Auto Assault interviews itself

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 10:01 pm

[ Game -> Preview ] - More info on <a href="http://wikipocalypse.duckandcover.cx/in ... title=Auto Assault">Game: Auto Assault</a>

Here's the latest email I recieved from the Auto Assault people:
<blockquote>
Greetings from the Central
Wastelands!
Our beta test for Auto Assault is proceeding very well;
we've introduced a new online process for NDAs that makes it as simple as a few
mouse clicks to get approved and into the beta. We hit a new high for server
population this week and we know it'll be jumping even higher in the weeks to
come as we add thousands more to the beta. There’s still time to sign up; simply
direct your browser to <a href="https://secure.plaync.com/aa_beta.html" ... ta.html</a>.

We recently kicked off the first of our Roadhouse
Sessions, teleconferences intended to give selected news organizations and
gaming websites a chance to learn more about Auto Assault. Every week we focus
on a different topic; last week dealt with character creation, leveling, and
stats. A number of sites that took part in have posted their impressions: MMORPG
(<a href="http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game ... ure/143</a>),
RPGVault (<a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/627/62 ... p1.html</a>),
and TenTonHammer (<a href="http://autoassault.tentonhammer.com/ind ... meid=31</a>).
TenTonHammer also has published a Q&A with
NetDevil's Scott "Scorch" Brown, available at <a href="http://autoassault.tentonhammer.com/ind ... >.
We've concluded our Supersonic Sounds of the Central
Wastelands month with a fourth MP3 track from the Auto Assault soundtrack (<a href="http://www.autoassault.com/downloads/mu ... ic.html</a>),
created by the game's music composer and sound designer, Richard Dekkard.
Planet Auto Assault (<a href="http://www.autoassault.org/">http://www ... lt.org/</a>) has started
a new contest, offering Auto Assault hats, signed concept art, pre-sale boxes,
art prints, and posters.
Our major Recon item this week deals with Convoys in
Auto Assault - what they are intended for and their benefits to players (<a href="http://www.autoassault.com/recon/convoy ... ys.html</a>).
Have a great weekend! 
 --- The Auto Assault Team
P.S. to the Editors - We’ve put together another dev diary for our retail
partners, similar to the one I sent not long ago. I thought you might want to
have a look at it and/or post it on your site. – V 
Auto Assault Developer Diary
Installment #2:
 Auto Assault is an RPG at
heart
NetDevil answers more questions about
the role-playing elements of Auto Assault and talks about what they are learning
from players during the closed beta process.
Q. How do I get ahead in Auto
Assault? 
A. A big part of your time in Auto Assault will be spent
customizing your character and vehicle statistics. As you gain levels you can
spend points on both attributes and skills. Attributes affect your combat
abilities while skills give you additional bonuses or types of strategic
capabilities you can bring to the fight. As you play the game you will find
drops from enemy AI that you can equip, trade, sell or reverse engineer to try
and create something even better
Q. What are some of the key changes
that have been made since opening the game to beta testers? Who get’s first
priority in getting into the Closed Beta?
A. Now that the closed beta has started we are fixing
more than just bugs. The crafting system has already gone through a complete
overhaul based on early feedback as have mission rewards. We have also added
several interface improvements and tweaked the driving model to enhance the way
vehicles control. We want true fans of Auto Assault in the beta, so customers
that purchase the pre-sale box get priority during our closed beta roll
out.Q. What is Dynamic
Loot?
A. All the loot in Auto Assault is dynamically generated
to be statistically unique. This will allow players to continue to hunt for loot
that is always just a little better than anything else they might own. It also
means that no two players will have the exact same inventory…even if you both
have a flame thrower, it is likely that the stats on that weapon will differ for
each player, so in essence, every item is rare in Auto
Assault.
Q. Can I ‘Craft in Auto
Assault’?
A. Crafting ties into the dynamic loot system, allowing
players to have the opportunity to be the only player in the game capable of
making a particular piece of equipment. Players can train in multiple
disciplines and, through practice, can gain new crafting abilities. Some items
in the game allow for multiple enhancements that crafters can utilize through
experimentation on an object. Though there are no set recipes for enhancements,
different commodities will tend towards a particular class of enhancements. The
more the crafter experiments the better the chance for greater enhancements, but
this also increases the chance for failure.
Q. Are there traditional RPG missions
in Auto Assault?
A. There are a number of major story arcs for the
players to discover as they play each race. You will learn more about why your
race is where it is today, and where your race plans to take what is left of the
Earth from here. There are a wide variety of mission types in the game. Some you
will have seen before in other MMORPGs, like deliveries or kill tasks and some
are completely unique to Auto Assault – for instance environmental destruction
or that ability to jump over obstacles.
At the end of many of the story arcs in Auto Assault are
instanced missions for either the individual player or their convoy. Instances
include scripted events, frequently showing off our physics engine, a feature
found typically in single player games only. Giving the players a way to feel a
sense of progress and change of the world, Auto Assault remembers the missions
you have completed on these maps so that when you return the map will progress
to its next state. For example, if you destroy a base on a map, you may return
to find the base being rebuilt by another enemy faction or the base may be
completely gone replaced by a new mining facility your own faction needs help
setting up.
These instances often conclude with a variety of cool
boss encounters. The types of encounters range from souped-up vehicles to alien
craft which require the destruction of a number of items on the map to even
begin to damage them. </blockquote>I
really like the fact that they interview themselves, saving me the time
of requesting one and writing questions. Thanks!

<blockquote>
</blockquote>

Naked_Lunch · Post by **Naked_Lunch** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 10:17 pm

Wow, no one cares.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:41 pm

Dev diaries and such are only a marketing trick intended for impatient fan boys and gaming sites that aim for maximum coverage instead of hard facts. I'm not saying DAC shouldn't cover this, but at least filter the essential out of the filth. Honestly, that MMOG seems mediocre at best.