Jumpgate Evolution :: Spaceships Types Revealed! (Now with more screen shots)

[Mrbloodworth]

A wide variety of single-pilot combat and utility ships ply the spacelanes of our jumpgate network. All ships may be described as either combat or commercial vessels. However, there is considerable variance in ship design based on intended role, and by the specific nation, faction, or corporation that produces and uses the ship. For example, the Slipstream is a Solrain combat ship classified as a patrol fighter and produced by an industrial division of the Zelcane Trust. Its characteristics differ from other patrol fighters that belong to the Octavian Imperial Navy or that are produced by a Quantar corporation. Even individual Slipstream-class ships may be customized by the pilot’s choice of loadout and other modifications, either emphasizing a strength of the class, or mitigating a weakness. The options available to pilots for customization of any particular ship vary by the specific ship class.

The first ship any rookie pilot gains experience with is a trainer of some sort. These spacecraft are usually classed as "shuttle trainers", but within the Octavian Empire it is conventional to refer to their training ships as "patrol trainers". Universally, trainers are inexpensive light-duty utility ships meant for use by inexperienced pilots. They tend to possess outstanding handling characteristics and can mount light weaponry, but are only capable of mounting minimal extra equipment.

Combat Spacecraft range from Light Paramilitary Patrol Craft used in the Core Sectors, to Heavy Assault Fighters capable of devastating attacks on Capital Ships. Fightercraft obviously are heavily armed when compared with civil and commercial vessels, but the various ship classes differ in qualities such as speed, maneuverability, weapons loadout, and defense. Each national navy also possesses its own design tendencies, and even factions and corporations may field their own unique military spacecraft to protect their interests or territory.



Specialty: Patrol or Packet Courier

The Patrol Fighter class results from outfitting a lightweight shuttle hull with improved power systems and weapons hardpoints. While not truly a military-caliber vessel due to their light armor and limited armament, Patrol Fighters make outstanding paramilitary support and local intercept craft, and are used as training vessels by all national militaries. Unfortunately, its combination of combat utility at a low price also makes the patrol fighter the most common ship class operated by independent groups in unregulated space.



Specialty: Intercept

The Light Fighter category emphasizes speed and maneuver over a heavy armor and weapons payload. These military ships are often used as Interceptors, as second-line defense forces, or even as Scout craft if more specialized ships are not available. Some models are considered "artist’s ships", and chosen over fighters with heavier armament by senior officers who prefer the advantages gained by flying a nimble ship.



Specialty: General Combat

The mainstay of any space fighter wing, the ships of the Medium Fighter class are the standard against which all other military ship types are measured. They provide good firepower and maneuverability in one package, though varied designs and loadouts may emphasize armor over speed, or weapons over shielding.



Specialty: Military Escort

Relying on armor, shielding, and a large armaments package, the Heavy Fighter class represents the big bruisers in a military fighter wing. Stereotypically unmaneuverable, a Heavy Fighter’s strengths are its endurance under fire and ability to deliver devastating firepower against a target. Heavy Fighters are outstanding in roles guarding strike craft, or when a Capital Ship or Commercial convoy requires a combat escort.



Specialty: Reconnaissance

Representatives of the Scout Fighter class are generally stripped-down Light Fighter hulls with supercharged drive systems. The speeds these ships reach make them ideal for rapid intercept and no-contact reconnaissance roles, but they cannot survive in an engagement for long without support from heavier, front-line fightercraft.



Specialty: Strike

The Assault Fighter can be taken as an extreme evolution of Heavy Fighters adapted to strike mission roles. Typified by a capacity to mount anti-capship torpedoes, these fighters usually sacrifice speed and maneuverability for warhead payload. Often retaining the ability to mount adequate guns and plenty of anti-fighter missiles as well, these heavy combatants may mount a significant threat to the interceptors tasked with eliminating them. That threat will be further compounded by the escort fighters with which any wise commander guards them.

Noncombat ships can be divided into two broad categories: transports and miners. Spaceflight can be dangerous, so although commercial ships emphasize cargo capacity, they all possess at least light armament, and often substantial armor and shielding. Most ships of any commercial class allow good customizability through addition of equipment and general modifications.

Specialty: Light Transport

A heavier shuttlecraft with more extensive cargo space but less power and space for armament adequately describes the several ships of the Cargo Shuttle class. Many possess additional utility features such as nonweapon hardpoints. Cargo Shuttles tend to receive extensive in-sector use for rapid transport of small cargoes, and are very commonly flown by novice commercial pilots.



Specialty: Blockade Runner

Members of possibly the most romantic ship class in known space, fast transports are used as speedy packet vessels, local small-cargo delivery, and of course, by pirates and smugglers. A relatively small cargo capacity is balanced by the ability of the ship to meet its schedule ahead of time and usually under budget. Fast transports are also commonly able to mount a light but respectable armament, and this combination of weapons and ability to disengage makes them well-nigh irresistible to pilots operating on the fringes of local regulations.



Specialty: General Cargo Transport

The unsung and unheralded backbone of commerce, the transport class of hauling vessels includes all manner of mid-size cargo ships used for regional transportation. Transports have a substantial cargo capacity, but retain good handling characteristics, making them popular with independent pilots as well as local and regional hauling firms. Some models sacrifice a fraction of their cargo space for upgraded defenses, making them ideal for delivery missions to unfriendly locales.



Specialty: Heavy Cargo Transport

The most commonly seen heavy hauler in known space is the single-container cargo tow. These beasts of burden are slow to accelerate when laden, but usually can mount good shielding and very respectable armor, making them ideal convoy vessels whether escorted or not. Each accommodates a standard industrial deep-space cargo container, making for a very significant cargo capacity.



Specialty: Heavy Cargo Transport

The largest single-pilot freighters now in regular use, the Dual-Container Cargo Tow, or Dual Tow class, literally doubles the capacity of a regular Cargo Tow by mounting two standard containers rather than one. Ships of this class maneuver slowly and have an unattractive thrust-to-mass ratio when fully loaded, but their ability to move large profitable cargoes is unparalleled. Despite being armored, shielded, and possessed of some light defensive armament, these vessels are usually seen with at least a minimal escort when encountered outside of the Core sectors.

Specialty: Local Mining

Built around a relatively small hull, Prospector class vessels are frequently seen in use by independent, small-time miners. Maneuverable and speedy, these ships are only limited by the relatively slight load they can carry. They can be highly convenient for local mining operations near the Core, as well as for prospecting expeditions in unfamiliar sectors.



Specialty: General Mining

Light miners are mid-sized mining craft based on a transport class hull. They usually offer at least two mining hardpoints in addition to defensive armament. Cargo, handling, and speed are all typical of transport-class hauling vessels. Ships of the light miner class are common in corporate mining fleets, and are often owned by small independent mining concerns or even individuals.



Specialty: Deep Space Mining

The largest mining ships in known space, the heavy miner class employs a standard deep-space cargo container as its hold. Even though these vessels usually operate in well-protected industrial zones, they are typically well-armored and shielded themselves. As a class, these ships are bulky and do not accelerate quickly, but they offer adequate customizability and once filled, can transport a very respectable load, thereby profiting their owner or operating corporation.

Link

[Miasma]

Have they said whether they are using levels or skill training like UO/EvE?

[Mrbloodworth]

Don't quote me, but i think its "levels" and "Certifications". Levels i think are more or less rank with your aligned faction, certifications are, well, for equipment use. The two combined are what i would imagine would give access to equipments. As all combat and flight are twitch based...no dice rolls or TO HIT.

I'm going to dig around for a more concrete answer.

EDIT: Also note that the stuff in the First post is CLASSES of ships, not the models ETC..i would suspect that there are many models in each, with more added over time.

EDIT2:

    * "Jumpgate is primarily a combat action game that is based on licenses that are achievement based, although some of the licenses do require a minimum level." -Anna "Spellbound" Steffer
    * Licenses allow players to acquire and use a wider variety of new and improved ship chassis and gear.
    * There are no class restrictions on what type of license a pilot can use because there are no character classes in Jumpgate

    * Ranks are the Jumpgate equivalent of levels.
    * The maximum rank is probably going to be 60.
    * Licenses are rank based.
    * A player buys his/her first ship at rank 5.
    * It takes about an hour of play to reach rank 5.
    * Experience earned towards leveling is helped out by soft grouping.

Taken from here

I was somewhat off, but close. 

[Mrbloodworth]

I did find this:

Sector Control

So apparently the days of whizzing through the rings of a beacon are a bygone era. Sector control is going to be done through placing and defending assets in a sector. The example used was a battlestation. One squad will build a battlestation in a sector, and then control it. Some other squad then has to come in and destroy/capture the battlestation, and then replace it with one of their own. This will entail guarding while the construction effort takes place, bringing in the necessary supplies, etc.. Also, apparently some equipment will only be able to move via transport (like, say, a turret I'm guessing), so you can't just make hundreds of light transport runs. Someone is going to have to fly a heavy hauler with a turret on board (from the turret factory, wherever that might be.. more on that later).

Game Map

The game map in the current alpha build is basically a placeholder that will be replaced later with the actual game map. It did have two levels, though, with the overview map showing the links between sub maps, and each submap consisting of various sectors. The placeholder map looked to have about 8-9 submaps, and 7-8 sectors per sub map. Jumping between sectors looked like it took several seconds. Didn't get a chance to ask if that was to be addressed or not. The hour and a half went REALLY fast.

Capital Ships

It's BIG. Hermann zoomed out with his halcyon next to the cap ship, and the cap ship didn't fit on the screen, yet the halcyon was all of maybe 10 pixels total. Flying end to end looked to take about 15-20 seconds or so (in the newbie halcyon). One sector Hermann showed us had the wreckage of several of these cap ships broken up and strewn all over the place. LOTS of wreckage.

Mining

Got an up close look at a mining node. Looks like a small protusion on an asteroid. Hermann didn't mine it, but it looked to be roughly the size of the halcyon ship itself.

Hollow Asteroids

Hermann showed off several of these, complete with large caverns inside that you could have some combat within, and one even had a full blown battlestation built within the hollow asteroid. Others had pirate bases built inside, and little nooks and crannies all over the place to potentially hide in. Also, it looks like roid masking is in.

Network Code

Hermann jumped on the hotel Wifi in the resturaunt, and played on the live server back in the Netdevil offices. Never saw a hint of any lag or jagged engine trails anywhere. Very very smooth. Also, Scorch talked briefly about lessons learned in JGC with making the game too client-centric and with JGE, built a lot more into the server end of the game to keep information out of the players hands when they aren't supposed to know it (like a ship with an active ECM, etc..). Gone are the days of hacking the network DLL and snooping the network stream for ships you shouldn't normally be able to see.

Artifacts

Apparently, artifact hunting will still be in JGE. How it will manifest exactly, we'll have to see. It won't be finding an full engine, however. It will take the form of finding a specialized power source or super-dense magnetics that will allow you to craft it into a rare engine or shield, etc. It'll still be an in-game design, but there should be very few of them.

Autodock

So as Hermann was flying around Oct Core, he flew across the docking port, and accidently docked. Whoops. He did mention that they were flirting with the idea of making docking harder as you got further away from the core, and verified that in the current build, a fully loaded tow at full speed would dock safely.

Crafting

Stations are only going to sell basic stuff and low level equipment so new players have gear available. As you progress in levels and move on to better ships, equipment becomes totally player made. Factories are going to be spread out all over the place such that some factories will be difficult to reach due to hostile presence in the area, etc... Factories will also be able to be blockaded by enterprising squads seeking to control a section of the market. The plan is to have equipment built at the factory to be the least costly to build, units being sold as stations nearest to the factory sell for the least money, and units sold nearest to the player population going for the most money. In other words, pay more for a local one, or pay less and go get it. The whole notion of the mail system discussed elsewhere where if a transport gets destroyed the item respawns to try again seems to break this paradigm, however, so not totally buying into this one just yet. Also, there's no current support for quality, etc. All of a particular widget are exactly the same, whoever it is that makes it.

Collisions

According to Scorch, the damage done by collisions is proportional to the ship's mass. So the lightweight halcyon takes minimal damage in an impact, but larger, and heavier ships will start to take on more significant damage in an impact. Probably still not fatal, but potentially crippling, none the less.

That's all for now... if I remember any more I'll add it. Hopefully someone else from the M&G will be able to add other things they learned as I could only absorb so much of the parallel conversations.

[Draegan]

Oooooh I can't wait to play this.  But it'll probably disappoint me because the game I have in my head will never match what they are making most likely.

[Venkman]

Good infoz, thanks Blood. Only disappointing thing for me is that there's nothing larger than fighters. I get why and all but I'd still like to see even single-player-flyable capital ships of some sort. Capital ships are only ingame as NPC/ambient. It'd be a cool reward to achieve though.

    * A player buys his/her first ship at rank 5.
    * It takes about an hour of play to reach rank 5.

Err, what do players do until they get their first ship?

[Sir T]

I think eve proved why single player flyable capital ships are a colossally bad idea.

[Venkman]

That'd be like saying EQ2 proved all MMO sequels are bad ideas.

That's not proof. That's a lack of comparable base. There is no other Eve at all, and only one other game that even
has single-player controllable Capital(-like) ships. But the rest of PotBS is not an environment in which to test any related hypothesis, much less this one.

[FatuousTwat]

Thanks a lot Mrbloodworth, great info!

[Ratman_tf]

I think eve proved why single player flyable capital ships are a colossally bad idea.

I guess I was having badwrongfun when I played Eve then. 

[FatuousTwat]

Err, what do players do until they get their first ship?

I'm guessing you are stuck in your newb-ship till level 5? Shrug.

[Count Nerfedalot]

I did find this:

Collisions

According to Scorch, the damage done by collisions is proportional to the ship's mass. So the lightweight halcyon takes minimal damage in an impact, but larger, and heavier ships will start to take on more significant damage in an impact. Probably still not fatal, but potentially crippling, none the less.

Hmmmm.  Does this mean a Halcyon can kamikazee a capital ship and bounce away with minimal damage while crippling the cap?  This collision rule just seems odd.  Generally physics dictates that in a collision, the larger mass "wins".  And the larger the differential, the more it wins by.  So a lightweight ship colliding with a huge rock would go "splat", while a large ship colliding with the same rock might merely go "crunch".

[Ratman_tf]

Hmmmm.  Does this mean a Halcyon can kamikazee a capital ship and bounce away with minimal damage while crippling the cap?  This collision rule just seems odd.  Generally physics dictates that in a collision, the larger mass "wins".  And the larger the differential, the more it wins by.  So a lightweight ship colliding with a huge rock would go "splat", while a large ship colliding with the same rock might merely go "crunch".

Physics is only cool when you can do a Starfury turn?

[Mrbloodworth]

Good infoz, thanks Blood. Only disappointing thing for me is that there's nothing larger than fighters.

"Yet". Notice how they went out of their way in the descriptions to say "Single pilot"?

Maybe im reading into it.

[Mrbloodworth]

duuuuuuudddddeeeeee





I also just read they will be using VOIP with a "Dolby" like functionality...basically the further away the speaker (He who talks) is, the low its sound, and the sound is also directional in your speakers/headphones. (Also planetside reference!, and Darniaq's question of multiplayer ships answered!)

[Venkman]

plz2buy transcript? Computer for reading 

Oh and it's so nice to see someone genuinely excited by all things MMOs. I live vicariously through your passion, having so little of my own for it these days.

[FatuousTwat]

The interviewer (Bobby Blackwell?) in the second vid you posted annoyed the fuck out of me.

[Venkman]

Listening to it now. Very annoying. For one, he admits he's not an MMO player, and for another. For another, the livechat format is just hard to listen to.

• Fighters to "ships twice the size of the Millenium Falcon". Sounds like Eve Frigates to Cruisers span.
• Multiplayer ships are not on the plan. Maybesomeday.
• Ship customization is not on the slate. Maybesomeday.

Everything else was either typical (raids are space stations) or throwaway (how will you structure the tutorial). And even after skipping the first four minutes of lead-in/intro I still wasted 7 minutes. 7 minutes!!

[bhodi]

I am HIGHLY suspicious of a game that has 3 types of ships - fighters, transports, and miners. Especially after what mining turned out to be in the previous game. I mean seriously, mining ships are almost 1/3 the ships.

Mining consisted of pointing your ship at a rock and taping down the 'fire' button on your joystick, walking away for 30m-2hrs, and then coming back. I wish I was joking.

[NiX]

I'm surprised the JumpGate guy didn't get up and leave. That had to be the worst interviewer I've ever seen. The Dev looks so uncomfortable during the entirety of the whole thing.

[Kitsune]

I'm with bhodi here.  The original Jumpgate sucked to enough of a degree that I'd need to see some significant proof of this remake's un-suckitude before I'd even begin to be mildly enthusiastic about it.  I love me some Privateer, so anyone who does manage to pull off a Privateer MMORPG will surely have my cash, but I'm not full of faith that Jumpgate will be the one to pull it off.

[Draegan]

I think eve proved why single player flyable capital ships are a colossally bad idea.

I guess I was having badwrongfun when I played Eve then. 

I don't play EVE and never made it past 10 hours after the tutorial, why are cap ships a bad idea?  Technical issues like lag or design issues like they are OP?

[NiX]

I'm assuming it's because if one person decides what happens with the cap, there may be a lot of people in disagreement.

[Sir T]

I don't play EVE and never made it past 10 hours after the tutorial, why are cap ships a bad idea?  Technical issues like lag or design issues like they are OP?

Lag issues. And the fact that that one of the most important things in an mmporg is player time. If you only need one person to field a unit that's far more powerful than others then you have a snowball effect when you have a mass of them arriving at once, with no real reason not to use such a mass. With multiple piloted ships that means you have to have more bodies to fill the pilot seats and that limits the amount you can field. Its the same reason as modern RTS games having large units costing more population points. Think of 200 patrol boats having the same needed crew as 200 aircraft carriers. Only the Aircraft Carriers also have a massive lag effect as well in Eve.

Now the mechanics of all this in Eve means that there is no tactics involved really. Lets say all things being equal 6 caps (group 1) are fighting 5 caps (group 2). They all focus fire same as nepolinic warfare. The side 1 will kill one of group 2 slightly before group 2 kill one of group 1, but once one of group 2 goes down the rate of them killing group 1s caps goes down too. So basically group 1 will wipe group 2 out losing one, maybe 2 of their own in the process, and all because they made the "tactical" decision to outnumber them by one. This holds true even as you increase the numbers as the larger side will kill the smaller side faster so the disparity in numbers will grow as the fight progresses, meaning less of the larger side dies. And with Eves Capital mechanics maneuver is irrelevant (Dreadnoughts can't move in siege mode, and Carrier fighters move with the target.) And don't talk to me about skill/equipment disparity...

Nearly everyone in eve acknowledges that the capital ships turned the whole thing into a boring blob&lag fest. My char has Carrier 5, and I never flew one as after the first cap fight I was in I knew the whole thing was bollox. And if your wondering the reason I had carrier at all was that I was asked to train it up, and then I kept training it as I had the fairly naive hope the whole thing would be changed to be actually interesting. Bloody fool I was...

[Ratman_tf]

*stuff*

Ah, I misunderstood you. I thought you meant cap ships in general, not the Eve big-bigs.

[Mrbloodworth]

Jumpgate Talk to the Community Team - Week 1
Community plays a big role in any game's development cycle. We make friends, explore new worlds together and interact in ways we would do in any life-like environment.

Jumpgate Evolution will include community features such as chat, Squads and Wings – all which help to enhance the experience of playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Game.

The intention of this thread/feature is to see what it is you expect from Jumpgate Evolution in regards to development, game experience and community, as well as some additional questions on the side J

This is your chance to let us know what you’re thinking.

This week’s questions are:


Week 1 - Communication

Q: How important do you expect voice communication to be?

Q: Will you take part in voice communication or stick to text based communication?

Q: If you intend to use voice communication, will you lean towards using it more for squad based chat (in game organization) or for off topic socialization?

Q: Would you prefer to play Jumpgate Evolution with 3D directional chat enabled (this basically means voice comes from the direction your friends ship is in location to yours) or non-directional (stereo like) chat enabled?

Link

[K9]

Thanks for the updates, it's looking rather groovy.

[Amarr HM]

I can see a lot of potential to this game and with the speed nerf in Eve looming. I can see a lot of subs being swapped over especially if the release date coincides with the nerf that would be humourous. Unless this turns out to be a big pile of dog turd of course and then I'm chewing a size ten.

[Venkman]

What speed nerf? Just out of curiosity.

Separately, I can't see how many would want to take a huge step back from the player-control socioeconomic sim that is Eve to a space fighter adventure game. Eve is almost a genre unto itself.

[Amarr HM]

There's a thread about the nerf here,

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=13894.0 ,

In a nutshell CCP are slowing everything down so speed is no longer a viable combat option and the action/sim divide is sliding even more to the right. There are large guilds that are threatening to quit if it is brought in and a lot of players will probably hand their sub in and be searching for something like Jumpgate. Personally I don't like the fact that to do menial things in Eve it takes long chunks out of your time just to get some action, so by slowing everything down it will take a lot longer to do simplest things.

[Venkman]

Ah thanks. That doesn't seem like a universal nerf though. It seems more like one of those those "get it back to what's intended" things, where small ships fast, big ships slow, different drones/missiles actually achieve the things they were designed to achieve, thus making players think the way CCP intended them to think. Basically, it's them trying to fix what they allowed to get broken over the years.

I still really don't see how an Eve player is going to see Jumpgate as anything more than a space toy though. This isn't an NGE-like change that compelled crafters and business owners to jump into a game even more for them than SWG was turning into. It's more like the reverse of that, where players quiting Eve are doing so because they would rather play X-wing v Tie Fighter. If anyone does that it's likely more because they're tired of statistics-based combat altogether, not because those statistics are changing.

Yea people are pissed and whatnot. Internet. But the more successful someone is in Eve the more they're going to realize the basis of their success simply cannot be replicated in any other MMO in that way. Eve has no real direct competition. It's a market of one.

[Nerf]

I'll be playing because I want X-wing vs. Tie-fighter.  EVE can be fun, but theres a whole lot of waiting around with your dick in your hand to get to that fun.  I'll still keep my EVE account of course, even if only to resub every once in a while to switch long skills until I forget how boring it can be and get back into it.

That's really the draw of EVE that keeps me coming back, the time-based skill training.  It's also the thing that keeps me from playing.  I really need a certain skill to do what I want to do, but it's 25 days out, so I just take a break.  CCP would really help themselves a lot if they either a) added use-based advancement as well or b) sold time-accelerator cards, either for cash only or allow them to be traded like timecards for ISK.

[Phred]

What speed nerf? Just out of curiosity.

Separately, I can't see how many would want to take a huge step back from the player-control socioeconomic sim that is Eve to a space fighter adventure game. Eve is almost a genre unto itself.

I have a hard time believing that the much bally-who'd socioeconomy of Eve accounts for much of it's retention at all. While some people love to play the market the majority just want's to buy/sell their shit and be on their way again.

[Amarr HM]

Yeh and when the speed nerf hits, going to buy your stuff and being on your way again will be more laborious. So the nerf is going to have a universal effect in that sense. I admit it's a minor gripe but a just one nonetheless.

[Venkman]

I actually agree with you that the speed nerf is going to be a big issue and piss off a lot of people. The only part I don't agree with is that this will chase people to JG:E

What speed nerf? Just out of curiosity.

Separately, I can't see how many would want to take a huge step back from the player-control socioeconomic sim that is Eve to a space fighter adventure game. Eve is almost a genre unto itself.

I have a hard time believing that the much bally-who'd socioeconomy of Eve accounts for much of it's retention at all. While some people love to play the market the majority just want's to buy/sell their shit and be on their way again.

Nah, I don't think most people are there for the crafting/economy. But they're not there for the fun action-y shield-rotation dogfighting either. It's not like Eve is a good surrogate to Freespace 2. It's different in a way JG:E doesn't compete again.

Obviously we'll see someday. ;-)