By Jim Rossignol on October 21st, 2010 at 2:05 pm.
Miner Wars, the ambitious indie space game, has a new trailer. I’m just getting stuck into the game myself, and I will post about it soon, but in the meantime you can take a look at this new trailer. It’s a piece of work by Dan Wentz, who did the music for Descent, Red Factions, Freespace, and a bunch of others. Atmospheric stuff.
Miner Wars isn’t a finished retail thinger yet – it is currently having one of those pre-order access things – but it does look rather promising for us space fetishists. Anyone else playing?
21/10/2010 at 14:12 AndrewC says:
‘You were going down’
This, surely, was not a wise caption choice.
21/10/2010 at 14:46 Dominic White says:
It’s a reference to the tagline for Descent. And, to be honest, perfectly appropriate – this is basically Descent, but instead of levels, it’s a competitive sandbox MMO. Or at least will be, once they’ve got multiplayer working and the basic economy up and running.
Right now there’s just randomly generated maps to fly around, some bots to blow up, and some basic mining (but no ability to sell your loot). It’s a very solid tech-base, though, and I can easily see it working well if the game-structure they hang from it is half decent.
If you’re feeling halfway optimistic, it’s probably worth the 10 euro investment.
Oh, and there was some freaking about about ‘Ubi-style DRM’ in the last thread. I’ve read more about the game, and those complaints are stupid. The game is primarily designed to be an MMO, so requiring a login makes sense. There’s apprarently going to be a capaign mode, but it’s somehow tied into the online metagame, so you need to be online to avoid people cheating there, too.
21/10/2010 at 15:00 AndrewC says:
Kieron might be gone, but the inability to avoid a knob gag remains.
21/10/2010 at 15:01 LintMan says:
MMO? And a single player campaign that that’s wrapped up in the online stuff? Blah. I won’t be getting this game, then.
21/10/2010 at 15:30 Dominic White says:
Subscription-free MMO, I should add. Gut feeling tells me there’ll be some cash-shop stuff later on to support it, but at the moment, it’s 10 euros for everything up to full launch.
21/10/2010 at 16:57 Alexander Norris says:
The entire trailer is one long homage to the Descent trailers, music and all. :D
21/10/2010 at 17:56 Wipa says:
Yeah the rotating spaceship at the beginning is very reminincent of Descent. It even looks a bit like the ship from it.
Bloody hell, i love Descent.
22/10/2010 at 10:42 Collic says:
Descent was awesome. Wasn’t it credited as ‘the game hat killed shareware’. I played the demo to death and never bought so, so I can believe the claim.
02/11/2010 at 02:25 Josh W says:
That doesn’t bode well for this being free to play!
21/10/2010 at 14:20 Ovno says:
That looks ace, I’ll be getting it ASAP
21/10/2010 at 14:26 Altemore says:
Obviously a reference to Descent? It is a bit 90s, a game advertising itself with MORE DEGREES OF FREEDOM THAN EVER BEFORE. But eh, space! Hopefully not incredibly dull and grey space.
21/10/2010 at 14:43 Altemore says:
@ AndrewC
21/10/2010 at 14:28 Quasar says:
I always felt that most fighty-flighty space games lack one crucial feature: The ability to have epic dogfights in and around the superstructure of space stations, and through holes in asteroids. Even the mighty Freelancer usually just put a blanket shield around stations.
If this can deliver my fantasy, then I shall deliver it money.
21/10/2010 at 19:08 user@example.com says:
I would love a spaceship shooty game set in space somalia.
No, wait, don’t wonder what the hell I’m on about and move on! Read this!
21/10/2010 at 14:28 Dlarit says:
My dream is a space sim a little like starwars galaxies/battlefront(field), you can ride in a ship together but also first person shooter, capital ship boarding, ships that range from 1-20people to man them. Boarding via ship airlocks or destructable ships hulls with internal space vacuum and locking bulkheads, capital ships require shield management, turret manning, repairing and maybe a captain to oversea orders (like battlefields squad system). Starwars galaxies had the right rough idea but just not implemented well and the ship and internal combat wasn’t seemlessly linked together…
Maybe it’s 10years till the tech is there for this game but I vow not to die until someone makes it!
21/10/2010 at 19:01 Merc says:
Dlarit: “My dream is a space sim … ships that range from 1-20people to man them. … turret manning, repairing”
I’d like to see that too. Imagine a 50 human vs. 50 human battle where some of the humans were piloting single-seater fighters, some humans were paired up with others in bombers (with 1 human flying, 1 human launching bombs / torpedos, fiddling with controls, and maybe manning a tail turret). Other capital ships might have 10+ humans operating various parts. One player might be the pilot, keeping the ship in formation, managing power systems, etc. One or two might be manning a linked set of anti-fighter, anti-bomber turrets, a couple might be manning anti-capital-ship beam weapons, etc.
It would also be really interesting if you could incorporate a commander / captain / admiral interface. Imagine someone who directed the battle, drawing movement orders on a map, designating primary / secondary targets, adjusting plans when a ship was destroyed, deciding when to call in reinforcements, or when to signal a retreat.
21/10/2010 at 23:08 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
This get close? <a href="http://udk.com/showcase-planetstorm"
22/10/2010 at 02:43 Twisted says:
Merc, you just described most of Planetside. I really loved that game, unfortunately the lack of any real point in the end killed it for me (and the fact that it was subscription-based).
21/10/2010 at 14:34 noom says:
Wasn’t there a UT3 engine based game in development/already released that ticked a lot of these boxes? Can’t remember the name, but I remember it being featured on RPS a while back. Maybe not exactly what you’re talking about but quite ambitious in scale, and it certainly featured first person ship boarding amid simultaneous spaceship dogfights.
21/10/2010 at 14:37 noom says:
/\
Intended as a reply to Dlarit, obv.
21/10/2010 at 14:40 Zombat says:
That would be Angels Fall First: Planetstorm
21/10/2010 at 14:41 Stuk says:
I too would love this. Something like Air Buccaneers, but with bigger destructible ships in space!
21/10/2010 at 14:42 Stuk says:
/\
Intended as a reply to Dlarit, obv.
21/10/2010 at 14:42 Tom says:
Fps in space? dogfights in asteroids and space-structures? Well i already have Shattered Horizon for that!
21/10/2010 at 14:46 LintMan says:
So, is this basically a modern remake of Descent? All the fighting taking place in mazes of caves and tunnels?
Descent was fun at the time, but hopefully they’re more ambitious than that.
21/10/2010 at 15:06 Ovno says:
Having watched the video fail sir?
21/10/2010 at 15:28 Dominic White says:
Imagine Descent, but as a persistent-universe MMO where there aren’t any ‘levels’, but instead you have giant asteroids that players mine, which in turn become levels as players excavate, dig shafts, open caverns, etc.
21/10/2010 at 21:26 LintMan says:
@Ovno – no, I watched the video before posting. To me, the video made it look like a really pretty, modern version of Descent. I didn’t see anything about the MMO/persistent world stuff Dominic mentions, or really anything else about the gameplay, so I was wondering what “new” stuff it was bringing to the table and hoping it wasn’t going to be just an updated, pretty Descent clone.
It turns out they do have bigger plans, but a big part of the “new” bit is MMO/persistent stuff, which unfortunately kills it for me.
21/10/2010 at 14:47 H says:
Technically anything is possible in code, its just how complex it is and how long it takes to design and write :)
21/10/2010 at 15:00 Marshall says:
But where is the crafting?
21/10/2010 at 15:57 konrad_ha says:
Dammit! You were faster.
21/10/2010 at 15:16 Dreamhacker says:
This looks crazy good for an indie game. Well done!
21/10/2010 at 15:18 Lambchops says:
I’ll keep a beady eye in this one and see if it’s a reason to look at the old joystick once again.
21/10/2010 at 15:36 Dominic White says:
The whole thing feels designed for mouse and keyboard control, honestly. Very snappy and responsive aiming, and I honestly don’t think I’d be able to hit ships moving at any reasonable speed using a joystick. I was planning on using a 360 controller for it at first, but it’s really designed around the mouse.
21/10/2010 at 18:27 DrGonzo says:
I like that. I’ve never understood why space ships would be controlled with joysticks. Trailer looks fantastic, I love the bit where two ships are flying together peacefully through the inside of an asteroid. It’s quite calming, but also a bit creepy.
21/10/2010 at 15:32 KingCathcart says:
Oh, its a spacey game thing. Guess I’ll be waiting a bit longer for the Arthur Scargill FPS.
21/10/2010 at 15:37 SquareWheel says:
I didn’t realize I needed a constant internet connection when I purchased it. This sort of DRM makes me very sad, and I don’t know how I feel about supporting devs that demand such a requirement.
21/10/2010 at 15:49 Dominic White says:
It’s an online game. I don’t think there are any online games that don’t require a net connection, do you?
21/10/2010 at 18:28 Tom says:
Roller-Skates games, of course!
21/10/2010 at 16:53 honeymustard says:
there is less sense ( for now), 1 rock, 1 ship to discover , a few enemies and the possibility to craft, thats it
21/10/2010 at 17:21 westyfield says:
Only six degrees of freedom? I demand MORE!
21/10/2010 at 18:40 thYp says:
w00t the return of decent, bring interplay back :P
21/10/2010 at 20:39 deimos says:
Ambitious but good. Paging Derek Smart.
21/10/2010 at 21:34 gerafin says:
Pretty sure I’m gonna wait for the sequel, it sounds more like the large-scale MMO I was hoping for. I heard they’re calling it Major Wars.
25/10/2010 at 13:53 adonf says:
Dear developers, please remove the light beams in front of the ships, they look stupid. There’s no mist in space.
25/10/2010 at 13:54 CMaster says:
Perhaps not, but if you’re mining/shooting these thigns, there’d be plenty of dust.
26/10/2010 at 18:58 superspeck says:
zomgwtf@adonf: It’s a GAME, it’s not supposed to be REAL. You wouldn’t want to play a computer game in “real” space; it’d be boring and ugly.