Another issue of the Stellar Vox Community Bulletin has been released on the official black prophecy forums, covering the news released in the last few weeks, and quite a few threads of interest.

There is some more news about the previously mentioned dev diaries.

"The previously announced dev diaries are beginning to take shape. We have decided to present a monthly diary in which a selected team member will talk about the specific aspects of Black Prophecy that he or she is working on. This will, amongst other things, include topics like the game’s physics and graphics but also a lighthearted view on the funny side of working for a game development company.

Another goodie I have in preparation for you is a Community Q&A where members of the team are interviewed to get answers on questions you have posed in the forums, and also to bring the people behind the curtain a bit closer to you. I will try to repeat this Q&A regularly but it will be heavily dependent on the team’s schedule."

There isn't any more news about the publisher, but we are not expecting any news until a deal is signed. It's entirely possible that something could be announced at E3 about Black Prophecy, which starts on 2nd June.

So, what have the developers of Black Prophecy seen fit to impart to us this week? The short answer is not very much, but then that isn't the same as nothing, is it?

The biggest news to report this week is the interview with the German arm of Eurogamer.Mostly we hear about Reakktor as a company here, but with regards to game details, we hear that skills will be requirements only, not having any additional effects. We also learn (on the corporate side) that Black Prophecy currently has a team-size of 39. It's not entirley clear whether this includes people like Kirk Lenke or Snowcrash.

Beyond that, all the forums have to tell us is about the still undecided nature of the servers, although the hint is to expect regional servers and a comment about cutscenes that should shock noone.

In two weeks time, E3 will have been and gone - will be interesting to see if anythig comes from that. See you all next week!

The German arm of Eurogamer had landed an interview with Kirk Lenke, Reakktor's CEO. While obviously to promote Black Prophecy, a large part of this interview is about the company. As such, we hear about Reakktor's history with Neocron (it doesnt go further back than that) and the 10Tacle insolvency, the number of people working on BP (39, in line with the 40-50 we were told years ago, although perhaps suggesting some layoffs) plus the use of outsourcing for music (Dynamedion) and graphics (Rocketbox, watch this space for more details) as well as the company's plans for the future.

With regards to game details, we get more of the emphasis on space-fighter combat over trading or such. It is explained that the skills, contrary to my earlier guesses are purely requirments and do not influence effectivness. Micheal Marrack is also stated to be available to work on expanding the storylines, along with many references to continuing development of the game post-release.

For those of you without a stunning grasp of German and perhaps slightly scared by what Google does to the interview, Renfield has again provided a translation on the offical forums.

Somewhat more exciting than previous weeks, here come's the TPN's update on just what Black Prophecy staff have had to say this week.

First off, although I believe the actual show happened last week, this week a translation and podcast of the radio show featuring the CEO of Dynamedion, the company that produced Black Prophecy's soundtrack has been made available. You may recall that theTPN has previously interviewed Dynamedion, also aquire an exclusive music sample

Then we had Reakktor CEO Kirk Lenke giving another interview, this time to german site onlinewelten. Thenew information here revolves around resources and clan battles. We learned of resource stations for clans to fight for control of as well as details about the purpouses served by clan stations. Apparently these resources will be critical in modifying weapons as well as having an influence on respawns. A translation is available on the offical forums.

KK also deigned to release a set of new, in cockpit screenshots. Here we see the progression of the HuD, with some new elements and some details changed from the gameplay trailer. Also, we discover that the player will also be able to fly human ships - and that is what the end of the gameplay trailer shows, not a Genide player. Best guess so far is that the player moves through the first few introctuion missions as a human before being forced to take a side. The opening of this game promises to be far more exciting than any MMO I've yet seen - here's hoping.

Snowcrash has also been talking to the media again this week, giving MMOSite an interview. Largley empty of new information, the only thing established by this interview that wasn't before were a few details on the background of The Restorers, confirming the most basic guess that they were highly xenophobic.

Not directly related to the game, but still of note: the offical forums underwent some changes this week too. A new section was added to the site "Archive of the Preservers" (new race/faction? or just a name?). This section is for fan created media, be it music, stories, artwork etc and has a suprising amount of threads for an unreleased game. Beyond that, the forums also have two new globabl annoucments - a welcome/explanation of the forums and a set of rules - many of which are amusingly the result of specific incidents on the old Neocron forums.

Oh and finally in the most exciting announcment of the week, Snowcrash revealed that all player-craft cockpits come equipped with built-in pizza ovens!. Pilots are DESTINED to never go hungry!

Snowcrash today has been talking to (apparently Chinese, but all written in English) MMOSite.com. The interview retreads much of the same old ground, however we do get a few more details about the motivations and nature of the Restorer - they definitely aren't human and they definitely are xenophobic. I had some problem with MMOSite's page - it kept fowarding me on to a 404 error page, even though I had been reading the article for the past few seconds. If anybody else has trouble, Parallax has reposted the whole thing over at the offical forums.