Last year Logan wrote about the way the developers behind Infinity tried to shoot for the moon and ended up having to pare back their vision by an order of magnitude. It was November and there was talk that the makers, I-Novae Studios, might finally launch a Kickstarter so they could eventually realise their grand ambitions.
Those ambitions were eventually repackaged into Infinity: Battlescape, a game pitched as a procedurally generated space opera where hundreds of gamers waged war across a true to scale solar system. That was the ambition last year. Today, that project becomes closer to being a reality.
I-Novae hasn’t changed the name or the scope from what Logan pointed to last year. It’s still a procedurally generated space sim with Newtonian physics and “seamless interplanetary warfare”. There’s still room for hundreds of players to battle each other in a true to scale solar system, complete with all manner of celestial bodies.
But today, it’s finally on Kickstarter. It’s a surprisingly small goal for the scope of the project — Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen and Limit Theory have all been useful lessons in that regard — but the US$300,000 goal does at least mean the development of Infinity: Battlescape should be accelerated somewhat.
(Because, let’s face it, we’re talking a multiplayer space game here. The internet loves throwing money at those games. The new Descent got over US$600,000 and people criticised it to kingdom come for many, many good reasons. And Infinity: Battlescape is already at US$75,737 with almost a full month remaining. It’s getting funded.)
The in-engine trailer’s pretty smooth as well, although it has a look that kind of screams “Freespace 2 HD remake”. See for yourself, and you’ll understand what I mean.
What intrigues me about the whole setup, however, is the way that matches begin. The site has the best explanation, and as a hook it sounds a hell of a lot better than the “float around and make your own fun” that Elite: Dangerous rolled with. “A match begins with each team being allocated some combination of space stations, planetary bases, factories, and AI controlled defense turrets,” the developers wrote on the website.
“Each player will start with a moderate amount of credits with which they can buy ships and equipment. Every couple of minutes a factory spawns a cargo ship which will transfer raw materials to the nearest space station or planetary base for processing into credits. These credits are split evenly among the members of the team however if the cargo ship is destroyed its owners lose the credits. Players are able to donate credits to other members of their team so that they can pool resources.”
The developers are planning to ship Battlescape by September 2017, but I can’t even remember the last time a Kickstarter project actually hit its deadline. Maybe Exploding Kittens, or FTL maybe? It’s been a long while.
Either way, let’s have a bit of fun in the comments. What do you reckon will land first: Infinity: Battlescape or Star: Citizen (or, if we’re being more fair, what SC modules will have landed by then).
Comments
19 responses to “Infinity: Battlescape’s Massive Ambitions Might Finally Be Realised”
They also say that servers could handle up to 300 players in a single 20km squared area, and possibly multiple massive battles on the same semi-persistent server.
This game is kinda like a mix of Planetside and Allegiance but at a much larger scale with seamless everything. Really cool. VERY good game for LARGE gaming communities or groups of people who want to play all on the same server with each other. And have fun.
I love how games now can do the seamless transition from space to planet surface.
its not really a new thing, i remember a PC game back in 2004 or 2005 called Breed, a FPS squad based shooter that had you start in a massive crusier orbiting a planet that allowed you fight in space then fly down to the planet and take targets on the ground then head back up to protect your crusier
Breed had loading screens disguised as atmosphere re-entry it was hardly seamless
really? i dont rember the gameplay being interrupted except for for a slight hitch while everything loaded in but that happens in skyrim and other open world games when you enter a new cell
Yes, but there is no new cell! In this game you can elevate and descend all you want, there is no clear line between the space and the atmosphere!
Yes but was it a 1:1 scale to reality? I bet no. Not even Elite or Star Citizen has scales at 1:1. Also the main point is about doing it well, like really well. LOD transition in this game is quite good even at its prototype stage.
it is 1 to 1 scale. Its procedural. Check out the website , livestreams that they did see for eg this http://www.twitch.tv/badnewsbaron/v/21713702
or here is list https://forums.inovaestudios.com/t/battlescape-related-videos/1128
my reply was meant for thyco, I stuffed it up. Yes I know THIS game is 1:1.
Elite: Dangerous is 1:1 scale in regards too everything. The Galaxy, the distances between planets and moons within a system and of course the planets themselves. It will also be possible to seamlessly start to land on these planets in about two months time in Elite and even drive around, fight and explore in landbased vehicles.
BTW, Elite 2 (Frontier) had seamless planetary landings on 1:1 planets back in 1993…and that game is a major influence for Infinity (and No Mans Sky).
Infinity still looks cool though and I’ve backed it…
True, but I think they are doing something unique in the multiplayer sense. I have yet to see any videos of 100-1000 or so players in a single system of Elite fighting in corps of each side for control. I don’t think that gameplay can be done in a game that requires MONTHS of grinding to unlock things.
Orders of magnitude not “order of magnitudes”.
Sorry for being picky but if writing is your chosen profession please take the time to get it right.
Nah, fair play. I’ll fix it up.
Dont listen to him alex, remain the free spirit, dont let them CHANGE YOU
Is there a single player offline campaign?
I am so desperate for a space shooter that doesn’t require always on internet, and doesn’t result in my limited amount of play time = me being slaughtered online and not having any fun.
You won’t get that from Elite or SC, those games are called long term investment space sims. This game as the developer said is designed for those with limited time as you can jump into a ongoing semi-persistent battle and do stuff.
You don’t need to be fighting people also, there are going to be other things to do but perhaps not like ED or SC because that would require investment of time (which you don’t have).
Surprised people seem to think SC or ED offer what this game proposes, they don’t and likely never will. Hundreds of people on the 1 (private) server fighting over resources and bases with potentially multiple 100-300 people in a small 13kms area?
To date I have NEVER seen SC or ED offer anything like that because those games require massive investments of time to upgrade ships, people kinda stay away from each other because losing your ship wrecks your hours of progress. Not for this game! Shame so many people can’t spend the time listening to the twitch interview and doing some research of what’s on offer here.
Isn’t SC building Squadron 42, a single player offline campaign, out of their London studio?
There will be a single player option where you can just explore
Space to ground has been around since about 2001. Planet Engine was one of the first to do it well. I’ve been playing with the tech for about 15 years now. Vegastrike had planetary terrain in some of the builds. We didn’t ever advertise it as a feature because we were still playing around with it. It takes a Geforce 3-4 card to do ground terrain at a playable speed. IMHO to do trees, grass and water you need around a geforce 200 series card or better.