Second interview de Simon Bachmann

Voici la seconde interview de Simon Bachmann, producteur en chef de Black Prophecy, qui répond aux questions du site Voodo Extreme 3D (VE3D).

Citation :

Black Prophecy is a Sci-Fi Space MMOG in development at Reakktor Media. The game is said to provide fast-paced 3D real-time combat and state of the art visuals. Head to your cockpit and engage in solo battle, or team up with friends or clanmates to fight alongside others. Black Prophecy will bring large-scale PvP battles and PvP missions to the table, along with story and background created by the award-winning Sci-Fi author Michael Marrak.

Today we speak with Simon Bachmann of Reakktor Media, Senior Producer for Black Prophecy, to find out how the game is progressing, what it has to offer players, why Black Prophecy disappeared from the public eye for a period of time and more.



VE3D: What is your position with Reakktor, and what type of activities does your job entail?

Simon Bachmann: I am the Senior Producer for Black Prophecy and responsible for the planning, implementation and coordination of our game projects and their development teams. To put it briefly, I am the guy who ensures that all of our games are finished within the planned time and kept within their financial budgets.



VE3D: How long has Black Prophecy been in development for?

Simon Bachmann: The first planning and design meetings for Black Prophecy took place in late 2005, while the development of the game itself started in the middle of 2006. So overall we have been working on Black Prophecy for around four years now.


VE3D: It seems as though Reakktor slipped off the radar for a while after E3 2007 and resurfaced recently with some gorgeous game footage. Why the silence, and what's been going on during your time out of the spotlight?

Simon Bachmann: Actually Black Prophecy was presented to the press and our business partners behind closed doors at the GC Leipzig 2007. After that we decided to remain silent while several major design decisions were made because we didn’t want to go public with something unfinished. In the middle of 2008 we were hit quite hard by the insolvency of our former mother company, 10Tacle Studios. As a 100% subsidiary Reakktor Media also had to file for insolvency which greatly impacted our operations, and for a long time it was unclear whether Reakktor - and with it Black Prophecy's development - would survive. But thanks to our dedicated CEO, Kirk Lenke, and the strong will of our team to continue the work on Black Prophecy, Reakktor managed to get through these hard times and we are again looking forward to a much brighter future.


VE3D: Do you ever hear Black Prophecy being compared to EVE Online or Jumpgate Evolution, if so, how does the Reakktor team feel about such comparisons?

Simon Bachmann: The comparison of Black Prophecy to Eve Online and Jumpgate is natural as all three games play in a sci-fi space scenario. However, we take a different approach by designing the game more like a fast paced action shooter with role-play elements instead of going the simulation route. Having said that we don’t feel bad about such comparisons and we have full respect for the Eve Online and Jumpgate development teams as we know the hard work that’s behind all this.


VE3D: For those whom will no doubt make comparisons between BP and other space combat MMOs, what are some of the features unique to Black Prophecy?

Simon Bachmann: The main distinguishing feature of Black Prophecy is its fast paced real-time action combat which harks back to game classics like Wing Commander or X-Wing vs. Tie-Fighter. As with these earlier games you will be able to fully control your ship and ultimately it is up to you to shape your destiny out in the depths of space. Another feature we are concentrating on is the PvP system with all its associated features like the capture of resource stations, clan vs. clan battles and faction battles. Not forgetting the flexible clan system which even allows clans to own their own space station.


VE3D: When starting the game you create your ship in character creation, an avatar is associated with the ship, but primarily you play the game as the ship. Is this correct? In what types of situations will you actually see your 3D avatar?

Simon Bachmann: Yes, that’s correct. Your ship is your game character which you can equip like you equip your player avatar in any other MMO. Next to your ship you will also have a fully customizable 3D avatar of your pilot which will appear in conversations with NPCs or other players. This special avatar will become more important in the so called “Station walking” feature which we plan to implement in one of the future game updates post release.


VE3D: I know that you can select your own ship colours, are there any other customization options that will be available, such as decals?

Simon Bachmann: We have plans to offer customization options for player ships like displaying clan logos, selecting different colours for ship parts, etc. However, we are still weighing our options for the final implementation so we are unable to go into details at the current time.


VE3D: What is the largest PvP battle that you've had going in Black Prophecy thus far?

Simon Bachmann: The battles are currently limited to around 30-40 people from the development team in our internal play tests as we are not yet in the closed beta phase in which we will, of course, bring in many more people. In the end, the scale of such battles will largely depend on the players' feedback, as it can also be quite counterproductive to have too many players within one battle.


VE3D: What is the reward for winning a PvP battle?

Simon Bachmann: This depends on the type and scale of the PvP battle. On top of the regular loot from destroyed enemy ships you will receive specific loot as a mission reward such as new weapons, ship parts, resources and in-game currency. In addition to the regular loot, clans will be able to conquer resource stations to obtain large amounts of resources which will be needed for clan vs. clan and faction battles.


VE3D: What type of rewards will be seen for completing PvE battles or missions?

Simon Bachmann: While the loot is quite similar to the loot in PvP battles and missions, it will be more oriented towards character development, which means that you will get specific items that will help you ascend to the next character level. E.g. during the epic story missions you will get your hands on special items that will not be purchasable from regular vendors. Of course we will also hide special items as rare loot that requires a good degree of luck to find.


VE3D: What type of NPCs will be in Black Prophecy?

Simon Bachmann: First of all we have the story related NPCs which you actually can call the V.I.P.s. From the very beginning and throughout the whole story you will be meeting these interesting personalities that are embedded into the story and request your services to fight for their faction’s good. Aside from these V.I.P.s you will also find several other important NPCs who serve as traders, special mission agents and last but not least for decorative purposes.


VE3D: How does the levelling system work in the game? Is it standard kill or do missions for experience and level up, or something different? What is the highest level or rank?

Simon Bachmann: In Black Prophecy you will receive experience points for killing enemy NPCs and for accomplishing missions. By gaining experience points you level up within the maximum allowable range and thus gain access to better versions of items such as weapons, ship parts, etc. For the release version we plan to set the maximum level to 100. This level cap is flexible of course and can be raised for future game updates if necessary.


VE3D: When a clan purchases their own station, will they have to defend it from attacks by other clans? Can friendlies dock on a clan station?

Simon Bachmann: We definitely like the idea of conquerable clan stations but we also foresee several difficulties in its realisation. There are serious challenges in defining fair competition rules and proper balancing in order to allow smaller clans to participate and I am afraid that this feature will not make its way into the release version. Nonetheless we have this on our Top-5 “Things we would like to see ingame” list for any future updates.


VE3D: When gathering resources, is the process automatic (ie. you pilot through a resource rich area and items are gathered automatically), or do you have to seek out harvestable nodes and manually gather?

Simon Bachmann: Unlike in other MMOs you will not be directly harvesting resources by sitting in your ship using a mining tool. In Black Prophecy resources can be obtained by looting destroyed enemies, as rewards for accomplishing missions and by conquering resource stations. While loot and mission rewards only provide a small amount of resources, resource stations are the main supply source. Due to the importance of resources in clan and faction battles these resource stations can only be conquered by clans. Once a station has been claimed, the available resources are transferred to the clan’s storage facilities whereby a small part goes to the clan’s faction as a tax which will then be used for the larger faction battles. To allow the clan to gain at least a small piece of the cake the station will not be attackable for a short duration. But in the end it very much depends on the defensive capabilities of the clan to get as many resources out of the station as possible. After the resource has depleted, the sector in which the station is located will reset and a new sector with a new resource station will appear on the star map.


VE3D: Will there be a trading house? If so, how big of a role will galactic trading play a part in Black Prophecy?

Simon Bachmann: There will be no trading house in the classical sense as we are very much focusing on combat action. Trading has been limited to the basics, e.g. player to player and player to NPC trade, although we have plans to extend the trading features (e.g. with auction houses) in one of the future game updates.


VE3D: What is the current status of the Black Prophecy closed beta?

Simon Bachmann: We are currently running regular company-wide in-house tests as well as special test sessions where employees and family members participate from home. Once we have signed the deal with our future publisher we will be able to extend this to a real closed beta where we will invite fans that have previously applied for the beta.


VE3D: As you get closer to release do you plan to hold an open beta?

Simon Bachmann: An open beta is definitely an option especially with regards to stress testing the server hardware and software, but we don’t have any details or dates in mind for that yet.


VE3D: Are you able to tell us what type of subscription model you will be going with for Black Prophecy?

Simon Bachmann: During several evaluations we have analysed the pros and cons of all available payment models and will present these results to our future publisher who will make the final decision of which payment model we will offer for Black Prophecy. But with regards to the development on the games market it looks very much like a move away from the classic monthly subscription to a more flexible and user-friendlier model.

En résumé:

Dans cette grosse séries de questions, nous apprenons plusieurs choses intéressantes, notamment la possibilité d'ajouter le logo de clan dans la customisation du vaisseau, en plus des couleurs et des différents modules que l'on connait déjà.

Les objets ramassés sur les carcasses de missions/combats en pve ou pvp seront similaires, à la différence que le pve sera plus orienté sur l'évolution du personnage. Il y aura bien entendu des objets spéciaux d'une grande rareté qui demanderont énormément de chance pour les avoir.

Comme dans la majorité des MMO, il faudra accomplir des missions et/ou tuer des ennemis pour augmenter son niveau qui atteindra son maximum au niveau 100, mais il est tout à fait possible que cela monte plus haut par la suite avec des mises à jours et adds-on.

Les attaques de stations de clans ne seront possible que plus tard après la sortie du jeu, Reakktor réfléchis sur les règles de bataille de station pour rendre le jeu équilibré et rendre l'attaque très difficile (Pour éviter que les grosses guildes monopolisent le jeu en s'attaquant aux stations des plus modestes). Mais dans tous les cas cela rentre dans le top 5 des "choses que nous voulons voir dans le jeu".

Concernant les ressources, même si le fait de terminer une mission ou tuer un ennemis permet d'en gagner, les stations de ressources restent quand même la manière d'en gagner en grand nombre, d'où le grand intérêt de leur capture par les clans.

A la sortie du jeu, le système de commerce sera des plus basiques avec l'échange entre joueur etl'échange avec un vendeur npc. Plus tard dans une mise à jour Reakktor mettra en place un hotel des ventes.

Reakktor déclare ne pas avoir encore d'éditeur (mais il faut prendre en compte qu'ils mettent beaucoup de temps à répondre aux questions, d'ailleurs nous attendons toujours les réponses que Vergil a envoyé)

Une beta ouverte verra le jour, mais on n'en sait pas plus à ce sujet.


En plus de ces nouvelles informations, le site VE3D a mis en ligne des images du jeu inédites que vous pouvez admirer ci dessous.










Rendez-vous >>ici<< si vous souhaitez discuter avec l'ensemble de la communauté sur cette interview.