Loading... A Tale of Two Space MMOs

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Posted Mon, Sep 14, 2009 by Ethec

Welcome to the 1,164th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Being able to play two highly anticipated space MMOs back to back was the highlight of our recent trip, and today I'll bring you my hands-on impressions of the space combat side of Star Trek Online and Jumpgate Evolution. As these two MMOs might be geared up for a head-to-head launch next year, we'll look at some of the striking similarities and refreshing differences that STO and JGE bring to the table in today's Loading... A Tale of Two Space MMOs

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers today:

Fallen Earth (UP 9)
Lineage 2 (UP 3)
The Secret World (UP 9 to #13)

Recent MMO Releases

8/4 - World of Warcraft Update 3.2 (content patch)
8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online

Important Dates

9/15 - 9/18 - GDC Austin
10/1 - 10/3 - EVE FanFest

Upcoming Releases

9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
NEW - 9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/9 - Cities XL (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Loading... Daily

For MMOs, space is hardly the final frontier. EVE Online has been astonishing reviewers and gathering steam since 2003, and according to Exec. Producer Noah Ward, the game just entered its sixth month of solid growth. No other game has done as good a job at making space feel strategic, populous, and political, but if you talk to many new players, their chief gripe isn't the inability to walk around stations or planets, it's that the mouse (rather than a gamepad or joystick) is your primary means of navigation. In other words, it looks like a dogfighter, but isn't. EVE Online is more of a simulator of how space combat would really be like rather than how Hollywood makes-believe it is, with Luke single-handedly taking out the Death Star.

To see what I mean, take a real world example - a submarine. You won't find one guy inside a sub with a joystick to move the sub and a trigger that fires torpedos , there's helmsmen to set and maintain the course and speed, sonar operators to paint a picture of what can't be seen, weapons specialists to load and maintain the armaments, engineers to provide energy, life support, and propulsion, officers to make the decisions, and many more specialized personnel to sustain the day-to-day running of the boat. EVE Online realizes many of these functions with UI elements, since to be successful in EVE you have to have the mental space to work in concert with other players. EVE would have to give up a lot of its depth and simulator-esque appeal to be a dogfighter.

But there's no denying the streamlined appeal of a space dogfighter, either. Games of great complexity - EVE Online and Fallen Earth - don't typically show well at fan events. It's hard to give folks a sense of the action in these games in the space of a 10-minute play session. In contrast, Star Trek Online and Jumpgate Evolution (along with Global Agenda, as you'll see in our latest video) are about as close as an MMO can get to a show-stopper (and if you've ever had to work your way around a popular booth at an event, you know I mean "show stopper" quite literally). Not only does space look nothing like the limitless vacuum it is - and I'd have to give JGE the prize on the eye-catching looks department, though to be fair NetDevil has more than a year of development time on Cryptic - the combat action is fluid and full of interesting choices.

For example of some of these interesting choices, let's look at space travel and more specifically, combat maneuvers. Our first decision in Star Trek Online was when to come out of warp, because shields can only charge fully under impulse power. Craig Zinkievich noted that 14 km is about the ideal distance from your enemies to disengage the warp drive. Jumpgate Evolution likewise has a boost option with is powered by the same source as your shield, but in JGE you can't boost if you're under fire. You can come in "hot" in JGE, but you might find yourself without an escape route. In Star Trek Online, you can warp right into the action, but without shields there's likely to be a breach in deck 9 with untold numbers of pretend crewmembers lost. These are different and viable solutions to the problem of run 'n gun gameplay, which gets old quickly. Unfortunately we didn't get to see that trademark star-smearing visual effect when our Federation newb ship entered warp, but likely this is reserve for cutscenes or long-distance travel.

As for combat itself, the shining feature of Star Trek Online was the shields system, both for lore-appropriateness and how well it works with gameplay. Just like on TV, you have four independent shield facings - forward, rear, and the two sides. Naturally your forward shields will take a pounding as you close on your enemies, so you can divert rear shields to power up your forward shields. Similarly, you want to wear down your enemies shields with phasers and then, once their shields are depleted, you can fire a salvo of photon torpedoes to decimate their hull. But should you put your back to your enemy's wingmen with your shields facing forward, you'll take some considerable damage. But should you find yourself outmatched, STO borrows an idea from its Cryptic cousin and allows you to select a defensive "build" (I'm not sure of the exact term in STO), with more power available to shields in exchange for less speed.

The ability to adjust your shields allows for some interesting fleet warfare choices, as you can perhaps move in formation, overloading your shields to your threat angles at the cost of shields facing friendly ships. Your bridge officers (which, interestingly, can be bought, looted, traded for, and quested for) also work as your "spells and abilities." Craig demonstrated one officer whose ability allowed us to completely refill our shields but, obviously, this ability was on a long cooldown timer. Bridge officers also go with you on away missions, which probably breaks all sorts of protocol. Ground combat is part squad-based RTS and part shooter, as your officers are capable of following a rudimentary set of instructions and will heal and revive you, should it come to that. Aside from the interesting scenery, there was nothing on the ground combat side that seemed particularly groundbreaking yet, except that I have to agree with Sardu that it was hard to tell it was built with the same proprietary engine used in Champions Online.

What stuck with me about Jumpgate Evolution was the wealth of weapon types and the UI, which is a masterpiece of HUD design and probably ought to be evaluated by avionics manufacturers for how well it places you (and your enemies) in space while keeping your viewable space entirely uncluttered. The iteration NetDevil has done on this feature has clearly paid off, and a quality UI was desperately needed by the game, which feels much less planar and more three-dimensional than other space shooters I've played. You'll have to evolve a certain amount of skill to learn how to make the z-axis work for you (for example, ducking behind an asteroid to break missile lock), but the game isn't nearly as fast-paced, punishing, or anywhere near as hard to learn as a modern combat flight simulator.

The weapon types in JGE are a trip, too. If you find yourself dogged by a fast-pursuing enemy, drop a mine. If a bogey is flying rings around you, load up some guided missiles, which might yield less damage than dumbfire missiles, but speedy rigs aren't the sturdiest anyway. If you're firing on a fixed target, like a turret on a capital ship, use torpedos, which do lots of damage but are incredibly slow. Whatever enemy you're shooting at is the one you automatically establish a lock on, and though we have yet to see what NetDevil is up to on the group interaction front, Scott did much to assuage our fears that this would be Auto Assault in space. You can see more about combat in our latest video with NetDevil's Scott Brown. But I'd have to say that despite the novelty and interesting things Cryptic is doing with STO, for dogfighting depth, epic environments, and tilt, JGE would get my vote if both games were launched today.

Agree, disagree? Share your opinion from what you've seen in the Loading... forum.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Aion General Discussion

I never thought I'd say this...

Anacche has confessed his passion for...clerics; specifically, clerics in Aion. Although he's never enjoyed a healing class before, he's in "fricking love" with clerics. I can relate. Healbot classes have never done it for me, but my Chanter is hella fun because she's anything but a healbot--she can heal, buff, and dish out damage. I've never much liked warrior types, either, and yet my gladiator seems to kick some ass and leads me to play much later into the evening than I probably should.

Have you found yourself enjoying a class in Aion that you haven't much liked in other MMOs? Has venturing into Atreia taken you out of your comfort zone? Confess!

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Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"It amazes me how Aion has gotten us to play the classes we don't normally play. I tend to pick rogue classes in the MMOs I play, but I have gone with a gladiator in Aion because they dish out some epic damage."

- Metal
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

2 new MMOG home-grown articles today! 31 in September! 983 in 2009!

Today's New MMO Coverage, Features, and Guides

Global Agenda - Two New Maps & Female Character Models Video
For our first live in-game video look at Global Agenda, we met up with Executive Producer Todd Harris at PAX 2009 to see female character models for the first time, as well as the new Ravine and Seaside maps. We'll also ask Todd about what the Hi Rez team learned from the first round of beta tests and see some of the changes in action with this new twelve minute in-game video from the floor at PAX 2009. Enjoy!
The Thrill of Success – An Interview with Perfect World Developers
Over the past year, Perfect World International has dedicated itself to introducing North American gamers to its deep character creation system, numerous (and funky) flying mounts, and fresh player races. In doing that, they’ve attracted over 1.5 million players, and Ten Ton Hammer wouldn’t be surprised if they still retained a nice chunk of those players. So what has the team done to make the game so successful? Ten Ton Hammer sat down with Jon Beliss to find out.

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