Red0ctobeR
08-01-2009, 08:42 PM
<div style="width: 480px;"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=52373"/><param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=52373" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object><div style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana; text-align: center; width: 480px; padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; background-color: black; height: 32px;"><div><a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com" title="GameTrailers.com">Video Games</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/game/9182.html" title="MAG">MAG</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/player/52373.html" title="Exclusive Command & Control Dev Diary">Exclusive Command & Control Dev Diary</a></div><div style="padding-top: 3px;"><a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/platformlist/xb360/index.html" title="XBox 360">XBox 360</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/platformlist/ps3/index.html" title="PS3">Playstation 3</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/platformlist/wii/index.html" title="Wii">Nintendo Wii</a></div></div></div>
Gameplay Information:
• First Person Shooter (FPS)
• Aiming for "T" Rating
• Wave Respawn
- You spawn in "timed waves" and you spawn in with your squad.
- Some lucky squads get to paradrop into the combat zone or ride in on APCs
• 256 players online
- Can be on screen at the same time, so it is not broken down into split areas of the map
• Strictly multiplayer - Online only
- Possibly only retail release (Ed Byrne stated, "MAG is too massive to be a mere downloadable title)
- No splitscreen (Mike Gutmann stated, "We've got huge environments and lots of streaming going on to achieve fidelity - split screen would cause some real limitations)
- There will be an offline training course to let you get up to speed with controls, weapons, and all the equipment
• Action Shooter at its core
• Long Term Goals
• Vehicles including ground and air combat (unmanned)
• Destructability only with objects that can be destroyed or repaired, not full destruction.
• Set in the near future, 20 years from now
- Many weapons in the game are weapons currently in experimental/testing phases
• Audio cues (like air raid sirens after anti-aircraft positions are destroyed) inform teams if the attacking team is making ground
• Game modes ranging from 64 to 256 players
• Biggest maps are appx. 1 square kilometre
- Maps are based on three global regions - Alaska, Central Asia, and Central America
• Matchmaking fast and streamlined
• Push to talk (PTT) mics
- Squad channel
- Command channel (allows squad leaders to talk amongst themselves, as well as platoon leaders)
- Company channel (allows platoon leaders to talk together with the OIC)
• FREE online play
Player Roles:
• 8 player squads
- Inspiration from real life military operations
- 4 squads form a platoon, 4 platoons form the company
- Each squad, platoon, and company have specific objectives to complete along with secondary objectives assigned by OIC
- Allows for a team dynamic even when not in a clan, so the game is more approachable by casual players as well as hardcore players
• Lead by people who are "proven" to be good leaders
- Squad Leaders vs Even higher Chains of Command
- After reaching a veteran level, players can enlist in the leadership tree
- Squad leaders can plot waypoints and call in UAVs
- Proven squad leaders can be promoted to platoon leaders
- Leaders can issue FRAGO commands (Fragmentary Orders), in which they assign an objective by clicking a button that tells the squad to complete something like destroying a bridge
• Officer in Charge (1 per team, highest level of command)
- Has the ability to call on Strategic Maneuvers, which affect all players on one side or the other
- Tactical Asset Recharge is an example manuever that recharges the squads leaders abilities to call in air strikes, special abilities, etc.
- Abilities include satellite recon sweeps, enemy blockades, signals jamming, air bombardments, precision strikes, etc.
- Still a player on the ground like everyone else
- Players around him gain better abilities, like running faster, planting a bomb faster, etc.
• Leaders have access to the Command Network Interface (CNI), which is a tactical map overview that allows them to zoom and scan the map and show objective locations, etc.
Character Development:
• Character advancement tree to fine-tune your character
- Character development is about customization, personalizing, and specializing
- Not a linear progression benefiting the player (ex. not like COD, Battlefield)
• Character cusomization (face, voice, armor)
• Each player carries a primary weapon, sidearm, melee weapon, and three gear perks (smoke grenades, frags, med kits, rocket launchers)
- Can save three loadouts in your armory and switch freely when you respawn
• No set classes
- Free-form kit creation
- You earn skill points and decide how to spend them
- Another example is sprinting where you can increase sprint duration by sinking EXP into it if you're the kind of player that wants to get around in a hurry
• Earn double experience for completing objectives, killing enemies, healing teammates, etc.
- As an example, a sniper can earn extra points by killing enemies in a target area that you are attacking
- Earn weapons, perks, and leadership poisitions as you rank up
- Reward players for working as a team
• Medal/Award system will be in place
Game Modes:
• Domination (256 players)
- Attackers start scattered along the map edges and move on foot or ride in one of a few transport vehicles
- Defenders must take outer defensive positions to meet the oncoming attackers
- Each defending squad is responsible for holding specific areas of the base
- Attackers must eliminate front line defense emplacements (bunkers, turrets, tank traps)
- Once in the inner base, attackers must take down anti-aircraft batteries and radar sensors
- Destroying things like the anti-aircraft batteries allow the attacking team to launch UAVs
- Attackers must capture and hold objectives and inflict enough damage to the defenders base to win
• Acquisition (128 players)
- Escort style requiring attackers to steal two protoype transports from a rival faction and escape to the extraction poin
• Sabotage (64 players)
- Attackers must infiltrate rival communication facilities and hold two control points at the same time
- Once achieved, a final demolition objective is revealed and must be destroyed to win
• Suppression (64 players)
- Pure infantry battle
- Only mode that does not contribute to the "Shadow War"
Factions:
• Three warring factions / Private Military Corporations (Raven, Sver, Valor)
- Their power struggle is dubbed the "Shadow War"
- You must decalre your allegience to one faction when starting the game
- Your PSN friends can only be on your team if they are in the same army as you
- You can change your allegience at a later date
- Each battle you fight impacts your factions standing
- Team with the most prestige plays as the defending team
- Once your faction wins enough in a specific mode, your faction gains the contract for that mode
- Earning contracts gives you bonus points, perks, weapons, or vehicles
• Raven
- Have high-tech futuristic weapons
- Play style will appleal to fans of sc-fi shooters like Halo or Resistance
• Sver
- Weapons arsenal may not be as powerful, but players are more adaptable
• Valor
General Information:
• Zipper has been working on the game for about 3 years
- Created a brand new server architecture to make the number of players possible in game at once
- 256 (players) is a number that fits well into the packet structure
- Dedicated server structure
- Servers make intelligent decisions to relay information to each player's console, optimizing each player's fixed bandwidth
- Eliminate cheating by monitoring server activity (tests probability of rate of fire, movement, and player damage)
- Algorithm writen that searches for gameplay anomalies to eliminate cheating (similar to PunkBuster for PC gaming)
• Almost everything developed in house, which includes: codebase, renderer
- Reason being they needed to get all the power they could get from the PS3 and to utilize it efficiently for the game
• 30+ fps (hopefully locked at all times)
• Has been running 256 player play tests since November 2008
• Originally built as a tps, but changed to fps to increase "immersion" (via PSM3)
• Will NOT carry the SOCOM franchise name (Confirmed via PlayStation Blog) & (Confirmed via Abigale)
• 2009 Release -> Sony confirms MAG for '09 (Press Release via Wired)
- Fall 2009
• Currently in Alpha stages (confirmed in developer interview - 4/30)
• Plans for both closed and open betas
- Beta details soon
Gameplay Information:
• First Person Shooter (FPS)
• Aiming for "T" Rating
• Wave Respawn
- You spawn in "timed waves" and you spawn in with your squad.
- Some lucky squads get to paradrop into the combat zone or ride in on APCs
• 256 players online
- Can be on screen at the same time, so it is not broken down into split areas of the map
• Strictly multiplayer - Online only
- Possibly only retail release (Ed Byrne stated, "MAG is too massive to be a mere downloadable title)
- No splitscreen (Mike Gutmann stated, "We've got huge environments and lots of streaming going on to achieve fidelity - split screen would cause some real limitations)
- There will be an offline training course to let you get up to speed with controls, weapons, and all the equipment
• Action Shooter at its core
• Long Term Goals
• Vehicles including ground and air combat (unmanned)
• Destructability only with objects that can be destroyed or repaired, not full destruction.
• Set in the near future, 20 years from now
- Many weapons in the game are weapons currently in experimental/testing phases
• Audio cues (like air raid sirens after anti-aircraft positions are destroyed) inform teams if the attacking team is making ground
• Game modes ranging from 64 to 256 players
• Biggest maps are appx. 1 square kilometre
- Maps are based on three global regions - Alaska, Central Asia, and Central America
• Matchmaking fast and streamlined
• Push to talk (PTT) mics
- Squad channel
- Command channel (allows squad leaders to talk amongst themselves, as well as platoon leaders)
- Company channel (allows platoon leaders to talk together with the OIC)
• FREE online play
Player Roles:
• 8 player squads
- Inspiration from real life military operations
- 4 squads form a platoon, 4 platoons form the company
- Each squad, platoon, and company have specific objectives to complete along with secondary objectives assigned by OIC
- Allows for a team dynamic even when not in a clan, so the game is more approachable by casual players as well as hardcore players
• Lead by people who are "proven" to be good leaders
- Squad Leaders vs Even higher Chains of Command
- After reaching a veteran level, players can enlist in the leadership tree
- Squad leaders can plot waypoints and call in UAVs
- Proven squad leaders can be promoted to platoon leaders
- Leaders can issue FRAGO commands (Fragmentary Orders), in which they assign an objective by clicking a button that tells the squad to complete something like destroying a bridge
• Officer in Charge (1 per team, highest level of command)
- Has the ability to call on Strategic Maneuvers, which affect all players on one side or the other
- Tactical Asset Recharge is an example manuever that recharges the squads leaders abilities to call in air strikes, special abilities, etc.
- Abilities include satellite recon sweeps, enemy blockades, signals jamming, air bombardments, precision strikes, etc.
- Still a player on the ground like everyone else
- Players around him gain better abilities, like running faster, planting a bomb faster, etc.
• Leaders have access to the Command Network Interface (CNI), which is a tactical map overview that allows them to zoom and scan the map and show objective locations, etc.
Character Development:
• Character advancement tree to fine-tune your character
- Character development is about customization, personalizing, and specializing
- Not a linear progression benefiting the player (ex. not like COD, Battlefield)
• Character cusomization (face, voice, armor)
• Each player carries a primary weapon, sidearm, melee weapon, and three gear perks (smoke grenades, frags, med kits, rocket launchers)
- Can save three loadouts in your armory and switch freely when you respawn
• No set classes
- Free-form kit creation
- You earn skill points and decide how to spend them
- Another example is sprinting where you can increase sprint duration by sinking EXP into it if you're the kind of player that wants to get around in a hurry
• Earn double experience for completing objectives, killing enemies, healing teammates, etc.
- As an example, a sniper can earn extra points by killing enemies in a target area that you are attacking
- Earn weapons, perks, and leadership poisitions as you rank up
- Reward players for working as a team
• Medal/Award system will be in place
Game Modes:
• Domination (256 players)
- Attackers start scattered along the map edges and move on foot or ride in one of a few transport vehicles
- Defenders must take outer defensive positions to meet the oncoming attackers
- Each defending squad is responsible for holding specific areas of the base
- Attackers must eliminate front line defense emplacements (bunkers, turrets, tank traps)
- Once in the inner base, attackers must take down anti-aircraft batteries and radar sensors
- Destroying things like the anti-aircraft batteries allow the attacking team to launch UAVs
- Attackers must capture and hold objectives and inflict enough damage to the defenders base to win
• Acquisition (128 players)
- Escort style requiring attackers to steal two protoype transports from a rival faction and escape to the extraction poin
• Sabotage (64 players)
- Attackers must infiltrate rival communication facilities and hold two control points at the same time
- Once achieved, a final demolition objective is revealed and must be destroyed to win
• Suppression (64 players)
- Pure infantry battle
- Only mode that does not contribute to the "Shadow War"
Factions:
• Three warring factions / Private Military Corporations (Raven, Sver, Valor)
- Their power struggle is dubbed the "Shadow War"
- You must decalre your allegience to one faction when starting the game
- Your PSN friends can only be on your team if they are in the same army as you
- You can change your allegience at a later date
- Each battle you fight impacts your factions standing
- Team with the most prestige plays as the defending team
- Once your faction wins enough in a specific mode, your faction gains the contract for that mode
- Earning contracts gives you bonus points, perks, weapons, or vehicles
• Raven
- Have high-tech futuristic weapons
- Play style will appleal to fans of sc-fi shooters like Halo or Resistance
• Sver
- Weapons arsenal may not be as powerful, but players are more adaptable
• Valor
General Information:
• Zipper has been working on the game for about 3 years
- Created a brand new server architecture to make the number of players possible in game at once
- 256 (players) is a number that fits well into the packet structure
- Dedicated server structure
- Servers make intelligent decisions to relay information to each player's console, optimizing each player's fixed bandwidth
- Eliminate cheating by monitoring server activity (tests probability of rate of fire, movement, and player damage)
- Algorithm writen that searches for gameplay anomalies to eliminate cheating (similar to PunkBuster for PC gaming)
• Almost everything developed in house, which includes: codebase, renderer
- Reason being they needed to get all the power they could get from the PS3 and to utilize it efficiently for the game
• 30+ fps (hopefully locked at all times)
• Has been running 256 player play tests since November 2008
• Originally built as a tps, but changed to fps to increase "immersion" (via PSM3)
• Will NOT carry the SOCOM franchise name (Confirmed via PlayStation Blog) & (Confirmed via Abigale)
• 2009 Release -> Sony confirms MAG for '09 (Press Release via Wired)
- Fall 2009
• Currently in Alpha stages (confirmed in developer interview - 4/30)
• Plans for both closed and open betas
- Beta details soon