[Radi]

Jumpgate Evolution First Look -- Part 2 | Curse

What's different in JGE is that you have two options: you can either go pick up the goods yourself, or opt-in for delivery of your goods to the space station you're currently at. The next time a cargo ship leaves the location your goods are at, it'll stop by the delivery destination to drop off your goods.

Now, this system opens up some interesting possibilities, and Scott was clear that this is intended. You see, these cargo ships will be attackable -- allowing players to take out the ship and loot whatever cargo it's carrying. Yes, that could include the item you just purchased.

Sounds very interesting. It gives both parties (pirates and merchants) a reason to fight.

Playing the auction house isn't all you can do though... there will also be a crafting skill that allows players to create a wide variety of goods; weapons, ship upgrades, and even ships themselves.

Potential problems: balance nightmare and skill in PvP (or rather lack of it). Player X wins only because he played longer and can craft better ships and equipment.

What's special about Squads in Jumpgate Evolution is that when you create one, at the same time a web page is created for your squad on the Jumpgate Evolution website. This page will track a plethora of activity for your Squad; PVP battles won, member leveling activity, etc. The best part is all of this information will be fully syndicated via XML, allowing fansites to dig in and see what they can do with it all.

Stat whores can rejoice now.

Squads will be able to capture stations, allowing them to configure what the station offers... all within the confines of full-on PVP sectors.

A reason to invade and benefit from it. I think I'm going to be a Sol.

there will also be staged PVP events, similar to “battlegrounds” in World of Warcraft; a more controlled PVP experience where one side doesn't vastly outmatch the other in size. These battleground experiences will be level-limited too, allowing players to jump into them and not have to worry about being “griefed” by someone much higher level than them. Scott predicts most of the sector PVP will take place at max level, but expects that people will be able to jump into the staged PVP systems almost immediately.

[Rhainor]

Very interesting bits of news, indeed.

[Tritian]

Almost all of it sounded pretty awesome. I share Radi's concerns though.

Scott predicts most of the sector PVP will take place at max level

Sounds more like something Hermann would say. I'm going to assume this was some horrific typo, as I cant picture Scorch saying something like this.

[GrimGriz]

Remember the loot. People won't want to fight until they get the best guns, and I'm thinking they won't be available at 26 this time. Being max level will let you use the best gear, and unless they make the uber loot marginal most people won't want to fight with ghetto gear.

[netburnr]

Double edge sword really. I really wish there was a reason to hit level 50 in classic. Sure we get the mil map, but really, is it worth all that work?

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Radi

...

Potential problems: balance nightmare and skill in PvP (or rather lack of it). Player X wins only because he played longer and can craft better ships and equipment. ...

Well, not every piece of equipment will be balanced against every other piece of equipment. There will always be a 'best in class' piece of eq.

If the 'best in class' is made by a player, then great! Now you have crafting squads, and player driven interaction. Isn't that the goal? (not for me, granted.. i just want to relax and play a game.. but apparently that whole player-interaction thing is a real issue for some folks)

[netburnr]

Yeah but what if the best gun is made by a sol squad and they don't share, now all of a sudden the other 2 factions are at a major disadvantage...

[Tim]

true.. so hopefully they can find some crafters in their ranks, too.

I hear what you are saying, net, but the same argument could be made for anything, couldn't it? "if the best mining can be done in quant space, and they don't share..." or "if the best cargo haulers are octs and they dont share' or 'if the best combat pilots are flux and they don't share'..

We'll just have to assume that there is some balance between the factions, because if not, then the crafting system will be about the last thing we complain about on ForumGate

[netburnr]

Originally Posted by Tim

"if the best mining can be done in quant space, and they don't share..." or "if the best cargo haulers are octs and they dont share' or 'if the best combat pilots are flux and they don't share'..

Mining will always be balanced. Yes the quants could mine at a small % better than other factions, but all factions had at least some of all the rocks. Anyone can cargo haul, thats not even a proper example. And last one...well your just reaching for straws.

The arguement that crafting and player controlled markets will not majorly affect balance is just stilly. Its like the flash fire blockade.... Those squads who had the resources and foresight to stock multiple mule accounts full of flash fires before it happened had a MAJOR advantage, which caused A LOT of other people to simply stop logging in completely. And that was just one thing, imagine if ALL equipement was like that

[GrimGriz]

Originally Posted by Tim

Well, not every piece of equipment will be balanced against every other piece of equipment. There will always be a 'best in class' piece of eq.

If any of you have done the WoW battlegrounds, particularly the level 19 one, you know if you don't twink you won't be competitive. This is the scenario I imagine being the case in the PvP zones and everywhere on the PvP server in Jumpgate Evolution.

If doing 'whatever' for weeks gets you uber gear that doesn't blow up when you get podded, those that have the time to grind for the gear are likely to have enough equipment advantage to make flying/aiming skill irrelevant.

I sincerely hope those of you who make it in to beta keep an eye out for this sort of situation. In fact, I hope that beta is a pvp server, and asshats grind to get the best gear and completely dominate the server....so that just maybe ND will be ready for it when it happens after gold.

[Wild_Bill]

Grim, in your experience, are the best fighters the ones most willing to spend their time grinding just to build uber equipment? Or the ones with the best skills and talents at combat? If it takes weeks of effort to build this uber weapon, even if it doesn't disappear like the old arty stuff did, won't it still be too expensive for regular PvP usage?

You're always going to have a double handful of folks who's talent will exceed any equipment advantage anyway. Is the margin between "good", "great" and "fabulous" so thin that a single "tweaked" advantage could tip EVERY contest? Or even "most" contests? If the "grind" DOES NOT require hours and hours of work to build/acquire the "uber" weapon, then won't it be at least as available as the XX4 arties were?

Net, do you expect these "tweaked" pieces of equipment to be as decisive as the flashfires were? Do you think ND would make the same mistake twice? Even after they nerfed them down to single-use, they were just as important or even more so than when they were reusable. ND keeps saying they want to make the game "more accessible". In your scenario, the only way you could be competitive is to have "x-tweaked" equipment that would only be available to a few. That doesn't make sense to me.

If Jumpgate Evolution remains a skill based game, I can't see ND making or keeping features that allow a very few to totally dominate the game play of the majority. It must be my ignorance but I just don't see the threat here (nor do I see any actual game either).