More Answers from Kijong Kang

[Gunther]

Gameplay in Huxley will take place both in one of the cities and in battle areas. In the cities there will be upward of 5,000 people who can be together at one time, while the battle areas will support several hundred. Of course there will be multiple battle areas in which people can challenge each other.

"one of the cities", says KK. Obviously there are more than one. At least one of the cities is a Free Fire zone, meaning you can engage in PvP or PvE combat in this built up area.

is this combat capable city an instance or part of the persistent world?

There are two different playable races in Huxley: alternatives and sapiens. Alternatives were created when a mysterious material known as nuclearites caused "allopatric speciation" of the human race. Unaffected humans became known as sapiens, while affected humans are alternatives. As time went on, the human evolution path was once again interfered with by fragments of the moon, known as lunarites. The sapiens were divided into the factions One and Syn, and the alternatives were divided into the factions Alteraver and Alternix.

The world of Huxley has suffered destructive earthquakes, massive tidal waves, and dramatic climate changes. Each major city is also pretty isolated. The human race will have two camps: The sapiens live in Nostalonia, and the alternatives live in the city Eska. Meanwhile, the hybrids [a hostile, nonplayable race] live outside of the cities alongside the heathen troops of the Hybrid Liberation Organization. You will be able to explore areas in the control of each of these various entities. It's kind of hard to say how big the world is, but I can say that it's pretty large, and it will be a lot of fun to fight in.

OK, the Alternative city is ESKA!!!

During the game, players will experience several stages of growth. As they progress to higher grades, players will be able to purchase additional weapons, shields, and skill items. There are ways by which players can also obtain honor and further define their own personalities and so on.

They are using the term "Honor". Will it be used in the same application as in WoW BGs?

Combat in Huxley will be based on the hyper-fast action found in first-person shooters like Unreal. Huxley will be a game where player skill matters. The game will take into account a player's character growth. Between levels, the intent is not to increase their strength and striking power but rather to increase the kinds of weapons and skills a player can use.

In Huxley, the vehicles are not only strong weapons, but they also serve a transportation function to convey squads in battle. There will be vehicles used for land, sea, or air. Players can also select various types of vehicles depending on their class.

Valkyrie, he says vehicles can be used for sea. Will these sea-going vehicles merely be amphibious assault craft? or full blown Waterborne vessels like gunboats and small frigates? or what of the possibility of vessels larger than Destroyers?
I was under the impression that there would be no classes. That you could choose the path of your character by the licenses that you choose. What classes are available to the player in Huxley?

Because Huxley was based on the earth in the near future, we tried to emphasize reality as well as science fiction. In order to create a unique atmosphere like today's world, Huxley applies an Eastern and Western, as well as baroque and futuristic, feel.

It's well known that we are developing Huxley as a cross-platform game. Both versions of the game will share genre features like first-person shooter elements and a basic background. However, we are also developing unique content and features for each platform.

Much of Huxley will be the same in PC as in X360. Some of the content will be unique to both. There is no plan to allow PC and X360 players to interact in game.

We will be discussing launch dates in the future. Right now you can expect to play the Huxley PC game in the Webzen booth during E3 2006.

Again, we are waiting for E3.

[rhonnin]

So then the battlefields wont actually be 60 vs 60 type battles if the combat areas will support "hundreds" of players. I like the idea of the full combat city too, perhaps we can set up the HQ there.

[Valkyrie]

I was thinking more on the line of a Small amphibious assault craft ya, but I dont think that they are going to give us anything bigger then a Corvette/gunboat if water vessels are added.

Think the more interesting thing to find first is the whole Issue on Artillery and whether it would be in game.

[Gunther]

If anyone has found the original article on Gamespot that I paraphrased above you will note that it contains about 8 times as many words as I have posted in this thread. I took the liberty to eliminate GS' questions and the answers from KK that we already know. I only quoted the new stuff here. GS did a piss poor job with this interview because they asked questions that the other websites have already asked him. He gave up very little in this interview than he has already stated.

[BigBossMonkey]

If they pull this game off, I'm never going to see sunlight again!

And what does it take to go to E3? Is there an age Limit?

[Valkyrie]

Just Watch G4, they like Live in E3 when its on.

[Gunther]

The following is taken from 1up

One of the main differences comes with the territory that each version calls its own. Huxley's world is made up of three cities, with "HLO City" being the exclusive location for 360 players. Those familiar with the PC version know that the massive 200-some player group battles happen outside the cities in battlezones anyway, so this structure looks to keep a good part of the fraternizing, item bartering, and relaxing specific to players on the same platform.

HLO city is exclusive to 360 players. So obviously HLO city will not be in the PC version. The PC PvP Battle Area will have in excess of 200 players in it according to this interview. That suggests that the 120 person limit we read about earlier means it may be 120 v 120 not the 60 v 60 that some have speculated. And as we have seen in previous interviews, the neutral cities--Nostalonia and Eska will be free from harrassment and 360 and PC players won't be able to interact there.

Much of what we saw of the game was how players in the 360's single-player campaign can meet up with online players. Webzen set up the game on both 360 and PC in our offices, and proceeded to play through a level in the 360 version, and simply by going through a specific door was able to meet up with a friend on the PC version playing across the room. How players will be able to coordinate and meet up in the final game has yet to be determined, but the potential for adding different kinds of features that players can take back into their single-player games seems immense.

Ok, I stand corrected. According to this PC and X360 players will be able to interact. I still want to see it for myself.

However, unlike in many MMOs, the developers want to make sure that players at a higher level don't have a dominating advantage and that skill still plays a key role. Thus, a good player who is just starting out should theoretically be able to take out a long-time player with slower reflexes, though obviously it will be a challenge.

Skill is still more important than level.

Graphically, given the current early nature of the 360 game, the PC version clearly looks nicer in a side-by-side comparison, but the developers claim that by the 360 version's release they expect the two to look roughly equivalent. Running on Unreal Engine 3, the PC version right now looks as good as if not better than any other game on the market, so a very high standard has been set for the developers to match on 360. When asked if he foresees any problems making the 360 version up to the PC standard, producer Kijong Kang says, "Not really. Epic has already shown that it can be done with Gears of War. We also have the technology to make the transition from PC to Xbox 360 a smooth one."

The last sentence bodes that question about PC and X360 player interaction. I have to wait and see what E3 shows.

With the PC version scheduled for release at the end of this year and the 360 version on the way roughly six months after that, there's plenty of time for the game design to come together as well as the technology already appears to have. "We are launching the games separately because they will each feature unique content," says Kang. "Having separate release dates allows us to give each game the attention that it deserves, thus making them both high-quality and really fun."

Obviously both platforms have different content and with that difference, there will be areas that PC can't go and areas X360 players can't go. According to this it will come out at the end of the year. Some of us have been predicting a fall release--November is not unreasonable however it could mean as early as October. X360 players will have to wait half a year longer to see Huxley though.[/url]

[rhonnin]

Not owning an xbox myse;f i have to wonder how will PC and platform players interact? I imagine the 360 will take a keyboard but will that mean platform players will be have to swap between a pad and keyboard when they want to say something? seem like that would be very cumbersome in combat, voice chat will be very big for this game. Any mention yet Gunther as to whether they will add an integrated voice client? We've seen with DDO that it can be done very very well now unlike in the past.

[Gunther]

I'll add that question to the "questions" thread. I've only seen speculation threads on that one. Many of hte posts I see are inanely immature. I've gotten to the level where I can't stand to look at them anymore. I go for the threads that have some indication in the title that there may be a shread of something useful.

[Gunther]

This interview was with IGN:

With , the appeal was huge battles but the downside was a lack of persistent effects. All of a players efforts could be undone by the time they logged on again. How does Huxley reward a faction for its efforts?

The concept of a persistent world in Huxley is not only a space for ongoing combat but also more of a virtual world for character growth. In Huxley, players can communicate with other players or NPCs, have economies, go into a variety of extensive multiplayer battle modes, experience high interaction, continually get quest updates and combat style development. Players will increasingly realize the benefits and consequences of participating in battles and why they must fight with the opposing side.

Rewards or penalties are usually given in the form of special benefits in purchasing Lunarites. Also, as players are rewarded for their growth they can acquire experience points. The rewards will mostly be handed out on the individual level versus the faction or clan level.

you must do both PvE and PvP

And how are individual players rewarded for their efforts?

In addition to massive battles, there are small-scale battles and quests with NPCs in Huxley. Players can be rewarded with experience points, money, new items and qualifications to obtain certain items and favors from the city's NPCs.

Through battles on the faction level in the Persistent World, users will level up to gradually form clans and get compensation for them, similar to siege warfare. For example, if a guild wins over an island or other piece of territory through battle, the clan can assume ownership of Lunarites on the acquired island. Rewards are handed out in this manner to both individuals and guilds.

The clan can benefit from its actions. teamwork uber alles!!

Since there still isn't much precedent for persistent first-person shooters, where does Webzen go for inspiration?

For a long time, we tried to think of ways to make first-person shooter games more exciting. We found the answer in blending FPSs with MMOs, not by any one single element. We were inspired by MMORPGs like MU, developed by Webzen, and the hottest twitch action first-person shooters of the past and today.

But that's not all. We also find inspiration outside of the FPS and MMO games. For example, the massive battles in Huxley were inspired by soccer games such as Winning Eleven's. In order to win in the Master League, strategic factors including each team's power, character, appointment of players, and formation, along with the tactics of the individuals and the team are important. These very factors of soccer games apply in Huxley's massive battles.

Also, Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World served as the inspiration for the game's name, gave us ideas in planning a world concerning the game's overall social and class structure.

Teamwork and use of tactics will be important to winning in Huxley!

We understand that about 5000 players can be supported on a single server. But how many people can reasonably fit into a single arena? Is this on the scale of Battlefield 2, or something bigger?

Huxley's Persistent World, a space where players can grow and live, can support up to 5,000 players per server. PvP battle fields are separated from Persistent World areas such as villages, and the scale ranges from the usual 4 vs. 4 battles to massive 100 vs. 100 battles.

The maximum number was not fixed at 200 for technical restrictions. After a variety of settings and testing to figure out which scale could maximize enjoyment while ensuring effective control of characters, we reached the conclusion that 100vs100 was the most ideal. This is, of course, bigger than the scale of current FPS games like Battlefield 2, which are 32 vs. 32 battles.

There will be several instanced areas where you can fight as small as 4v4 or as big as 100v100. this is great.

There's also a player-versus-environment aspect to this game. Should this be considered as more of a practice mode, or is it meaty enough to ignore PvP altogether?

The PvE mode is not a practice mode. In first-person shooter games, PvE and PvP are quite different. In our PvE, cooperation is important and provides a different kind of suspense from PvP's competitive play. The combination of these two game play styles makes Huxley much more exciting.

I thought IGN's question was silly--PvE as practice mode! This will make the game more exciting where you are killing NPC mobs one minute and PCs the next.

Also, will PvP be free-for-all, or does the player have Some flexibility in deciding whether to fight or not? It sounds like the majority of the PvP takes place in arenas.

The Player has flexibility in deciding which battles to get in on. Cities are Persistent World and the center of each faction's life. There are some transportation spots ready to take a player to battle areas from small scale PvE to massive PvP battle fields. The player basically has to choose which battle they want to engage in and move to that area.

Can a player or group of players achieve long-term benefits from PvP combat? If I decided to join another guild, would I be able to retain those benefits, or are they granted to the group as a whole?

Unfortunately, we aren't talking about clans at this point. However, the player can retain long-term benefits such as experience points, level growth, and weapon skills.

he is tight lipped about the specific benefits that a clan will receive from its efforts. Bastard!

How big is this game world, exactly? Is there one arena for each game type? Are the arenas divided by character level, as with World of Warcraft's battlegrounds?

Our goal for the size of a Huxley city is 4x4 km, but it is difficult to compare Huxley's world to that of general MMORPG as there are instanced PvP arenas. We cannot yet disclose details concerning distinctions in armor by character levels.

that is 2.5 x 2.4 miles. The bastard won't give the S2 on armor and equipment.

Although this is an action-oriented game, we understand there are some RPG elements. How do those mesh with the theme of competitive multiplayer.

There may be a misconception that it is a simple combination of MMORPG and FPS. We did not start this project to see what would happen if we simply mixed and FPS with an MMORPG. The persistent world features of Huxley are byproducts of our effort to create a new breed of FPS game for today's online gaming environment. While the end result may appear similar, our approach will certainly make Huxley more innovative and exciting game to play.

Finally, since Huxley is also being developed for the Xbox 360, can console and PC gamers expect to play against each other, or will the two camps be separated?

Huxley is a cross-platform game and can be played on the PC and the Xbox 360 versions. The cross-platform gaming will be from similar and shared content but a completely different standpoint that goes beyond mere connection (simple interactivity, interaction, etc.). The Huxley world can be experienced through different aspects, stories and quests on the same theme that unfold in different platforms.