In this comprehensive Q&A, ZAM gets new details from Creative Director Timo Krahl about the upcoming sci-fi MMO. We also showcase four brand-new screenshots Reakktor Media sent us!

Last summer, ZAM took a closer look at the upcoming sci-fi MMO, Black Prophecy, in our early-feature format, "What We Know So Far." The game's developer, Reakktor Media GmbH, kept a pretty tight lid on news and information about Black Prophecy back then. Most of what we knew about the upcoming MMO came from its website and a smattering of developer posts in the official forums. One of the most puzzling aspects of Black Prophecy was its story; a darkly-woven universe created by award-winning German novelist Michael Marrak. It wasn't until last month that Reakktor launched its Stellarvox Veritas site, gradually offering new information about the story and lore behind this mysterious MMO.

Since then, Reakktor kept relatively quiet about Black Prophecy's actual gameplay while it continues searching for a publisher. In an effort to help understand the lofty claims made by the developer about Black Prophecy's innovative gameplay, ZAM sought an interview with Creative Director Timo Krahl. In one of the most comprehensive Black Prophecy Q&As to date, Krahl addresses many of the burning questions posed by the community throughout the past few months.

ZAM asks about Marrak's involvement in creating the game universe, the high-tech graphics engine used to develop the MMO, and the gameplay behind it all. Krahl explains how modular "ships" serve as characters, and that players will "gear up" their ships via action-oriented level progression. We also ask about the extent of Black Prophecy's PvE content, its PvP gameplay, the clan system and more. But that's not all; ZAM was thrilled to obtain four brand-new, exclusive Black Prophecy screenshots from Reakktor Media. This is the first time these in-game screenshots have been available to the public; just click the screens in the story below to view the high-res, un-cropped versions.

[Note: due to Reakktor's Media's international press schedule, the following interview questions—which were originally posed in late summer, before the Stellarvox Veritas website launched—were not replied to until now.]

ZAM: Can you tell us a little about the author behind Black Prophecy's story, Michael Marrak? How did he get involved with this MMO, and why did Reakktor choose him?

Timo Krahl: Michal Marrak is a German sci-fi author who has been awarded several genre prizes. His best known-books are Lord Gamma and Imagon, which unfortunately have only been released in the German language.

In the planning phase of Black Prophecy we were looking for an appropriate author and Michael Marrak had immediately been placed on our shortlist. Michael then developed the Black Prophecy story from scratch and also did his bit to assist the game design and graphics departments in designing the Black Prophecy universe so that it would be consistent and atmospheric.

ZAM: What we know of Black Prophecy's story so far seems to be pretty deep, existential and metaphorical; almost similar to some of Friedrich Nietzsche's work…

Krahl: The Black Prophecy story is certainly written very deep and lavishly but does not claim to be highly intellectual literature which ranks on the same level with Nietzsche's writings. It was important to us to create exciting, dark and partially humorous scenery that is easily accessible for every player. Of course we also touched on topics that have mattered to mankind for ages; like the everlasting battle between religion and science.

Apart from the importance to have a solid and good background story for our games, it is also a great enrichment for the team to work with such subject matter and supports their creativity immensely.

ZAM: Can you give us any exclusive info about the story beyond the timeline on your website?

Krahl: Sadly we are unable to provide any exclusive bits of the story at the current time. But for all those who are interested in learning more about the story, I strongly recommend to take a look at the Stellarvox Veritas web page on which we publish interesting articles, reports and stories with background information about the events in Black Prophecy's universe at regular intervals.

ZAM: There are quite a few big-IP sci-fi MMOs in development right now, like Star Wars and Star Trek. What will Black Prophecy offer MMO fans that they won't be able to find anywhere else?

Krahl: With Black Prophecy we want to bring the good old space action combat that you may know from games like Wing Commander or X-Wing vs. Tie-Fighter back onto your screens. Black Prophecy offers fast-paced breathtaking action, accessible character development that even very casual gamers can enjoy without having to invest large amounts of time and of course various role-play typical elements, like the clan system, which complete the overall picture.

ZAM: I laughed when I saw the FAQ question on your website, asking what Black Prophecy and EVE Online have in common; the answer was something like, ‘They're both set in space.' Are you implying that EVE Online's strategy-based gameplay left a bad taste in sci-fi gamers' mouths?

Krahl: We have purposely chosen this statement in the FAQ as it happened very often, especially in the beginning, that Black Prophecy was immediately pegged as an Eve Online clone without taking a closer look at the game. Eve-Online is the top dog in the sci-fi space genre without doubt, and for good reason, but it wouldn't be fair to simply devaluate every new space game on the market as just another Eve Online clone.

Although Eve Online is quite strategy oriented, it still has a high amount of action. The crucial distinguishing characteristic is the type of action. Eve Online utilizes the point and click system while Black Prophecy provides active control of your ship like in a first-person shooter. Your personal skills are challenged considerably more, especially intuitive action and good capacity of reaction.

ZAM: Why did Reakktor choose to develop Black Prophecy with the Gamebryo engine?                     

Krahl: Our tech department evaluated several engines at the beginning of the planning phase and ultimately decided to use the Gamebryo engine as this engine bears a high performance potential and adaptability. Especially the latter was the determining factor as it was important to explicitly adapt all available tools and applications to our technical requirements. The network engine was developed separately by our tech department.

ZAM: We've read past interviews that claim Black Prophecy's graphics are so advanced that 20,000 polygons are used to create every space fighter model. In layman's terms, what does this mean for players?

Krahl: 3D objects in games are made up of triangles, so called polygons. A 3D model like a part of a space fighter can be created by piecing together plenty of polygons. The more polygons you use, the more detailed you can form the model. However, with increasing polygon count the required computing power also increases to display the 3D model fluently.

In older space games, like Freelancer, the ship models consist of up to 1000 polygons which was a decent number considering the available computing power at that time. With the progressive technical development more computing power became available which nowadays allows such a high polygon count like we have in Black Prophecy. But the polygon count is not the sole reason for Black Prophecy's high quality graphics. Only by the use of complex shader and high texture resolutions we complete the final picture.

The technical effort to accomplish this is naturally very high but as a result we are getting very close to our aspiration of providing a nearly cinematic game experience.

ZAM: The gameplay videos and screenshots we've seen look really impressive. But how well optimized—or scalable—will Black Prophecy be at launch? Will players with older PCs and GPUs still be able to play it?

Krahl: Although we aim to provide the richest visual presentation for gamers with the hardware to take advantage of it, we will also pay close attention to players with less powerful systems; those players will understandably have to lower their expectations with regards to the graphics quality. However, we will provide an extensive range of options to enable you to optimize the visual experience of Black Prophecy even on older systems.

But yes, to experience Black Prophecy in its true glory you will require a fairly powerful machine. We have set ourselves the objective of creating the most beautiful space game to date - whether we have succeeded or not will be your decision in the end.

ZAM: Does the majority of Black Prophecy's gameplay take place behind the cockpit of a ship, or a humanoid character as well? Also, what kinds of POV will be offered?

Krahl: With Black Prophecy we pursue the approach of the ship being the actual player character. You equip your character by attaching new ship modules and weapons as you would equip a new armor item in other MMOs. Thus everything happens in the cockpit. But we already have plans and also performed tests for a possible expansion of Black Prophecy to offer the so called ‘Station Walking.' This feature would then enable you to walk around space stations and directly interact with other player avatars.

In terms of viewing perspectives we offer the first person and third person perspective. In the first person perspective you can enjoy a fully detailed cockpit that comes in a different appearance depending on your faction. In the third person perspective the camera is behind the ship but also offers the HUD elements in your field of vision like in the first person perspective.

ZAM: Will Black Prophecy rely on traditional RPG elements, like leveling up your character via experience points?

Krahl: Black Prophecy offers the classic RPG system with experience point gains and level ups. By completing missions or bringing down enemies you gain experience points. Per experience level you receive a specific amount of skill points that you can distribute across your skills. Although the skills do not directly affect the performance of your ship, they enable you to use new versions of game items such as ship modules or weapons that have specific use requirements. As you see, this system is shortened to the basic RPG elements; Black Prophecy does not attempt to incorporate highly complex role-play, as we rather understand it as an action title.

ZAM: Aside from the basic information already released, what kind of PvP experience can players expect? Will they be able to choose when and where they want to engage in PvP?

Krahl: There are definitely many areas in which players are absolutely secure. A fight only happens if a player likes to have one. PvP missions are treated similarly to the PvE variant. There is always a certain rule set active in the background that is meant to keep the PvP combat fair. But we also taxed our brains about open combat areas in which you can fight unfairly up to a certain point. Again it's your decision if you enter these areas or not. The focus is clearly set to PvP but we definitely try to rule out any kind of frustrating elements.

ZAM: Aside from these open combat areas, will Black Prophecy also provide instanced PvP play?

Krahl: The majority of PvP combat will happen via special missions in instances. For these PvP instances we offer different kinds of play modes, be it team vs. team or clan vs. clan. Within a PvP mission it will also be possible to assign specific mission objectives to single or more players. In addition we plan to provide open PvP and PvE areas in which different kinds of missions are available.

ZAM: What about specific PvP servers?

Krahl: A separation between PvE and PvP servers is currently not envisaged.

ZAM: With regard to PvE content; does the game focus more on leveling up and acquiring better gear, or is more emphasis placed on ‘endgame' content and boss battles?

Krahl: For the release version, the focus is set to developing and improving your character and collection of items, in addition to PvP. But this focus could naturally be expanded over time and through additional game content. You can be sure that we like to see things like huge ‘boss fights' as much as you do.

ZAM: Black Prophecy's space combat is described as similar to ‘traditional' PC space shooter games. Does this mean we won't be seeing the usual ‘action bars mechanic' typically used in MMOs?

Krahl: The combat system works like in other first-person space shooter games. In Black Prophecy we don't make use of the typical ‘action bar skills' as you might know them from other MMOs. Special maneuvers are triggered via specific key combinations and are bound to specific requirements in their use. Though, we already have plans to expand the system to give combat even more tactical depth.

ZAM: Does space combat lend itself to joystick hardware control, for all the flight- and space-simulator junkies out there?

Krahl: In Black Prophecy you will be able to control your ship with the classical mouse/keyboard setup but also with a gamepad or a flightstick.

ZAM: How is the maneuvers system we've heard about actually implemented in combat? Also, are these maneuvers—or any other abilities—obtained via the leveling process, similar to how you would learn a ‘spell' or ability in traditional MMOs?

Krahl: Maneuvers are special, tactical moves the ship executes as soon as you trigger the maneuver. To trigger such a maneuver your adrenaline level, which you can increase by combat actions, has to be high enough. Once you have enough adrenaline you can trigger the desired maneuver by using the appropriate key combination. At that point we took care to not implement maneuvers that make you lose control of your ship for too long. After triggering the maneuver it will be executed very quickly and you regain control of your ship immediately afterwards.

Which maneuvers are at your disposal depends on the appropriate skill on one hand and the type of engines you have attached to your ship on the other hand. A maneuver would be e.g. an extremely fast looping. So in case an enemy is chasing you, triggering this looping could bring you behind him very quickly. But if he is paying attention and reacts quickly he could counter your maneuver and evade by breaking out to the side, as long as he is able to trigger this maneuver. ‘Abilities' don't exist in Black Prophecy but everything is being discussed and considered. So nothing is impossible for the future.

ZAM: What can you tell us about Black Prophecy's modular ship and station design? Is it similar to ‘gearing up' characters in other MMOs?

Krahl: Without going into detail the modular system can be quite well compared to classic character systems, where you equip armor parts or weapons. In addition we offer a modding system which allows you to modify and improve modules.

ZAM: Are Clan Stations similar to ‘guild halls,' meaning they serve as base of operations for members of the clan? Can rival clans attack each others' stations in PvP?

Krahl: It is rather a whole sector than just a station. This sector can be registered in the global star map and other players can dock to your clan's station to modify their ship, to shop, accept missions, etc. Of course clan stations also serve as gathering point for your clan. We already thought about making clan stations attackable several times but this feature has been postponed as we deem the creation of interesting clan vs. clan missions as more important at the current time.

ZAM: Do clan members work collectively to build more powerful stations over time by adding modules to it?

Krahl: Only clan members with the proper clan permissions are allowed to attach new modules to a station or upgrade existing ones. A clan has to accomplish missions successfully to acquire the necessary resources for new modules or upgrades. To accomplish this, special resource missions are available for clans. For the upgrade of station modules, rare upgrade modifications are required stage-by-stage. Such modifications are only obtainable from clan vs. clan missions, where the participation again requires a specific amount of resources. As you see, there is an existing circle of acquisition and consumption that can only be closed with good teamwork.

The clan station itself serves the clan as home base and gathering point for accepting and starting PvE and PvP missions.

ZAM: Do you have a rough estimate yet of when players can expect the beta and public launches of Black Prophecy?

Krahl: Both the beta and the release date depend on the desires and ideas of our publisher. As we are still in negotiations with potential candidates we are unable to elaborate on that topic at the current time.

ZAM: What about the game's revenue model? Have you decided on a subscription-based model, micro-transactions or both?

Krahl: To date we have not made a final decision about the payment model for Black Prophecy. Several possibilities have been evaluated and we leave the door open for any kind of payment models. From the technical side we are prepared for all kinds of payment models, which means that Black Prophecy could also be offered with a micro transaction model, for example. The final decision is again made in close consultation with our publisher.

ZAM: Lastly, what's the one question about Black Prophecy that no one has asked you yet, that you wish they would have?

Krahl: ‘Will there be any space pirates or space ninjas?'

ZAM: And of course, what's the answer?

Krahl: There will be pirates. Beaten on third and fourth place we have penguins and gigantic trumpets. But this is something we will explain another time...

ZAM: Great; thanks for taking the time to answer our questions about Black Prophecy. And thanks for the new screenshots!