[Radi]

Originally Posted by Injustice

Keep in mind that the AB isn't an instant on/off like flashfires. When they were engaged they sputtered a bit at first, giving off a tell-tale flash from the engine exhaust. You can see an example in the game trailer video.

Yes, I remember that. But when you can zoom out like you mentioned, you can jump around (if you have pilots vectoring on you) and possibly keep track on what is going on.

Originally Posted by Injustice

The best analogy I can come up with for the way the ammo looked is that it's just like what you see in BSG, absolutely cooler than instant hit weapons like lasers. I'm also psyched about the way he described cap ship lasers. It reminds me of Colony Wars for the PS1. If you never played the game, it's basically like Jumpgate in that you always fly a fighter/bomber, but there are cap ships with incredibly powerful laser cannons exactly like Scorch described, you just make sure to avoid them and go for the cap ships undefended areas.

I don't know why, but a scene from Homeworld comes to mind where frigates were able to target fighters with their main weapons.

[ELPIRATA]

Freespace 2 also had massive laser batteries that looked more like a hot knife thru butter. You had to be careful not to be on the way when that happened. The Cruisers were also massive and it was both a challenge and a pleasure to fight around them.

ELP

[Lordopic]

At last a report that means something (and the last one didn?t see Ambro?s) As some one just said this is much better than any PR from ND.

By the pilots for the pilots this makes anything I have read from the great ND spin machine null in void.

Thanks Injustice.

[Tritian]

I'm worried about the economy. I have a lot of questions, but I will refrain until we learn more about just how the economy works. IMO, it sounds like a step back in complexity from Jumpgate Classic, which i'm not thrilled about.

Everything else sounds awesome!

[project3wc]

so you had no complaints so far. great to hear everything is working out great. man i cant wait to hear even more info on the game.

[MadJackal]

I can see why they want to remove equipment from the game. You either equipped the top of the line gear, or you launched with sub par gear. If everyone can launch with equal standardized gear, then you won't see complaints of having to take a trip around the galaxy just to get a well equipped ship.

A lot is going to depend on how the mods are balanced and how available they are made. If the new way to be competitive means a prerequisite widget commonly found on the market (but which still can be depleted), then we'll still see equipment shortages.

The good part of all this is that they can design ships for specific roles and keep them fairly balanced. We can see speedier interceptor versions, slower heavily armed versions and all around balanced types. Think they'll make you get multiple licenses for multiple forms of the same ship?

[Injustice]

Yeah I was thinking that the player crafted stuff would be based off a system of lesser returns, i.e. the common quality stuff would be available in abundance, high quality would be marginally less so, with the scale becoming more and more rare the higher you went, however, the difference between the mid to high quality mods would be more substantial than high to extremely rare.

That said, under a purely player-run economy, there is the threat of artificial inflation due to the dumping of large sums of credits on the market, so it'll be up to the devs to keep farming under control. I don't foresee the "chinese gold farmer" crowd making a huge impact simply because of the skill aspect of the game though, and a healthy player base would ensure that the market "polices itself", so to speak.

[Karash]

Not going to mention the flux battle we saw vs. some AI sector defenders?

I will add my own writeup soon...just got back from vegas tonight so a bit tired. Good news is that with our winnings it turned into a free trip!

[Injustice]

Originally Posted by Karash

Not going to mention the flux battle we saw vs. some AI sector defenders?

I will add my own writeup soon...just got back from vegas tonight so a bit tired. Good news is that with our winnings it turned into a free trip!

I spoke with Striker (he logged into Jumpgate Classic the night I got back) and he mentioned working on some AI tweaks regarding their behavior, so I figured it was something for the devs to discuss in a later blog.

So was it the craps table or poker?

[ND_Istvan]

Regarding Ambro's lack of write-up - my understanding was that he was trying to arrange some screenshots for us to accompany his report. Unfortunately, our process of getting approved screenshots just for media sites has become cumbersome, so I'm not surprised his requests haven't been filled quickly.

Injustice, I'm glad you liked most of what you saw. Scorch apparently spilled the beans on some things that I'm not cleared to discuss yet, but that's his perogative as the uberboss. Hopefully I'll be allowed to offer some more info before long, maybe in a new Dev Bulletin.

[Ambrosius]

Well I gave up on the screen shot and was planning on releasing a DsD last weekend when I got this brilliant flash of inspiration for "one more thing . . " which is currently with dear Awen.

[Karash]

Still working on my write up here at work...but my exchange server went down, so I have been busy with that all day. Finally got it up and running just a bit ago.

Injustice...it was craps and poker mainly...but I also hit a straight flush in 3 card poker which pays 40 to 1.