Siege in Space!

Thanks to Darkelf over at SiegeCore who first spotted the story.

Looks to be an interesting twist on the franchise don't you think?

Very....interesting.....
I must say, this is quite a random development... they go from ancient castles and seck to space combat....
I look forward to hear more about this.

The question is how much it will support regarding moddability, if anything. They make a sci fi game but maybe it can be modded back to fantasy? ALternativly a DS3 can be created soon. We really need a new Dungeon Siege game, one where the right decisions are made unlike the previus ones.

I would love a DS3 but it looks like this is supposed to be the spiritual successor of DS.

Of course, that might just be how gamespot worded it when posting the news and it caught on. (Seen it called that elsewhere as well)

I like how you can get different endings to the story depending on how much humanity Seth has left. But I really prefer regular fantasy..

edit:

Sega doesn't use that wording, spiritual successor, but it is the same announcement as is found on GPG's site so no wonder.

Yeah I read a small amount of SciFi (David Eddings and a few others) - but the only Game I ever cared for within that Genre itself would be StarCraft.

And I think if there was some kind of revitalization of the DS series in the works (considering 2005 was when DS2 came out) we would of heard something by now.

Would of been nice for DS3 to merge the best of 1 & 2 w/ perhaps a more integrated skill system instead of a "super power" one.

gpg makes really good games i think this one could be promising, however it dont sound appealing to me as much as another dungeonsiege would of, i hate being a troll of games, but i just cant see this space siege being as popular as dungeon siege or be the "spiritual successor", i would rather they left the siege part off the name and named it something else, please gpg dont disapoint your followerers!

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So it has been written, and so it shall cometh to pass! Quothe The Darkelf, forevermore!

wow, now that sounds as though it could be an interesting project..
- if it handles like DS2, it might just turn out to be worth a look-in..

..maybe even for modding up some exotic outfits or wierd weaponry

- Hmmm, I think I'll sit on this fence and watch, for a while..

(Cheers, for the heads up!)

- for space games, I'm happy with X3:The Reunion at the moment - a staggeringly brilliant game!!
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..never mind the weather, just as long as we're together!

DE,
I guess a thanks go to FB too then. Smiling

Solly,
Check the link in my original post... it includes the phrase "Spiritual Successor" at the very top of the article (before the date).
Edit:
There are quite a few space games that I've enjoyed: StarCraft, BattleZone, System Shock 2... But the story / setting isn't as important to me as the gameplay.

It is a good thing I can read so well... ^^

Some space/SF games are alright (I especially like spaceship dogfighting), but I really prefer games that involve RP and are set in the Fantasy genre.

~~~
Giovanna

Some SEGA PR material has been released in prep for E3 2007... including a few screenshots and the following datasheet:

Aw, no, I gotta "take on the role of Seth Walker"? I don't like pre-made characters at all (unless they are NPCs).

But wait, maybe there's some hope. Maybe I can make my own character in online multiplayer? What sort of character choices might be available? Alien races? Different skin/hair/eye colors? Gender? Starting clothing choices? Height & weight? Hair styles & length?

~~~
Giovanna

But then, why is name 'Seth Walker' given/chosen in the game promotion sheets!?

However i guess too that a preset personalization is rather discouraging and would lower the attractivity of the game.
Me at least i also could immagine to play something like a Ferengi getting equipment for lower price, a Vulkanian with special psy-techniques or a sexy 7-of-9 Borg char.

If there is only going to be one preset character, that will kill the game before it even starts. But that's what happens when "Arcade Style" games start impinging on PC grounds. What may have been fine for Sega, XBox Playstation and the like, is not what I expect from a good RPG.

It's not quite a preset character, just a preset name, and a preset start point. It sounds like there's a lot of opportunity to rebuild what you start with into something else.

DS1 started with a preset 10,10,10 farmer. You got to choose gender and skin because you couldn't change them later, but class and skills were all left to develop as you wish. Hair, shirt and pants disappeared as soon as you found a helmet and armor, so most of your initial picks didn't last long (even if they did re-appear on respawn in DS2).

Modders will realise that just one base model makes it much easier to develop a wide range of equipment, as you don't have to repeat the modelling work multiple times. Hopefully they've spent that saved effort somewhere else.

And the need to make a whole new character may revive modding!

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

Why do all think the Space Siege is 'modable' again?
...eh, have i overseen something maybe!?

I could imagine SS is modable/mapable if there would be any evident commercial benefit for GPG - otherwise most financial officiers never would give them credits for the additional work that has been done (game programming interfaces, modding/mapping tools, documentation, ...).

So if GPG would look back on DS1 and DS2 would they consider modability* as a good/rewarding thing?
(*: modability in the concrete manner as GPG themself were able/willed to established it)

Of course for DS1 there was a remarkable contribution by mods and maps (against all SE1 difficulties), however soon this modability wasted online gaming making that game feature rather useles/annoying or just turned it into a playground for wanna-be-hackers (what GPG without much doubt don't want).

And for DS2 - do you think (in commercial scope) it was worth wrting the SU2 or to provide the toolkit?
On one hand there are only a couple of creative mods and only a few maps (almost) nobody is using resp. nobody talks about signalizing GPG that modability is really appreciated by the gamers.
On the other hand only cheats get a high attractivity because everybody of the most likely younger players want to swank due to rather primitve resons. Well perhaps it could be really lucrative for GPG to make a game mainly serving those interest only, but the more you set the priority in that direction, the more you will loose regular players and maybe business reputation too.

.
If the game is intended to be modable i really hope GPG will set up a good strategy to concentrate the custom/public creativity - or it becomes chaotic or rahter insignificant again.
Perhaps they will just allow 'space mapping' as simple work-around for this serious issue...

Of course all talk of modding SS is speculation until the game / tools are available. The reasons why I speculate that it may be moddable is two fold:

1. Chris Taylor is a big fan of creating moddable games. I remember one quote from earlier in his career when he indicated that any game he created would be moddable. Yes, time and financial realities do have a way of changing opinions, but this was his stated position at one time.

2. SS may be based on the DS/DS2 engine (I remember a post on the Garage where we were told that the DS team had moved on to another project and there wouldn't be another DS2 patch unless 2K paid for one...). If it is the same engine / file architecture, then it may be possible to hex-edit game resource files so that Tank Viewer / Tank Creator can be used for some basic mods.

...

Besides, this is a "Siege" modding site isn't it? :P

Mods make a game more replayable, which makes the game more likely to be bought in the first place.

We had a poll here that showed that most people have either played through the entire game a very large number of times (with different mods in place) or on custom maps, or both. For most of us, I'm sure we chose DS rather than any similar game because we'd get better value from one we could mod into a new game, especially with sites like this that let us play each other's new variations on the theme.

All the other moddable games are leaders in their genre. Whether you get to make new maps/levels for Starcraft and Tomb Raider, or new weapons for Doom and Quake, or any other variety of mod, you get a better experience with the game and tell all your friends to buy a copy, so they can see what you made.

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

Telling your friends about your mods - well if you need that little amount of attention...
Of course a modder publishing his mods likes that they get played, however 'vocal mod propaganda' will mean you mainly pinp the game for your own interests and not because it is basically a recommandalbe game.
So i just hope your friends will like the game with and witout mods otherwise you will make yourself a bit ridiculous wasting a lot of time for an unrespected game. :-o

.

Generally i guess many peoplr here only want to see the positive side of modding - if it only had positive ones.

Creative mods really may increase the chance that a game will be replayed, however i also think that some mods - specially cheat mods - 'help burning' the game and reducing the total gaming duration becuause all/more is possible at once.

Thus only (balanced) maps can bind people on a game for longer periods (as with DS1). But mods alone are very two-edged, in particular if you easily can export a cheated chars into muliplayer mode then a notable number of players will stop playing early because of the unfair situation.

Well of course i like modding and could even imagine to make some futuristic mods for Space Siege too, but i just doubt that GPG won't be capable to create a good modding concept without the general disadvantages we have seen for DS1 and DS2 - i guess GPG has recognized this themself and that's why i fear they could cancel the modability.

Looks like the official site is up now: http://spacesiege.sega.com/index.php

Currently there's a newsletter sign-up option, and a forum.

I dunno, Ghastley. I find it difficult to imagine a character named "Seth Walker" being either female or an alien. Which means the character is a male human, and that's what you're stuck with, at least in SP mode. Are you suggesting that there will be means of altering that status in-game (such as technology, artifacts, etc)? While I can imagine such things altering the character's gender with relative ease, we're talking mutagens or something like that in order to alter DNA sufficiently to change the character's race from human to Martian, Plutonian, or whatever alien races might exist in the game. But if such methods for changing the character will exist in-game, why even bother with limiting the name of the character to "Seth Walker?"

~~~
Giovanna

I really hope 'Seth' is not the only possible char.
As mentioned some posts ago it would be a bit strage to have a multiplayer with 4x Seth...

However currently all previews (even those from E3) only are talking about this Seth guy, and the hole story is about the issue how far to transform into a powerful cyborg while loosing human skills.

Well i can't really imagine wether or not this will be sufficent enough for a long-time attractive gameplay.
Considering all these existing Star Wars and Star Trek RPG-related games (you get them meanwhile at a low/fair price) the game concept of Space Siege must cover rather high expectations to become player's choice.

.

By the way, what do you think aobut this no-overtime work-concept by Chris Taylor?
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38143
Will it still allow/promote games made with passion?

My impression from the blurb is that you're building a Cyborg out of a human male base. When you're done you have a robot with a brain. Original race and gender won't matter much.

If the game is moddable, we'll turn him into Seven of Nine in no time!

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

I would appreciate that!

...and no, i don't wish a Borg drone as girl friend.
It just would make some more fun not to be restricted on Mr. Walker only.
It also would be interesting to play the other way round, form (captured) Borg back to Human!? :idea:

OK, there may be hope for modding after all... someone on the Sega forums indicated that the PCGamer article this month says SS will be based on a tweaked DS2 engine. This seems to conflict with a GameSpy article saying that it's not the DS engine... :? Can anyone confirm the PCGamer story?

Also found on the Sega forums, a link to this SS trailer and CT interview. Looks and sounds interesting.

SpaceSiege PCGamer Sept 2007 Exclusive

i scanned the article so anyone wanting to read it can, it gives lot more info than most websites are speculating about the game.

SpaceSiege PCGamer Sept 2007 Exclusive

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So it has been written, and so it shall cometh to pass! Quothe The Darkelf, forevermore!

@Darkelf:: Thank you for your generous scan work!

@Sharkull: Due to this article the following sentense may interest you (...us ;)):

Using basically the same engine gives some hope modding could be possible, however sadly this also would mean, it will be easy to create cheat mods or game memory hacking 'trainers' but i will be rather hard again to produce creative content.
And assumed SS will use the same inefficent mapping style/method as used for DS2 then it's no wonder that it will be possible to play through the singleplayer mode within a rainy sunday (page 28 mentions 18 hours). Thus i really hope multiplayer mode will be long-time-attractive as GPG has planned with some extra playground...

Also i have some doubt's that GPG will allow PvP with this engine where things so easily can manipulated. It just would be a PvP mode for wanna-be-hacker, but neither a PvP mode that diserves its name nor a PvP implementation that would get any respect from regular players or from the game industry itself.

However, SS doesn't look generally inattractive and will surely be worth to download the demo - next year.

Yes, thanks DE for the upload. Very interesting stuff for sure.

SP = Seth, but MP = create your own character. I wonder if the MP missions will be impossible without help (i.e. could you solo-LAN play through them...).

Sounds like mana will be directly replaced with energy for your tech / armor / weapons... makes sense.

I really like the loot concepts too. Dropping pieces of tech / metal that your engineer can use in various ways. Could there be a crafting interface built in so that parts could be combined for better upgrades?

Don't know what I think about having no STR / DEX / INT stats... How will characters be developed otherwise? Tech upgrades only? How is experience rewarded (especially for those who keep their humanity)?

Guess I'll just have to wait until the demo comes out (or the next press release) for more info. ^^

My impression was that there won't be a similar leveling as in DS1/2, and only the kind of your upgrades seems to matter how advanced your char is.
Probably there won't even be a char/uber level...

As i have understood the article (as quickly as read...), towards the end of the game it will be possible to aquire (anyhow) better implants (not sure if they will drop only), for example titan-indurated bones and carbon-fibre imporved muscles (with high benefit to keep you human) - but that won't serve you anything if you have decided to completely replace your legs by robot-pillars at the beginning of the game to enjoy an early combat boost.

However one year is a long time... and finally we must be lucky to see the game at X-Mas 2008.