Jumping through the Gate: Factions and Missions
Ten Ton Hammer has posted another of their Jumpgate Evolution bi-weekly interviews, this time with Hermann Peterscheck, Producer for JGE. In this installment, Peterscheck answers questions about the game's factions and missions.
While reading through the Q&A I was comforted by the fact that Peterscheck continues to push the idea that JGE doesn't have hard and fast rules, and that they are trying to put as much of the game's outcome into the hands of the players (through their choices) as possible. This was something he mentioned during his interview about death and roleplaying as well, so it really does seem like something they intend to follow through with. In this case, while players will have to choose what nation to play (Quantar, Solrain or Octavius) there are no rules about allegiances, thus factions can interact in a myriad of ways with all of them.
Mission distribution in JGE sounds as if it might be evolutionary in concept. Perhaps even revolutionary. Peterscheck stated that it's an area they are looking to expand upon because it's one area that still can "gain a lot of ground" when it comes to innovation. The analogy he gives (work to get get bits and pieces of information, then put them together) lends some insight into what we might see in JGE. Additionally, he states that he always liked the way System Shock, one of the scariest PC games of all time (and precursor to the phenomenal BioShock), doled out missions. Hmmm... was that a hint?
A very interesting question posed by TTH dealt with whether or not players would able to get out of their ship, and if so - would they have an avatar. Peterscheck's answer was even more intriguing. The straight answer was that avatars won't be available - yet, but may be added in the future. They're focus right now is making the best space flight game possible, one that becomes such an immersive experience that you won't care if you have an avatar or not. He refers to "other games" that tried to do both and ended up with "half implemented features" and he may very well have been talking about Auto Assault. One of the quirks I didn't particularly care for in AA was the "half implemented" avatar system. The car was smokin'. The avatar... not so much. If that's the case, it sound like they've really learned a few things from past projects.
Give the Q&A a read and decide for yourself.
