Drox Operative Interview

Earlier this afternoon, Soldak Entertainment’s Steven Peeler alerted us to a new two-page interview on GameShark that focuses entirely on his forthcoming action RPG/space sim, Drox Operative. The game really sounds like it’s shaping up to be the studio’s greatest achievement:

So if you’re a lone captain in the galaxy, trying to make money and choosing a winning side, what types of missions will be available to you?

At my last count there were over 300 different dynamic quests in Drox Operative. These can be anything from bringing a planet some non-lethal weapons to quell some civil unrest to destroying pirate ships that are terrorizing the local star system.

The interesting part that I alluded to earlier is that these are completely dynamic. Let me run through an unrest example and how the player might respond: There is some unrest on the Fringe planet Rivek and they ask you to bring them some non-lethal weapons to help quell the problem. Some of the Fringe’s past actions have really bothered you, so you ignore their request. They fail to contain the unrest themselves and no one else helps them either, so the unrest eventually turns into a rebellion and then a full blown civil war. The civil war wrecks havoc on Rivek and the Fringe resort to using chemical weapons. You are appalled at their behavior. Instead of helping them, you deliver some robotic troops to the rebels. With your help the rebels win their civil war, break free of the Fringe, take two of the formerly Fringe planets, and form their own small empire.

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No ship is complete without a crew. You’re modeling crew members on your mercenary ship as well. How will they affect the gameplay?

Your crew provides one of the very few ways to increase the attribute points of your ship, things like tactical, helm, and engineering so they are very important to your ship.

However you can’t just install a crew member like they are an inanimate object and ignore them. If they aren’t happy enough, they will refuse to work. If they get too upset, they can even leave your ship. Paying them occasionally and being nice to their race helps with this, and of course treating their race badly will make them angry. If your entire crew is Brunt, it’s really not a good idea to go to war with the Brunt unless you like paying your crew a ton of money!