[GrimGriz]

In all the breaking and changing and "improving" of Jumpgate that the evolution devs are doing, what mistakes are they likely to make before letting us into beta to try and convince them to fix it?

Off the top of my head:
* Leaving non-pvp ships defenseless
* Not giving us enough reasons to gather at real stations
* Keeping artie hunting anywhere close to the Jumpgate Classic version (hiding players out of site flying in straight lines)

[Lordopic]

rehireing GM's of yesteryear.

Oh you said developers, as for having a reason to gather at faction stations I have no interest in that one, but I would like to see missions that involve team work, and a reworking of swarms, but I'm sure that will come with the new AI..

Make mining more fun.

[vorlon31]

Giving Oct ships FREIGHTER power plants on fighters!
and
Listening to us too much. 200 cooks each wanting 300 differing ingredients is not going to make for a tasty pie.


In turn we need to have faith that it is their baby and they have listened and learned enough over the years to know what we really want, beyond this surge of brainstormed of idea's.

[Jump]

There is guaranteed to be things about the game that you don't like. That's just how it is in gaming or anything. Will those things be mistakes? Not if people play the game.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by vorlon31

Giving Oct ships FREIGHTER power plants on fighters!

Yes, Oct ships don't have enough power. I say they all get Intimidators.

In all seriousness, I think that the ND boys have designed enough games now to where they know how to read a forum and cherry pick the insightful stuff from the speculation.

Yes, and more reason to gather at fac stations. Community made Jumpgate, and the loss of community killed Jumpgate. Back in the day, the game told you nothing, but there were so many nice helpful people around that instead of getting help from the game, I got help from Quantar.

Made me feel like I was a part of something

[Injustice]

Overall I'd say the biggest mistake they could make would be to catter to one specific pilot role more than the others. Being a hauler, a miner, a PvPer (either factionalist or pirate), or a fluxer should all be enticing, and all players should be able to experience all aspects of the game.

[Wild_Bill]

Injustice hits the nail on the head! No matter that the original Jumpgate Classic was designed as a Space Combat Sim, what it evolved to in the 6 plus years was something more. There was/is a real place in the game for those who wish to do something besides space combat. I hope Jumpgate Evolution will expand on this, not to diminish the role of pvpers at all (I hope they expand the PvP RP) but on the non-combat things to do in game.

The tidbits we've had on new 'roid activity/design are tempting. If there are new sectors, different ones, or just a reshuffling of what we have now, there will be an opportunity for exploration and mapping. Who knows what new features may be added? I am curious but patient (well, TRYing to be patient).

[dailatron]

What mistakes should Jumpgate Evolution devs be careful to avoid?.

1. Making it too PvP centric (at least 75% of players I think will be non PvPers)

2. Not having enough for non PvPers to do (and I dont mean mining)

[Chemdog]

Originally Posted by dailatron

What mistakes should Jumpgate Evolution devs be careful to avoid?.

1. Making it too PvP centric (at least 75% of players I think will be non PvPers)

2. Not having enough for non PvPers to do (and I dont mean mining)

3. Making it too PvE centric (there are plenty of games out there that focues on everything outside of PvP - let's have one that still promotes it, hmm?)
4. Not having enough for PvPers to do so they have to spend their time shooting non-PvPers. (which is what happened in Jumpgate Classic)

[vorlon31]

I think ship balance issues should be avoided at all costs.

Make differing ship models for the factions, yes, so that there is a factional identity using appearance in space, but please make each ship classes functionally identical across the factions AND then give us the ability to customise and optimise those ships using differing equipment combinations. No more best in class engines/shields etc etc.

Look at al the dead equipment in Jumpgate Classic, there shouldn't be any slack in the economy and making useless equipments is slack. So, by making everything tweak able, there's no wastage and no slack and yes you will see uberfast fighters but you'll know they have little guns or shielding, yes you will see slower haulers and you can guess they have near impenetrable shields etc and everything in between.

[dailatron]

Originally Posted by Chemdog

4. Not having enough for PvPers to do so they have to spend their time shooting non-PvPers.

Actualy thats a hell of a point. Probably the most intelligent thing Ive seen posted in the whole of the Jumpgate Evolution discussion so far.

[alphabet]

Originally Posted by vorlon31

Make differing ship models for the factions, yes, so that there is a factional identity using appearance in space, but please make each ship classes functionally identical across the factions AND then give us the ability to customise and optimise those ships using differing equipment combinations. No more best in class engines/shields etc etc.

Actually, I liked the differences between the factions in EP1.
Solrains: Shielding tech, high energy, mod speed, low firepower
Quantar: Engine Tech, low energy, high speed, mod firepower
Octavius: Weapons Tech, mod energy, low speed, high firepower

I think the biggest mistake was being able to equip any peice of equipment from anywhere on a factional ship, which makes balancing very hard for all the different ways a ship can be equipped and configured.

I agree with the rest of your post, i.e. I like the idea about customizing the different components.