Codex Interview Space Empires: Starfury interview with Aaron Hall

[Deathy]

Tags: Aaron Hall; Malfador Machinations; Space Empires: Starfury

Our interview with Aaron Hall regarding the space RPG, Space Empires: Starfury. Here's a tasty slice:

3) Character development is an integral part of an RPG. How will this be handled in Space Empires: Starfury? Will there be a crew experience system in addition to the ability to customize your ship?

There are actually 3 levels to the RPG experience in Starfury. First off, there is you as a captain of the ship. You will be able to gain experience and increase in rank. Secondly, there is your crew's experience which will increase and allow you to customize their skills in different areas such as Offensive Targeting, Defensive Maneuvers, Ship Repair, etc. Lastly, your ship will be completely customizable through components that you find or purchase. The components themselves have a large variety of characteristics since they can have random modifiers as well.​

Thanks to Aaron Hall of Malfador Machinations for the interview.

 

[Spazmo]

Starfury will be real-time and more like a first-person action game.

Aarg.

We originally wanted a large branching storyline, but we decided to drop it in favor of keeping the capability of allowing players to completely modify the game, including the storyline.

Aarg.

Same goes for being a pirate. Most races will openly fire on you, but of course, the pirates will consider you a friend. This comes in very handy when you need to get to a pirate base to uncover certain information items.

Space Pirates? Oh hell yes! Now if they just add Space Ninjas, it'll be perfect.

The events that happen are a combination of both scripted and random. As you go through the storyline, war will break out between some of the races. You will find yourself witnessing skirmishes and being sucked into major battles. But even when war is not going on, the universe continues on even if you aren't there. As you move through systems you will encounter all kinds of ships going about their daily business.

I hope that's true. If it is, it would be terrific.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Starfury will be real-time and more like a first-person action game.

Aarg.

I wonder what he means by that, because none of the screenshots are first person. If it is first person... Ugh. Piloting cap ships in first person is silly.

It's also odd that he's clinging to action after Dungeon Oddessy. I don't think it did well at all, and rightfully so. It just wasn't on par with his other games and the action part of it probably kept a lot of his previous games' fans away from it.

Now, if it were like Starfleet Command in terms of combat, I'm all for this game.

Space Pirates? Oh hell yes! Now if they just add Space Ninjas, it'll be perfect.

Yup, every space flight game has pirates. It's like a standard, you can't have one without pirates.

There are actually 3 levels to the RPG experience in Starfury. First off, there is you as a captain of the ship. You will be able to gain experience and increase in rank. Secondly, there is your crew's experience which will increase and allow you to customize their skills in different areas such as Offensive Targeting, Defensive Maneuvers, Ship Repair, etc. Lastly, your ship will be completely customizable through components that you find or purchase. The components themselves have a large variety of characteristics since they can have random modifiers as well.

It'll be interesting to see how he pulls this off. I wish he'd given more details on this subject.

 

[Spazmo]

Yes, but I'm hoping for piratey pirates. Like parrots and mainsails and yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum and stuff. In space. Hell yeah.

 

[Malfador]

Hi All!

Just to be clear, Starfury is not first person. Its third person much like Starfleet Command. However, instead of slow drawn out battles, we've sped them up a bit. Also, the game is not broken into separate misions, but is instead a continuous adventure from one system to the next.

Hope this clarifies!

Aaron

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Hi All!

Hi, Aaron!

Just to be clear, Starfury is not first person.

Sweet!

Its third person much like Starfleet Command. However, instead of slow drawn out battles, we've sped them up a bit.

I've never thought that SFC was slow, so I'm not sure what speeding it up a bit would be like. Above all, SFC was highly tactical and involved a lot of management and thinking, which was fantastic. It was loaded with options, and that's why it was one of Interplay's best selling games.