The Sci-Fi MMO: The Future
In the final of a three part series, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy explores the Sci-Fi subgenre of MMOs and looks at what's to come for these decidedly non fantasy MMOs.
Editorial By William Murphy on March 02, 2010
Over the past couple of weeks we've taken a look back at the past of the Science Fiction MMO and the current landscape of the subgenre. Today we delve into several of the upcoming games that look to further cement Sci-Fi's place among the traditionally fantasy-dominated industry. With a mix of both established intellectual properties and wholly new universes coming into play, the next few years are shaping up to be mighty interesting in the online gaming space. Without further adieu, let's take a look at some of the most hotly anticipated games and why we should care about them.
NetDevil's Jumpgate: Evolution has a lot of people waiting for its launch. Originally slated to be released last year, the game's now been pushed back to an undisclosed date, and some folks are even wondering if it will ever see the light of day. Despite the mystery surrounding the title's status, there is still a lot to be excited about when it comes to JGE. Reminiscent of classic PC games like Wind Commander, JGE is aiming to be a more action driven spaceflight game than the extremely popular EVE. Perhaps a wise decision to not go head to head with your main competition and instead offer a different experience in a similar arena. With multi-faction PvP and large-scale battles being touted as a core component of gameplay, one would hope the combat lives up to the potential of the setting.
Jumpgate isn't all about the "pew-pew" though. The game's official website touts an in-depth player-driven economy and a unique mission generator which tailors PvE content for players at their command. The space-flight MMO realm is pretty much dominated currently by CCP's EVE Online, but one of the pioneers in the setting was NetDevil's original Jumpgate: The Reconstruction Initiative. I'm sure I'm not the only gamer anxious to see what the developer has learned from their successors over recent years.
NetDevil won't be the only studio entering the fray with a space-flight oriented experience. Reakktor Media's Black Prophecy is nearing the Open Beta phase, even though as of this writing they're still in negotiations with a publisher. Also expected to be a highly action-oriented game, Black Prophecy is packing lore credited to renowned Sci-Fi author Michael Marrak (Lord Gamma). The game also features highly customizable ships which are designed in a modular manner. The best analogy I can think of is LEGO. Different essential parts of a player's ship are pieced together, allowing the player to customize their ship's shape and size, ensuring that if you want a sleek and sexy gunner, a hulking behemoth, or just a weird monstrosity of the stars you can make it happen. The same technology is applied to space-stations which can be built by clans and customized in the same modular fashion. A unique take on "Guild Housing", clans can add different functionality to their stations through the selection of these different modules.
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Not all of the upcoming Science Fiction offerings will be set out in the great dark void of space, however. Not long from now players will be seeing the launch of Masthead Studios' highly PVP-driven Earthrise. Classless and boasting a number of different factions competing with one another for dominance, Earthrise has a lot of potential behind its proposed mechanics even if there's not yet a lot of hype coming along with it. Though I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. As we wrote recently in one of our weekly Lists, Masthead's title is also reportedly going to have a very significant story-driven PvE campaign that is very solo-friendly (even if the other players are out for your blood during your quest). Another noted feature of Earthrise is an offline progression system that will allow players to develop their characters even when they can't log in, albeit in minor ways that involve income or social aspects of the game's core systems.
Though arguably far less Sci-Fi and more along the line of Horror, there are two other titles on the horizon coming from two experienced developers that have players chomping at the bit for details. Little is known about both Funcom's The Secret World and CCP's World of Darkness, other than the fact that both share similar settings, and both are going to offer players something different to sample in the near future. Given how little is known about either title (though the former has a robust viral marketing campaign driving hype), I wouldn't put much stock in them releasing anytime soon. Still, it's nice to see unique settings coming down the pipe.
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Less unique, but no less revered, is BioWare's first entry into the MMORPG space. Star Wars: The Old Republic was first announced on October 1st, 2008... an event which proceeded to break the Internet. Set to release in early 2011, the fact that this near-holy IP has such a highly acclaimed developer behind it has set the hype level beyond anything this writer's seen in recent years. Beta applications are currently being accepted, and no doubt millions of anxious gamers are chomping at the bit to find out just how BioWare's foray into MMORPGs will play out. Given that we know the game has entirely voiced dialog, a robust NPC-companion system, and storylines for each character class, it may be safe to say that BioWare is aiming to bring what they do best into online gaming: the ability to tell an engaging tale. One hopes that the gameplay lives up to the narrative.
Lastly, it seems impossible to write an article about Sci-Fi MMOs and not mention EVE. Though perhaps a less-traditional MMO, DUST 514 is the second game developed by CCP and will launch as a console-only title (Xbox 360 and PS3). More of an MMOFPS than traditional RPG, DUST 514 is unique in that CCP plans to tie it directly to their firstborn EVE. The game will consist of massive ground battles between players, the outcomes of which will determine who controls planets set in the games' universe. Two entirely different game experiences on two entirely different platforms, and yet they'll be joined at the hip through the lore and the universe. It's a mighty ambitious project, and should it play out it could be a mighty successful one given the popularity of FPS games on consoles these days.
At a glance, this is what the landscape of the next 24 months or so looks like for MMO gamers. In the past the Sci-Fi MMO has had a bit of a rock road, only really gaining prominence alongside the "sword & board" titles with the success of titles like EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies. And yet most of the major releases slated on the calendar in the future are titles with a distinctly different flavor. The only question is, will any of them be worth, paying, playing and staying? Or will we look at this list of future releases a couple of years down the road with a sigh over the lost hopes of what could have been?
Man CCP has this sub-genre locked.
Lets hope BP and Funcoms next sci-fi game are good.
Good series of articles thanks.
Informative article. I'm eager to learn more about some of the upcoming space-based games, particularly something Eve-like but not PvP focused.
The only thing I'd hoped for that the article didn't have was speculation as to what future MMOs might be able to do that they can't do now. What kind of tech magic can we expect to see in 5, 10 or 20 years?
I think EVE has the space genre locked down because it is such a deep and well made game. Jumpgate seems to be for the time being dead in the water and BP might have promise. However I am very interested in Earthrise and seeing what Masthead can pull off.
...yet again, not a word about Stargate: Worlds. I still hold my hopes up that the release of Stargate: Resistance will allow CME to gain enough money to continue and (one day) release Stargate: Worlds.
About DUST 514... If CCP is actually going to force me to buy an xbox360 or PS3 to get into ground battles and thus more into the game, I will cancel my account immediately. The release of DUST 514 would effectively mean that those without a console can't help their corporation to gain control of a planet. Kinda sad IMO :(
SGW is saddled with a lot of non-game troubles that may end its development. Do a search here and read about CME filing Chapter 11. There are some revealing posts about how shaky the company is.
I am aware of the Chapter 11 situation. But I keep my hopes up, and as long as they don't file Chapter 7, the game still has a possible future ;)
I know there isn't a lot of info out yet on it, BUT i think warhammer 40k stills deserves a bit of a mention just as another title coming down the tubes
Did I miss it, or did Bill really forget to mention Entropia Universe? This game is one of the most realistic MMOs in that it has no ridiculous races (as a human being, you enter the game as a human) and no classes - you can educate yourself in any or all professions, given enough time and/or money, just as in real life.
The way you can spend and make real money in this gane is also something future SciFi MMOs should look into.
It's no surprise most future titles are something different. MMO world has finally caught up with the rest of gaming with rotating genres.
When you make FPS games you make what isn't out there right now, so if everyone is playing futuristic, you make WWII. If everyone is playing WWII you make modern combat. If everyone is playing big battles with vehicles, aircraft, ships, then you make a squad based only.
MMOs up till now had only been making fantasy for the most part, now that market is as saturated as saturated can be. We've seen several big budget fantasy launches who had high initial sales but then the subs rapidly dropped off. Why? Because they realized it was like all the other fantasy titles and so they went back to their other titles.
Finally companies have caught on so we're going to get a big push for some other genres now. Once those genres are saturated and all the fantasy games are old, companies will come out with some new fantasy games and MMOs will officially be in the rotation of other games/movies/tv shows.
Remember when zombies were big business and then all but went away, and now zombies are big business. It's about time this genre played catch up.
Scifi can be divided somewhat into space combat and ground combat. Space combat is obviously a winner with Eve.
Ground combat, however, is more difficult. No one expects that their 40 megawatt pulse rifle will require an entire clip of pew-pew to down a stinking rat, and that's exactly why this fails so often. I can kill rats with a BB gun for crying out loud! Developers are hung up on recreating the original Everquest combat that has been replicated to every MMO melee combat engine. It's not enough to bring subscribers to continue to have little numbers pop up over opponent heads. Noobs shouldn't have to pew-pew their little fingers off to kill rats, bats, and skeletons. If I have a rifle of any type - gauss, laser, slug, plasma, you name it - it should be one shot, one kill on yard trash and unarmored opponents. Period. End of story.
Also, combat needs to be more interactive and have more AI involved. Have you ever seen a firefight on tv or in a movie? People don't just stand there trading fire and watching the numbers light up over each others' heads. They crouch, go prone, duck and cover, lean out from cover to fire, use cover fire from buddies to suppress enemy fire, etc. When you get into gun based ground combat, there needs to be a lot more strategy involved than two opponents standing still and hitting each other with nerf rifles.
This interactivity is what WoW really got wrong in WOTLK. Occulus is an awful instance. The reason is that Blizzard royally screwed up implementing dragon back combat. Aerial combat should be a flowing, dynamic, strategy based, and most importantly - fun endeavor. Instead, we sit still on our dragons and mash the attack key over and over. I HATE occulus with a passion because it's not fun and it just plain sucks.
The need for good SciFi games are out there, I think, I know myself I am burned out on the sword and board fantasy game how many more ways can I kill an orc or swing a sword :). I tried EVE good game for what it is I just felt very limited in what I could do, I like pvp just not pvp all the time, I like well rounded games with lots of options and things to do, I think in six months or so STO will have allot more to offer, and I want to see The Old Republic, plus keeping an eye on a few others... Bring on the SciFi..:)
That would depend on whether or not Bioware can pull off making SWTOR into a "WoW in space" subscriptions wise.
No thank you!!
Edit: Not to mention this is a "sci-fi MMOs of the future" article. Entropia has absolutely no place in it. I believe it did get a mention in the "sci-fi MMOs in the present" article.
Our time has come my friends. No elves allowed
Looking forward to SW:TOR and JG:E. but my real hope is for Warhammer 40k mmo.....E3 can't get here soon enough.
That would depend on whether or not Bioware can pull off making SWTOR into a "WoW in space" subscriptions wise.
OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.
Ready?
Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.
Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.
I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.
Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.
It's not a real future unless it has Mech's in it ..
OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.
Ready?
Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.
Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.
I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.
Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.
How can you have even seen any of the gameplay when they haven't even shown any gameplay yet?
Also, "struggling" for 300K subscriptions? That's a pretty decent subscriber base actually.
OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.
Ready?
Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.
Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.
I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.
Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.
Given that is considered a high point for subs that is pretty good.
OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.
Ready?
Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.
Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.
I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.
Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.
How can you have even seen any of the gameplay when they haven't even shown any gameplay yet?
Also, "struggling" for 300K subscriptions? That's a pretty decent subscriber base actually.
Heh I wouldn't make that claim if i haven't seen multiple gameplay videos of TOR. check around there are quite a few walk throughs to watch.
300k is an insult to a company that basically prints it's own money.
CCP was a small indy nothing so to gain subs from 30k to 320k in 6 years is something but to a company like Bioware they expect big things.
Don't get me wrong im looking forward to the game I just don't see it being the next big thing. It certainly won't have any sort of effect on Eve at all.
OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.
Ready?
Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.
Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.
I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.
Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.
Given that is considered a high point for subs that is pretty good.
Yeah... Will Bioware or EA be happy with that number? Equaling a games subs thats basically unfriendly to any non-hardcore gamer (Eve)? 11.2 million shy of WoW? I think EA would have an issue.
The problem I have with the idea of Sci Fi MMORPGs is
How do you make a Shooter MMORPG that doesnt just feel like a Shooter with RPG Elements in ranks and stuff?
How would Gear change? Cause MMORPG fans like to custimize their avatar and make stronger. But do Sci Fi Shooter MMORPGs even allow you to change gear at all?
What will you be doing in such a world?
Well one of the better MMO's that could come out would be a Battletech/ Mechwarrior. But that would involve Smith and Tinker getting on the ball and doing something.
Plus getting out of litigation and copy right crap would be good to.... really hate Harmony Gold...
also if there was a Mechwarrior/ Battletech mmo it would have to be done Right
Perpetuum looks like it may be really good.
Eve online with Mechs? Sign me up!!!!
Where is "Warhammer 40K" in this list??...and "Huxley" by the way...
A problem that you run into with modern or futuristic MMORPGs is the number of people. Fantasy tends to work because of the limited populations.
When you think about the Eve Universe, most of the population of the Universe does not matter. Think of the billions upon billions of people that exist that are not given a second thought. Capsule pilots fly around as Gods...yawn.
Think about how you would handle a WH40K or a BT Universe? How would you have a character roaming around like that interacting with the millions of other players doing the same thing? Neither of them fit well into a MMO sense, both having their foundations in small groups or tabletop.
Do you really just want regurgitation of the epic fail we have on the fantasy side of gaming? Think about it - repeating the same old quests, not affecting the game world in any manner, and all the rest?
Look at some of the complaints STO has received for failing the ST IP on that major premise of To Boldly Go...where everybody that logged in before you has gone before and perhaps you even went a few moments ago.
In WH40K are you going to play a single unit that somehow manages to survive countless combat encounters? Face it, most of those units get fragged.
In BT are you going to play a mechjock off the back with an endless supply of mechs provided by some army or mercenary company? When you die, you die. Or will you be the guy sitting at the desk sending others off to take care of business for you?
Look at Anarchy Online plugging away after all these years. Is the Future the Past?
If they manage to resurrect Anarchy Online with the new engine, I wont care even about SW:TOR (assuming it wont be a sci-fi wow with a better story).
The future is already here...and in production....pre-alpha demo already available...
While I understand that it's not possible to mention every game, I think Warhammer 40k should have been.
The fact that it's so similar to fantasy is hugely under-estimated. I have friends who play WoW and Warhammer Online, that you can't get to touch sci-fi with a stick. They hate Starwars, Star-Trek, or anything space related. There's zero chance they'll ever give games like EVE a chance, just because of the space theme.
But I bet you they'll play Warhammer 40k when that comes out, IF it's good, and I play it myself and recommend it to them.
So that game has a huge potential to bridge the gap between fantasy and sci-fi.
You want Mech? You want High Sci-Fi? You want a world in chaos? Are you still stuck on Elves, Orcs and Dragons? You want the "Death Star" in a hand gun?
Try Palladium Books: Rifts for an MMORPG. Center your MMO on just the Coalition War in north east America and you wont even cover a fraction of the world. What ever tickles your Sci-Fi fancy, its there.
Want to know more? click here--> Palladium Books
Perpetuum looks like it may be really good.
Eve online with Mechs? Sign me up!!!!
The problem with Perpetuum is that a mech game would make an awesome action game. Instead, Perpetuum's controls, UI, and gameplay are all direct rip offs of Eve (plus gravity and ground of course). It's not action at all, it's the same lock on and then turn your weapons on gameplay Eve uses.
FPS games in MMO make lag fest if not controlled instanced battlefields. The server would have to do too many computations.
This times a thousand. Nothing like a scantily clad magic user riding a fury beetle kicking ass alongside a SAMAS pilot. That would is so huge it hurts just to think about it.
The Palladium Megaverse is too large when you get right down to it. If you were to focus on a small area, you would inevitably receive the complaints from folks wishing they had included this or that. If you were to skimp on it, how would it be any different than any of the other games out there? The various world books do not offer "higher" level content, just alternate content.
Still, Rifts will always be one of my favorite PnP-RPGs.
still no mention of a mecha mmo...the west is in a drought for a fast paced booster mecha game IMO, it would be even sicker if they managed to incorporate that into an mmo! As for perpetuum, i hear they are practically encroaching upon copy right infringment; it looks exactly like eve and the same exact gameplay(click, and rotate) as well, also those chicken legged mechs with no fast paced action is just a big turnoff to me.
Mecha > mech
Entropia is NOT a good game model. It is a virtual cassino dressed up as an MMO. Its even worse than having to buy useful items in an item shop, you have to buy EVERYTHING useful with real money, including ammo for killing anything.
What I'm enjoying and looking forward to the completion of, is the resurection of E&B at enb-emulator.com
RF Online fall down, go boom in the West.
That Mecha > Mech thing makes me think of the difference between cutesy and gritty. Sure, there are some gritty mecha stories out there - but for the most part they fall into the pretty boy thing that does not work for somebody no longer getting an allowance from mom and dad.
How can you have even seen any of the gameplay when they haven't even shown any gameplay yet?
Also, "struggling" for 300K subscriptions? That's a pretty decent subscriber base actually.
Heh I wouldn't make that claim if i haven't seen multiple gameplay videos of TOR. check around there are quite a few walk throughs to watch.
300k is an insult to a company that basically prints it's own money.
CCP was a small indy nothing so to gain subs from 30k to 320k in 6 years is something but to a company like Bioware they expect big things.
Don't get me wrong im looking forward to the game I just don't see it being the next big thing. It certainly won't have any sort of effect on Eve at all.
Can you link to any of these supposed gameplay videos?
Goddamn I want a Rifts MMO! I loved playing that game with my late-night chums, and I've always thought the game world was a fascinating place.
Someone make a Rifts MMO! Cyber knight class for the win!
Edit: Huh, it looks as if Palladium hasn't updated their website design since about 1996.
Again with what, 40 world books, over 10 dimension books, over 10 sourcebooks, how many main books, conversion books for tie-ins to Palladium's other games - with how many books there?... how would you see them even starting with Rifts?
Hey Hey
I would love to see an mmo based off of China Mieville's Bas-Lag Universe (i know it is steampunk but /shurg).
What i do not want to play is a fantasy world dressed up in sci fi, witch is what Star Wars is at heart. I want to see meaningful conflicts, and being forced to make choices , that are not cut and dry. I think the mmo genre need s a good kick in the ass, however it will take more then just killing ten rats with a light saber instead of a sword to do it.
The only game on that list that seems interesting is Earthrise, been following it for a while now.
I am also very interested to see how dust 514 comes out , and am willing to buy a ps3 or an xbox to play it. (I think it will look nice next to my 8bit nintendo console , the only one i have ever owned) I like feeling i am fighting for something and not just to climb a leader board something that most mmo's have failed at.
Welcome Home
Rev
I am hopeful Vigil Games will hand us a winner with War Hammer 40k. I have to agree with the other posts I've read though. Dealing with death in WH40k will be difficult to explain and manage. The table top game and the game lore is absolutly viscious. If you fall in combat there are usually no second chances.
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Perhaps a wise decision to not go head to head with your main competition [Eve Online] and instead offer a different experience in a similar arena.
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In my honest opinion, if you offered the exact same experience as Eve sans the way-over-the-top skills/real time training system and with more realism to PvP combat (large ships do in fact lock on faster to small ships than the other way around, and a missile in the face hurts MORE when you're going fast, not less lol), I'd sub it today. I can spend all day in a space game, but I just can't stand the feeling that when I'm logged into New Eden, CCP is playing ME :(
You'll have to accept most people only having 1 account though - without the real time skill system dragging at your heels, most people won't be running multiple accounts to take away that pain.
Planetside didn't have that much of a problem (I'm sure it still doesn't, but the population on it now is so low it probably doesn't matter). Didn't have instanced battlefields in the way most people try to spread this myth around, and while there may have been pop locks they were significantly higher than 32 v 32.
SciFi ground combat MMOs do tend to want to lean towards shooter style FPS in my mind, for precisely the reason one of the other posters mentioned. Its already straining credulity in GenericFantasyRPG001 to have to swing your rusty axe fifty times to kill a rat, but to have to do the same to kill a low level anything in a ground based shooter is silly. From what I've seen with most that try to put out a "SciFI" ground based MMO is that they simply want to replicate the formula that works in a fantasy game, namely tank/dps/healer/cc and that's what you end up with, which lowers what can be done and forces the stand around and shoot mechanics (or worse yet the travesty that is Star Trek Online's ground based I don't even know what to call it, not combat).
The problem with Perpetuum is that a mech game would make an awesome action game. Instead, Perpetuum's controls, UI, and gameplay are all direct rip offs of Eve (plus gravity and ground of course). It's not action at all, it's the same lock on and then turn your weapons on gameplay Eve uses.
Your description of Perpetuum just gave me a sci-fi rts geek hard on.
Holy shit I can't wait.
Of course. LINK
This one is nine minutes long and shows off the jedi at first. his running animations are stiff and combat slow as shit. The WoW warrior makes this guy look like hes attacking under water. very similar to WAR combat for its melee characters and something that turned off damn near half off the wow players that tried that game.
Heres the tropper looking like a mentally retarded robot all slow and clunky. LINK
Makes the WoW hunter actually look good in comparison.
Heres an older alpha video of a female jedi that looks like her feet are glued to the ground during combat (you may need to scan the video to find it). LINK
Look at the combat animations, the UI, the running animations. I'm sorry if this game can't pick up WoW players its gonna rot just like WAR. seeing that combat why in the hell would I play those classes instead of the ones WoW is offering?
The problem with Perpetuum is that a mech game would make an awesome action game. Instead, Perpetuum's controls, UI, and gameplay are all direct rip offs of Eve (plus gravity and ground of course). It's not action at all, it's the same lock on and then turn your weapons on gameplay Eve uses.
Your description of Perpetuum just gave me a sci-fi rts geek hard on.
Holy shit I can't wait.
RTS? There's nothing RTS about it.
I am looking forward to hopefully being able to don the moniker of World of Darkness Fanboy. I hope CCP allows for that to happen, lol!
I want Anarchy Online 2.
Shadowlands has been blown the fuck up, the aliens have pissed off elsewhere, and it's back to good ole' clan vs Omni with the neuts in the middle.
Update the combat system so it's not slow and tedius....but keep the buffs, the MASSIVE itemization, implants, nanos, etc.
Keep the original professions, and add a few more.
And BAM!! You'd have a GREAT Sci-FI game.
I miss Anarchy Online so much....kinda like Pre-NGE SWG....but just like that, the game is just not the same now, and it's hard to go back to slow, clunky combat and ancient graphics.
At least I have Darkfall for now. (which is really funny, since I used to HATE phantasy games)
I’m sorry but I felt compelled to comment on this.
So having my character summon a fiery meteor from the heavens to slay a Wild Boar is somehow more realistic? Or perhaps my character wielding a one-ton, behemoth of a two handed axe and repeatedly beating a humanoid NPC is somehow more realistic?
I personally find nothing wrong with having to repeatedly attack an NPC to kill it. I view it as a simple requirement of the entire gaming industry and really don’t have any issues playing a game which uses it.
U know what the most awesome sci-fi mmo would be? Starcraft Online. Now that would be truly epic. Would love to see it within 5 years. With Blizzard u gonna be sure it will be good even better than Bioware: SWTOR.
Death wont' be dealt with any differently than in table top or any other MMO. How many times has your 16 hour painted commander fell in battle only to rise again and whoop up upon another enemy? I wouldn't think you'd scratch your commander each time he fell and repainted a new one and gave him a new name. Same goes with special characters and such.
I am a tad irritated it didn't get a worthy mention though, especially after Vigil's big sleeper hit darksiders performed so well as a break-out game. The 40k MMO has the potential to be HUGE with over 20 years of lore under its belt.
Hopefully THQ sees how well Vigil did with Darksiders and will throw some more money and time at development for 40K.
Can't wait for E3!
Your description of Perpetuum just gave me a sci-fi rts geek hard on.
Holy shit I can't wait.
RTS? There's nothing RTS about it.
Dont take it so literally. People call Eve combat Rts ish due to its point to click, massive about of preperation work that goes into getting ready to fight and Overtime skill system.
Perpetuum is the same way.
I'd like a strategy based space battle game that isn't focused so heavily on PvP.
EvE is mostly boring the majority of the time, this coming from a current subscriber.
The use of Crowd Control (CC) in space is laughable, and creates a situation where strategy goes out the airlock and fights devolve into who has the biggest guns and most/best CC, and of course more ships > less ships.
When are developers going to realize that grinding through levels/skills in order to buy upgrades in a linear-progression curve just isn't going to cut it anymore?
Couple linear progression with quest-based theme park game play and you have... WoW in space! (5 year WoW player here)
Why can't we create a MMO where as you play and learn the game and "better" you character you DON'T simply go from machine gun to machine gun + 1 and then onto machine gun + 2! ZOMG so original!
Give us progression on a horizontal plane, you don't go up or down you simply go out. Not better or upgraded but instead different and contrasting.
If a new player has a basic damaging attack and a armor buff, then DON'T give the veteran player damage attack +5 and armor buff+5 give them the same as the newbie, but also give them a DoT and an evasion buff...
See what I am saying?
Why can't we see territorial control and dynamic, shifting battle-field lines between players and a smart NPC faction? Why can't NPC's build space stations and fleets and move in and take control of systems?
Why run the same randomly generated missions over and over for money when you could go patrol sectors of space in conflict with a smart NPC faction, where your PvE kills decrease their hold on a system? Where you can group up with a few other pilots and take on more then just random patrols but small stations and facilities? To large fleet raids on starports and whole planets/systems?
Seems obvious to me
Of course. LINK
This one is nine minutes long and shows off the jedi at first. his running animations are stiff and combat slow as shit. The WoW warrior makes this guy look like hes attacking under water. very similar to WAR combat for its melee characters and something that turned off damn near half off the wow players that tried that game.
Heres the tropper looking like a mentally retarded robot all slow and clunky. LINK
Makes the WoW hunter actually look good in comparison.
Heres an older alpha video of a female jedi that looks like her feet are glued to the ground during combat (you may need to scan the video to find it). LINK
Look at the combat animations, the UI, the running animations. I'm sorry if this game can't pick up WoW players its gonna rot just like WAR. seeing that combat why in the hell would I play those classes instead of the ones WoW is offering?
Are you serious? The game is not even in Closed Beta yet. This is all footage that BioWare didn't have to release, but they did.
Tell me, do Gnomes in WoW look like this? I don't think so. Things change (polish and improve) as time passes, so to judge the game now is ridiculous.
Don't forget about Miner Wars Godspeed my fellow gamer
http://www.minerwars.com/?aid=14
Shadowrun
Just got to remember its a game,an MMO,and you can only stay so true to a TT when translating. And with THQ/vigils track record with the 40k games, its looking pretty good...so far. I for one hope to see a Necromunda game as well, considering THQ/Vigil aquired the rights to that GWS IP too.
For me the future is Earthrise and here's why.
Look at the most successful Sci-Fi MMOs of today Eve Online and look at its strengths: skill based, player-based economy, almost all items player-crafted, open pvp with the right ratio of safe zones, territorial conflict which affects the economy and trickles down through the whole game.
Earthrise is part of the way in replicating those features and we'll know if they've got the rest right at launch. It also solves a couple of weaknesses I feel in Eve: playing as a spaceship and a feeling of detachment in combat. Tipped as having a similar combat system to Tabula Rasa this should interest FPS fans but have the correct intensity for MMO players.
Anyway the game is out in Q2 and will live and die based on its player base so check it out!
Of course. LINK
This one is nine minutes long and shows off the jedi at first. his running animations are stiff and combat slow as shit. The WoW warrior makes this guy look like hes attacking under water. very similar to WAR combat for its melee characters and something that turned off damn near half off the wow players that tried that game.
Heres the tropper looking like a mentally retarded robot all slow and clunky. LINK
Makes the WoW hunter actually look good in comparison.
Heres an older alpha video of a female jedi that looks like her feet are glued to the ground during combat (you may need to scan the video to find it). LINK
Look at the combat animations, the UI, the running animations. I'm sorry if this game can't pick up WoW players its gonna rot just like WAR. seeing that combat why in the hell would I play those classes instead of the ones WoW is offering?
Are you serious? The game is not even in Closed Beta yet. This is all footage that BioWare didn't have to release, but they did.
Tell me, do Gnomes in WoW look like this? I don't think so. Things change (polish and improve) as time passes, so to judge the game now is ridiculous.
Just wait and see.
I said the same thing when i saw those shitty animations in WAR in Alpha and nothing changed. Arguably Mythic at the time was a much more experienced and talented mmo developer than Bioware.
we deifnintley need more sci-fi mmo's out there...right now its saturated with fantasy crap and so my post don't get dleleted by mods again, mech mmo's i think is where there is a lack of in mmo's (that way i'm not wording it to point to my specific one)....anyway....
those games that are in the list half of them will flail miserably because either they are made by SOE or they are to close to one IP or another and set in stone or controlled to death by a publisher like Lucas Arts etc...thos that step out side the boundaries of the known tried and true are the only ones that are going to breathe new life into the grenre....and it ain't gonna be that perpendum or whatever....that is as said here several times...eve on the ground...there is no skill in the system its all a strategic gtrind from the looks of it so far....just like eve...the only mmo i've ever fell asleep at the wheel while playing...
i'd love to see more things come along in a sandbox world where there is also a lack of...someting in the shadowrun series...or other cyber punk...or even steam punk for that matter which is making a come back...world of darkness i consider sci-fi ish as well that should sound wonderful....if it ever happens...not heard a word about it in years.......sgw? what happened there? step away from the IP's people and bring out some new ideas that are really sci-fi....some really cuthulu ...no secret world...
etc
You forgot to mention Berkanix, an new awesome looking sci-fi MMO. It's a Korean made game, but it is for sure coming to the U.S.
Check out the sweet trailer on YouTube.
I am looking forward to JGE myself. As a former player of Earth & Beyond, I have been missing the space exploration mmo since it went dark. Too bad EA didn't support E&B, could of been running still to this day.
Tried EVE and wasn't impressed. Sure was very pretty to look at but was way overcomplicated for my tastes. I don't want simple WoW controls but shouldn't need a calculator to engage in combat either.
Same here. I played EVE for about a month was loads of fun with my 2 buddies,but there were not manuals on all the stats and such for ships and the tutorial should have an option or some sort of tooltip info for items/gear,I do miss vanilla WoW IE;when epics to work to get so that they actually felt more..well EPIC. And ya you should not have to feel like your taking a college course math test too >.0.
Hmmmmm ...... Sounds like we will be living in interesting times .... as i play eve, i wonder how expensive this fps is going to be ie. is my wife going to kill me for buying a X-Box ..... Hmmmmm, now where to put this new tv ... hehehehe
Calmacart
There no innocents
Planetside didn't have that much of a problem (I'm sure it still doesn't, but the population on it now is so low it probably doesn't matter). Didn't have instanced battlefields in the way most people try to spread this myth around, and while there may have been pop locks they were significantly higher than 32 v 32.
SciFi ground combat MMOs do tend to want to lean towards shooter style FPS in my mind, for precisely the reason one of the other posters mentioned. Its already straining credulity in GenericFantasyRPG001 to have to swing your rusty axe fifty times to kill a rat, but to have to do the same to kill a low level anything in a ground based shooter is silly. From what I've seen with most that try to put out a "SciFI" ground based MMO is that they simply want to replicate the formula that works in a fantasy game, namely tank/dps/healer/cc and that's what you end up with, which lowers what can be done and forces the stand around and shoot mechanics (or worse yet the travesty that is Star Trek Online's ground based I don't even know what to call it, not combat).
Yeah, Planetside's poplocks were 400 per continent. That's 133 each side, at the same time, potentially all fighting over the same piece of real estate. There were usually dozens of people starting crap at other bases, but still, it was true Massively Multiplayer FPS action.
Regarding lag and frame rates under those conditions, when I first started playing, with my uber AMD Athlon 1600 and my Nvidia TI4400 video card, I got like 7 FPS due to all of the people around. When I quit playing 2 years later, I had a midrange machine that could sustain 50-60 FPS in the same conditions :D So as long as the graphics aren't crazy, it's perfectly doable today in that regard.
About ham-fisting Fantasy-style combat into sci-fi - I totally agree. That's why I quit SWG after about 1 hour of gameplay. It was just STUPID to empty clip after clip of blaster ammo into a starting level vermin's head and have it just take it and hit me back. It's a BLASTER. It can shoot holes in METAL WALLS. Mr. Alien Rat should be Mr. Headless Alien Rat after the first round. Oh, he's 1 level higher than me? It's supposed to make a challenge for starting players so they get a feeling of accomplishment? Whaaat?? /facepalm
So the developers (or their bosses) were on friggin' crack or something, or they just wanted to reuse the EQ engine or whatever. I was very sad to see that - I was really looking forward to SWG, spent a half hour making a good char that I was happy with, and I had a MMO-playing friend that was into SW too. He later went on to be a high-ender in EQ2, big crafting player on the server and all, so I'd say that they lost two accounts that day.
The animations in the gameplay they've shown us are at least on the level of most other mmo's out there, because fyi, animations in mmo's aren't usually on the uber highest level of the game industry + much of the delay in the vids is because of FPS issues.
Besides, a lot has changed already from the first footage we saw up to this point, so they're evidently still working on it.
Lastly, graphics aren't everything a game is about, as BW themselves proved plenty of times.
Ps.: It's kind of priceless to see a guy who defends a game like Mortal Online, where the animations are on the level of *stretch my arm and hope to hit a rat*, bash a game with a great dev team and tons of money behind it.