I think the game is going to be more successful as a single player game rather than a MMORPG. For one. I am not sure if there will be enough buyers of the game to make it work at an online platform. We only have iPhone/ipad/iPod touch gamers and I'm sure out of all owners, you'll be lucky to have a double-digit percentage of them to buy the game. The game mechanics will be different too. It's not like as if everyone plays online at the same time. The guys who developed Outer Empires will probably know these better than me.
I don't care much about multi because most of my time is out side not in wifi areas. Though I do have a question about the movement of the ships. Do the ships have some sort or hyper-drive or warp drive to most faster through a star system? Like i noticed in the gameplay trailer you had a button for flee when in battle does that activate some sort of "jump" to get out of danger and can the ships be disabled like knock out their engines. Im a huge Stargate fan and love how anything could go wrong it would be nice to have some sort of hyper-drive and damage or disable ships so they cant chase you or you get disabled say (if you have it in the game) the hyper-drive fails due to damage and you have to repair it so now you can't flee until it fixed which would be like some time increment say like 1 minute of not taking damage or only very little damage. As it stands right now I will be buying as soon as it becomes available.
Holy Shit, I'm gone for a couple of days and they finally release a new trailer, screens, details, and it may be released in a matter of days... Awesome! Looking forward to this. But I have to be honest, I thought it might have been vaporware. And still wonder about all that we can't talk about it but were definitely making the game. Its not like the iPad was the best kept secret... Now on to a quick question, its obvious that their are factions in the game. And in the writeup it does say you can "rule the universe", is that PR talk or can player actions actually determine the flow of the games universe. Do you become like High Ruler through the storyline, or can you actually join, rule, or conquer factions on your own independent of the main story or plot? Can you pull an Escape Velocity and subjugate worlds for your own bidding? Creating a quasi empire in the players name. And is their a definitive release date, or is it still soon?
This plus progression. You have to slow progression way down in an MMO. We if you play Warpgate for 5 hours, you should already have bought 3 or 4 ships, and have several nukes and lasers as weapons. Movement in systems is based on your ships engine speeds. You can flee from combat, but it's interesting. Weapons still exist outside of combat, and enemies can fire upon you. So when you flee, you then have to decide to actually high-tail it out of there or get pummeled with missiles. Ships cannot warp out without being at a Warpgate. So there are times when you might need to zoom out and play some cat and mouse with the enemy to get to the Warpgate. You can also take refuge on any planet. When doing so you can repair, and when you take off, the enemy might no longer be in orbit. The systems were designed so you don't have to wait long to get from planet to planet. But not cramped either. Like flying from Mercury to Pluto takes under 1 minute (depending on your starship). You can earn faction, so you can dominate the different systems. But some of it is marketing speak. You definitely have control over the markets and economy. The game plot does take you down this road partially. But without trying to corner a market or looking for side missions (which are randomly generated and different from the quests) you will not be in charge of all the factions. The game is still in review with Apple so I can't guarantee any shipping date yet. But I'd keep an eye out on Saturday, and I"ll update the thread as more info comes in.
Cool thanks for the reply Hippieman, I would imagine that to purchase some of the 172 ships you will need to be in favorable terms with certain factions?
They will always sell you a ship. Your faction standing determines how much of a discount (or price increase) they give you. Money talks.
thanks for the quick response. one more question when you buy a ship does it have weapons already installed or do you have to buy them and attach to your ship? Also if yes to that question could we put any ( if you have the power and other different factors taken care of) weapons on any ship?
When you buy a ship, the dealer will move your weapons over to the new ship, if they fit. If you try to buy a ship and your cargo or weapons won't fit. The dealer asks you to sell them. Fortunately we decided to break from game tradition and let you sell your weapons at cost. So you won't lose any money this way. Edit: Any weapon can be installed on any ship. But each weapon takes up 1 weapon slot. So a ship with only 2 slots, can have 2 of the most powerful weapons in the game, but a ship with 8 slots, can have oh so many more!
It's killed it for me because I'm not really interested in Single Player games. I prefer Multiplayer games. If there's no plans to make an MMO out of it, I'm simply not interested anymore.
Personally I have no interests in MMO's. Reading that a game is an MMO kills all my interest in it. I don't have the time or the patience for MMO's. I'd much rather have a good single player game. That isn't to say I don't see the attraction of a good MMO, I just can't (and don't want to) devote the ammount of time they require.
There's Outer Empires. But it's more like space-themed strategy/conquest. If you are looking for a game with strong combat element like Warp Gate but online, you can keep waiting. In fact I just don't see it coming for the iPhone. You better go back to your PCs/Macs. Hippieman: Can I ask how does shields work? Is there an all-enveloping shield or is it divided into multiple sections (eg. front, back, left, right)? If it's the latter then I think it can allow a lot more variety of combat tactics. I thought you guys have submitted the game to Apple to guarantee a Saturday release?
Outer Empires is buggy. Everyone has their own preferences. Not saying it's a bad game, on the contrary, if you love SP games then this is def a must have by the looks of it. I might still buy it to check it out, but I can already for-see what will happen. I'll play it for an hour and never play it again.
Shields ultimately became a total ship enclosure. Originally we had lots of shields, and types for different damage. And everyone who tried it couldn't understand it, and just hated it. It became extremely complex fast. One of the things we wanted to do was to simplify menus. So when you land on a planet, and look at the equipment, it all fits on one screen. So you don't have to scroll up and down. You can see everything at once. This we felt was vital. There are a lot of menus in the game as it is, so we wanted to keep them all focused on the 480X320 screen. The only menus that scroll information is the Mission Log and the News Feed.
looking forward to the game very much. And, even on the eve of the iPad launch, I am really pleased to see a dev working to design a game from the ground up for the iPhone. The iPad may have slightly better hardware for some applications, but I just cannot imagine a scenario where it has anywhere near 1/10 the customer base of the iPhone. My phone fits on my pocket. For everything else, I have a laptop. 3 lbs., better resolution than the iPad, smokes it processors, has DVD drive, a real keyboard, supports flash, blah blah blah. the iPad will be extremely cool, but I can't see it being anywhere near as big a game changer as its wee predecessors.
