Jim Skamarakas

Virtual Road Rage: An Auto Assault Q & A

By: Thomas L. Strickland

Posted: 11/19/2004

Photography by: Courtesy of NCSoft and www.autoassault.com

MMO developers are very busy people. They have to be. Every week seems to bring word of another competing online experience, so who has time to breathe, much less answer a dozen questions? So when JIVE got wind of an opportunity to quickly pick the brain of Scott Brown, we jumped at the chance. Scott’s company, NetDevil, helped found the modern MMO movement in 1997 with Jumpgate and is now tasked with developing Auto Assault for NCSoft. Auto Assault is certainly one of the more interesting MMOs on the virtual horizon. Its website describes Auto Assault as an MMO that “combines vehicular combat with role-playing elements [in] a Post-Apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles, semis, and even tanks.”

Excuse me … did someone say tanks?

JIVE: Tell us about your development team. Who has the most previous experience and where have we seen their work before?

Scott: The Auto Assault team has previous experience developing and shipping MMOs, as well as console and GBA titles. This combination of talent has helped to us create a MMO that is more action based than what players are used to.

JIVE: What convinced you to go with the Havok 2 system?

Scott: Using Havok really helps us breathe a never-before-seen degree of life into our MMO and it really shows when you play the game. You blow up a stack of tires and watch them all explode in different directions with trails of smoke running behind them as they bounce along the terrain. Also, moving in Auto Assault is exciting. You can try jumping a building or trying to sideswipe objects during any of the various missions you may be attempting to complete.

JIVE: When I heard about Auto Assault, two words came to mind instantly: Car Wars. Copyright not withstanding, how much were your designers influenced by that once-popular pen-and-paper RPG?

Scott: Auto Assault has a lot of designers that have played Car Wars but it wasn’t a defining influence for us. In Auto Assault, you play a character that owns many different chassis. Your character levels-up as you play, giving you a chance to spend skill points to acquire new abilities and powers. We also have a massive loot system which is augmented by a very exciting crafting system. While we have enjoyed many of the car combat games to date we really feel that Auto Assault is a very unique game that you will need to experience to truly understand what we are making

JIVE: One of the first PC games to feature auto-against-auto combat was Activision’s Interstate ‘76. As fun as that game was, it could be difficult to effectively drive and steer and destroy using only a keyboard and mouse. Will Auto Assault use the standard WASD keyboard setup, or are you considering a configuration that better matches actual driving?

Scott: Auto Assault has a primary focus of supporting WASD and mouse. It plays really great with a dual analog controller and we also support USB steering wheels. Auto Assault’s driving model is more passive, something that our players become accustomed to within the first few minutes. We are more focused on action paced gameplay and are not trying to create a driving simulator.

JIVE: Will Auto Assault be all about firepower? Is there a place in your post-Apocalyptic universe for players with more of a healing or crafting bent?

Scott: Auto Assault’s prime focus is on blowing stuff up, but we have also put in several other elements. As mentioned earlier, we have a very elaborate crafting system that gives players to the ability to create some really unique items. We also have a class system and one of the classes, the Engineer, has a series of skills focused towards repairing.

JIVE: So far, at least on the website, we’ve heard the Auto Assault story from the point of view of Jen Kierce. Who is this mysterious survivor?

Scott: Jen’s part in the Auto Assault world has yet to be revealed.

JIVE: Will players start out with a vehicle? Or will they have to scrape together some in-game savings before they get their own set of wheels?

Scott: The players start with cars that are very powerful compared to anything we drive today. These cars have been built to survive in the harshest conditions and they enjoy running through the occasional building or pedestrian. As the player progresses they will find new more powerful cars, weapons, and components to facilitate the more difficult battles that lie ahead.

JIVE: Individuality is very important to MMO folk. Am I likely to pass another car that looks just like mine?

Scott: Tricks are external body pieces that add flavor to the vehicle. Some examples would include wings, huge bumpers, and even skulls. Trims are customized paint jobs that add the style the player’s vehicle.

JIVE: We know you’re going to feature automobiles of the four-wheeled variety, but what about motorcycles? Semis? Speedboats? Tanks?

Scott: Yes, yes, no and Hell yes! There are motorcycles which are agile and highly maneuverable, but not all that sturdy, semis that are huge and heavy … and last, but not at all least, tanks that drive through buildings like butter, but are very heavy and not all that speedy.

JIVE: MMO players love banding together, so will Auto Assault have a “guild system” of some kind?

Scott: We have a clan system which supports the same kind of social structure as a typical guild system, but also gives clan members the ability to enter Arena tournaments as a clan. MMOs are a social game and we made sure that we included a very strong in-game system to support our customers.

JIVE: Are you considering the incorporation of voice chat?

Scott: We already have a voice chat system that was developed by the Core Technology Team at NCSoft. It made a lot of sense because our gameplay is so fast and furious.

JIVE: And lastly, how many traffic tickets have your development team collected since you started working on Auto Assault?

Scott: The judge has issued a gag order and I am unable to comment further.

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Categories: gaming
Tags: gaming, MMORPG