This post is probably going to be pretty long so bare with me. As part of our Q&A session today, we also got to sit down and play the game for a few moments. It was an Octavian starter area, so the type of weapons as well as enemy AI were both both basic. Even still, it left me with a very solid impression of where this game is going. We also watched a play through of a higher level mission as part of the presentation portion.
Spaceflight
Flying felt great and was very easy to ease into using a keyboard and mouse setup. As stated in a myriad other places, W & S control speed (with shift + W using boosters), Q & E control the roll of the ship, A & D control horizontal strafe, and R & F control vertical strafe. The flight physics were heavy on the dampeners, with maybe a little newtonian thrown in, but the dev that was with me said that the amount of newtonian flying in the game was adjusted by a sliding scale (I dont know if he meant strictly at their disposal or if it was something players could control). If I had any complaints it was that rolling seemed a bit slow feeling. That may be because of the newbie area, may be because of the dampeners. But I would like the ability to roll around fast, so those of us with quick and nimble fingers can pull tighter maneuvers.
Visuals & Interface
The game looked fantastic. And NetDevil has done a great job of making space feel lively and complex. There is debris floating about and asteroids milling around. There are fleet ships, and stations among other things taking up the real estate to keep space from being the dismal black it probably actually is. As important as the visuals are they dont stand on their own, and a clean interface is imperative to navigating the game world, while not destroying the sense of immersion the game world brings in. The interface was excellently designed, with no UI element feeling like it was in the way. To the left and right of your ship are your Hull and Shield bars. Beneath that is a gauge for boost power and current speed. Those items existed in a circular HUD. Around that circle moved an "objective" reticule, to help steer you into the right direction for your current missions. Beneath the circular HUD was a box that was usually hidden, but would pop up on occasion to report on mission completion and guide you further along. Bottom left was a chat box, and in the middle right was a mission log (that they admitted was a newly designed element). All in all very clean, non-distracting interface that helped to lock in the immersion.
Combat
Unfortunately we didnt get to participate in any super massive space battles. Since we were only flying about the newbie area, the combat was limited to shooting at newbie tuned NPC's. What I took from the combat was, most importantly, that it was smooth. Following around an enemy through sweeps and turns was easy enough. Maintaining my firing cursor on the leading reticule was also simple. Keep in mind the enemy AI wasnt doing much in the way of advanced maneuvering, and I can just imagine how much those twitch skills I have been honing will come in handy when other players, or the more advanced AI, come within my sights. At NetDevils own admittance during our Q&A, they have put a lot of work into the netcode of the game. Which im sure some of the motivation to get that hammered down was the inclusion of Technical Director Jason Bucher's face. Happy if the network was stable. And grumpy if it was lagging. Apparently he is happy near all the time now, so that should really help to keep the combat flowing smoothly.
In addition to smooth combat is the focus on massive battles. They talked it up a lot, and during the preview demonstration the sector they were in had over 700 NPC's flying about and everything appeared to be rock solid. This is probably what I am looking forward to the most, the massive battles between factions, with 100's of players occupying the system. They implied that the systems could support more than the 700 number, and that the system they were showing wasnt even their most occupied system. Its great to see NPC support for those off-peak gamers that still want to get some work done for their faction.
Thoughts from the Q&A
I am not going to provide a transcription of the Q&A session here. More than enough people have done that already. Please check out -Tikigod-'s post on the Codemasters forum HERE or you can always watch a replay of the livestream HERE.
I was really hoping to hear some information to incentivise squads. Unfortunately they werent up to discussing station ownership or any sort of reward system. I am of a mixed opinion on the death penalty. On the one hand, I am excited about not needing to spend a lot of time racing back to combat. On the other hand, I am worried that such a short timeframe could mean that massive battles turn into a war of attrition. To the victor go the spoils, but to the loser go to sleep. Have you really captured an objective or system if the victory is solely attributed to the other factions bed time? I guess we will need to wait and see how this plays out.
I am really liking their focus on PvP, stating it is THE focus of the game. All events lead to system control and the massive battles they keep promising. I appreciate that they arent pulling any punches here and flowering up the presentation with "well if you dont want to PvP then you can...." NO! There are "PvE" objectives while in PvP space, just bring a wingman to cover your back. I am a little sad that there will not be friendly fire, I like to think of it as a control mechanism for poor play. Though with battles featuring 100's of players, I can understand their motivation to not have you shot down if you inadvertently strafe into your teammate's firing line.
What I am not saddened about it the lack of any sort of hauling/mining economy game to be played.The dev's made small mentions of an existence of a crafting system. but in their views you are a soldier, or in the case of Solrain, a hired gun. You are of the elite and you dont provide for others, the nations provide for you. A lot will probably lament the loss of the economy games, but this isnt New Eve. Its dogfighting in space.
More Thoughts
Jumpgate Evolution feels great. I definitely got the feeling that this is a game they care for and are committed to releasing and supporting. I am excited to see where the story stands now, as it has been rewritten. During the presentation time I think they stated their new goal the best: its more about the ongoing story and less about the back story, more about context and less about lore. And those things are important and are changing the motivations some of the nations have in this war.
While they wouldnt confirm any dates, they did say that they have a definitive timeline for release. And that their current motivation is to ship the game. After experiencing the game today, I can say that I am very excited to see this game release. I had an excellent time during my time playing it.
I want to once again thank NetDevil and Gazillion for sending all of us to E3 and giving us this excellent sneak peak. Special thanks to David Bass (@doctordake) and the unnamed intern that pointed out they had extra passes they could hand out, and David's insistence that they invite members from the community (That is how he tells the story anyway).
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