Massively speaks at length with Jumpgate Evolution's Hermann Peterscheck Pt. 4

We've heard a lot about Battle Space — JGE's instanced PvP encounters — but what's planned for world PvP? Would you say it's comparable to Warhammer Online or EVE Online's approach, or does it function differently?

It's different. I don't want to go into too much detail, but we're expanding [on Jumpgate Classic]. The original Jumpgate had a beacon system where you would basically use a special device on your ship in order to take over parts of space, and then you'd get benefits for it. It was a reasonably simplistic system in that it was basically just this object you flew through. When you flew through it, that sector of space would be turned to your nations color — so red, green or blue.

We're making that a lot cooler. It'll be a much more engaging battle and I think it'll be a lot more exciting. I'm expecting those to be almost constant battles and the advantages will be there. So the more space you own, the more advantages you get in various things. You know, things like, maybe the cut the auction house takes or the cost of mail fees or things like that. This is in addition to getting experience and that kind of stuff for holding those positions. But I don't wanna go into too much detail, because I think it's going to be really cool.

We've heard you speaking recently about how NetDevil is playing around with having different modes for a player to be in, such as a hardcore mode for something similar to what Darkfall is all about — PvP anywhere, player looting, etc. Last we heard you hadn't decided on anything. Has there been any progression on that?

We're experimenting with that. Our initial plan was to just have servers that are open PvP everywhere and ones that have areas where you're safe and areas where you're not — and that you'd break those two up.

But we're trying to figure out if there's a better solution that allows those two groups of players to player together. So what we came up with is if I flag my character in a certain way when I'm creating them, then they live by the PvP rules alongside people that don't fly that way. In exchange for flagging your character that way, you get benefits. Your advancement is quicker, your loot drops are better. We're still experimenting with it. Nothing's been concretely decided on that.

So you basically flag your character at creation, and they're stuck that way. You're not able to flip in and out of it at will?

Exactly, yeah. It would be a one-time, permanent choice. If you can flip back and forth, it's too easy to exploit.

You mentioned how exciting the world PvP is, but is there anything else you haven't been asked about that you think is really cool?

We've been playing around a lot with world boss activities, and I think that stuff is going to be really cool. The idea is that on the one hand, you have these open PvP scenarios and that's one sort of endgame. And the other endgame is really the PvE equivalent of those things, which are just massive encounters.

As we come along closer to release date, we're trying to push the envelope on how many ships we can get into areas at the same time. It really is a different experience than other MMOs, in terms of the scale of the combat. I'm really excited to see how people will respond to that.

Related to that, do you guys have plans for any world events?

Yes, the nature of that could go in two different ways. We have the ability to do either, so I'm curious to see what people think. On the one hand you can have events that are sort of highly specialized and they're one-offs. Most games tend to do that. The problem I have with those is they tend to suffer from players feeling like, "Oh gosh, I'm this really serious player but I happen to be at school at that time." And so, I almost prefer sort of more predictable things. Where, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8pm there's this event that takes place in Solrain. Suddenly, tons of ships attack a station and you have to defend it and if you succeed there's this event that goes on.

The other thing that we have the ability to do are long-term missions. This is stuff like kill two million infernos, and it's not just you, it's your entire nation. Then when that happens, something else unlocks elsewhere, or some event takes place. I find that much more compelling.