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DRIVER'S ED
Creator Scott Brown Takes Us for a Spin around Auto Assault
Got road rage? Join the club; Scott Brown, president of NetDevil and project lead on NCSoft’s Auto Assault (AA), is convinced millions can sympathize.
After all, why else would his team bother creating the world’s first post-apocalyptic car combat MMO, which presents a more action-intensive take (everything goes boom) on online adventuring? Rather than focus on grinding or level treadmills, the game literally lets you hop behind the wheel of a big rig or turret-sporting sedan. Once in the driver’s seat, playing the title’s as easy as speeding across barren, hostile landscapes while gunning your way through hordes of mutant creatures and motorized marauders.
If the setup sounds unusual, that’s because it is; the outing’s designers are keen on changing the way you experience massively multiplayer games. Instead of slow, time-intensive story encounters, the excitement here revolves around shooter-style thrills, with a healthy dose of typical role-playing, strategy and first-person blaster conventions thrown in as well. As such, you can expect a title which has the potential to appeal not only to old-school MUD enthusiasts, but PlayStation 2 and Xbox owners as well. Hey… Some call it sacrilege, others cutting-edge entertainment.
The diesel-powered destruction begins sometime in the first half of 2006. So strap in and hold on tight, Sparky. With no shortage of ambition – or in-game objects that explode upon impact – we couldn’t resist asking Brown to explain why audiences are about to be in for the ride of their lives…
LQGaming Services:: Dude: Of all things to make an MMO about, why vehicular manslaughter? Tired of dressing up like a dwarven berserker... or hot night elf?
Scott Brown: There are plenty of other developers making really great fantasy MMOs and ignoring some really fun genres. To us, a post-apocalyptic world where you can blow up just about everything you can see seemed like a lot of fun.
LQGaming Services:: How wildly will the play mechanics in Auto Assault differ from those found in typical MMO titles? Conversely, what elements of the game will be suprisingly familiar?
SB: The speed of gameplay is what really sets Auto Assault apart. In most MMO games, it is about controlling mobs to only engage one or maybe two creatures at a time, wait until you are ready for the next fight, and then reengage. What we wanted was to bring the excitement of action games to RPG style game play. We do this by making your typical encounter involve many enemies at the same time – and much more speed. We also use something we call a TacArc which requires some amount of player aim to maneuver yourself into an optimal firing position but then still relies on a dice roll and player and item statistics to determine if you hit and if so, for how much damage.
"What we wanted was to bring the excitement of action games to RPG style game play. We do this by making your typical encounter involve many enemies at the same time – and much more speed."
SB: Auto Assault should feel familiar to MMO players in a number of ways. There are still levels and skills, hand-built missions, tons of loot (though virtually all of ours is dynamically generated, which is another way we differ from most MMOs), crafting, housing and community aspects like grouping and clans. We did not feel that making the game faster should mean losing out on depth or gameplay.
The core design philosophy of Auto Assault is to level while playing – not playing just to level. By this we mean that we don’t want you focused on grinding through the XP bar but instead enjoying playing through the missions and incidentally leveling from time to time.
LQGaming Services:: Is this a game current MMO players will be well-suited to, or is AA likely to draw a different type of gamer entirely, e.g. someone who might normally gravitate to PlayStation 2 or Xbox?
SB: Both, really. I think the pacing of gameplay will make this game very appealing to players of action games on either the PC or consoles. The depth of the game should make it appealing to fans of long-term character development RPG games, both online and single player.
LQGaming Services:: In what ways do the three featured races – humans, mutants and biomeks – differ from each other, both in terms of visual appearance and powers? And what makes one more useful than another from a gameplay standpoint?
SB: The three races’ abilities and visuals all relate to how they survived the apocalypse. Humans went underground and have only now emerged with their shielding and energy based abilities. Their style is very streamlined and technology-based. Mutants survived the alien contamination to become stronger and now can harness that same contamination in a number of different ways. The Mutants have a more funky, tribal look. Biomeks have evolved their bio-mechanical abilities, giving them totally different advantages like transforming their vehicles into meks and proceeding to stomp everything in site. Therefore, their style is more machine-cut, industrial. We’ve worked hard to balance the races, so no one race is particularly dominant over another.
LQGaming Services:: Care to go into some depth on the different archetypes you can play and what attributes make them so distinct?
SB: Each race has four classes related in purpose but varied in how they function.
The tank class of the game is the class that fires the big guns and drives the military vehicles (like tanks!). They are mostly offensive in nature and tend to improve others’ offensive abilities while in a group.
The engineer class drives the really big vehicles of the game including, vans, dump trucks and semis. They are masters of traps, turrets and other support type abilities. Engineers can also repair friendly vehicles while in combat. They are masters of salvage and can often get even more from the battle remains.
The officer class drives the sportier cars in the game. Officers are experts in field tactics. They specialize in bringing numbers to bear and will often be accompanied by a number of support units. They can also give friendly units a number of combat bonuses.
The ranger class drives the lightweight and agile vehicles like dune buggies, and motorcycles. Their abilities tend towards stealth and quick strike damage.
LQGaming Services:: Do tell: What sorts of missions will players face, how are they obtained, and in what ways do they differ from the usual rat-killing, item-retrieving, boss-slaying assignments so common to most MMOs?
SB: There are literally thousands of missions in Auto Assault, all hand-written to reflect the style of the particular race. Some of the missions in the game highlight vehicle actions while others have more typical objects of killing, collecting or delivering.
In our instanced maps we can do very scripted missions giving players an experience typically only found in single player games. And unique to Auto Assault, when you complete a mission on an instance map, the map can remember the state you left it in and build on that next time you return with a new mission. For example, if you are sent in to annihilate an enemy base, when you return the base may be being rebuilt again reflecting the damage you last inflicted while on that instance. In this way we give players a tangible way to see the changes they have made in the world.
LQGaming Services:: How do the destructible environments work? What sorts of stunts can you pull off? What sorts of cool things can you do to damage enemies or change terrain so it works to your advantage?
SB: Just about everything in the game is destructible. You can use this to your advantage by cutting a new way through a map, by destroying buildings to find crafting materials or by breaking objects to create ramps or blockades. One example of how you can really use this to your advantage is to ignite an explosive barrel and then using our built in physics engine push the barrel into a mob of enemies destroying them all.
I really can’t say enough how cool this aspect of the game is. And physics to this level are simply unheard of in MMOs right now.
"Combat in Auto Assault is visceral and fast-paced, requiring full concentration to be able to achieve victory. You constantly have to react to what the particular enemies' abilities are."
LQGaming Services:: Mind sharing the manner in which Arena combat will operate and how it plays into the overarching context of the storyline and game itself?
SB: Arenas are a place where players can compete at any time. Arena game play also takes place outside of the range of one server so that you can compete against players on any of the servers in your region. You can play in the arenas just to train with your clan. You can wager in matches against either solo or multiple players. You can also compete in ladder matches to improve your standing in any of the variety of game types available. Additionally, we will hold scheduled tournaments that nearly any number of teams can enter in to win cool items or money or bragging rights.
LQGaming Services:: Details are good: What say you share a few on the MANY types of vehicles from big rigs to motorcycles players lay hands on in terms of attributes, how they handle, weapon readouts, etc.
SB: We have put a lot of time into making the different vehicles of the game handle and perform very differently. It is likely that as a player you will have a whole garage full of vehicles with different load-outs (a flame bike vs. a rocket buggy) depending on the type of environment you are planning your play session for. It is difficult to talk specifically about attributes and such because the majority of the items in the game, including vehicle chassis, are randomly generated. You could get two chassis that appear similar but have different stats associated with them. This is cool because players will always have a different set of equipment and have lots of opportunities to create something that works well overall, or something very customized for a specific purpose.
LQGaming Services:: Please provide some info on how the mission system will work for both solo players and factions…
SB: We really want the game to be accessible to the player who likes to solo, so the majority of the game has been built to allow either solo or groups to play through the missions. The instanced maps, for example, automatically adjust the difficulty based on the number of players in the map.
LQGaming Services:: Speaking of factions, let's talk about outpost wars: play mechanics, setup, what they offer that solo outings can't, and so on...
SB: Outposts bring a very different type of PvP to Auto Assault. Where arena battles are purely egocentric to the players involved, outposts are for the good of your faction. Also where an arena match would be set up to be equal teams, when fighting at an outpost you never know who is going to show up! We’ll be releasing more details on outposts soon.
LQGaming Services:: What sorts of cool stuff can you create for and tune up on your car? What sorts of awesome weapons can you acquire?
SB: You can equip armor, power plants, ornaments, wheels, front/rear/turret weapons on your vehicles to change the statistical and visual look of the car. You can also change the trims (paint job/paint color) and the tricks (external 3D objects likes wings, fins or hood scoops) to vary the visuals of your particular car. All of the statistical elements of your vehicle can be crafted, found in the world, or purchased from stores.
There are a ton of different weapons in the game. Everything you can imagine, really, including machine guns, flame throwers, rocket launchers, mine droppers, flaming oil slicks, cannons, lasers, grenade launchers… just to name a few!
LQGaming Services:: Rumor has it you don't have to follow the storyline - that you can just zoom around trading, crafting items and so forth. Think we'll see a lot of free-wheeling Mad Max types out for their own cause playing the game?
SB: You can choose whether or not to participate in the game’s story, and whether or not to ever play in arenas, join a clan, try out crafting, purchase your own housing or do any of the various side quests in the game to really vary your game play. I think those who choose to get in and play casually will really enjoy that. However, for those who enjoy story, there are some major story arcs throughout the game that will require playing through in a relatively linear fashion. We have a very deep back story, but you don’t have to follow it to enjoy the game.
LQGaming Services:: A little insight to the crafting system as well, if you please... Rumor has it with reverse engineering and all, it's quite a doozy...
SB: Our crafting system is designed to allow players to make items unique to them. You can truly be the only player in the game to make a particular item. There is also no set of items that all players must make in order to progress through the crafting tree. Since Auto Assault uses a dynamic loot generator we can use the same system with our crafting to allow variance of items each time they are created. Once you memorize how to build a particular item you can make this item as often as you like. However, you are limited to the number of items you can memorize so that as you level you will have to choose between cooler lower level items and new items more appropriate to your level. We did this so that new players could still contribute to the player item economy without having to worry about older players already able to make every item in the game.
In reverse engineering you can learn how to make an item by practicing taking it apart and putting it back together again. Each time you take it apart there is a chance you might fail putting it together, but each time you build it you get slightly better at that type of item repair. The components needed to repair items are often found in old world buildings that the players must destroy to find their parts.
There’s no doubt, this system is rich. It is accessible to new players, but people who are really into crafting will have a lot to do!
LQGaming Services:: Be so kind as to describe combat in Auto Assault in your own words. Perhaps by painting the type of scenario players might encounter in an everyday situation…
SB: Combat in Auto Assault is visceral and fast-paced, requiring full concentration to be able to achieve victory. You constantly have to react to what the particular enemies’ abilities are. For example, some enemies might call for help after being damaged so you need to make sure you lead them away from their allies while other enemies might explode on death meaning you want to keep as much distance as you can before getting that last shot in.
Beyond each different encounter in the game possibly requiring a different strategy, they may even require different weapons as the enemies in one area may have completely different armor than in another.
LQGaming Services:: A few of the enemies you'll be facing and the different tricks they use against players would be?
SB: One of the factions found throughout the early stages of the game are the Scavs. They are the scavengers of the land and typically rely on machine gun or flame type weapons. One of their unique abilities is that they fight better in numbers. The more of them around, the more powerful they become. You will want to thin their numbers quickly while in combat. Another difficulty when fighting Scavs is that they will overheat your vehicle with their flame weapons causing all of your weapon systems to temporarily stop functioning. That presents a challenge!
There is an abundance of mutated wildlife that the player must deal with while traveling throughout the Auto Assault wastelands too. One of the especially tricky types of creatures to fight would be the Big Horns. They will ram your vehicle, throwing you through the air. This can be difficult when fighting your way up tight roads through the mountains.
LQGaming Services:: Will Mel Gibson and Tina Turner be making any in-game appearances?
SB: There might be all kinds of callouts to various post apocalyptic movies, books and games… but you never can be sure.
LQGaming Services:: If pressed, what would you say the best theme song for this title would be (note: "We Don't Need Another Hero" is already taken)?
SB: Highway to Hell by AC-DC seems like it might be a very appropriate song.
- Scott Steinberg
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