That is it for today, see you for the next update!
- Nick, Matt, Dan, and Luuk
Website (under construction): http://www.hades9.com/
Discord: UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hades9Game/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hades9Game
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj6w867uhSKjwr3H3M55wBA?
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hades9game
In the off chance this update did not clarify life, the universe, and everything for you, the below may. If not, do not panic! We are here, and happy to answer more!
Also, we are sorry that we keep spamming you guys with this, but you have no idea how many people keep asking wtf is going on. So check our first update of last year if you haven't yet: http://forum.novusaeterno.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14825
DESIGN RELATED
Q1: Is HADES 9 still an MMO?
A1: Yes, HADES 9 is definitely still an MMO. All players will be playing in the same single universe.
The changes to HADES 9 have actually made it more of an MMO than Novus was. Now that players are not forced to keep to their empire in order to be able to defend it against aggression, they are able to go out and explore at will.
Q2: Is HADES 9 still a RTS?
A2: Yes. If anything, it is more of an RTS than Novus was. Now in HADES 9 your fleet is everything you own in space, so the battles are much more important and much more impactful, while in Novus you could win 50 engagements, but still not get much out of a war if you did not have the time to go all the way through with capturing a planet.
Basically what has changed is that the focus has shifted from owning planets and micromanaging the population on those planets, to commanding a fleet that acts as your mobile empire. This is comparable to the flotilla in Homeworld, and Battlestar Galactica, or the Quarian fleet in the Mass Effect series.
Q3: Is HADES 9 still openworld?
A3: Yes, however unlike Novus Aeterno is will not be procedurally generated. Although on the surface it may seem great to have an endless procedurally generated universe, what regularly ends up happening is that it's just all kinda the same and bland. Infiltrators who played the alpha of Novus will remember this if they ever explored.
To solve this problem we will be hand building the universe of HADES 9, which allows us to add a lot more character and unique elements to it. The overall world will be much larger per player on the server than Novus was, however, it will not be one single flat plain of solar systems, instead, it will be a chaotic mess of ruins of a burning galaxy. With choke points in the form of wormholes and jump gates, and unique areas hidden away to explore.

Q4: Is the HADES 9 universe Seamless?
A4: Yes and no, depending on your definition. There should not be any immersion breaking loading screens in the game still, but the universe will not be a single endless map like it used to be in Novus.
We found that this made making an interesting sci-fi environment very complicated. Because it was so vast, it quickly became quite bare with some interesting things scattered about. This meant that you would just want to FTL jump everywhere since there was nothing much to see.
Our new world maps will still be huge (it can take hours to travel through with your fleet), but they will be hand designed. The main advantage is that we can make the maps much more interesting to journey through and explore, without bare patches or the need to make every square centimeter packed with interesting "Stuff".
So we settled on lots of massive maps with the core “interesting thing” around the center of the map, with jump gates scattered around the more central area, ~10 min apart from each other.
With this we can remove FTL, and make the exploration of space much more beautiful, engaging, and set the stage for epic engagements and whole alliances try to hold off choke point maps.
All of these design decisions for the universe were made to support much more engaging and rewarding exploration. What we learned from Novus was that visiting 1000 unique systems that all had 1-3 stars, 4-15 planets, and some other junk lying around did not make for “fun” exploration, even if “technically” every single one was different. Although procedural generation can be great, it can't really be used to tell a story with the environment, and that's what we want to do with space.
Q5: What can we expect to encounter out in space?
A5: Not only will you encounter many other players out in space, there will also be NPC fleets roaming the galaxy. Depending on your diplomatic abilities and allegiances you may be able to make friends and trade with some of these fleets. However, like wounded dogs, some others will resort to the sword much faster than the pen.
Q6: What function serves the Bridge?
A6: It serves multiple functions:
- It provides a location for many of the UI's in the game. We found that it was much easier and more comfortable to use UI's when they were spread out over a (limited) area, instead of having them stacked in massive and complex UI trees on your HUD.
- The bridge provides a logical location for the player to interact with the immense crew, and specifically the commanders of the ship, to immerse the player even more. These crew members can also share lore, bits of their own background, etc. as the Admiral becomes more comfortable with them.
- Leaders need people to lead. This is one of the main reasons. It is very hard to feel like a leader -to embrace your role and responsibilities- if you can't see the faces or hear the reactions from those under your command.
- It helps fix "travel boredom". One of the cliches of both MMOs and space sims is that you often need to travel incredibly long distances to get where you want to go. This can be fairly boring, being able to explore the inside of your ship and interact with your crew while your ship is underway keeps the game engaging and smooths out some of the less eventful segments.
- You can't deny, it is pretty cool to watch a massive fleet engagement from the bridge of a capital ship :P

Q7: Why are you focusing so much dev time inside the capital ship instead of on THE GAME!?!?
A7: Actually, we are focusing most of our time on the RTS/space elements of the game. The reason we show the inside of the capital ship more in screenshots, or have more updates about it is because it's much easier to make progress on it than space / RTS gameplay. Right now the only developer working on the RPG environments is me, Nick, and its because I'm not a skilled programmer, able to help with the RTS gameplay. So focusing less on the RPG environment would not make the RTS develop any faster, it would just give me more free time
DEVELOPMENT RELATED
Q1: How will you fund the Development of HADES 9?
A1: There are 2 options we are looking at now, which we will want your feedback on:
- We go to a publisher, I feel fairly confident that this game could attract a publisher. It's shiny, and they like shiny. However, the publisher would take over the monetization, meaning a good chance it will end up *despite our best efforts* being some form of f2p / lootbox thingy. I say this because that's how every monetization conversation ended with our old publisher.
- Or, we can self-publish it, gathering the funding via some sort of founders program. Personally, I and the other 3 devs prefer this idea as we are sick of “game design” meetings turning into “monetization” meetings. However, this is only possible if you guys, our backers are supportive of this direction. (I do not mean financially supportive, I mean you are willing to spread the word and be the foundation of a healthy community.)
These 2 roads will be discussed more in upcoming updates. However, it is a decision we all need to make together, as it will affect all of us. Even those people who think we are the devil incarnate and just want refunds to buy voodoo dolls of us. If we go with a publisher I guarantee they will not be giving the refunds out of their %, so we will out of ours, which will probably be only about ~35% of profits. Meaning it will take us a lot longer to get everyone refunds as we only have ~35% of the net profit to put towards refunds instead of all of it.
P.s. It may sound like I am biased against the publisher option, because I am. I really don't want to go down that road again. However, in the update where we go into more detail on this, I will try to be a fair and unbiased as possible when introducing the pros and cons of each option.
^^^^^ This is a important one for everyone to start thinking about ^^^^
Q2: When can we get into the game?
A2: Development is moving fairly quickly, my estimation is that at the end of Q1, or early Q2, we will have pre-alpha ready for Infiltrators. However the point above (going with publishers or independent) does have an impact on this as these kinds of schedules are normally set by them, not the developer.
Q3: Will we keep rewards if we backed the NAE kickstarter?
A3: Yes! As far as possible we will transfer all your rewards over to HADES 9. For the less straightforward rewards we working with all the backers to find a suitable replacement.
This is a complicated issue that will be dealt with personally and on a case by case basis with some of the more complicated rewards/addons.
Also just as a reminder for those who didn't read the previous updated (you really should, a lot has happened) If you are not pleased with the new game we will be offering refunds out of launch profits, our sole objective here is to try and recover from a long fucked up journey and do right by our backers in whatever way possible.

(for higher res, and the related conversation on facebook go here.
Well, this was actually it for today :). We hope to see you all for our next update again!
Cheers,
Nick, Matt, Dan, Luuk.
Website (under construction): http://www.hades9.com/
Discord: UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hades9Game/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hades9Game
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj6w867uhSKjwr3H3M55wBA?
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hades9game