans on a regular basis - every human hyperspace capable starship has an asgard engineer. No real reason not to take it a step further for the game. Granted, I would rather have the tok'ra (sp?) than the asgard, since it fits the story better.
I was puzzled by this part of the write-up:
What is the feature? This 'wonderful' feature is never described. Or is he referring to the 200 hours to reach max level? If so, that's hardly a feature. That's faster than games like Vanguard or City of Heroes, but slower than World of Warcraft. It taking 'only' 200 hours of playtime to reach max level is not going to lead to replayability for those who can't give up their day jobs. At 10 hours a week that's still 5 months per character . . .
Humans and Asgard will both have scientific career paths and yes there are drones.
Keep in mind that the Stargate Worlds team works directly with the scriptwriters of the show and the people at MGM.
They truly are working to keep the universe within the story lines of the show.
Unlockable, ie alpha races/classes make zero sense. The Asgard had a slew of weaknesses in the series, up to and including logical mistakes. I think they will be an interesting addition to the game. If, and only if, they add them to "away teams," I think you would be surprised at how slow that team will cover ground (I would explain, but considering that if you think about it, and derive an idea, it won't be wrong).
The bad news is that I expect them to use the WoW template for "success." Not that the game will be horrible under that template, just that it is not what I wanted for the game. Fortunately for me, I did not invest much time or effort into WoW, so I think I could have fun all the same. This editorial preview just brings up so many questions, I guess I have plenty of time to wait for the answers though.
There seems to be quite a bit of balancing needed for the races mentioned. For some reason I get the sad feeling that I will be out on a quest and see either a squad of Asguard equipped with neuron plasma multi-phased rocket launchers, looking to go 'noob hunting', or having to argue with a Jaffa about the collective stability effect of adding positive charged matter to my generator core.
While this is a more humorous thought, it stills lends itself to reality when races and abilities are not balanced effectively.
Otherwise I'm looking forward to this game as a fan to Star Gate.
I was thinking the same thing when I heard about the game, but in the end I was convinced the 3rd person route was best. When you think about it, if you want to make a game which features a huge amount of tactical combat, you want the player to be able to see the environment around him or her. If they had gone done the FPS route, you would have been quite limited to your field of vision.
first playable version by the end of the month? pre-production to production already?...too soon!
i pray this game isnt going to be rushed.
True FPS and true MMO's go together about as well as oil and water. They just don't mix. There is too much lag and latency involved in MMO's to make true FPS feasible, and it will be a long while until the technology is available to negate that. The FPSers wouldn't stand for it, and the traditional MMOer don't want the FPS stereotype around them anyore than they have to. Nevermind the technological barriers, the two gaming cultures don't mix well at all.
As per one of the head devs last year:
That pretty much nails it.
Some of us actually like a mental challenge....I guess we are a minority, though.
Well I wonder if there will be just one world with a few maps or if there are going to be the thousands apon thousands of worlds u can travel to.. I.E. a world wiht a few like two ro three maps to go to then a new world and only like 20 worlds together or if there will be a whole world which u can map otu and make structures/bases for guilds clans etc
In the show they havent been to every single world that they have wiht in thier data base ?? are more worlds what we will look foward to as expansions liek gladius sector andromada sector ETC.
as far as asgard weapons think about the Ga,uld ?? where did they get the tasers from ( cant rember the name but one shot stuns two shots kills and three shots disengrats) rember the Goa,uld dont make thier own techonolgy they use other technogly from other races and some of those items of interest are ancient and some are asgard.....
My only problem is going to be combat issues U will have skills active and passive and weapons but think abotu a soldier with a p-90 a side arm grenades c-4 etc. hwo are u to fight along with staff weapons gliders is ti going to be a m.m.o.stratgey style or the regular point and lick fire with click slot for weapons ??? if point and click then here is a problem
1) when have Jaffa ever attacked some one or thing alone ????? they attack in formation containing 10 to 40 troops never alone so battles u will have to click on one jaffa at a time i see a lot of deaths
Here is a mental challenge for you ??? what can u do wiht a star frigate ???? or a mother ship ????
MMM give up not only fight and have defence cabilities but you can live you life in one wiht out having to be tied down planet side ??
now giving the choice i take it that u would liek the mental challenge of always worring where the next attack will come from while u try to build your house and level up and exployer other worlds ???
there si a mental challenge wiht taking ovber a space ship weather it is used for transport or war fare the mental challenge is with in course setting where to go defence fo your ship/home and upgrades liek shields and weapons ...
my other question is thsi asgard are dieng from countless cloning thier DNA is week and they are not able to stop this degeneration they key si with in capt> Jack o'neil nwo as a player charter u will be faced with this problem one they are fragile and weak as in low hp and stats except for mental there are pluses to this as well think u have the memorys of a entire history of when u wherwe first born to hwo many of millions or thousands of years expierence ????? but either way they should nto allow them as a player right off bat till they can explain why a dieng race that is dwindling in numbers will sacrifice thuier selfs to go wiht a team of SG-1 exployers ?????
TY and i am really lookign foward to this game 200 hours to reach max level sounds like fun and gives a challenge on how u level up mabey not another grind/pve/pvp M.M.O. after all mabey one that si limitless and fun
To ZtyX
Long time no see
I do find it encouraging that the game will support guilds, and competitive play.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not busting on you because of English being a secondary language, I'm just saying take a little more pride in what you type.
Plus, you entirely missed the point I was trying to convey to the person I quoted. I don't have time to explain myself right now, though.
One other thing, just in general to the whole thread, levels suck balls.
/me crosses game off list.
Lots of potential on this one , been on their forums for a while now - I got high hopes for SGW
Hi all,
I was excited about this game, but that has somewhat lessened with some of the things I've learn about how they are doing the game. 1st let me say the graphic look great and I'm happy that they are going to try to maintain the feeling of exploration, and it sounds like they are going to have plenty of planets. Plus they seem to understand the need to add content on a regular bases. That being said, it's sad [based on current information] that they are not introducing more races and have a limited number of professions { I can't believe they said archtypes...lol] which pisses me off. It like no one in the industry understand player want a unique avatar [both in look , skill, and abilities]. But, the most disappointing is they are going to make this a level based game. I guess they lack the ability to make a skill & equipment based game, either that or they want yet another WoW clone....LOL.
IMO,
Tauceti
Character levels leads to "end game" concept, and "end game" concept leads directly to the Dark Side.
Also it leads to morronic gameplay:
Sheriff of town goes: "Please please please, save us from those horrible green monkeys that are about to destroy our village." Sure can do that, but hey, I am level 10 and sheriff of town is level 1000. Why do he not just fart in the monekys general direction to take them out?
But another race or two would make it un-boring?
Was, am and will be a StarGate Fan forever!!!
About all your negative feedback about races and other things....how can you give a bad feedback when you didn't even see, or not to say tried/played, the game?!? It's StarGate......with time and exploration and science in game, other possibilities will (i expect) be added. And i like that
If this game keeps the feeling from the series SGC...then i'll love it :-)
If it becomes just another WoW copy/clone then i'll stick to WoW.....but i don't think that i will have to stick to WoW
Let's just wait and see what happens(which is hard enough for me)
---------------------
Happy Gaming
I have to say The more I hear about this game, and it's current path of development the less and less I'm getting all 'Oh I can't wait to play'
First the level bomb was dropped. Then we get limited character ARCHTYPES, and now the Dev's talk of how to 'Balance' each archtype. Seriously? Is this really what Dev's sit about and brainstorm about on how to deliver a knockout MMO?
A medic should not be balanced with a Commando.. Even a combat medic who knows a bit about how to shoot will get beat EVERY time by a trained Green Beret, Special Forces, Force Recon, SEAL. Same with how your average soldier will never out engineer an MIT triple master Graduate. When did Jack O'Neill ever out techno Carter? Or out translate Jackson? They would lay cover fire while the specific member delt with their are of expertise, it wasn't balanced. a group of 3 Asguard, and a Scientist should beat the same number of soldiers in a SAT, and the Soldiers should wipe them off the obstacle course.
And 200 hours to reach end game! That is something to oh ah about? Guess the days of old where characters enjoy the rich detailed world in are gone. Now we will no longer have the discussions of how you spent years in a MMO community, instead it's all about Rush Rush Rush to lvl, and hit the 'endgame' before the next flavor of the month MMO drops. Ah well guess with the current trend of MMO's the RPG is gone, and now companies only try to hold your attention for so long.
A real shame, as I really like the Stargate cannon, and would have had a great time carving my name upon the world, but it does look like the focus is more so the Asguard with the Naquehda plasma rockit launchers of Noob slaughter, out ganking the Jaffa spawn points, than trying to unlock anything as an Archeologist.
this game is gonna pop right up near swg nge territory like it or not.
a half and half rpg/shooter doesn't get it. what it should be set up as is a fps with the ability to roleplay.
This "well it would be a limited view crap just amazes me, since when do we ever have a 360 view part of the tactic's would be
pay attention to your surroundings and not solely focus in on what you are doing, or if you have to be fully focus on studying an artifact
then your team better have your back covered. what would be the point to a four man team if you can do it all yourself?
Man this gimme on a silver platter crap just irks me to no end.
Here is what just did me in on playing this and i sooooooooooo wanted to play this game.
archtypes= iconic
3rd person view + tactics = will not work.
Leveling, which just screams noob universe.
Commando or soldier, last i checked jack was both plus pilot, not now boy, he is getting the nerf bat straight away and hasn't even made it to the game.
I can hear him saying now
Oh, for crying out loud Senator, i can use c-4 plus shoot at the sametime what do you mean i have to choose one?
Senator - Well this will help create more options, jack.
Like what?!? Dying?!? Thats just great. Think I'll take that retirement package now thanks all the same.
Then he leaves, the world gets taken over, everyone dies or becomes a snake head...
ALL BECAUSE YOU JUST COULDN'T LET JACK HAVE HIS C-4/P-90 COMBO BECAUSE IT MADE HIM TOO DAMN UBER!
Whats next? Sam has to choose between being gorgeous or smart? Because you know, that would make her too damn powerful.
OR, or, I GOT IT! Jackson has to choose between a book and a weapon. God knows if you give those damn archaeologists both at
the sametime they will take over the world in less than 15 seconds.
Don't get me started on Teal'c
Punch up P263-595 I'm outta here.
Bunch of silver plattered freaks.
I'm excited to see what they come up with for the end-result. I know I would enjoy the exploration based on what I'm hearing.... Just one thing, GET THE INTERFACE RIGHT!!! By that, I mean don't make it feel cumbersome which so many MANY games are doing. I've played so many RPG, Adventure games that have an awesome story, but extremely poor interface. I hate to even say it here, but companies shouldn't be afraid of using WOW as an example. The ease of movement in that game is the best example I've seen on the PC. The easiest I've encountered for a console is Fable (I know, not MMO... but still a good example).
-jl
That was the most poorly written article I've ever read.
Other than that, I look forward to seeing what Cheyenne does with the game, it definitely has some huge potential. They didn't really give us too much info here, just some basic race/class information. Hopefully we can get more information out soon. I'll keep this one on my watch list for sure =D
What other races would you have in the initial release?
I can see several additional races (Wraith, Genai, etc) when Atlantis is introduced, but I'm not really up to playing a Cro-mag personally...
Playing a To'Kra just isn't viable as there are VERY few of them.
If you think it's boring...well...don't play?
HAHAHAHA that's funny, and good points as well...
Promising concept, but still too much ground to cover before release.
I want to see how their PvP will be seamless.
I would have liked a larger race option as there are so much more race/types to see in SG such as the Unas or that race from the episode 5th man.
I agree, playing the Asgard seems a tad silly.
In retrospect, i believe someone misspoke themselves as the only REAL weapon the Asgard have is their ability to make things vanish :) i believe they meant the Ancients weapons
Both my and my hubby are looking forward to this game. Personally I think they shouldn't limit it to only 4 different races for each side... why not make every race that was available during those time frames in the show and not limit it to only those? I think the Tok'Ra played a very important part on that part of the show as did the Replicators. I also think each race should be just that, their own race. There shouldn't be a forced allied faction unless it was generally strictly following the show guidelines (IE: Anubis and his forces or the Replicators would be obviously evil vs. the Asguard and Tok'Ra who would be obviously good. Humans could have their own choice of alignment but no one would know who to trust with humans as they could be either good or evil. (this is only an example). But I think leaving out various races from being played leaves a lot out of the game that was in the show. And although I realize that Atlantis is due for an expansion, does that mean we have to wait for Wraith till that time too? Really looking forward to trying one of those out.
On a side note, Those who correct others for simply miss-spelling things need to get a clue. Personally I think it's ridiculous to do that (constantly correct people and every little mistake they make). It's Petty and I think people who do that on a consistent basis are trying to make up for the lack of other general areas perhaps?
** Note** While I realize I probably mis-spelled some of the names of the races, I think you all generally get the idea of who or what i was speaking about.
You can have your house while I come hovering above it with my space ship and abduct your charcter like the asgards did to humans lol.
And I hope that replicators and wraith become playable races in the expansions. I would love to be one of them.
Plus I hope that the Nox become more involved in the story and would love to see the furrys or whatever they were called because they are two of the great races in alliance.