Infinity

I'm definetly playing this when it comes out if it's as awesome as they say it is(Unless of course, VO gets even better). Though I seriously doubt about the "Billions" of solar systems...

Game engine test

nice graphics engine... though really just looks like VO with better textures and planets. That video really doesn't show the "game engine" capabilities though, or, at least I hope it doesn't. The transition is anything but realistic.

Aye, it doesnt show everything. There are other videos around, like atmospheric flight. Also, that small demo is about 1 year old, so I guess they mustve improved it.
Edit: Landing on planets looks cool anyway.

The concept seems great. I wonder if their devs played VO. I know incarnate had mentioned that he would eventually like to approach planets in a similar "procedural" fashion to what they are doing. That's how they have near infinite objects in their universe, Shadoen. Nearly everything is rendered/generated on the fly.

The make or break for that game will be their twitch pvp/combat model. They have a working combat demo that lets you try out their combat system, etc... I haven't had a chance to try it yet but I look forward to doing so.

http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/infinity_combat_proto.php

Just reading through the info on their website makes me very excited. They might have a full beta this year. Don't worry VO devs, VO is my true love! They have all the right ingredients; twitch combat, newtonian physics, seamless transitions (no loading screens, etc...), and realistic astrophysics (distances, orbits, etc...). Let's see how it all comes together.

No mac port. There's no excuse for not having a mac port. They could at least use Cider/Cedega. Perhaps their FAQ does not take that into account.

I spent a few minutes playing their "combat protoype" game that I linked before. It doesn't contain any of the procedural elements or atmospheric flight like the real game will have, but just the combat model looks okay. I didn't have enough time to really get a good feel for it, but the first thing that bothered me was that I couldn't remap the controls. They use a similar "w,a,s,d" setup like VO, except forward and backward thrust are controlled by "r" and "f" while up and down strafing are mapped to "w" and "s". This is obviously different than VO, so I would want to remap that to match VO so I'd have a shorter learning curve. I don't know when they'll add that ability.

Otherwise, for right now, you can go in and pretty much play a multiplayer online space quake which looks like it can be pretty fun. Hopefully I'll get a chance to test it further.

Why'd they go and change the near-ubiquitous wasd layout in the first place? Seriously, this game doesn't look that hot to me.

But then my taste in games is perhaps a bit weird.

I'm more jazzed about Jumpgate Evolution.

So far it sounds as if that game won't include any ship-ship docking though, which is what has me stuck on VO.

You play VO for ship sex!?

[quote]nice graphics engine... though really just looks like VO with better textures and planets.[/quote]

And lasers, and Newtonian physics. When combined, those two traits make me like VO better.

[quote]I'm more jazzed about Jumpgate Evolution.[/quote]

That looks pretty cool, do you know if you control your ship 1st person like in VO or suckily like in Eve?

Well if VO wants to compete, they should start with their push to the public soon.

They should start when they're ready. Whether that's soon or not doesn't really matter.

too bad it only works on windows too

The control in the original jumpgate is interesting, and I find it preferable.

You've only got one big engine in the back, so no strafes or reverse. (However, you do have a very weak 'brake' which projects you in the opposite direction, used mostly for docking.) Speeds max out at a certain level, like VO, and you can turbo to go a little past that point, instead of 3 times past that point. The end result is that combat tends to involve mostly taking passes at your opponent, as opposed to orbiting around them. Also, without strafing it's *waaay* harder to aim, so even though the bullets fly much faster in comparison to ship speeds, it's not necessarily easier to aim by any means. They have laz0rs, and it's not unbalanced. But nobody really knows how the new Jumpgate will change the control scheme.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a very spicy date with a Trident Light Frigate. She's got this huge swarm launcher....

It will fail. Main reason? Same as with most development projects: Not enough people.

There's only one coder for the entire game, and the guy is territorial enough to keep it that way.