San Diego Comic Con 2014 – Firefly Online

If there is a show surviving on Fandom, it is Firefly. The 'Verse and the adventures of the Crew of the Firefly “Serenity” showed a strong character driven adventure with very real characters.  Now, thanks to Quantum Mechanics, the fans of the show can look forward to returning to the 'Verse and encountering the characters found throughout.

Andy Gore, producer of Firefly Online, told us some of what has been going on for the past several years with this project. More than anything, he stressed that they wanted to be sure of what they were announcing. They had no intention of misleading anyone and would keep things undisclosed until such time as it was fully confirmed. To this end, he made the big surprise announcement that took the whole room by storm: the Original cast of the Crew aboard Serenity would be reappraising their roles. This also turned out to be a point of pride for one of the other panelist: Amarea Ramano. She had made it her goal to cast the crew of Firefly. This MMO gave her just that chance.

There was a good level of representation from the studio behind Firefly Online. Present, in addition to Andy Gore, was the Art Director: Ben Lichius, Head Game Designed: John O'Neill and Composer: David Jospeh Wesley. Each had their own little piece to bring to this whole thing. Ben told us about their outreach to the various fans of the show. There are a number of new ships and many were the creations of fans. John told us some of what went into creating the world. They were using the Unity Engine. To him the real appeal of it was that one account could be used universally across a number of platforms. There is something to be said for an MMO to be on Mac, PC, iOS and Droid and have the same content. David was interesting to hear. He only had a little to say about following the footsteps of the Original compose, Greg Edmonson. He was also noted for playing almost all the instruments for the games score, except the violin. All of them felt as though working on this was giving them a chance to live in the 'Verse itself. After everyone had said their piece, it was time to see the game in motion.

Ben and John were at the helm of a Firefly and showed us what it would be like getting around the 'Verse. First we were shown a new kind of ship: the Sandfly, the default starting vessel. This tiny ship can be managed easily by a single person with some potential for expansion. They regarded a ship much like a growing family would regard a home. There comes a time when you have a need to move up to bigger ships and there was quite a variety. A Firefly class ship was shown along with a small transport. All of these ships are fully customizable in terms of parts and interior design as well. It is very possible to just spend all your time decorating your crew's quarters.

Next the discussed travel. The interplanetary travel consisted of Hard Burn for traveling between different systems and just cruising from one planet to the next within a system.  It was very clear that there was a lot of space to be covered here and that you wouldn't be alone. While not in the alpha build, players could expect to have encounters with Reapers or any of the other factions that exist within the Universe of Firefly.

Next we were shown how it would be to get around when you touched down on a planet. An away team would be select of you, as the Captain, and several other crew members. Each of them would bring their own elements to the party. They told us about the morality system as the away team wandered the small town and started a mission. This mission lead them to a local tavern where the smugglers who had failed to show up were hiding. From there, the game turned into a tactical RPG. You wanted to get into cover to get the best shot without being too exposed. This is especially true if you don't bring a Doctor along.  Not every mission will end in an armed conflict. This particular mission was just an example.
Combat followed a familiar model. You could perform a set number of actions in a turn. The combat is based on cover, the weapon equipped, the character's statistics and chance. This lets it to be very much what they are aiming for. Position and gear will matter. It won't really be who has more guns. It will be much more a question of who can use those guns and other weapons best.

Morality also looks to play a role here. If you're going to be bringing puppies to orphans, leave the Jayne like characters on the ship and bring the ones like Kaylee. If you're going to burn down the orphanage or start smuggling, bring along your Jayne. If the Captain performs actions against the character's morality, they will lose loyalty. If that gets below a particular threshold, the character will leave. They will take everything equipped with them too. They will enter into a game wide job pool where anyone can hire them. This means if you lose a crewmember to this, you could face them at some point in the future.
Along these lines, Andy pointed out that the world of Firefly is about telling stories. With a strong enough following, he told us that they had a number of plans and modules that would be coming into play. This could mean more with the crew of “Serenity”, a look into the Independence Wars, and potentially seeing what happens to the 'Verse after the Miranda events of the movie “Serenity”. While they have Joss Wheedon's blessing for their own plans, they will keep to their time frame until they can work with him to build that world out. It also has implications of friends being able to join the crew of other ships while working together. There are a lot of ideas there that are being worked on but not a lot was said as they want to focus on making Firefly Online what it can be.

When it comes to a place to tell stories, the world of “Firefly” is a rich one. Anyone with the money to buy a ship can find a crew, get a job and keep flying. Firefly Online is meant to be a place to see these stories be played out within the world of Firefly itself. They want to see what stories will emerge whenpeople begin playing the game itself.

A final note. If you register with on the Website for the game, Keepflying.com, this acts as your account as well. For pre-registering at present, they are giving those people a special ship: the luxurious Kestel! This is definitely a game to watch for if you are a fan of the series. The love these people have for it shows all the way through.