Following on from the previous speculation about the factions players will be interacting with in Black Prophecy, this time I intend to try and provide the best picture possible of what the actual gameplay of Black Prophecy will be like and clear up some common misconceptions.

First off I’d like to clear up some common confusion. Comparisons to EvE are completely worthless, everything seen so far suggests that Black Prophecy will in fact have more common with some of the more heavily instanced fantasy MMOs than EvE, although very few similarities to both. Planetside is probably the closest comparison in MMO space, although comparisons with Reakktor’s previous game, Neocron would not be entirely unreasonable. In terms of gaming as a whole, MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries is probably the closest analogue you can find for BP, for reasons that will become apparent as we move through the article.

Black Prophecy is described by Reakktor as an “Action MMO”, not in fact a MMORPG. The interviews and trailers emphasize that “twitch” space combat is the emphasis of the game, with character development being quite significantly secondary to that. Moreover, Black Prophecy is a space combat simulator, not space trading. Expect to see no commodities system in the game. Hence no piracy, no traders etc, except possibly as a context for the combat missions you are given (eg ambush/defend a convoy). In the land of space games, Black Prophecy can be better aligned with Wing Commander and X-Wing than Elite and Freelancer.

Each player will have their own spacecraft as the key representation of themselves in the game world. Every indication is that this will be a single-person fighter class craft for every player. A 3d character model also exists, but at launch this will serve as little more than fluff. Each of these ships is not in fact a simple ship design, but a combination of up to 13 components, cockpit, engines, wings, shield, missiles and weapons , all bolted together. Ship appearance is dependent on what components are used, with at least 165 different module graphics. Seemingly, the two race’s player-controlled ships each have a basic style however of which modules will presumably vary slightly. The Tyi have a 2-pronged design with a set-back cockpit while the Genides have a design with the engines jutting out below the hull. Selection of modules will presumably influence everything about a craft’s toughness, speed, maneuverability and firepower. Hopefully the practice known as “gunboating” in MechWarrior 2 won’t be practical. Also, although so far all Tyi ships seen have had a brown and red look, and all Genide a blue or green look, an interview has promised that the colour of all player ships will be customizable.

The other side of character development is that of levelling and skills. The game appears to follow a traditional level based structure, with the player climbing up the levels every time they hit a certain experience threshold. As well as apparently operating as requirements for ship modules, each level would appear to grant a certain number of skill points. These skill points can be distributed into several areas, including ship, energy, mechanical, special, engine, shield, hull and explosives. Whether these skill areas act as requirements or simply increase how effective a player is with the items is so far unclear. It would seem that 100 in the maximum points in any skill area. Exactly what activities will generate experience is unclear, but so far

The majority of the game would be expected then to take place in a combat environment. Large sections of this are likely to be in the much-hyped instanced mission system, which can apparently randomly generate missions to keep the variety. As for the combat itself players directly fly their ship in either first or third person view with a mouse, gamepad or possibly joystick. The majority of weapons fire directly ahead, with the game providing HUD hints on how much to lead the current target. A significant section of combat would seem to be managing heat generation and dissipation in weaponry – in the gameplay video, the red bars moving up each weapon icon indicating the heating status. From a balancing point of view, it would seem sensible if heavy armor components reduce cooling efficiency, effectively reducing damage over time. The same could also be expected to apply to more powerful engines. Missiles have not yet been seen in action, but could be expected to home in on target after achieving a lock, comparable to countless other flight and space combat games. It appears to be possible to group weapons, allowing them all to be fired after pressing that number key. A very useful tool in a system where you can have 6 completely different weapons, some of which work in synergy and others not.

With regards to any special abilities, support roles, status attacks etc details are not yet clear, beyond a flash of something, possibly a shield in the gameplay trailer. What slots they would take is at this point unclear.

The player’s fighter craft won’t be following a true space-like “Newtonian” flight model. Instead the game is going to follow an something closr to an atmospheric flight model, as players have become accustomed to through films and games like Wing Commander and so on. Long distance travel will probably be by some form of FTL drive, rather than very, very long periods of accelerating and decelerating across space.

The damage model for both the player’s craft and at least some enemy craft has several different ship components which would appear to be damaged independently – for the player and most other craft this is the cockpit, the two engines and the two wings. It would seem likely that when components are heavily damaged (possibly down to one bar) then they will start to perform worse. In the case of some capital ships, it appears there are key weak points that can be attacked and disabled. This is probably restricted to certain missions however.

Capital ships are visible in various elements of the trailers and there has long been talk from the developers of multiplayer ships. Most capitals will can be expected to be interactive scenery for mission areas, sometimes perhaps targets to destroy or defend. The control of these ships is likely limited to turret control in certain missions, rather than complete player control and ownership, particularly with the emphasis on a highly customizable individual spacecraft as a player avatar.

With regards to item acquisition, with no commodity trading system, it can be expected that all items are either of use to the player (presumably spacecraft/space station modules) or possibly some quest/roleplay items (akin to most MMOs here). With a crafting system having been ruled out in the interviews, the only confirmed way to acquire items is through purchase from an NPC trader. It is possible that there will be some form of looting system and would seem perhaps even more likely that items can also be received as mission rewards. Once in the hands of players, it is possible for players to then trade between themselves.

Instancing plays a major role in Black Prophecy, with the gameplay trailer giving the impression that accepting a mission involves being immediately transported to a mission instance. The prevalence of instancing has been known for a long time, despite the disappointment of many open world fans. Major trading areas will presumably be non-instanced however, and recent interviews have confirmed that there will be the opportunity for PvP in non-instanced zones too, although the incentive for players to go to these areas is at the present time unclear.

All of the information here is compiled from confirmations and best guesses, based on the gameplay trailer, media interviews about Black Prophecy and comments of Reakktor staff on TPN forums, official forums, IRC and private communication methods. I’ve done my best to indicate in the text where things are near certain or confirmed, or when something is merely guessed/expected. Its worth bearing in mind however that this article IS speculative, but intended to be a useful preview of the game as currently understood. This article should be in no way seen as what I want the game to be, just what every indication is that it is. Feel free to discuss and disagree in our forums.