JumpGate
MajorFreak
after years of slagging the game's many faults as a sci-fi space-sim
MMOG.
>>"a MMORPG that launched smoothly, breaks from fantasy character
setting, emphasizes PvP, and is the first persistent world space
simulator that nobody talks about." ~Scorch
> http://www.mightygames.com/videos/Jumpgate_high.wmv (TRAILER)
Since most of you have either played it and hated it, or never played
it and haven't a bloody clue, here's the skinny about why Muffy likes
JumpGate (instead of loving to hate it)
1. Decent, distinct and well thought out graphics. Very minimalistic,
but a hell of a lot more imagination put into simple things than many
games out there with more generic "eye candy."
2. No point and click movement interface once you leave a space
station (yes, pilots/squads can build and maintain their own) ...it's
just you and your hand-eye coordination. There's no "pilot skill
purchasing/macroing" to be had, but plain old fashioned RL
experience/understanding of a semi-newtonian physics engine.
3. The missions available that give efficient experience (so you can
buy bigger ships/gear) are varied and alot more forgiving towards new
players than ever before. A friendly help channel that isn't a chat
spam booth; levelling options more varied than what meets the eye;
Artificial Intelligence "monsters" that make the game interesting
instead of intimidating; A mature community that's past it's 3rd
anniversary (insofar as major concept changes during betatesting)
4. There are 'Factions' and 'Squads' and 'PvP' in the game in
abundance along with 'Rebels' and 'GM npcs' plus a few attempting to
play 'Pirates'...The game is so imbued with the ability to pull one's
trigger that PvP is taken for granted, unlike alot of Point&Click
games. Thing is, there's not much to be gained from being a griefer in
this game unless you're really good at abusing the game engine's
loopholes. The point is that reputation in JumpGate's community
counts more than all the "factions", "storylines" and plots combined.
(though, there are roleplaying opportunities if one has enough guts to
pull it off with style and realize it's all just sandcastle building;
btw, i like building sandcastles)
5. Ship & Gear choices have improved by leaps and bounds. The game is
actually becoming more than "one ship; one gear choice" -- optimal is
replaced by preference...and the levelling treadmill, of course.
6. Alot of the main bugs people have complained about have been
removed (including the "nix hit box" bug of olde, and missile size
constraints on ship hardpoints added)...Unfortunately, the developers
have only one guy working on the game making patches (but the nice
thing is he was a former player that got hired later. which means he's
not going to think, "hey! let's nerf this and see what happens" that
alot of MMOGs get stuck with, especially Eve-online)
download these things:
>ftp://ftp.mightygames.com/jumpgate/Jumpgatelight_eng.exe (EU server
software)
>http://umec.oesm.org/phpBB/docs/controls.bin (place that in the main
dir)
>http://umec.oesm.org/phpBB/docs/CustomControls.gif
>http://www.slopey.com/ (market tracker and more; pick the EU server)
>http://www.jumpgateweb.com/dls/huds/dysonhud.zip (very nice HUD
layout)
>http://www.myrotacol.net/html/jgrot.php (location tracker and more)
register here at the EU server:
>http://www.mightygames.co.uk
oh, you'll have to choose between one of three 'Factions' (races;
basically: ship choices you get locked into) see here for additional
info that isn't marketing BS:
http://umec.oesm.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1264for tips and general
reading see here:
>http://umec.oesm.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1408
the websites for the game can be found through this fan site:
[url]http://www.jumpgateweb.com[/url]
If you want to actually purchase month to month you have two choices:
a.) play on the EU server ( www.mightygames.co.uk ) using a credit
card
b.) play on the US server ( www.jossh.com ) using a credit card for a
per month charge or alternative payment options via www.paybycash.com
(i use a canadian saving bank account and route it via paypal for ~$50
canadian for 3 months)
>>Let me add one thing to this thread, Point & Click requires no
learning curve (or very small one), therefore allowing the casual
player to be "skilled." This promotes the game to the masses and
provides more subscribers. A personal skill based game like JG becomes
very frustrating to a large percentage of "noob" subscribers who are
looking for something different as they can not easily and quickly
enter into a game and excel. Let's be honest a large percentage of
American entertainment is 60 minutes or less and if you aren't
entertained in that amount of time, then you won't be back.
I love the skill aspect of JG and it is what keeps me here more than
anytthing except the people interaction, but it does deter a lot of
would be players with a huge learning curve.
~Kelvar
>>In Jumpgate, I never considered my pirating, raiding or 'griefing'
days to be evil. Rather, I saw myself as a small cog in the greater
picture.
I had a purpose within the game's universe, to 'redistribute' wealth
to the strongest and best-suited to survive in the deep recesses of
space. It was also my purpose to win the faction wars, a purpose I
fulfilled on only one front before my wrath was untimely ended.
I do not consider myself 'evil', but I understand how people would
think that. But if I were 'evil' (*wink wink*), I wouldn't regret it
for a second. Wiping out the weak and making enemies flee in panic is
something I wouldn't miss for the world. Muahhahahahahaha!
~Firelance
FLY135
news:8c6cbb0d.04021...@posting.google.com...
> 3. The missions available that give efficient experience (so you can
> buy bigger ships/gear) are varied and alot more forgiving towards new
> players than ever before. A friendly help channel that isn't a chat
> spam booth; levelling options more varied than what meets the eye;
The one and only problem I had while playing in the beta was 15 hours online
and there was no opportunity in sight for getting a decent ship and engaging
in any meaningful combat. Total boredom. How has that changed?
MajorFreak
meaningless = total boredom
yup. online games are actually quite meaningless. Just look at
counterstrike: nobody cares if the terrorists never win...it's not
the fucking point. Until you can define "meaningful" i'm going to be
at a loss as how to answer your very fast and loose question.
FLY135
"MajorFreak" <bdu_maj...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8c6cbb0d.04021...@posting.google.com...
> "FLY135" <fly_135@(hot not not)notmail.com> wrote in message
news:<nmYWb.3371$W74...@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>...
> > "MajorFreak" <bdu_maj...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:8c6cbb0d.04021...@posting.google.com...
> > > 3. The missions available that give efficient experience (so you can
> > > buy bigger ships/gear) are varied and alot more forgiving towards new
> > > players than ever before. A friendly help channel that isn't a chat
> > > spam booth; levelling options more varied than what meets the eye;
> >
> > The one and only problem I had while playing in the beta was 15 hours
online
> > and there was no opportunity in sight for getting a decent ship and
engaging
> > in any meaningful combat. Total boredom. How has that changed?
>
> meaningless = total boredom
>
> yup. online games are actually quite meaningless. Just look at
> counterstrike: nobody cares if the terrorists never win...it's not
> the fucking point. Until you can define "meaningful" i'm going to be
> at a loss as how to answer your very fast and loose question.
Meaningful I guess in the sense that you can engage combat with anything and
not get slaughtered because your ship is equiped with a peashooter. Maybe
the game is different now, I don't know. That would certainly explain why
you can't relate to my question. In the beta all I could do in the first 15
hours of play was make long tedious journeys toting crap from station to
station and run like hell everytime I saw an (forgot the name of the
squidlike) alien. I think I did take a couple of the scanner missions,
which meant take an even longer tedious journey.
Of course I was looking forward to those great engine upgrades that would
turn my craft into a speedy sector crosser and I could start reeling in the
bux. I took mission after mission ecking out those credits and finally
bought that expensive engine upgrade thinking I would be hauling butt. Only
I found that instead of flying at a snails pace I was flying at a *slightly*
faster (maybe 10%) snails pace. Fifteen hours of freak'n staring at the
screen for that? That's when I gave up.
So my question is... Is what I just decribed an accurate portrayal of the
game as it is today?
Also can you strafe (lateral thrusters) with your ship now. I wouldn't call
a space game where you can't strafe even semi-Newtonian. Yes your ship does
have some inertia, which would justify that claim for some people.
Karl Frank
> Meaningful I guess in the sense that you can engage combat with anything and
> not get slaughtered because your ship is equiped with a peashooter. Maybe
> the game is different now, I don't know. That would certainly explain why
> you can't relate to my question. In the beta all I could do in the first 15
> hours of play was make long tedious journeys toting crap from station to
> station and run like hell everytime I saw an (forgot the name of the
> squidlike) alien. I think I did take a couple of the scanner missions,
> which meant take an even longer tedious journey.
If you truely were running from 1 Squid after 15 hours of play you did
something wrong.
The aliens never had been a big problem in the beta. Either you could
easily outgun them or outrun them. PKing was a completely different deal
however.
--
WINDOOF-MANAGER-ERROR:
Lassen Sie es mich einmal so ausdrücken...
[Delete the karl after the @ to avoid my spam trap]
FLY135
"Karl Frank" <ka...@karl.frank.name> wrote in message
news:04ad6396eed91843...@news.teranews.com...
> FLY135 wrote:
>
> > Meaningful I guess in the sense that you can engage combat with anything
and
> > not get slaughtered because your ship is equiped with a peashooter.
Maybe
> > the game is different now, I don't know. That would certainly explain
why
> > you can't relate to my question. In the beta all I could do in the
first 15
> > hours of play was make long tedious journeys toting crap from station to
> > station and run like hell everytime I saw an (forgot the name of the
> > squidlike) alien. I think I did take a couple of the scanner missions,
> > which meant take an even longer tedious journey.
>
> If you truely were running from 1 Squid after 15 hours of play you did
> something wrong.
> The aliens never had been a big problem in the beta. Either you could
> easily outgun them or outrun them.
"Run like hell" or outrun, what's the difference? I don't recall the basic
ship being able to outgun anything in the beta. And upgrades took a long to
time to get. The point being... If you guys know how to play the game and I
clearly state what my problem is with the beta, is it that hard to describe
Jumpgate as it is now wrt the issues I raised?
- How long does it take to get a ship that's worthy of killing stuff?
- Is the combat any good?
MajorFreak
> So my question is... Is what I just decribed an accurate portrayal of the
> game as it is today?
>
too; There's no quick way to get a ship twice as fast as the start
ships, but there's a heck of a lot more options to walk that levelling
treadmill than doing "transport between stations", though everyone has
to do that at first.
Honestly? the fastest, dirtiest way to level for a n00b
(octavian/solrain faction) going it alone is to turn on the simulator
mode, hop into the "individual conflux" level and launch (practice
trying to kill a "c1 conflux")...once you've killed one, dock/crash
and turn off simulator, then launch and wait for some "c0 jellyfish"
to attack (they give great XP/cr for n00bs)
If you're playing Quantar you don't get combat lasers, so the best way
to level is to learn how to mine asteroids while doing
transports...There's alot more options available for quantars to level
and gain lots of credits for non-combat operations. see here:
http://razorskiss.net/archives/UMEC/ARM/TeamEkoo.html
> Also can you strafe (lateral thrusters) with your ship now. I wouldn't call
> a space game where you can't strafe even semi-Newtonian. Yes your ship does
> have some inertia, which would justify that claim for some people.
alot of folks call JumpGate's flight engine a "submarine simulation"
and i'd have to agree with them, though i much prefer it than
FreeLancer's horrible bumpercar approach to spacecombat. Short
answer: no lateral thrusters have ever been contemplated by the dev
team (mainly for coding/network reasons)
personally, the ships all have "fuel" monitors and i'm damned sure any
future lateral thrusters would drain that "Afterburner/Brake" fuel
supply a little too fast for my comfort. (normally it's 5 minutes;
10minutes with one engine)
Karl Frank
> "Run like hell" or outrun, what's the difference? I don't recall the basic
> ship being able to outgun anything in the beta.
Well maybe not outgun, but IIRC you could beat up to 3 squids or 1 of
the next class in the measly interceptor if you had medium to good guns.
> And upgrades took a long to
> time to get.
Oh yeah - never got myself a heavy fighter. Got bored beforehand :-(
> The point being... If you guys know how to play the game and I
> clearly state what my problem is with the beta, is it that hard to describe
> Jumpgate as it is now wrt the issues I raised?
I would if I could. But I did not enter into the actual game - too
expensive for the ammount of free time I got.
--
Silly question of the day:
Why does New Jersey have more toxic waste dumps and California have
more lawyers?
New Jersey had first choice.
MajorFreak
> - How long does it take to get a ship that's worthy of killing stuff?
> - Is the combat any good?
"Jumpgate is dead because IMO its boring and gets old fast. Other than
that, its fine. If it was a single player game, it would be long dead
and forgotten by now. IMO they could've done more with it, but without
deep pockets, there's no room for that." -- quote from some guy named
Derek S