Prime’s Resource Harvesting has hooked me

I’ve been getting a lot of “what do you think about this game?” questions for Prime Battle For Dominus (is that the title or is it Prime Online?  I’ll just call it Prime.)  First, since it’s a fairly new project, Prime is a Scifi MMORPG featuring three playable factions mixed up in what appears to be very PvP-centric gameplay with base fights and region control competition.  To me, that’s awesome.  I think that’s fantastic news.  We live in a world where the “I’ll believe it when I see it” is implied (or not, since I’m saying it?) so we’ll have to see.  Their website has the basic features all outline so check that out.

What actually pushed me to make a post about the game at all is this video I saw from their Q&A stream.  In the video, at 3:30, there’s a demonstration of harvesting.  It reminds me of Star Wars Galaxies (whenever I say SWG it’s implied that I mean back when I played pre-NGE) where you scan for resources and keep moving towards a higher concentration playing a sort of hot/cold game.  When you find where you want to start gathering resources you deploy a harvester.  In Prime it drills underground and starts collecting resources.  You can leave it there for up to 24 hours collecting stuff for you and come back to the spot you left it to pick it up when it’s done.  I really, really like this harvesting system.  It gets an A+ for design from me and I hope the Pitch Black Games team has some neat ways of expanding the system.

They’ll have made a loyal player out of me if the rest of their game systems (PvP, crafting, etc.) are as thoughtfully designed. I’ll be watching their stream next week for, hopefully, info on crafting.

Tags:

  • There are a lot of interesting ideas in the design, however the proof is in the implementation and game play.

  • I’m liking all the little stuff about this game, but then I see that gameplay video and man, it’s like cookie-cutter-MMO-101 combat. Yes, the gun tracking was very cool, until the mob ran into the player model and the gun was sticking through it as it was shooting. Small thing, but still.

    That said, a Sci-Fi PvP MMO that gets crafting and territory control right? I’ll be there day one, even with it’s tab-targeting.

  • First time I’ve heard of this. And I gotta say, after watching the video… and reading some of their forum info… and that they hired Sanya (DAOC) to be their community manager… i’m kinda pumped. This is definitely on my radar now. SWTOR & GW2 just got bumped down in my queue to play…

  • I eventually really hated that part of SWG’s resource model. It sounds great, but it’s actually a massive time sink for the player and very offputting for more casual players. I don’t like games that I have to log in at some specific time each day, every day.

  • Hopefully variable quality of resource means crafting should be fairly engaging too!

  • For the people hating the resource collection model: You don’t need to craft or touch any of the crafting system if you don’t want to. It isn’t like WoW where you have to craft or your character will be stat gimped.

  • I have to say this could actually get me back into MMO’s. Right now I’m not playing a single one because I’m bored of WoW and everything else is a clone, a dissapointment or EVE online.

  • Darkstryke; well, yes, but I like to craft. I just don’t like this particular resource model.

  • 3 Factions means that it will have the dynamic of DAOC, which I felt always kept the game feeling fresh in PvP.

    I also like the resource gathering method in this.

    I think you just added a game to my watch list Keen. Thanks!

  • That Scanning system looked to me like WoW’s Archaeology but without the directional notifications.

    I quit that around 340 :|.
    So :D, it doesn’t have me convinced anytime soon.

  • I’m so stoked for this game. I’ve been trying out loads of MMOs since Dark Age of Camelot to get the same feel (granted, it was my first MMO) and Prime looks like it will come close without being a carbon copy. There are just a lot of cool ideas that Pitch Black Games are doing:

    1- Many abilities don’t use a resource like “mana” or “stamina”, but rather things like a personal shield, a self-heal, and the jet-packs (!!) will use energy.

    2- Fighting for a resource to make your realm better. Many MMOs make the mistake of only giving personal growth as an incentive to PvP.

    3- Skill-point system. You fill up your XP bar, you get a skill point to add to one of your abilities to make it better. 1,000 Skill points max.

    4- Balancing the game for group PvP. They have stated that if an ability works well/is balanced in PvP, but not in PvE (perhaps it trivializes a boss-fight or something) they will change the way PvE works rather than just nerfing the skill.

    5- And most of all, the Devs and the community. This is a new game company. It’s not owned or run by EA or Activision, and you can tell these people want their game to be fun and enjoyed, not to mention they are betting their careers on building this game. I have been nothing but impressed so far by Sanya, John, and Warren.

    Having said all that, a few years back I was very stoked about some other PvP-centric games coming out (AoC, WAR, etc) and have been burned a bit by the product. Still, these guys definitely seem open to changing their game to meet the needs of the player, and are communicating well so far, and seem quite candid.

  • “The last thing we want you to worry about when playing a game is item management” 🙂

  • Hmm fairly basic graphics but at least you and the monsters look solid and “planted” on the ground.

    This could be a mix of Planetside (which I loved) and SWG (which I hated) and maybe even the now near-mythical DAOC (which I somehow never played).

    Keeping my eyes open for more on this over the coming months.

  • FYI. The game runs on Cryptic’s Hero Engine. (CO & STO). Its not too bad.
    Implimentations and Management will decide how it fare.

  • I’m not sure where you got that info, Untos. It’s on the Hero Engine which is developed by Simutronics Corporation. It’s the engine that SWTOR is using.

  • Yeah this has nothing to do with Cryptic’s game engine. Hero is in use for a few other games in development, but I don’t think any aside from SW:ToR & Prime have been announced.

  • No way this engine is Cryptic – that was the first thing I noted about the GFX style in its favour!

  • It’s a subscription model, which is great relief to many. F2P tends to be the road to mediocrity, and seeing any dev studios standing against it is a rare thing these days.