[Karash]

It had been at least 2 years since I last strapped into a Phoenix and played Jumpgate, so what the hell was I doing in Las Vegas, the City of Sin, in search of the next great Jumpgate experience? NetDevil and Scorch decided to throw a meet and greet at the Bellagio Hotel for any players (ex in my case) wanting to come by to check out the game. I had a free weekend in Vegas scheduled already, so moving the timetable to accommodate seeing Jumpgate Evolution was a no brainer. Fellow old school pilot Injustice was going to be there as well, so I could find no better reason other than to go slam a few beers with a fellow Octavian.

We met Scorch at the Cafe Bellagio after several hours debating Jumpgate over beers at the MGM Grand. Scorch brought some goodies, glossy print screen shots suitable for framing and NetDevil t-shirts. We got settled in at the back of the Cafe and he loaded up his Dell XPS laptop. After confirming that he didn't want anyone to sign a NDA, he launched several servers (game state, AI, etc) then loaded the client.

The opening video on the main website does not give the game true justice. Graphically speaking, Jumpgate has finally come of age, and in an impressive way. The ship models, lighting, and backdrops are gorgeous beyond words. He cautioned us that a lot of graphics and UI were in place as placeholders for future work before launching into real-space with a Halcyon Solrain noob ship. I always figured Scorch to be a Sol, but I let it slide since he was showing us the future of Jumpgate.

One thing that is noticeably evident is the Scale has changed in Jumpgate: Evolution. Stations are "Ginormous" in size, easily 3 times as large as the old Core stations. The Jumpgate petals (that we all have hit at least once in our Jumpgate careers) are much bigger than ships now, just to give you an idea. The effect on the shimmering Jumpgate bubble is enchanting. NetDevil should just have an animated flash on the front page of their website showing a Jumpgate, it's that cool. Fighting around structures should be infinitely fun, especially the Quantar Core area with massive asteroids and structures everywhere.

There was some concern he expressed about showing proper movement, ala the "Bricks in Space" problem that Jumpgate: Classic had. With the scale so big, it can be somewhat disorienting to really figure out how fast you are going in relation to other objects in space. There is definitely "space dust" to show the pilot which vector he is on, but Scorch still seemed concerned.

The control system seems pretty intuitive for a mouse user. While none of us flew on his laptop (I wouldn't want to anyway with a mouse), he was getting around in sector fairly easy. Of course it probably had something to do with being in devhax mode: doing 1000+ m/s just to see the sights. I couldn't really tell how the dampen affected his flight movement per say, but he did mention that all the AI ships in game use the old control/physics mode. You can still "slide" backwards in the classic sense, but he seemed to turn much faster when moving low velocity, but I am not 100% sure on that. It would have been nice to break out a MS Sidewinder Pro, but we didn't have one handy.

Skillful Speed Docking seems to be a thing of the past. The docking tubes are so large (see scale above), that all you have to do is get close to the docking area. There is also a preliminary launch sequence that takes about 5 seconds to complete before you can control your ship when launched. This is probably in place of the beloved cargo truck in Jumpgate: Classic so pilots can quickly dock and undock in comical fashion. I know some will miss the little truck, but we have to evolve sometime. The station interface is all place holder stuff at the moment, so I won't get into here.

All the ships weapons that were seen in game are of the "Ammo" type. Scorch seemed to share the opinion that beam lasers (aka instant hit weapons) for pilots are not fun, but he definitely wants to see them in capital ship engagement scenarios. The weapons we saw were all firing very high velocity / ROF rounds, so at this point there are no real differences yet. I suspect they are just placeholder weapons when PVP and dog fighting gets to the balancing phase. Missiles were also brought up, and we saw Scorch fire some sort of "pulse" energy looking missile several times, maybe a bomb of some kind, but it is all placeholder graphics right now (the weapon effects). We discussed the need for special type tactical weapons such as propulsion disruptors or shield stripping area affect missiles. NetDevil definitely wants to give pilots more tactical options this go around other than "MS MS MS circle circle circle die/kill" PVP experience of Jumpgate: Classic.

Ships will no longer be bought without engines or other sorts of equipment. Each bird will have standard "From the Factory" fitment so it is flyable. The player will be allowed to modify performance aspects to each ship by adding modifications. Additionally, the player will need to add guns, although I am sure Octavian ships will have them "From the Factory" unlike the other two factions (for new players, that last statement was a joke). The modification system is shaping up to be complex but simple to use, but alas no real details other than the overview.

User interface was a work in progress from my point of view, and he was using the mouse during flight, which will be interesting to see if that functionally makes it to retail. Typically any "pilot" type game doesn't use the mouse in mid-flight, most players will want options to hot key and bind all functions, but we did not see that during the demo.

Beacons were discussed, and Scorch stated he wanted to see beacons become more central to PVP, where squads would not only claim a beacon, but build stationary weapon turrets and other defenses on it. Taking over a beacon will require a lot more than just tuning it by flying through with a BCU. The new beacon game play in combination with player owned Battle Stations will most likely be the focus of PVP warfare in unregulated space.

In the later stages of the demo, Scorch showed us a preliminary "Battle Station" encounter. This is the sort of thing NetDevil wants players to build and attack/defend, but there will also be PVE Battle Stations that require large amounts of pilots and coordination to destroy. I assume this is the large scale "Raids" that other MMO's have, but since I haven't played 1 hour of WoW, I have no idea. What interested me was he really wanted to see player owned Battle Stations. I asked him if any sort of Battle Station content would be in a locked off instance, and he emphatically said "no instances". Not sure if that was in the general meaning, but it was a good sign that no instances will be seen, other than the Simulator.

The last thing we saw was approximately 25 AI ships, both sector defenders and Flux battling it out near a gate. Scorch killed a few flux, but what amazed me was 25+ ships on one screen all dog fighting and I never saw a missed frame or FPS crawl. The game runs silky smooth, and if it runs that well on a Dell XPS laptop with the game state and AI server running, think how well it's going to run on your dual 8800GTX SLI setup. The only lag in Jumpgate: Evolution will be network based from the looks of it.

The C1 flux look pretty damn cool by the way, they have a sweet "skin" texture or effect that makes them look alive rather than another AI ship in space.

We didn't actually see any simulator, but we talked at length about how NetDevil wants to provide a consequence free instance simulator that was mission based. Think Jumpgate: Counter strike and you begin to get the idea. Scorch mentioned separate awards and recognition for being a great "Sim Jockey" and it is safe to say that the old Simulator system of just flying around looking for someone to duel is a thing of the past. This was a very positive development to hear confirmation on.

Capital ships were briefly discussed as being possibly player controlled, but not piloted. Sicking the OCN Fido on a random Quantar squad might be possible, but at this point no one really knows. Scorch would definitely like to see some epic battles with players in fighters between two massive capital ships trading broadsides of laser fire. How it all plays out will be interesting if they put that in before release.

One thing to note here, Scorch is very much focused on the initial game play aspect of Jumpgate: Evolution. His bread and butter of the project revolve around making the first 15 minutes super fun for new players. Injustice and I asked a TON of detailed questions about topics ranging from PVP to ship loadouts, but he simply couldn't answer anything that detailed. His enthusiasm for the game is unlimited however, and this point cannot be underlined enough. It was very evident that his love for Jumpgate is very deep, so that makes me confident the finished product will be outstanding.

Overall I was generally impressed by the Demo. The game definitely has its skeleton, and now comes the meat of the game. I got the feeling there was no real concrete content developed yet, at least not from the showing we got at the Bellagio. You would assume they have a lot of stuff under wraps.

It turned out to be a great trip, and well worth it to see the future of Jumpgate. No doubt many questions remain to be answered, but the prologue I have seen looks to be well done. Of course it was Vegas, and thinking back on it, the real Sin of the trip was not getting any good screen shots or pics. Maybe next time?

[GrimGriz]

Good read. Did you drill him about grinding rewards vs skill based combat or anything?

[Eraser55]

awesome, thanx.. im glad that they arent focusing on instances in Real space.

[ELPIRATA]

Thanks Karash:

This is one of the most (if not the best) comprehensive reports received so far. Very detailed, very.

[Jonboy]

Your post was worth the wait. Thanks Karash.

[Chubain]

Great recap Karash. Thanks.

[Karash]

Originally Posted by GrimGriz

Good read. Did you drill him about grinding rewards vs skill based combat or anything?

Actually I did. Injustice and I had a discussion about this over beers...and I was of the opinion that you do not need any sort of artificial levels in a pure skill based game. When we were walking out of the Cafe, my last question to Scorch was "Why have levels in a pure skill based game...why the grind?"

He stated he understood the question, and where my point of view was coming from. But, he wanted to make a MMO...not a true simulator. If there were no levels in the game, people would just assume its a 24/7 Space Flight Simulator...not a MMO. His opinion is that players need progression...even artificial progression...in a MMO. It also lets other players know that certain pilots have at last "put in the time" to become a certain level, and should know a trick or two in combat. Whether or not that is the case always remains to be seen. While I disagree with his opinion, I do understand it from his development point of view.

Really at this point, its a minor issue. If the game is balanced properly, and there is cool toys to play with and modify our ships, leveling up will be the least of our concerns.

[Brooster]

Thanks Karash. Awesome write up.

[Johnny_Prime]

VERY helpful and informative, Karash! Are you SURE you're an Oct? The complete sentences you use threw me off a little. (Johnny ducks under the desk!)

[Liet]

Yah, very cool, thank you.

[GrimGriz]

Originally Posted by Karash

Really at this point, its a minor issue. If the game is balanced properly, and there is cool toys to play with and modify our ships, leveling up will be the least of our concerns.

If the game is balanced properly...which is the real issue. The mods things could give me hope, so long as they aren't + only. If you can up your max speed for the cost of shield recharge with a mod or something, then you'd still be similarly matched with someone without the mod. If mods are + only then... The weapon part also makes me a little nervous, on a level 26 vs level 48 gun and such. At this point, all we can do is wait and see though.

Did you guys talk about the death penalty issue at all? i.e. keeping my level 48 gun when you rip me?

[netburnr]

Originally Posted by Karash

Skillful Speed Docking seems to be a thing of the past. The docking tubes are so large (see scale above), that all you have to do is get close to the docking area.

This makes me VERY sad.

Originally Posted by Karash

There is also a preliminary launch sequence that takes about 5 seconds to c