The idea is to have a true combined arms game, right? What's going to stop everyone just taking Hercs, as opposed to taking other vehicles/infantry?

Nothing if that’s what they really want to do. Just don’t expect to actually win a whole lot of games that way. Our base game type is War oriented, meaning you have objectives to destroy and/or control in order to win. Considering that a lot of the objectives are in areas that Hercs simply cannot get to, infantry and other vehicles will be needed to fulfill these missions.

Starsiege Infantry

Members of the Mechwarrior (Battletech) community have been kind of keeping tabs on SS:2845. What can you say to them to encourage them to crossover and try it out?

Good question. As an avid Mechwarrior player and fan myself for many years, it’s been my observation that most fans of the PC games are unhappy with the more arcade-like direction the series has taken with the Mech Assault releases on the X-box. Most of the fans of the PC games are more into the simulation elements and customization options available in games like MW2/3/4 and their related offspring. I can tell you that if those types of things are your bag, and you like massive large scale sci-fi combat, then we’ve got your interests covered and then some.

Some people were disappointed Tribes: Vengeance went ahead without Blake Hutchins doing the story; most of the fictional background materials were written by him. How hard was it to get him to come onboard for SS:2845?

Not hard at all, once I’d outlined for him what we were looking to do with the game and the lengths we were willing to go to make sure those objectives were achieved. Blake was one of the very first people to sign on to the project because he saw the inherent potential in what we were doing and the most of all the creative freedoms we would be allowed due to the fact that we’re an all volunteer group that’s not under the usual corporate time constraints and/or having to do things to please the stockholders. As a former employee of Activision and Sega America myself, I can’t begin to tell you how refreshing it is to be able to work at our own pace and take our time to be able to make sure each element is up to our very high standards. Also, there’s a huge difference in working with a team that wants to do something as opposed to a team getting paid to do something. There is a unique synergy involved that makes it not seem like work at all. Thank god for that, right?