Syfy + Trion = Defiance MMO Action Shooter (PC 360 PS3)

[raydeen]

Finally a trailer out for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siQfooemkI0

Looks ok I guess. *shrugs*  It looks like a PvE focus if I had to guess?  At least that will set it apart from PS2 and Firefall.  *shrugs*

"THOUSANDS OF PLAYERS"

At least they're not succumbing to unrealistic expectations.

[Mrbloodworth]

I like the look of that. I get a borderlands feel from it. But I wonder how its going to interact with the show.

[Venkman]

Can't imagine there'll be much tied together. Maybe some scripted events in the game where the outcome becomes some throwaway line from the main cast in the following episode. But beyond that, story-based TV shows need to control too much of the viewing experience, and make too many realtime changes during shoots, to be affected by the random actions of gamers.

Made for a nice press release last year. But I wouldn't be surprised if only this game launches and the show itself never does.

[Kageru]

Looks like fun. Basically a star-craft zerg rush from the marines perspective. If the enemy is aggressive enough that it rewards co-operative tactics it could be something quite novel.

Echoes of GW2 zone events and I assume ME3 multi-player. Hopefully they've realised that large player count on-line games can be something other than purely PvP, and I would be hella delighted. Group play with your friends without having to buy into the MMO grind would be awesome.

[Mrbloodworth]

I think it will be more than that Darniaq... If its anything like the project plan from a few years ago. I think what happened is the people I was working with shopped it around so much.... This beat it to the punch.

[Malakili]

Looks like fun. Basically a star-craft zerg rush from the marines perspective. If the enemy is aggressive enough that it rewards co-operative tactics it could be something quite novel.

Echoes of GW2 zone events and I assume ME3 multi-player. Hopefully they've realised that large player count on-line games can be something other than purely PvP, and I would be hella delighted. Group play with your friends without having to buy into the MMO grind would be awesome.

I had this mental picture in my head of a big PvE based world in which different bases/outposts come under NPC controlled alien attacks ala Rift, but sort of as the main source of content.  So it would hypothetically be a ongoing war between the players and NPCs losing and gaining towns as they go, players could either push to some hive (one town at a time, reclaiming them on the way), or be pushed back to their capital city and crushed.

Now that I have my best case scenario out there, I'm fully prepared for it to be highly instanced missions ala Global Agenda   

[HaemishM]

Looked interesting with buggies flying and mowing down guys. Then they went bughunt and I was all like... why?

[Kageru]

Looks like fun. Basically a star-craft zerg rush from the marines perspective. If the enemy is aggressive enough that it rewards co-operative tactics it could be something quite novel.

Echoes of GW2 zone events and I assume ME3 multi-player. Hopefully they've realised that large player count on-line games can be something other than purely PvP, and I would be hella delighted. Group play with your friends without having to buy into the MMO grind would be awesome.

I had this mental picture in my head of a big PvE based world in which different bases/outposts come under NPC controlled alien attacks ala Rift, but sort of as the main source of content.  So it would hypothetically be a ongoing war between the players and NPCs losing and gaining towns as they go, players could either push to some hive (one town at a time, reclaiming them on the way), or be pushed back to their capital city and crushed.

Now that I have my best case scenario out there, I'm fully prepared for it to be highly instanced missions ala Global Agenda   

Tabula Rasa had the seeds of this idea. Aliens would launch invasions of keeps and capture them if Players didn't help the defense or take them back. Though of course like everything in TR it was half-baked and didn't go anywhere. Really fun though and it's inclusive, the more defenders the merrier.

[Draegan]

I was there for the debut and I've talked to Rob Hill before.  This is pretty much a straight pve shooter using the rift engine and "rift" tech.

[HaemishM]

I was there for the debut and I've talked to Rob Hill before.  This is pretty much a straight pve shooter using the rift engine and "rift" tech.

Interest officially killed.

[Sky]

Tabula Rasa had the seeds of this idea. Aliens would launch invasions of keeps and capture them if Players didn't help the defense or take them back. Though of course like everything in TR it was half-baked and didn't go anywhere. Really fun though and it's inclusive, the more defenders the merrier.

I was in pretty early for TR and it was a lot of fun. Definitely had the relatively dynamic event system factor nailed, I preferred it over Rift's in many ways, since as you say, often it was centered on a defense emplacement you had to defend (or reclaim). Plus Borderlands-style loot drops.

Game definitely started taking a turn for the worse as release neared, though. I think one of the best reasons to play beta is to have fun before they 'balance' it out.

If they can do TR right, it could be pretty awesome. However, given their (admittedly limited) track record in world-building, I'm skeptical.

[Malakili]

If they can do TR right, it could be pretty awesome. However, given their (admittedly limited) track record in world-building, I'm skeptical.

Who is making this game?  I mean the actual developers. 

[Margalis]

Who is making this game?  I mean the actual developers. 

Trion...not sure I understand the question.

[Malakili]

Who is making this game?  I mean the actual developers. 

Trion...not sure I understand the question.

I mean, what projects have the actual human beings working on this game worked on before.  I don't get the impression this is people from the Rift team.

[Sky]

Why wouldn't it be? I'd guess they've got whatever live team the put together working on Rift and the core of the dev team has been working on this for a while now.

[Malakili]

Why wouldn't it be? I'd guess they've got whatever live team the put together working on Rift and the core of the dev team has been working on this for a while now.

Well for End of Nations, for example, they brought on Petroglyph.

[Draegan]

Well Petroglyph is making the game and Trion is doing the backend stuff for it, if I remember correctly.  Defiance is all Trion at another studio location (San Diego?).

[Margalis]

I mean, what projects have the actual human beings working on this game worked on before.  I don't get the impression this is people from the Rift team.

I know two people working on it, both were hired after Rift was released (or at least after it was in beta) specifically to work on it.

[Draegan]

So the show just started production and is going to air Spring 2013.

[Jobu]

I mean, what projects have the actual human beings working on this game worked on before.  I don't get the impression this is people from the Rift team.

A fair amount of people from the San Diego development community. So ex-SOE, Rockstar, 989, Highmoon, THQ/Bottlerocket/Concrete. Probably pulled some people down from the main Trion studio in SF I bet. The "core" of the studio when it was founded were almost all SOE veterans.

[Draegan]

http://www.defiancejunkies.com/2012/05/22/video-documentry-on-the-making-of-defiance/

Sorry for the shill, but some new info out about the show more than the game.  Kind of a simple Making Of Documentary that's 6 minutes long.  Cool new shots of the CGI of the show.  Gameplay/game stuff is still from the video released last month.

[Hawkbit]

Holy shit, one of the game features is the ability to "level up"!  Wow! 

I wish them the best.  They've really got a deck stacked against them, considering TV and games have just about the most unforgiving and fickle fans across any hobby.  As a new IP, both the show and the game are entirely dependent on the other for success, so if one is bad the whole project will suffer.  Not to mention that Syfy pretty much needs to be all-in for 3-5 seasons minimum for this to even try to catch on. 

Again, not trying to rain on parades, but the scope of the project is very, very large. 

Also, the game looks like TR.

[patience]

Holy shit, one of the game features is the ability to "level up"!  Wow! 

I wish them the best.  They've really got a deck stacked against them, considering TV and games have just about the most unforgiving and fickle fans across any hobby. 

While I agree with that in general, I always thought Eve Online's playerbase could be turned into a reality TV show. But I'm not talking about a reality show like the bread and butter low budget stuff we get now, but a show with the actual motif of the Eve universe. A lot of the dialogue and plot points are heavily inspired (if not a simple copy and paste) of past actions of corps/alliances and the capricious Olympian gods who watch over them.

[Mrbloodworth]

The Making of Defiance Part II: Sets & Environments

Defiance - Developer Diary: What is a Shooter MMO?

[Kageru]

The video suggests that within the open world you can queue for instanced events. And they mention the open world as "do some resource gathering". Will be interesting to find out the details.

... from a distance. Though if it's the first shooter to let PC and Xbox users play together that should be amusing.
 

[Malakili]

I like Trion, so I'll at least keep an eye on this, but I'm not really getting my hopes up for something special.

[Nebu]

No pvp, no interest. 

I like Trion and support their efforts, but this game holds nothing for me. 

[Mrbloodworth]

No pvp, no interest. 

I like Trion and support their efforts, but this game holds nothing for me. 

No PvP? When was that said?

[Draegan]

While ago.  It's a PVE game.  I have no idea if that means no BGs or duels but it's not a PVP focused game.

[Kageru]

The developer video says it has "session based player versus player conflict maps".

[Nebu]

The developer video says it has "session based player versus player conflict maps".

Rift shows that Trion has no interest in creating serious PvP content.  Even now... all these months after release, the balance in pvp is terrible in Rift. 

[Zetor]

At least they're looking into pvp stat equalization in RIFT (and already have almost-equalizing bolstering), which puts them several tiers above other DIKUs like wow/swtor.

[Draegan]

Dev Diary on PVP: http://www.defiancejunkies.com/2012/10/16/new-dev-diary-video-open-world-pvp/

[Threash]

The only thing i got out of that is that there is going to be pvp.  Which is good.

[Evildrider]

So what happens when SyFy cancels the show?