Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Space operas are similar to the way they're named. These immense science fiction movies and television shows are epic in their scale and grand in their scope. Although we rarely see a fat lady singing, these forms of entertainment commonly have massive spaceship battles where enormous capital ships launch hundreds of fighters that swarm around the ships like bees around a hive.

Jumpgate Evolution is hoping to reinvent space combat for video gamers.

While this is a common sort of experience in movies and television shows, the restrictions of video gaming systems has - for the most part - eliminated massive spaceship battles from coming to the interactive entertainment format. As much as we all desired to be Han Solo, Wedge Antilles, or Alex Rogan (The Last Starfighter anyone?), it just wasn't possible with the systems available. However, the developers at NetDevil have tried to bring those sort of spaceship combat to computer gamers for years, and now they are closer than ever with their upcoming MMOG, Jumpgate Evolution (JGE). Recently, Codemasters (the game's publisher) announced that JGE had achieved over 150,000 beta registrations, and they're hoping to press into the closed beta phase in the very near future.

Since it's been a few months since Ten Ton Hammer checked in with the Jumpgate Evolution crew, we got on the phone with NetDevil's lead man, Hermann Peterscheck, who took the time to update our staff with some of the newest details on the upcoming game.

Perhaps some of the most exciting details I learned about Jumpgate Evolution in the interview was the fact that capital ships are not only going to be included, but that players will be fighting, protecting and interacting with them in major sequences. With an Anakin Sywalker - or should we say "Ani" Skywalker - like "Yippee!" we listened to Hermann discuss some of the more intriguing parts of the capital ships and how players are going to interact with them.

"They’re going to be a big part of the game," Peterscheck answered. "Just the other day, the guy that’s working on the capital ships had two of them in the game fighting each other, and there were swarms of AI starships fighting with them. It’s that whole Star Wars sci-fi giant space combat that we’re trying to recreate in our game."

"I don’t want to talk details until we’ve locked everything down and we can actually show something," Peterscheck continued. "That said, I think people are going to be very impressed. They’re definitely a mechanic that we’re going to use in PvP and PvE. You might have a “destroy the enemy fleet” sort of scenario in PvP, or have to fight a giant ship that you’ll have to go take out in PvE. When those things are flying around and launching ships, it’s very, very cool."

There's nothing more exciting than a giant ship bearing down on your little pea shooter, right?

While the closed beta testing for Jumpgate Evolution is still in the starting gate, waiting to be released like Man O'War during his racing days, the NetDevil team has been doing plenty of internal and focus group testing on their space action MMO. With this in mind, I asked Peterscheck what people really found appealing when they first sat down to play through Jumpgate Evolution. What portion of the game really caught their fancy?

"Our experience from watching people play the game tells us that people like and respond well to large scale battles, fighting massive enemies, PvP, and then the exploration side of the game," Peterscheck said. "On the subject of exploration, if companies don't have enough diversification in their environments, players burn out even if the mechanics are great. World of Warcraft is very good at making players feel like they're entering a whole new area when they move from zone to zone. We've tried to emulate that and give players completely different areas when they jump from area to area, and it's cool to see players enjoying that experience and saying 'Wow, this is cool! Wow, this is cool!'"

Exploration can certainly lead to some interesting encounters, especially if an individual happens to wander into a zone that houses some more difficult enemies than a player is ready to handle. That sort of experience either ends in a quick death or retreating faster than Bugs Bunny from Elmer Fudd. My next question to Hermann revolved around the idea of helping a player feel heroic while still keeping the difficulty level appropriate for that player's experience. Hermann's answer was quite epic, and here's what he had to say:

Can Jumpgate Evolution bring the space combat genre back to life?

As the final question to part one of our interview, one of the biggest reasons the Ten Ton Hammer staff contacted Hermann again was to discuss the 150,000 beta applications and what that means for the future of the game. Although mainstream titles like Warhammer Online and the World of Warcraft beta tests boasted hundreds of thousands of beta testers each, it's no small feat to capture the gaze of fans without even having a closed beta test active. Trying to find testers, especially without a permanent beta test going on, is like trying to herd cats. So how did Peterscheck feel about their accomplishment?

"We feel really good about it," Hermann said. "It’s exciting to think that we’ve got 150,000 people anxious to get in the game and we’re not even in a large player population beta stage yet. "

"Most of the beta sign-ups you see for a game come after people have logged into the game for the first time and are talking to their friends letting them know how cool the game is inside," he finished. "It’s definitely motivational for us."

If you'd like to learn more about Jumpgate Evolution and read the conclusion to our entire interview, make sure you keep reading Ten Ton Hammer!