Red Hot News: 16th Sept 11.20am Update: Congratulations to all who have managed to sign up for the MAG Beta competition, you will be receiving your codes over the course of time so please be patient and remember the invites will be sent out in waves so don't panic if you're not in the 1st wave.
Due to phenonimal demand the competition is now closed.
Beta Update (from Shijima):
So you all know, we are aiming to distribute the first batch of codes between tomorrow (Thursday 17th) and Tuesday 22nd. One thing you should all be aware of is that after you have installed the initial PSN download (~300 MB), there will be a small patch to download and install (~35 MB).
Once that has downloaded and installed the game will then start and connect to the distributed file sharing service to download the game data. This may be in the region of 3 GB, so depending on your connection speed it could take some time (best to do over night). The way the download service works is that the more people there are with the data, the faster it should be to download, much like current P2P systems.
Lastly, for this phase of the Beta the servers will only be operational Monday to Friday, 5pm-8pm GMT and 12am-4am GMT. The reason for the times is compatibility with all regions testing the game and also to allow some downtime when Zipper can work on upgrading the servers.
New Video added 8th Sept '09 featuring community written call to arms - MUST WATCH!!!!
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)
• 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
"Groundbreaking large scale combat, intimacy of 8-player squad combat, and character growth"
Images:
In-Game Screenshots
Videos:
E3 MAG Presentation, ok quality (Video Starts at 84:11)
E3 Trailer Only (Gametrailer SD, no HD yet)
GameSpot Interview (Interview with Andy from Zipper)
Gametrailers Developer Interview - 4/29 (Discussion of Server Architecture and some game info)
Gamespot Developer Interview - 4/30 (HQ) (Discusses current game state, servers, general info)
MAG QA Session on PS Blog - 5/4
MAG Exclusive 256 Developer's Diary
MAG Developer Diary - Episode #4: Command & Control System
Community MAG Trailer 4/9/09
Level 3
Not sure if I like how the game works around having to be on the same army in order to play with your PSN friends.. same with classes once you've chosen to be a certain one from what i gather you're stuck with it.
Are we going to be locked to the same faction/class untill we make a new character and will that mean having to start all over again to get promotions etc?
Plugpin wrote:Not sure if I like how the game works around having to be on the same army in order to play with your PSN friends.. same with classes once you've chosen to be a certain one from what i gather you're stuck with it.
Are we going to be locked to the same faction/class untill we make a new character and will that mean having to start all over again to get promotions etc?
Personally I think it is a good idea - picking one faction and thats you - it seems a massive game and the Shaddow War will unfold over weeks and months with updates via the website so it will make it easier to follow if you are just concentration on 1 faction.
Also I also believe that there is an option to switch faction but that there will be a loss of xp in doing so (Think it was the PS Blog video).
So if all your friends are in one faction and you're in another then you can change - but remember this is just for the Shaddow War - for team deathmatches etc you will still be able to team up
