Miner Wars Overview blog - MinerWars

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. You dig kilometers of tunnels, harvest the ore, travel the solar system, fight your enemies and discover mysterious alien secrets. Gameplay is led by an epic story and is a combination of a single/multi-player game, cooperative, or you against everyone. The story will introduce you to many types of missions: rescue, exploration, revenge, base defense, theft, transportation, stealth, 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 borders make this game a real life experience.Release date: late 2010Platform: Windows, Xbox 360 Live Arcade. Active internet connection needed!

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 gets assaulted. The possibilities are limitless. 6DOF Combat - Every ship in the game is fully maneuverable in 6 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 space is a full-pvp/looting friendly environment. Skill based Game - Flying will take mainly skill. You dont need to "grind" your way up to the top doing repetitive missions as there are no skill levels only player skill and the ship upgrades will count. Big variety in 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. 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, radars, maneuvering thrusters, cargo-holds, mining equipment and many other 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 nice pay 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 - Player has to earn some credits for his efforts in PVP. Any ship in the game can be looted by another player should it be destroyed. You can either destroy your opponent (NPC, Player) and get a 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 etc.) and some of them will be aiming only at strict piracy. Planned for the next release version: A player can become leader of a faction should he get elected by the faction elections Alien artifacts - Their purpose is still unknown but they are certainly not made by humans or by nature. They are found randomly, no actual radar can detect them. Some are found in alien tunnels, some of them only after digging into the asteroids.Combination of Single and Multiplayer elements - is the mission too tough for you? You will be able to either hire a person to help you on a mission or invite your friend to help you complete the mission objectives.

Miner Wars is played in a space scene filled with asteroids. Some of them are 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. Yes, some materials can be non-destructible by standard explosives.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 ‘work’ will be still there. Or maybe not, as other players might have 'finished' your tunnel.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 piece of ore.

It is the year 2083 ... in a world where resources have been depleted, mankind struggles to survive on this barren planet, once the jewel of the solar system, now just a wasteland. As global instabilities intensify, due to shrinking resources and the thirst for domination, the only salvation is high above the clouds in the depths of the solar system. While fear of nuclear weapons & total annihilation keeps a fragile peace on the ground ... in space, countries clash in a bitter fight for supremacy of any asteroid belts they could find so they would have the meanings to sustain their industry in the case of an all out war.

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 a freelance pilot. He decided to try his luck in this harsh place. This is the new wild-west. Early space-mining and exploration lead many low-life criminals into the vast reaches of space. Your job is to survive this menace, make some money and earn a good living. You could become a bounty hunter, assasin, pirate, privateer hired by some country, 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.

The aim of the game is to harvest as much as possible while trying not to die and to find the final answer to the mysterious alien artifacts.The player can join most of the existing factions (ENFOR - Earth Nations Peacekeeping Forces, Space Rescue, WASA - World Aeronautics and Space Administration or many other corporations and Black Market Dealers). The player's story moves as he completes missions. Some are single player only, some are multi-player. The player decides if he wants to fight alone or in cooperation with his faction members.

• Revenge missions
• Rescue missions
• Exploration missions
• Defending the base
• Transportation missions
• Theft 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 sneak attack
• Creation of traps
• Speed race
• Dig tunnels of unlimited size and length
• Open world area - travel from one sector to another
• Or just flying around and destroying everything you see

• 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: 30 (ENFOR - Earth Nations Peacekeeping Forces, Space Rescue, WASA - World Aeronautics and Space Administration or many other corporations and Black Market Dealers, ...)
• Ore types: 50 (iron, uraninite , helium 3, gold, diamonds, ...)
• Asteroids: millions to billions, nobody can count them...
• World size: unlimited in every direction

Windows PCs with an active internet connection.Xbox 360 Live Arcade - in development too and will be released right after the Windows version.

• 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!

• 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