Jumpgate Evolution PC Games Trailer - Nations At War

[Mrbloodworth]

Jumpgate Evolution PC Games Trailer - Nations At War

Looks bad ass.

[Draegan]

I'd like to see some gameplay.

[Viin]

Gameplay comes *after* trailers.

[Baldrake]

Those people have been watching too much Battlestar Galactica.

[Venkman]

Those people have been watching too much Battlestar Galactica.

That's not a bad thing in this case 

That looks like gameplay footage (deja vu here). But the more I see of JG:E, the more I wish they'd raid CCP's offices and steal some designers. Seriously, JG:E has come a long way from the original JG, but Eve sets the bar for MMO space sci-fi and the JG stuff looks too clean-edged.

[NiX]

I hope they push more of that kind of music into the game. As much as I like EVE, the music is forgettable to me.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'd like to see some gameplay.

You just watched some...


?

Those people have been watching too much Battlestar Galactica.

That's not a bad thing in this case 

That looks like game play footage (deja vu here). But the more I see of JG:E, the more I wish they'd raid CCP's offices and steal some designers. Seriously, JG:E has come a long way from the original JG, but Eve sets the bar for MMO space sci-fi and the JG stuff looks too clean-edged.

It's twitch, not spreadsheet (AKA: Slow ass combat and predetermined movement, such as click to move). Some allowances have to be made. Unless you simply don't like the style of the ships, thats diffrent. I get a Wingcommander vibe from it. Where Eve is primarily about capital and larger ships (eve starts as frigate), drones/shuttles/AI in eve would be fighter craft size in comparisons.

Also, i don't think there are any other races other than "human" in this worlds lore, for now. I could be wrong, but i think its supposed to be "The not to far off future" of human kind.

[Mrbloodworth]

Also found this: Link Link2

JGE Video from the GC 08. The music sucks on the first one, they are fan films.

[Chenghiz]

I hope they push more of that kind of music into the game. As much as I like EVE, the music is forgettable to me.

I love the general ambient music in EVE, but I agree that the battle music needs to be stronger and more emblematic.

[FatuousTwat]

I actually listen to the EVE music a lot, even though I don't play the game anymore. I'm into that type of music though.

[Endie]

As a confirmed fan of Future Sound Of London, The Orb, Boards of Canada etc I rather enjoy the Eve soundtrack.  I wish they would make more, though.  And that 99% of the time I didn't have to have the music turned off, I suppose.

[Draegan]

I'd like to see some gameplay.

You just watched some...


?

It was in game footage, I want to see the UI and someone playing the game.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'd like to see some gameplay.

You just watched some...


?

It was in game footage, I want to see the UI and someone playing the game.

I posted more, that does have that as well. Lacks the "cockpit" view however.

[LK]

I played this game at PAX. It plays like a really, really good Privateer 2, but it's still early and things can change. Space Station interface is EVE-esque (DO NOT WANT), so I'm going to see if I can help them shore up that UI.

[FatuousTwat]

I like the EVE space station UI. It's so much more in-depth than anything else out there, and once you get used to it, it's great.

[Slayerik]

I played this game at PAX. It plays like a really, really good Privateer 2, but it's still early and things can change. Space Station interface is EVE-esque (DO NOT WANT), so I'm going to see if I can help them shore up that UI.

Privateer huh? I think I'm more interested now.

[Mrbloodworth]

I like the EVE space station UI. It's so much more in-depth than anything else out there, and once you get used to it, it's great.

I too will forgive this to a point. If it plays like privateer, (in more than just flight, such as economics, but between people and NPC's) as i know my dream of leaving my ship with an avatar of some sort that is also fully a game in its self, is slim.

The large scale battles in that video look bad ass.

[Mrbloodworth]

Netdevil showcased Jumpgate: Evolution at Penny Arcade Expo this year together with Dolby sound & voice technology and Plantronics’ new gamer head sets. I had been given a sneak peek at the game at the Ion Conference early this year but this time we were given the chance to actually fly a ship as Netdevil had set up 8 laptops to run off a local server, giving players the chance to play a few bits of an alpha build.
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“Why and how,” I asked Herman, “did a graphics overlay for Jumpgate turn into a completely new game?”

“It took on a life of its own,” answered Herman. “We did one thing, and then another, then we wanted to put in all those things that we didn’t have in Jumpgate and before we knew it, we basically had Jumpgate II on our hands. We have a robust player economy system designed for Jumpgate: Evolution. Manufacturing (tradeskills) is in game as are Auction Houses, better AI, and just a slew of other features.”

I had seen the Battlestation (Boss Mob) fights at Ion and Herman now showed me a “dungeon experience” which was flying and fighting within a large meteor. With tunnels and pits, enemies behind corners, and with the ability to move in all three axes, it totally felt like a 3-D dungeon. Throughout the flight through the meteor, there were enough visual cues for me to figure out what was considered “Up” and what was considered “Down” in the game – and this was mainly conveyed by the direction other ships and objects were situated in free space of the meteor.

I was a little apprehensive as I sat down to play as I am susceptible to vertigo, otherwise known as motion sickness. I’ve never been able to play a space game. One roll in Wing Commander (1990) and I was done for. I didn’t do too well with space combat simulation games that followed either. Star Wars X-Wing / Tie Fighter? Privateer? Descent: Free Space? Forget it! So, you can’t blame me for getting excited when I found that I could play the entire newbie mission in Jumpgate: Evolution without getting sick. My take on Jumpgate: Evolution suddenly went from “Cool concept, nice graphics.” to “Omigosh, I can play a 3-D space flight game!”

Has this colored my perception of the game? Well it made me want to find out a lot more about it, and Producer Herman Peterscheck was there to oblige me, but first, the flight experience. Since keyboard and mouse was used, it was not as intuitive as it would have been with a joystick / throttle set up. With keyboard and mouse, W and S were the throttle controls, A and D strafed you right and left, R and F strafing up and down, and Q & E rolling you left and right respectively. Your mouse movement turned you, the left mouse button was your trigger and the Shift key is your Afterburn. 

Ships have several stats: Power, Speed, Armor, Radar, Shield and Inventory (Cargo size) but not all were demonstrated. Your Shields and Armor contribute to your “Health”, the difference being that shields are recharged while armor is repaired. Once your Shields are down, your armor is the tin-foil between you and death.

Character creation at this time is very simple. Netdevil has put in a selection of avatar portraits, but is still working on the ability to do avatar customization, to create more of an avatar identity for players. I picked an avatar, gave it a name, jumped into my newbie ship and I was away. Visual cues were intuitive and simple to follow. The mission showed up in the UI, a discreet red flashing arrow cued me to where my targets were, a target ring helped me lock in on my target and when it came into optimum range, changed into a larger, flashing target ring.

The Damper was on as default and that assists newbies in space flight as it, well, “dampens” the physics of moving in zero gravity space, but turning it off allowed some neat maneuvering. I could throttle up, turn the damper off, and while still traveling in the same direction spin my craft around and fire at enemies in my wake. Très cool.

After I had destroyed all of my mission targets, a discreet green arrow cued me to where I needed to go to dock and complete the mission. I flew into a meteor just to check collision. Yes, it works. It also works when you fly into your target because you didn’t throttle back or avoid it. But once I got the hang of the controls after a few “How do I roll again?” type questions, I was enjoying myself and did not realize that I wasn’t getting motion sick! What I had not realized until I was done with the mission was that I had not felt disoriented once, watching Herman play the game. If playing a 3-D space flight game turned my inner ear balance mechanism totally out of whack, watching someone play was usually worse.

“We’ve been working hard on that aspect of the game,” said Herman, “Grace, our Business Development Manager is sensitive to motion sickness and so we use her to test a lot.”

Whatever you did, guys… don’t change it now. Anyone who has always wanted to play a space flight combat game but could not due to a sensitive middle ear, beta signup for Jumpgate: Evolution opened up in mid-August, and PAX is a good barometer for them to see how close they are to beta. The graphics look awesome. The game looks better each time I see it, especially for their mantra of keeping specs low for wider gamer accessibility, and the game is still in Alpha. Flying with keyboard and mouse was simple for me to get used to but I would love to try this with a joystick and throttle set up. From what I saw at PAX, Jumpgate: Evolution is looking good and it’s looking close.

Link.

[NiX]

Thanks for the bold. I'm even more excited for it even if the content is shit, I can see myself having hours of fun flying around.

[Lantyssa]

I finally started playing X3 which I bought two years ago and it's really got me in the mood for space sims.  If this pans out I'm going to be a happy red panda.

[Sir T]

Yeah I'm a serious X3 grog (even have a number of videos on ewwtube) and this looks really interesting.

Would be interesting as well if you could actually make a serious stab at fighting in a newbieship, as in you would have a chance at winning. That could be fun as hell.

LIVE FOR THE NOOBSWARM!!!

Sings "I lost my craft to a Newbie starship!..."

[Draegan]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39464.html

I just saw this.  Pretty awesome.

[NiX]

Neat. The AI didn't seem too intelligent, but that could be a product of the game not being finished or it could be that the AI is semi-retarded.

[Draegan]

That looked like the newbie area and he had a Kill X quest.  Perhaps the AI gets better later on?

Loved the perspective though, space looked like it was full of "stuff".  Can't wait to try it.

[Mrbloodworth]

I wish i could see that from work =(

[Ingmar]

This is going to be another one of those NetDevil games that only I like, isn't it. It looks like the spaceflight version of Auto Assault.

[Draegan]

I've actually never seen in game footage of Autoassault.  I'm special.

[Mrbloodworth]

This is going to be another one of those NetDevil games that only I like, isn't it. It looks like the spaceflight version of Auto Assault Freelancer/Privateer/x-wing VS Tiefighter.

 

[FatuousTwat]

This is going to be another one of those NetDevil games that only I like, isn't it. It looks like the spaceflight version of Auto Assault.

Shrug, I thought auto assault was pretty fun. I enjoyed the speed of combat, and the fact that you didn't just sit around with auto attack on. I only played for maybe 2 weeks in beta though, so I guess it could have turned to shit.

[FatuousTwat]

Double Post! 

I semi-hope they introduce a frigate type ship that takes a few people to pilot (5 or so), for guilds/clans/whatever.

But that would probably unbalance the game and ruin it.

[Ratman_tf]

Maybe I'm jaded, but Jumpgate always struck me as a 3-D engine looking desperatley for a reason to exist.

[Mrbloodworth]

The original?

[Chenghiz]

If i recall correctly, space battles in Freelancer weren't nearly as leisurely as that. I'd like to see some footage of the Newtonian physics in use, too.

[Ingmar]

This is going to be another one of those NetDevil games that only I like, isn't it. It looks like the spaceflight version of Auto Assault.

Shrug, I thought auto assault was pretty fun. I enjoyed the speed of combat, and the fact that you didn't just sit around with auto attack on. I only played for maybe 2 weeks in beta though, so I guess it could have turned to shit.

It stayed the same. I played it and had fun, but I guess there are not very many people like me who actually would enjoy a Car Wars DIKU. Will there be anyone who wants to play a 3D space DIKU? Who knows.

[Ratman_tf]

The original?

Well, yeah. I haven't played the new one yet. 

My memories of Jumpgate are doing A to B cargo runs and slamming my poor spaceship into a Jumpgate pylon.