Miner Wars is a 6DOF underground and space shooter played in a fully destructible environment and is a combination of single player story game and MMO.
As a player, you operate an advanced mining ship in an open world asteroid belt area. Dig kilometers of tunnels, harvest the ore, travel the solar system, fight your enemies and uncover mysteries.
Game-play is led by an epic story and is a combination of a single/multi-player gaming; cooperative, or you against everyone.
The story will introduce you to many types of missions: rescue, exploration, revenge, base defense, theft, transportation, stealth, escort, search and destroy, pure harvesting, racing or just flying around and destroying everything you see.
High quality rendering and special effects, realistic physics, unique 'destructible engine', and game area with no boundaries make this game a real life experience.
Release date: late 2010 Platform: Windows, Xbox 360 Live Arcade. Active Internet Connection Needed!
Key Features
- Global Scale Destruction - The whole environment in the game is destructible and persistent. You can travel to a forgotten asteroid, mine a tunnel and make it your secret base of operations. You could take an asteroid buster rocket and destroy any large asteroid. You could dig a long tunnel in a huge 8km asteroid and wait until an unsuspecting victim flies into the tunnel and mount an ambush. The possibilities are limitless.
- 6DOF Combat / FPS in Space - Every ship in the game is fully maneuverable in six directions. This makes the combat extremely dynamic and exciting. FPS veterans will feel at home with our WASD- mouse-and-key setup and Space simulation fans can use their beloved joysticks to maneuver the ship in space. Miner wars is a full PvP/looting friendly environment.
- Skill-Based Game – Flying and combat will take mainly physical and mental skill. No “grinding” your way to the top doing repetitive missions as there are no levels, only player skill. You can, however, upgrade your ship to have that “edge” in the field.
- Wide Variety of Ships - A player can acquire the ship that will most suit his needs. There are no restrictions as to which type he chooses but some will be more suited for mining, large battles, exploration / scouting and some for hit and run tactics.
- Complex Dungeons in Space – Seamless transition between outdoor and indoor areas. Player will be able to enter big asteroid bases and stations full of enemies and loot. Players will also be able to battle each other in these indoor areas and engage in some real intense multi-player battles.
Planned for next release version: Player controlled mining stations and trade posts.
- Ship Upgrades - Every ship can be upgraded on a space-station with a large variety of weapons, armour plating, engines, radar systems, maneuvering thrusters, mining equipment and many other kinds of upgrades.
Planned for next release version: EVA (extra vehicular activity) - you will be able to leave your spaceship and travel on foot in space (space suits) or on space stations to meet your fellow companions face to face.
- Mining and Exploration - Any player in the game can choose to lead the life of a miner or explorer. There are almost 50 material types that can be mined from an asteroid and some of them are so rare that they will make you a very rich person should you find them. An explorer can travel around sectors and get a good chunk of money for tips on where to mine.
- Epic-Sized battles - Our “Vrage” engine allows for some really massive battles in space. Up to 300 player ships can be displayed in one sector and engage in a rough battle for resources.
Planned for the next release version: Player controlled mothership, battleship and cruiser battles.
- Looting – In a world where it's Player vs. Player, our players will have to keep their purses heavy and their combat skills sharpened. Any ship in the game can be looted by another player should it be destroyed. You can either destroy your opponent, (either NPC or Player) and get much lesser loot or you can disable your opponent and steal some of his equipment and resources. In the heat of the battle some of the equipment or resources will get destroyed.
- Factions - There will be around 30 factions in the game. All of the factions will have a different approach on reaching their goals (explorers, army, miners, fanatics, etc.) and some of them will be aiming only at strict piracy. Or you may choose to go it alone and form a freelance crew.
Planned for the next release version: A player can become leader of a faction should he get elected by the faction elections
- Artifacts - Their purpose is still unknown to mankind, but they are certainly not made by humans or by nature. They are found randomly, and no existing radar system can detect them. Some are found in alien tunnels, some of them only after digging into the asteroids.
- Combination of Single and Multi-Player Elements - Is the mission you're on too tough for you? With just a quick chat you can hire a friend to help you on your quest for the truth!
Destructible Environment
Miner Wars is played in a space scene filled with asteroids. Some of them are quite large -- almost 10 kilometers. You can dig in any direction through any of these asteroids, and do so without any constraints.
Physical engine calculates all changes in real-time in regard to material resistance. Some materials, however, require more firepower than the standard buster missile.
Environment changes are persistent - you can blast a new tunnel, travel to a distant sector of the solar system and even come back after one month and your handiwork will be still there.
There are places where no man has been. These virgin areas are ready to be explored and harvested. Of course there are also high demand areas where you have to fight for every ounce of ore.
Story
Earth was once a pale, blue dot. And now it is only a scar. Mankind faces its worst nightmare since the dawn of civilization. Extinction.
Many years ago, for reasons unknown to us, the star which gave us life began to take it away. Massive waves of solar energy engulfed the planet... over... and over again....
And how did we handle this turn of fate? Did we band together? Did we share in our predicament? No. We waged war upon our brothers, bitterly and without conscience, until we had frittered and wasted nearly every resource on this forsaken planet.
However, with the possibility of total annihilation becoming very real, we finally put aside our differences and began to form what is known today as the United Nations of Planet Earth. Despite this call to unification, the war is far from over. In space, there is no governing law, no enclave of peace and prosperity. Only the fight for survival and dominance over a vast sea of floating rock.
We must find our path... or suffer at the whims of the “vast”.
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Tensions are high, something must be done, the time has come! Reach to the skies, explore the wonders of the solar system and harvest its resources to bring life to your dying world.
The single-player campaign will be played through the eyes of Apollo, a freelance pilot. After the death of his father, he has joined his older brother Marcus, leaving his home to try his luck in this harsh place. This is the new wild-west. Early space-mining and exploration lead many low-life criminals, political extremists, and religious fanatics into the vast reaches of space. Your job is simple: make some money and earn a good living, and don't die in the process. Become a bounty hunter, assassin, pirate, privateer, policeman, miner, explorer or a military officer. The freedom of choice is there and its up to you to decide which path you shall take.
Game-play
The aim of the game is to harvest as much as possible while surviving the dangers of modern space travel and to find the final answer to the mysterious artifacts.
The player can join most of the existing factions, (some of which being the warring factions UFSME and ISF, The Mining Union, Explorer's Guild—FSRE--Samaritans of the sun, Raven—pirates--or try you luck as a freelancer).
The player's story progresses as the player completes missions. Some are single player only, some are multi-player. You may decide if you want to fight alone or in cooperation with your fellow faction members.
Vehicles
The player begins with a mid-size mining ship aimed for movement in narrow tunnels and open space. The mining ships differ in weight, loading capacity, engine power, armor and equipment.
Game Area
Miner Wars is played in an open world. The player can travel from one sector to another in just his mining ship or he can use one of the large cargo transporters. The mining ship can move in outer space and underground tunnels. There are absolutely no boundaries!
Re-Playability
With a destructible environment, a pilot and his buddies can build his own base of operations or stage an ambush!
The game comes with a simple but powerful and easy-to-use editor right in the main menu!
With the amount of factions in the game, all with detailed history and unique motivations, there is always potential for social, financial and political growth. Our world is your playground!
Learning Curve
Operating the mining ship is very intuitive and the player can start maneuvering like a pro in just a few minutes' time. Don't let this fool you, though! Just moving around can be highly addictive. The player's 6DOF spatial orientation is supported by a real-time navigation system with integrated three-dimensional radar display.
Game-play Variation
- Revenge missions
- Rescue missions
- Exploration missions
- Defending the base
- Transportation missions
- Theft missions
- Escort missions
- Searching for and destroying enemies
- Searching for the enemy's base
- Searching and harvesting ore, minerals or gems
- Equipping the mining ship according to your own wish (buying weapons, armor, engines and so on)
- Digging a secret tunnel and staging the ambush of a caravan
- Creation of traps
- Speed race
- Dig tunnels of unlimited size and length
- Open world area - travel from one sector to another
- Or … why not just blow some stuff up!?
Game Elements
- Unique mining ships: (from smallest to largest, fast and slow, large cargo, huge shields...)
- Weapons: 20 (volcano cannon, guided missiles, mines, gravity bombs, tunnel buster...)
- Ammo: 20 (armor piercing, explosive, high velocity...)
- Drilling devices: 5 (pressure drilling, thermal drilling, saw, nuclear drilling device...)
- Equipment types: 50 (various radars, jammer, X-ray, engines, enhancing drugs, armor, med kit, auto targeting...)
- Factions: About 10 main factions with 25+ playable factions in the MMO.
- Ore types: 50 (iron, uraninite , helium 3, gold, diamonds, ...)
- Asteroids: Who has the time to count them?
- World size: Unlimited in every direction.
Release Date
Platform
- Windows PCs with an active internet connection.
- Xbox 360 Live Arcade - in development too and will be released right after the Windows version.
Recommended Specs
(Subject to change – Minimum Requirements will be ascertained during beta testing)
- CPU: 2.0 GHz
- RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
- Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce 6 series or better, ATI Radeon R520 (X1300-X1950) or better, Intel GMA X3000 or better. Requires at least Pixel-Shader 3.0. More info
- Video Memory: 128 MB
- Hard Drive: 1 GB
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Vista
- DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10
- Network: Active internet connection during installation and during game play!
Anti-Piracy
The game will not utilize any sort of DRM protection, nor activation code. To play the game you only need to download and install the package and enter your login/password. As the game interacts with our servers during the game play, we periodically check for suspicious users. The game isn't locked to your computer, so you can play it from home or work :)
Age Group
At this time we are shooting for no higher than a Teen rating (playable for 13+ individuals).
About The Team
Miner Wars is being developed by the independent software company Keen Software House Ltd. We are passionate gamers, who love developing games and we want to make games that people like to play. At this time we have over 30 members.
- Destructible Environment
- Memory storage for extremely large voxel maps - 1024x1024x1024 voxels or even bigger
- Real-time modifications
- Level Of Detail – low & high detailed versions look almost identical when viewed from a distance
- Multi-material blending
- Seamless texture mapping for free-form surfaces
- No visible texture tiling on far surfaces
- Import custom 3D models (MAX files)
- Dynamic ambient occlusion lighting
- Unlimited light sources
- Custom per-pixel materials - wet, reflective, shiny, dirty
- Post-process effects: HDR, bloom, film grain
- Volumetric dust
- Powerful particle systems: explosions, smoke, etc.
- Realistic physics (rigid body, vehicles, particle system physics, fluid buoyancy, destructible objects)
- Single/multi-player
- 3D sound with Doppler, panning and reverb
- Windows XP/Vista, Xbox 360, DirectX, Microsoft XNA
On behalf of the team: Thank you! And hang in there. Many of us are working an average of 30+ hours per week to deliver the best game we can. Feel free to register on our forums!
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