pinguinosupremo
04-03-07, 03:01 PM
This is a compilation of information from GameSpy and a few other sites. It is very expansive so it will take some time to read it all, however its only 6 pages of info.
Without futher ado, here is the info:
Regarding the game's title, you're urged to get over it. Dystopian as its setting may be, the game known as Huxley has next to nothing to do with Brave New World, however tempting such comparisons may be. During candid conversations, however, Webzen employees might admit to you that they had, at one point, toyed with a subtitle that referenced Huxley's novel, but decided against it lest they rouse the late author's possibly-litigious estate. What it is -- or, rather, what its designers are shooting for -- is just that much crazier: the ever-elusive MMO/FPS. A few have tried it, to some degree (Planetside, Neocron), but most will agree that no one has gotten it quite right. The up-and-coming Korean publisher intends to hit the mark, with a little help from Unreal Engine 3.
Being that Huxley is an MMO (and make no mistake: this game will bear most of the genre's trappings), a bit of back story is in order. One day, these things called Nuclearites came crashing into the Earth from space. A modern-day KT-event, except that humans didn't go extinct so much as mutate. Some of them, anyway. The cataclysmic conditions that followed, naturally, more or less obliterated what order that existed in the world. What's more, humans found a reason to hate each other infinitely more compelling than color, creed, or religion: sub-species distinction. Earth was an ugly place, needless to say, but a scientist named Dr. Huxley soon emerged as a short-lived ray of hope. Huxley discovered a way to harness the very force that wrecked the planet into a powerful energy source: Lunarites. Of course, rather than focus its energies on rebuilding its shattered world, humanity decided to bring yet more war to it.
This is the world in which Huxley takes place. It's all about the Lunarites, baby.
"How beauteous mankind is!"
At the center of Huxley's struggle are two distinct subspecies of humans-as-we-know-them-today: Sapiens, which are more or less like you and me, and Alternatives, which were more dramatically affected by the Nuclearite shower. They're at war with each other, but also with a wildcard faction known as Hybrids. As of now, we know that Sapiens and Alternatives will be playable races. As for Hybrids, well, all such inquiries to Webzen were met with coy glances, and vague comments. Make of that what you will.
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7715/inline11139270328qo3.th.jpg (http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7715/inline11139270328qo3.jpg)
There's a war going on outside.
Both of the playable races fall into two distinct sub-races. For the Sapiens, these are "One" and "Syn." The One are more or less identical to people like us, and according to Webzen, they will be able to make better use of equipment within the game. What does this mean? That they'll advance in weapon- or vehicle-piloting-skills faster than other races, as we understand it. The Syn, meanwhile, are the One's svelte, agile cousins. Their cold-hearted nature makes them more suited to covert operations, and given their enviable looks, you can bet that they'll be pretty popular with players.
While by no means unrecognizable as our genetic brethren, the Alternative sub-races look different enough from Sapiens. If you've been following Huxley at all, you're probably familiar with the "Altereavers." You know that big, burly dude that's in a bunch of the screenshots? He's one of them. Apparently, they specialize in heavy weapons, and are generally honorable and loyal, yet merciless at the same time. Sounds like Huxley's answer to Klingons. On the other side of the coin are the "Alternix." They have grey skin, are unnaturally sensitive, and, you guessed it, keen on infiltration and assassination.
That leaves the Hybrids, who remain an unknown at this point. Hybrids are what happens when a Sapien and an Alternative try to produce an offspring. Generally, the results are undesirable. Hybrids are the enemies you fight in the game's PvE portions, but as mentioned before, Webzen hasn't entirely ruled out the possibility that they'll be playable in some capacity. What we do know is that they'll be divided into four subcategories: epsilon, gamma, beta, and alpha, alphas being almost humanlike in appearance, and epsilons being the adorable Zergling-like guys you see running around in the movies.
There's also a subfaction called the H.L.O -- Hybrid Liberation Organization -- that will pop up, though what its role is, precisely, is yet to be determined.
Growth Oriented
Banish any thoughts of Planetside's certification system, if that's what you had in mind for Huxley's character-development. The system, believe it or not, is actually a lot more akin to what you'd find in a traditional MMO. On the surface, anyway. Huxley Studio's Producer Kijong Kang (read: the big cheese) puts it this way: "Our focus on the character development system is to make distinctive game play styles [available] as characters becomes stronger rather than enhance or increase a character's power itself." Plainly put, your characters won't get "stronger," per se, as they level up. Rather, they'll be able to do more stuff. In this way, it's not totally unlike Planetside's certification system. There just seems to be a bit more to it.
"There are two different type of character development: vertical and horizontal. Characters become more skilled through the vertical development," Kang told us. "On the other hand, they could develop various gameplay styles through horizontal development." Here's how it works: your character will have a concrete level. The cap, when the game launches, will be 50, and you gain levels by acquiring experience. You gain experience, mainly, from playing through PvE content -- the various quests or tasks available to you as a member of your faction. Apart from the sort of gratification that's oh-so-important in MMOs, levels give you access to actual skills: things like the ability to double-jump, to equip better armor and weapons, and the like.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5356/inline21139270392xo0.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5356/inline21139270392xo0.jpg)
Good friends + good guns = good game.
The second prong to Huxley's approach is the concept of "rank." Rank is much like level, except that you can only advance in this area by participating in PvP. This is the "horizontal development" that Kang was speaking about. He makes Huxley Studio's stance quite clear in this area: "As developers, we are putting more importance on horizontal development." So what does it earn you? Most importantly, early on your rank puts a hard cap on how high you can advance in level. So if you're mainly interested in shooting baby Hybrids, know that you'll eventually reach a plateau if you don't intersperse this with the occasional killing of actual players. Advancing in rank also grants you benefits in regards to meta-game functionality -- stuff like being able to form teams in PvP, give orders, arrange strikes, and the like.
Ultimately, though, Huxley is an FPS above all. It's much less about your character's game-given abilities and more about your reflexes and acumen for strategy. "High level in Huxley doesn't mean increased physical strength or speed," Kang said. "It means being able to use better weapons and armor." In other words, if you're a newb with a level 50 character, be aware that a level one with skills might just send you home crying. Your l33t weapon and phat armor won't necessarily give you an edge over an opponent's killer instinct.
Welcome to PvE s0n
If you remove Huxley from its MMO context, then the inclusion of "PvE" elements doesn't seem that weird. Just think of the most memorable sequences in your favorite single-player FPS levels. In an ideal world, that's what the PvE game in an MMO-FPS would be like, expect you're gaining experience and loot while you do it. Hopefully players won't be motivated to play through individual scenarios over and over again, ad nauseum, in order to "farm" treasure and resources. Instead, if executed properly, PvE elements in an MMO-FPS aren't necessarily that alien of a concept. This is precisely what Huxley Studio hopes to achieve.
Most of Huxley's PvE game will revolve around quests. You will acquire these in much the same manner as you would in a game like World of Warcraft or EverQuest II: you'll see someone in town with a "quest-giver" symbol over her head, or else receive orders from your faction's quest officer, or what have you. From there, you'll jaunt over to the quest area, which may be instanced or persistent depending on the case, fulfill the objectives, then come back and collect your rewards.
It's indisputable that "modern" MMOs like the abovementioned have brought certain refinements to the genre that could be applicable to any sort of game for favorable results. As such, it shouldn't be surprising that Huxley's quests won't be that different from what you've become accustomed to. "Players might fight against the Hybrid Liberation Organization, which is occupying old ruins of the city, to look for a mysterious legendary weapon," Kang told us, when asked what to expect from Huxley's quests. "Or maybe they'll have to traverse an underground dungeon while escorting a desperate bridegroom whose bride-to-be was kidnapped by Hybrids."
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/4107/inline31139272503jn8.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/4107/inline31139272503jn8.jpg)
"C'mon, it's just around the corner!"
These two examples serve to highlight the two distinct brands of PvE elements in Huxley: the story quests, and the underground dungeon quests. The former will serve to further the game's narrative and immerse you in its world. These are the quests that will have a resolution, and that you won't generally replay (unless a friend of yours needs your help in completing them, anyway). The latter are more akin to WoW's instanced dungeons. They'll literally take you underground, into tunnels created by Hybrids, whom you will hunt for treasure and experience. Though there may be quest elements involved in these, their basic purpose is to provide you with warm bodies to shoot, and phat loot.
Some of the bodies that you encounter might be a little warmer than you expect, however: during some of the PvE scenarios, members of the opposing faction might be able to sneak into the play area that your party is in, and do its best to foil your efforts. Kang wasn't too clear on how this would work -- like, whether opposing players would have similar objectives in these zones, or if they could simply elect to hop in and raise some hell -- but one thing is certain: if they do this right, it can make the act of questing just that much more interesting.
Community, Identity, Stability
Despite the ever-present threat of the Hybrids, the Sapiens and Alternatives continue to be at each other's throats. In yesterday's preview, we discussed how they will encounter each other, from time to time, during the game's PvE quests; that is, if you're a Sapien and you're plugging away at some quests generally minding your own business, you might happen upon a party of Alternatives in the same PvE instance but with totally disparate objectives. Knowing the general mindset of MMO players, such encounters will more often than not lead to bloodshed. But Huxley's PvP game isn't at all limited to these kinds of fleeting encounters. If you want balls-out action against other live opponents, it won't be hard to find.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3341/inline11139354382sa5.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3341/inline11139354382sa5.jpg)
"Don't turn around, but I think those people at the crosswalk are talking about you."
But first, you need to understand how Huxley will be structured, both in terms of its game world, and the servers that house it. At the forefront are both races' home cities: Nostalonia for the Sapiens, and ESKA for the Alternatives. Both of these capitols will reside on MMO servers, and for all intents and purposes, will resemble the sorts of cities you see in traditional MMO games. There will be shopping areas, town squares and pubs to socialize in, guild housing neighborhoods, even rail systems to help those who can't afford personal transportation traverse the cities' myriad districts. We actually got to see an early version of Nostalonia during our visit to Webzen's studios in Seoul, and suffice it to say that the level of detail was staggering. The city was simply enormous, and the architecture intricate, detailed, and uniquely stylized. We can't wait to see them teeming with thousands of players. Hopefully Huxley's server tech will hold up.
One thing we didn't get to see, however -- and something that could turn out to be one of Huxley's more interesting features -- were the casual peer-to-peer (P2P) battles. That's right, P2P. There will be a location in the cities where you can engage in this, and they'll absolutely zero impact on the game's persistent mechanics. When you participate in these P2P battles, you won't even play as your character. "[This] is another way FPS fans will enjoy combat in Huxley," Producer Kijong Kang told us. "These battles have nothing to do with character development or leveling up. They are for fun, training, honor and respect." There's currently no word on whether or how the P2P battles will resemble the game's actual "Battle Zones," but one thing is certain. You're going to want to get some no-consequences practice in before you stick your neck out.
3... 2... 1... FIGHT!
Keep your weapon clean, soldier. You'll spend most of your time in-game in PvP battles. These will take place in what Huxley Studio is calling Battle Zones. They'll be housed on dedicated servers (think World of Warcraft's battlegrounds) that you can enter from specified places in your home city. You'll simply walk on over to the recruiter for a specific Battle Zone, catch a transport, and get whisked away to the site of the action. There won't be any immersion-breaking loading screens book-ending either side of the journey, according to Kang: "Inside the vehicle, you will see other players on board who will carry out the mission together with you, and even NPCs who wish you fortune in battle," he told us. "And whole scene will not be interrupted by loading screens because of the streaming technology."
In regards to the gameplay within each Battle Zone, Huxley is shooting for expansiveness. They're expecting to have more than 100 players fighting in a zone at any one time (or even more, if you talk to the developers during candid moments). The maps are big enough to accommodate forces of this scale. In the example we were provided, they told us to imagine a large island surrounded by numerous smaller ones. Players will spawn on their respective faction's advance base, located on one of the smaller islands, and from there, they can hop on shuttles and travel to wherever they're needed in the greater Battle Zone.
Depending on where you are in the Battle Zone, you'll have different objectives. Some parts of the map will incorporate capture-the-flag elements -- defending your forward base from assault, for instance -- while others will have you battling it out on the main island to capture resource nodes in order to meet the win quota. Of course, capturing resources means having to physically transport them to your faction's resource depot (which is located on a separate island) so expect to encounter some heavy resistance along the way.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1287/inline21139354568hn0.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1287/inline21139354568hn0.jpg)
Don't miss the Battle Zone transport, lest you end up like this guy: all dressed up with nowhere to go.
While all the disparate areas mentioned above -- the islands housing the forward bases and resource depots, as well as the large island with resources nodes and the main base -- will be located on different servers, the same principle behind traveling from city to Battle Zone applies. You won't experience any load times while traveling between them, and in fact, you'll still be able to communicate with your team, as well as receive any important metagame orders from the high-ranked players regardless of where you are in the Battle Zone. It all sounds pretty lofty, but if the team behind Huxley can deliver on this, then we're in for some pretty crazy battles.
And strange as it may sound, Huxley Studio is planning to allow individual clans control highly-contested, albeit smaller, Battle Zones. "If a clan wins over a specific territory through battle (maybe a Lunarite mine on a small island), they can accumulate wealth [with which] to buy vehicles and awesome housing for its members," Kang assured us. We're not sure where these areas would fit in context of the game's larger structure, but it sure seems like a great incentive for player-made organizations to get, um, organized.
We didn't get to see every element of Huxley in action, but it's pretty clear that this is one of the most ambitious multiplayer games in development. The information revealed to us paints a very enticing picture indeed. If you still hold reservations, though, you're not alone: It's not as if game development history is littered with successful, compelling FPS/MMOs. Despite the handful of games that have taken a stab at the concept, most will argue that no one's quite nailed it. Let's hope that Huxley will be the first.
In the not-to-distant future, there will come a time when most games will have persistent elements, sort of like how an increasing majority of games have "online" elements now, regardless of how rudimentary. Games like Huxley seem like a long shot right now, because they're bringing a playstyle into a space where it never previously thrived. Perceptions like this only change when a game emerges successful where others have previously stumbled. Will it be Huxley? We'll find out soon enough.
Without futher ado, here is the info:
Regarding the game's title, you're urged to get over it. Dystopian as its setting may be, the game known as Huxley has next to nothing to do with Brave New World, however tempting such comparisons may be. During candid conversations, however, Webzen employees might admit to you that they had, at one point, toyed with a subtitle that referenced Huxley's novel, but decided against it lest they rouse the late author's possibly-litigious estate. What it is -- or, rather, what its designers are shooting for -- is just that much crazier: the ever-elusive MMO/FPS. A few have tried it, to some degree (Planetside, Neocron), but most will agree that no one has gotten it quite right. The up-and-coming Korean publisher intends to hit the mark, with a little help from Unreal Engine 3.
Being that Huxley is an MMO (and make no mistake: this game will bear most of the genre's trappings), a bit of back story is in order. One day, these things called Nuclearites came crashing into the Earth from space. A modern-day KT-event, except that humans didn't go extinct so much as mutate. Some of them, anyway. The cataclysmic conditions that followed, naturally, more or less obliterated what order that existed in the world. What's more, humans found a reason to hate each other infinitely more compelling than color, creed, or religion: sub-species distinction. Earth was an ugly place, needless to say, but a scientist named Dr. Huxley soon emerged as a short-lived ray of hope. Huxley discovered a way to harness the very force that wrecked the planet into a powerful energy source: Lunarites. Of course, rather than focus its energies on rebuilding its shattered world, humanity decided to bring yet more war to it.
This is the world in which Huxley takes place. It's all about the Lunarites, baby.
"How beauteous mankind is!"
At the center of Huxley's struggle are two distinct subspecies of humans-as-we-know-them-today: Sapiens, which are more or less like you and me, and Alternatives, which were more dramatically affected by the Nuclearite shower. They're at war with each other, but also with a wildcard faction known as Hybrids. As of now, we know that Sapiens and Alternatives will be playable races. As for Hybrids, well, all such inquiries to Webzen were met with coy glances, and vague comments. Make of that what you will.
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7715/inline11139270328qo3.th.jpg (http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7715/inline11139270328qo3.jpg)
There's a war going on outside.
Both of the playable races fall into two distinct sub-races. For the Sapiens, these are "One" and "Syn." The One are more or less identical to people like us, and according to Webzen, they will be able to make better use of equipment within the game. What does this mean? That they'll advance in weapon- or vehicle-piloting-skills faster than other races, as we understand it. The Syn, meanwhile, are the One's svelte, agile cousins. Their cold-hearted nature makes them more suited to covert operations, and given their enviable looks, you can bet that they'll be pretty popular with players.
While by no means unrecognizable as our genetic brethren, the Alternative sub-races look different enough from Sapiens. If you've been following Huxley at all, you're probably familiar with the "Altereavers." You know that big, burly dude that's in a bunch of the screenshots? He's one of them. Apparently, they specialize in heavy weapons, and are generally honorable and loyal, yet merciless at the same time. Sounds like Huxley's answer to Klingons. On the other side of the coin are the "Alternix." They have grey skin, are unnaturally sensitive, and, you guessed it, keen on infiltration and assassination.
That leaves the Hybrids, who remain an unknown at this point. Hybrids are what happens when a Sapien and an Alternative try to produce an offspring. Generally, the results are undesirable. Hybrids are the enemies you fight in the game's PvE portions, but as mentioned before, Webzen hasn't entirely ruled out the possibility that they'll be playable in some capacity. What we do know is that they'll be divided into four subcategories: epsilon, gamma, beta, and alpha, alphas being almost humanlike in appearance, and epsilons being the adorable Zergling-like guys you see running around in the movies.
There's also a subfaction called the H.L.O -- Hybrid Liberation Organization -- that will pop up, though what its role is, precisely, is yet to be determined.
Growth Oriented
Banish any thoughts of Planetside's certification system, if that's what you had in mind for Huxley's character-development. The system, believe it or not, is actually a lot more akin to what you'd find in a traditional MMO. On the surface, anyway. Huxley Studio's Producer Kijong Kang (read: the big cheese) puts it this way: "Our focus on the character development system is to make distinctive game play styles [available] as characters becomes stronger rather than enhance or increase a character's power itself." Plainly put, your characters won't get "stronger," per se, as they level up. Rather, they'll be able to do more stuff. In this way, it's not totally unlike Planetside's certification system. There just seems to be a bit more to it.
"There are two different type of character development: vertical and horizontal. Characters become more skilled through the vertical development," Kang told us. "On the other hand, they could develop various gameplay styles through horizontal development." Here's how it works: your character will have a concrete level. The cap, when the game launches, will be 50, and you gain levels by acquiring experience. You gain experience, mainly, from playing through PvE content -- the various quests or tasks available to you as a member of your faction. Apart from the sort of gratification that's oh-so-important in MMOs, levels give you access to actual skills: things like the ability to double-jump, to equip better armor and weapons, and the like.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5356/inline21139270392xo0.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5356/inline21139270392xo0.jpg)
Good friends + good guns = good game.
The second prong to Huxley's approach is the concept of "rank." Rank is much like level, except that you can only advance in this area by participating in PvP. This is the "horizontal development" that Kang was speaking about. He makes Huxley Studio's stance quite clear in this area: "As developers, we are putting more importance on horizontal development." So what does it earn you? Most importantly, early on your rank puts a hard cap on how high you can advance in level. So if you're mainly interested in shooting baby Hybrids, know that you'll eventually reach a plateau if you don't intersperse this with the occasional killing of actual players. Advancing in rank also grants you benefits in regards to meta-game functionality -- stuff like being able to form teams in PvP, give orders, arrange strikes, and the like.
Ultimately, though, Huxley is an FPS above all. It's much less about your character's game-given abilities and more about your reflexes and acumen for strategy. "High level in Huxley doesn't mean increased physical strength or speed," Kang said. "It means being able to use better weapons and armor." In other words, if you're a newb with a level 50 character, be aware that a level one with skills might just send you home crying. Your l33t weapon and phat armor won't necessarily give you an edge over an opponent's killer instinct.
Welcome to PvE s0n
If you remove Huxley from its MMO context, then the inclusion of "PvE" elements doesn't seem that weird. Just think of the most memorable sequences in your favorite single-player FPS levels. In an ideal world, that's what the PvE game in an MMO-FPS would be like, expect you're gaining experience and loot while you do it. Hopefully players won't be motivated to play through individual scenarios over and over again, ad nauseum, in order to "farm" treasure and resources. Instead, if executed properly, PvE elements in an MMO-FPS aren't necessarily that alien of a concept. This is precisely what Huxley Studio hopes to achieve.
Most of Huxley's PvE game will revolve around quests. You will acquire these in much the same manner as you would in a game like World of Warcraft or EverQuest II: you'll see someone in town with a "quest-giver" symbol over her head, or else receive orders from your faction's quest officer, or what have you. From there, you'll jaunt over to the quest area, which may be instanced or persistent depending on the case, fulfill the objectives, then come back and collect your rewards.
It's indisputable that "modern" MMOs like the abovementioned have brought certain refinements to the genre that could be applicable to any sort of game for favorable results. As such, it shouldn't be surprising that Huxley's quests won't be that different from what you've become accustomed to. "Players might fight against the Hybrid Liberation Organization, which is occupying old ruins of the city, to look for a mysterious legendary weapon," Kang told us, when asked what to expect from Huxley's quests. "Or maybe they'll have to traverse an underground dungeon while escorting a desperate bridegroom whose bride-to-be was kidnapped by Hybrids."
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/4107/inline31139272503jn8.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/4107/inline31139272503jn8.jpg)
"C'mon, it's just around the corner!"
These two examples serve to highlight the two distinct brands of PvE elements in Huxley: the story quests, and the underground dungeon quests. The former will serve to further the game's narrative and immerse you in its world. These are the quests that will have a resolution, and that you won't generally replay (unless a friend of yours needs your help in completing them, anyway). The latter are more akin to WoW's instanced dungeons. They'll literally take you underground, into tunnels created by Hybrids, whom you will hunt for treasure and experience. Though there may be quest elements involved in these, their basic purpose is to provide you with warm bodies to shoot, and phat loot.
Some of the bodies that you encounter might be a little warmer than you expect, however: during some of the PvE scenarios, members of the opposing faction might be able to sneak into the play area that your party is in, and do its best to foil your efforts. Kang wasn't too clear on how this would work -- like, whether opposing players would have similar objectives in these zones, or if they could simply elect to hop in and raise some hell -- but one thing is certain: if they do this right, it can make the act of questing just that much more interesting.
Community, Identity, Stability
Despite the ever-present threat of the Hybrids, the Sapiens and Alternatives continue to be at each other's throats. In yesterday's preview, we discussed how they will encounter each other, from time to time, during the game's PvE quests; that is, if you're a Sapien and you're plugging away at some quests generally minding your own business, you might happen upon a party of Alternatives in the same PvE instance but with totally disparate objectives. Knowing the general mindset of MMO players, such encounters will more often than not lead to bloodshed. But Huxley's PvP game isn't at all limited to these kinds of fleeting encounters. If you want balls-out action against other live opponents, it won't be hard to find.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3341/inline11139354382sa5.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3341/inline11139354382sa5.jpg)
"Don't turn around, but I think those people at the crosswalk are talking about you."
But first, you need to understand how Huxley will be structured, both in terms of its game world, and the servers that house it. At the forefront are both races' home cities: Nostalonia for the Sapiens, and ESKA for the Alternatives. Both of these capitols will reside on MMO servers, and for all intents and purposes, will resemble the sorts of cities you see in traditional MMO games. There will be shopping areas, town squares and pubs to socialize in, guild housing neighborhoods, even rail systems to help those who can't afford personal transportation traverse the cities' myriad districts. We actually got to see an early version of Nostalonia during our visit to Webzen's studios in Seoul, and suffice it to say that the level of detail was staggering. The city was simply enormous, and the architecture intricate, detailed, and uniquely stylized. We can't wait to see them teeming with thousands of players. Hopefully Huxley's server tech will hold up.
One thing we didn't get to see, however -- and something that could turn out to be one of Huxley's more interesting features -- were the casual peer-to-peer (P2P) battles. That's right, P2P. There will be a location in the cities where you can engage in this, and they'll absolutely zero impact on the game's persistent mechanics. When you participate in these P2P battles, you won't even play as your character. "[This] is another way FPS fans will enjoy combat in Huxley," Producer Kijong Kang told us. "These battles have nothing to do with character development or leveling up. They are for fun, training, honor and respect." There's currently no word on whether or how the P2P battles will resemble the game's actual "Battle Zones," but one thing is certain. You're going to want to get some no-consequences practice in before you stick your neck out.
3... 2... 1... FIGHT!
Keep your weapon clean, soldier. You'll spend most of your time in-game in PvP battles. These will take place in what Huxley Studio is calling Battle Zones. They'll be housed on dedicated servers (think World of Warcraft's battlegrounds) that you can enter from specified places in your home city. You'll simply walk on over to the recruiter for a specific Battle Zone, catch a transport, and get whisked away to the site of the action. There won't be any immersion-breaking loading screens book-ending either side of the journey, according to Kang: "Inside the vehicle, you will see other players on board who will carry out the mission together with you, and even NPCs who wish you fortune in battle," he told us. "And whole scene will not be interrupted by loading screens because of the streaming technology."
In regards to the gameplay within each Battle Zone, Huxley is shooting for expansiveness. They're expecting to have more than 100 players fighting in a zone at any one time (or even more, if you talk to the developers during candid moments). The maps are big enough to accommodate forces of this scale. In the example we were provided, they told us to imagine a large island surrounded by numerous smaller ones. Players will spawn on their respective faction's advance base, located on one of the smaller islands, and from there, they can hop on shuttles and travel to wherever they're needed in the greater Battle Zone.
Depending on where you are in the Battle Zone, you'll have different objectives. Some parts of the map will incorporate capture-the-flag elements -- defending your forward base from assault, for instance -- while others will have you battling it out on the main island to capture resource nodes in order to meet the win quota. Of course, capturing resources means having to physically transport them to your faction's resource depot (which is located on a separate island) so expect to encounter some heavy resistance along the way.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1287/inline21139354568hn0.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1287/inline21139354568hn0.jpg)
Don't miss the Battle Zone transport, lest you end up like this guy: all dressed up with nowhere to go.
While all the disparate areas mentioned above -- the islands housing the forward bases and resource depots, as well as the large island with resources nodes and the main base -- will be located on different servers, the same principle behind traveling from city to Battle Zone applies. You won't experience any load times while traveling between them, and in fact, you'll still be able to communicate with your team, as well as receive any important metagame orders from the high-ranked players regardless of where you are in the Battle Zone. It all sounds pretty lofty, but if the team behind Huxley can deliver on this, then we're in for some pretty crazy battles.
And strange as it may sound, Huxley Studio is planning to allow individual clans control highly-contested, albeit smaller, Battle Zones. "If a clan wins over a specific territory through battle (maybe a Lunarite mine on a small island), they can accumulate wealth [with which] to buy vehicles and awesome housing for its members," Kang assured us. We're not sure where these areas would fit in context of the game's larger structure, but it sure seems like a great incentive for player-made organizations to get, um, organized.
We didn't get to see every element of Huxley in action, but it's pretty clear that this is one of the most ambitious multiplayer games in development. The information revealed to us paints a very enticing picture indeed. If you still hold reservations, though, you're not alone: It's not as if game development history is littered with successful, compelling FPS/MMOs. Despite the handful of games that have taken a stab at the concept, most will argue that no one's quite nailed it. Let's hope that Huxley will be the first.
In the not-to-distant future, there will come a time when most games will have persistent elements, sort of like how an increasing majority of games have "online" elements now, regardless of how rudimentary. Games like Huxley seem like a long shot right now, because they're bringing a playstyle into a space where it never previously thrived. Perceptions like this only change when a game emerges successful where others have previously stumbled. Will it be Huxley? We'll find out soon enough.