Our chat with ProvoxGames gave us a few answers about their soon to be released space combat and exploration game, Space Force - Rogue Universe

Strategy Informer: Hi! Please introduce yourself to our readers.

ProvoxGames: ProvoxGames is located in Zagreb, Croatia where we have focused on developing new ways to make full open ended and non-linear content in games. In only a few years of our existence, we have developed and published several game types.

Strategy Informer: What made you decide to create a sequel to Spaceforce?

ProvoxGames: Everything started long time ago when we used to play with Commodore C64, VIC20 and ZX Spectrum with some space simulations.

Three years ago we made Spaceforce arcade game for fun, SF-RU is not exactly sequel as it was planned even before arcade game. We love SF genre and famous SF TV shows and SF-RU came out of our dreams and passion for anything related to "out-there".

Strategy Informer: What story lies beneath Spaceforce RU?

ProvoxGames: Player takes the role of young pilot Jim Anderson in a search for his lost sister Jax. Discovers conspiracy games between powerful Earth Military Directorate and the rest of humanity, solves long ago forgotten mysteries and faces the biggest threat ever - massive Collective attack.

Strategy Informer: The game combines role-playing elements with those of open-ended exploration of the universe. How was this actually implemented in the gameplay?

ProvoxGames: Players will have the opportunity to engage in trading, exploration, fighting, crafting, quest solving, and diplomacy decision-making in addition to ship development and other player activities. You can choose between 10 professions each conferring advantages and disadvantages. Earn money and experience points and advance to higher levels. Since AI has a crucial role in SFRU, it will create a thrilling playing experience throughout the game. As you progress through the game, each ship can be modified in your own creative style by upgrading.

Some classes have unique skills. For example engineer can repair other ships e.g. wingman's. Some skills are shared by all classes but not all of them use them equally effective. For example all classes can hack but hacker is dealing better with security risk and is harder to catch him. First if you solve main quests there are plenty of side quests to do. But main quests are not so easy to solve because they are all over the system and you can't jump easily to that place. End even when you solve that there are 2000 side quests. Those are all side things and you don't need to bother with that if you don't want to. One of the goals is to make money to improve your ship so you could solve some quests that are more difficult than the others. At the beginning it is better to solve for example the satellite quests than the quests that include destroying the buildings. Not until your ship is upgraded.

Strategy Informer: The game actually has two games bundled inside it?

ProvoxGames: SFRU offers you two game modes: the open space, where you can takeover any civilization and do whatever you like; and the story mode, where you take the role of Commander Jim Anderson on a quest to find his sister Jax.

Strategy Informer: How many different spaceships does the game feature?

ProvoxGames: Player may choose between 14 different fighter class ships in 3 categories - light, medium and heavy. Every ship has different groups of major characteristics: weaponry, shield, manoeuvrability, armour, speed, afterburner, jammer, target system, cargo space and weight. Player can buy a new ship or repair the old one at any moment in the game. Players will have the opportunity to engage in large-scale space fight, fighter or capital ship class, against an enemy NPC controlled vessels, each with their own individual characteristics and style of fight. In between missions you get to customize your ship with a possibility of selection of different equipment. Player can recruit and command up to 3 wingmen at the same time, which can be individually managed to attack, form-up, and do some other commands. The dogfight in SFRU is very challenging.

Strategy Informer: How many different races are there in Spaceforce RG universe?

ProvoxGames: 11 civilizations have been discovered in the Milky Way galaxy so far. By choosing the civilization the player chooses the system with his starting position. All civilizations have histories that you can read about at the official page www.spaceforce-game.com , where you can also see the friendly and unfriendly civilizations that the player is going to encounter. In every case, before leaving for the enemy territory it is important to equip your own ship very well. For example, you should not attack Capitol class ships without the Damage Booster.

Our actions within the game determine diplomacy rating we make with a specific civilization. If our action towards one civilization is hostile, and our rating drops below 80% they will treat us as their enemy. If that same rating drops below 20 %, we will surely be attacked by that civilizations patrol. We can improve diplomacy rating with different types of actions like solving their quests or paying them a tribute in credits. Attacking their enemy can be useful, too.

Strategy Informer: How long did Spaceforce RG development lasted?

ProvoxGames: 2 years.

Strategy Informer: Are there any plans for further sequels or expansion packs at this time?

ProvoxGames: We hope to continue the series.:)

The visitors of the strategy informer will be interested in our new turn based strategy Captains, for which I can shortly say that it is "Starcraft meets Heroes", and takes place in the surrounding of the Spaceforce Universe.

Strategy Informer: What kind of machine will we need to run Spaceforce RG in full and medium graphical settings?

ProvoxGames: SF-RU is very flexible because the engine supports three different types of rendering: SM 1.4, 2.0, 3.0 so maybe you don't need to upgrade your PC. For instance one tester's configuration was Radeon 9500 PRO, 512MB of RAM and everything at 1024x768, SM 2.0, all HIGH options was working average of 25 FPS. Radeon 9600 XT has average of 30 FPS with the same options but with 2x AA turned on. But with SM 1.4 turned on you can gain much better performance.

We even have "pixel doubling mode" where graphics card renders 3D scene in half resolution but HUD, GUI and text is in full resolution. That mode in combination with "filter screen" option gives blazing fast FPS and acceptable image quality. But if you want the game look the best it can you must have a high end graphics card with minimum of 256 MB ram. Something like ATi X1xxx series or NVidia 7xxx. Especially if you want to play in HDR mode. But even 6800 will be great. The game has a built in benchmark so we can compare game performance with different configurations in order to get a better picture of supported configurations. After we test the game on a wider list of PC configurations we will publish much more accurate results here and on the site. That benchmark will be distributed with the game so any user can test his configuration.

Minimal configuration
Processor min 1.4 GHz
DirectX 9 compatible graphics card 128 MB
16 bit sound card
512 MB of RAM
2.2 GB free hard disk space
Mouse
Keyboard
Installed DirectX 9.0c

Normal configuration
Processor min 2.0 GHz
DirectX 9 compatible graphics card 128 MB 3D
compatible sound card with support for EAX 3.0 and 5.1 sound speakers
1024 MB of RAM
2.2 GB free hard disk space
Mouse
Keyboard
Installed DirectX 9.0c