[Preview] General: Transverse: Piranha Games Opens the Space Sandbox

SBFord

Imagine an MMO with no NPCs, no enemy NPCs either… the entire world is populated and driven by players and their interaction. There are no pre-made quests, and if a player doesn’t make it, it doesn’t exist. That’s the idea behind Piranha Games’ Transverse, a spacefaring sandbox MMORPG that looks to beat EVE Online at its own game. We caught up with PGI’s Creative Director and Co-Founder, Bryan Ekman to talk about Transverse, its design philosophy, and more.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Transverse: Piranha Games Opens the Space Sandbox.

Some of the packages for Transverse’s crowdfunding campaign.

mayito7777

They have raised only $8600 of the $500000 they need and only have 12 days left. I think right now with other games coming out it is going to be hard to see this game coming to be.

Dakirn

Didn't he admit further in the trailer that they'd have to have NPC enemies? His original "question" was no NPCs at all but made the exception for those to shoot and stuck with no NPC shopkeepers/etc.

You clarified that in the article but the blurb is a little misleading I guess.

Would be nice to see another space game but they don't seem to be doing well so far. I saw a lot of angry posts in the last thread about issues with the company. No idea if they are true but that could be why they have such a low funding so far. Too bad.

tawess

Well PGI was a tad bit over ambitious last time they launched a MMO (mechwarrior online) but when you put that up against the fact that they had a hard dead-line to make the project viable as a product or risk loosing their license, and that said deadline was only about 5 years away. I can understand them coming out of the gates like the devil was after them.

 

It was on a marketing level stupid as dirt because once the delays started to come people got angry... very very angry... Then their publishers forced them to put a lot of focus on the new player experince before they where ready to do so. causing even more delays and forcing PGI to go back on things they had promised players before.

 

So yes people have all rights to be angry but PGI are now under their own guidiance, partially why they want to fund this project outside of the normal system. They have also leartn a lot on how to not to community communications and such.

 

So i´d say it is worth giving them a chance. They are not a inherently bad company and still small enough to react to what their players are saying. Also the F2P model for MW:O is one of the better on the market in my opinion. In fact it might be a tad too good in some aspects.

Satsunoryu

Need to see more than they have shown to want to throw any money their way.  Something other than a trailer with no gameplay.  Game sounds very cool, like something I'd want to play, but there are a lot of other sci-fi MMORPG products coming our way that have more to show currently.

Satsunoryu

I will throw them a subscribe on Reddit though, see what else I learn through there.

Stuka1000

Nice vision, will never succeed.  When there are very loose rules or no rules at all then the game just becomes a griefers paradise, and when that happens the game ends up being niche at best or more commonly forgotten by the wayside along with all the others.  The cold reception with the attempted crowdfunding says it all really.

hfztt

With 27 days left they had passed 7k in funding. With 21 left they have passed 8k.

Only ~491k to go now.

Yeah...

WillowFuxxy

me likey...

Kuinn

They have bad timing at least. I'm pretty sure everyone who is going to throw money at multiplayer space games, have their monies on Star Citizen and Elite currently. Only after those games are released, will a game like this get a proper funding (or not, to not have their money fail again if ppl were not happy with those previous games).

 

People have so much money invested in SC I doubt they care all too much about anykind of Transverse right now. I dont spend money on kickstarters and I strongly believe kickstarter is going to lose its charm the further we go down that road. People will get tired of gambling their money for years, this will especially be true if the big upcoming kickstarters wont be the second comings afterall, just another bugged new releases missing this and that feature.

Mopar63

The concept of the game is amazing and if it was ANYONE except  Piranha I would be interested. However after the way they SCREWED the Mechwarrior community once they had our money I am not willing to trust them again.

MrMelGibson

Originally posted by tawess

Well PGI was a tad bit over ambitious last time they launched a MMO (mechwarrior online) but when you put that up against the fact that they had a hard dead-line to make the project viable as a product or risk loosing their license, and that said deadline was only about 5 years away. I can understand them coming out of the gates like the devil was after them.

 

It was on a marketing level stupid as dirt because once the delays started to come people got angry... very very angry... Then their publishers forced them to put a lot of focus on the new player experince before they where ready to do so. causing even more delays and forcing PGI to go back on things they had promised players before.

 

So yes people have all rights to be angry but PGI are now under their own guidiance, partially why they want to fund this project outside of the normal system. They have also leartn a lot on how to not to community communications and such.

 

So i´d say it is worth giving them a chance. They are not a inherently bad company and still small enough to react to what their players are saying. Also the F2P model for MW:O is one of the better on the market in my opinion. In fact it might be a tad too good in some aspects.

Are we caling Mechwarrior online an MMO now?  It is not an mmo.  It is a lobby shooter like Call of Duty or Battlefield.  Then again, you might of just mistakenly put MMO instead of MWO.  If that is the case, disregard.

Gruug

While I think many aspects of this game sound pretty good, it is going to be the pvp only nature of the game that will garner less poplularity. From my own standpoint, I am not interested in a pvp only space game at all. Consentual pvp...ok....beyond that NO.

 

DocBrody

I backed it, finally a real space sandbox MMO with twitch combat.

I wish it will get made, also the 6DOF early demo flight model looks awesome with thrust /counterthrust

 

 

BruceYee

IMO, it looks like a cash grab with the way the different goals are set up.

The first goal only has space flight and the final goal has combat.

Shouldn't combat be in a game like this from the get go? What do you do with just space flight? fly around empty space?

They seem to be trying to get a piece of the crowdfunding pie with the whole "game funded by you, for you" wording they throw around in the video and on the site.

I'll eat my own words if this game is made but right now it just seems too shady.

Yamota

No PvE? No, that wont work. Fail. Players dont like being farmed by other players and some have to for this game to be fun. Otherwise it will just be trading, mining and other boring activities.

GeezerGamer

Seriously?

Is this idea (I won't call it a game) even for real? Why does stuff like this get a column anyway? Maybe cover it after it gets funded, otherwise,...........

I have this awesome idea for an MMO...........................

Asteriveth

They got my money once with a founders package for MWO because they promised so much that has yet to be delivered. They also went in directions with development contrary to what was promised when I purchased the package. I am still waiting on a filled out game with MWO but now they are shifting gears and developing a whole new game? Sounds to me like they are far more interested in the crowd funding than the actual game development. So in short "Caveat emptor" because you have no idea if what you think your buying is what your gonna get. 

arieste

surely between EVE, Elite and SC everyone will have their space-game needs fulfilled without this....

Agent_Joseph

what ? they are not give up,yet ?

lusis

Originally posted by Mopar63
The concept of the game is amazing and if it was ANYONE except  Piranha I would be interested. However after the way they SCREWED the Mechwarrior community once they had our money I am not willing to trust them again.

This. I was on-board 'til I read that it was Pirahna. I backed MWO because I wanted community warfare. Never again.

danwest58

Like I said yesterday MMORPG.com and the rest of these so called Media sites need to stop reporting on every dream game that joins kickstarter.  Its pointless there are over 300 games on kickstart that people are trying to get going and less that 1% will ever come out to more than a crappy demo.  

Datawarlock

If I wanted to waste my time and energy to build a game for other players, I'd just stick to Garry's Mod. Don't need $500K to rescript a likely already existing engine, then tell your players to make content for you.

Natjur

They came to the party too late, With Elite and Star Citizen taking all the money already, they will not get funded

Mavolence

Been googling Transverse,Piranha games, kickstarter, Where in the hell is this website?

meataxe

what the hell? $500,000 to fund.  Are we gamers that gullible, that we would allow these nobodies 'pirahana'  to try to gouge us half a million dollars without a second thought.  We sure have fuc..ked our selves into a corner now with all these bu..lls..hit crowd funding strategies.