Stargate Worlds
Through The Gate at Comic Con '08
Few titles have as open and intriguing an intellectual property for a foundation as Stargate Worlds. Being built by Cheyenne Entertainment in the desert heat of Arizona, this game has the ability to take you literally anywhere. Stargate SG-1, the series upon which the game is based is the longest running science fiction show to ever grace television screens. At Comic Con '08 Ten Ton Hammer was the first group of press to ever see gameplay in this highly anticipated title, which is based on the period of time between Seasons 8 and 9.
Dan Elgren, Studio Lead took us through a demonstration of the game, which is in the early alpha (friends and family) stage. Our first look was a run-through of a portion of the Praxis newbie zone. The team has created lore and a storyline that allowed them to implement humans on the Praxis (Goa'uld) faction. This group of humans called Op-Core. is made up of disenfranchised Stargate personnel who were removed from the SGU, eventually deciding to join the Goa'uld. Their goal remains to protect Earth, but their methods are merciless and unscrupulous. The ends justifies the means. This instance was built to teach the player about cover and the basics of the game. A new player should complete this portion of the game in approximately 20 minutes.
"We do a lot of setting up of story in those [newbie] instances. There are clues and things that happen to you in that 20 minutes that don't really become clear until later in the game, so when you go back and replay it again [with an alt] you'll notice a lot more stuff because things that you thought were incidental at the time become important later on." --Chris Klug, Creative Director
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Demetrius Comes,
Vice President of Technology
Combat is intriguing, and though there will be no space combat (sorry folks you won't be flying an X302), the ground combat is unlike anything you have seen so far in a MMOG. Players will need to take advantage of cover, which in of itself isn't a new feature to the MMOG space. What is unique and extraordinary to see is how the Cheyene team has implemented the user interface (U.I.) surrounding this feature. Both player and enemy have a targeting heads-up-display (HUD) element that shows not only the degree of cover, but also which direction the cover is applicable to and which direction you are being attacked successfully from. Cover is an integral part of the game. If you run in guns ablazin' you will die. Watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to see what I mean. The NPCs will also use cover, sometimes. Each spawn of an NPC will not necessarily mean that it reacts the same way. Some will be aggressive, some defensive and some a combination of the two elements.
Movement will also affect your success in combat. Moving will make it harder for you to be hit by enemy fire, but it also makes it harder for you to hit anything that you are shooting at.
Another element of combat is suppression.
"There are abilities that let you lay fire down to cause the mob to stop firing for a second, so that in combination you can isolate people..." --Chris Klug
Dan, Chris and Demetrius Comes, Vice President of Technology grouped up to show us a portion of the gameplay that takes place on Lucia, home of the Lucian Alliance. The benefits of working as a group were immediately evident. When the three developers sat back and plinked away the battles were long and difficult. When Demetrius used his stealth ability to flank the opponents they dropped very quickly. Even the developers sometime die and Demetrius getting caught sneaking in behind some mobs was the perfect time to ask about death penalties.
"No one actually dies. You are incapacitated and you revive either at a respawn point or a scientist can carry a revive tent which they can transport across the battlefield. " --Chris Klug
Other than the time penalty of getting back to your group, the downside of dying is very minimal.
At GDC in May we were exposed to several of the Stargate Worlds environments, but weren't shown any gameplay. Two months later the game has taken an almost unbelievable leap forward. Not only were we shown gameplay, but Phil was able to hop in and give it a go himself. His take and I quote was, "Three thumbs up!"
The game itself is soloable, though after seeing how it plays I can't imagine that there is as much fun in taking the solo route as there is in grouping. Think of Stargate Worlds as a tactical, squad-based game and you have probably hit upon its sweet spot. In fact, playing regularly with a core will unlock bonuses available only to that group. You don't see Daniel Jackson swinging with SG-2 do you? Now you know why.
Chris Klug, the eloquent and passionate Creative Director commented that unlike other games, content pushes will sometimes include level cap increases. In other words, if the max level was 50, there will eventually be a content push that raises that level to 52. The team's intention is to raise the level cap gradually through content pushes between expansions. This is an extraordinary idea, though how it plays out will be interesting to see. Will players 'dam up' at the level cap as they do in other titles? If so, will the flood of players into the new content cause issues? Demetrius Comes, the Vice President of Technology doesn't believe that it will and his quick answer to my question during the demonstration was evidence that he has considered this problem.
"Embracing the television show metaphor, we're going to be pushing new episodes out to you of this content that's keyed not only to the right level, but also to the equipment that you have and the abilities and the crafting. It lets us do two things. One, embrace the show metaphor of new adventures for the SG-1 team, but also react to what the audience tells us that they love. If they love 'this' kind of combat then we can give them more of 'this' kind of combat as we go forward. " --Chris Klug
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Chris Klug, Creative Director
Chatting with Ten Ton Staff
about the game
Stargate Worlds will about more than just combat. Archeologists, scientists, etc. will all be able to contribute to play without constantly being forced into armed combat. That said, according to Chris Klug the best thing that a non-combat specialist can do in a firefight is get a gun equipped and help burn down the enemies. There won't be healers who can keep a 'tank' up during a fight. Outthink, outmaneuver and outgun the opponents if you want to be successful. When not in combat, players who prefer a more pacifist role can become proficient in mini-games (think of games like bejeweled) that allow them to diffuse bombs, unlock doors, etc. You can even sign up to play mini-games for other players, perhaps charging them a fee.
Even the implementation of the heads up display (HUD) is innovative. The HUD itself is completely customizable from within the core U.I. For instance, hotbars can be broken down into their individual parts with single buttons living anywhere in your HUD. Multiple profiles can be saved and swapped on the fly. The U.I. elements can even be set to change based on what weapon a player has equipped. Swapping weapons will swap in a new U.I. layout. Players will be able to share their HUD setups simply by giving their U.I. config file to a friend. The days of downloading U.I.s and installing them are over.
"We're not that attached to how we setup the U.I. that you have to live by it. We want people to go in there and create the U.I. that suits them and their gameplay." --Dan Elgren
I have been, and I suppose always will be a Stargate fan. I have watched every episode of the show multiple times and have become very attached to the characters. When I first heard that a Stargate MMOG was in the works I was both excited and uneasy. You only get one kick at the can and if the team that got the Stargate IP botched it up I'd never play a Stargate MMOG. The game looks good for its stage of development. Phil says that it plays great, and perhaps best of all for me, my waning interest and concerns that were formed after my GDC viewing have been removed. I'm excited about this title again. It is in caring and capable hands.
--John Hoskin, TenTonhammer.com
Ten Ton Hammer would like to thank the Stargate Worlds development team for giving us so much of their time.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Stargate Worlds Game Page.
