NCsoft and NetDevil are celebrating the recent launch of their post-apocalyptic online role-playing game, Auto Assault, with an in-game tournament. The winning team of four players will be whisked away to Los Angeles and the Mecca of computer games: E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo).

The winning team will take on a team from NetDevil live on the NCsoft stage at E3, with live commentary and big-screen presentation.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Auto Assault is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) featuring car combat on an epic scale. On top of the mainstays of the genre such as character customization, thousands of missions and a detailed crafting system, Auto Assault also features some of the most dynamic, exciting player versus player (PvP) combat ever seen in an online role-playing game.
Auto Assault features purpose-built arenas where teams can enter to discover who can claim to be the ultimate road warriors. The players can customize their rides with weapons, armor, engines and wheels – each featuring a unique set of statistics that boost firepower, agility, speed and resistances to enemy attacks. Where a standard fantasy MMORPG might give players a sword of strength, Auto Assault will set them up with a Ranged Graviton Laser of Destruction (+8% extended range and +2-5 Physical Damage). Never bring a knife to our gun fight.
To get to E3, teams will compete in the elimination round that takes place on April 29th, 2006. All characters will need to be level 30 and must be of the same faction to participate as a team. Competing players should gather at the OCD booth (blue diamond on mini-map) in their main town and form a convoy of four players. They should then register for the E3 tournament and wait for the carnage to begin at 3:30pm (Eastern). It’s recommended to be online and ready to fight at least 30 minutes before the tournament begins.
Prizes are as follows: (each individual member of each winning 4-person convoy will receive a prize package)

3rd Place Prize Package:

The chance to play the Devs remotely during E3
Auto Assault 60 Day Game Time Card for each participant
Auto Assault T-shirts for each participant
Auto Assault posters for each participant

2nd Place Prize Package:

The chance to play the Devs remotely during E3
Registered Auto Assault Online Trading Card Game Account and 4 of every card from the teams faction
Auto Assault 60 Day Game Time Card for each participant
Auto Assault T-shirts for each participant
Auto Assault posters for each participant

1st Place Prize Package:

An entry pass to the three days of E3
A return plane ticket to LA for E3
Hotel accommodation
An exclusive invite to the NCsoft E3 Party **
The chance to play the Devs on the show floor for E3
Registered Auto Assault Online Trading Card Game Account and 4 of every card from the teams faction
Auto Assault 60 Day Game Time Card for each participant
Auto Assault T-shirts for each participant
Auto Assault posters for each participant

The rules and more details can be found at http://www.autoassault.com/community/contests.html

** You must be at least 21 years of age to attend the NCsoft E3 party.

Come out to our second ever player gathering in Orange County to meet your favorite NCsoft Community Relations representatives, try out various NCsoft games, get a free Monster drink, and maybe even win a door prize! Join the fun at Orange County’s Howie’s Game Shack on Saturday, May 13th.

There will be plenty of games, a live DJ, drinks, and a few surprises. Check out all our games including City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guild Wars, and Lineage II. Give Auto Assault and some of our other brand new games a spin!

Anyone can come and best of all, if you are on the VIP list, attendance is free! Here are some further details:

NCsoft personnel will be in attendance from 7pm – 2am
A special “NCsoft pass” will be available from 11am until 10pm for the discounted price of $5 to allow attendees to play NCsoft games in the LAN Center (a free Monster energy drink is included!)
For those on the VIP list, the exclusive, totally free play of NCsoft games begins at 10pm and lasts to 2am!
Space on the VIP list is limited, so RSVP by sending an email with your name and the names of accompanying attendees to meetup@ncsoft.com. Come on down after 10pm to enjoy great games with great company! Please note: if you arrive before 10pm you will need to purchase the special NCsoft pass for admittance.

We’ll have further updates on this event over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Details:

Date: Saturday, May 13th

Time: 11am-10pm for “NCsoft Pass” players, 10pm-2am for NCsoft “VIP’s”

Place: Howie’s Game Shack (http://www.howies.com)

AUSTIN, Texas, April 13, 2006—NCsoft® North America announced today that Auto Assault® launched commercial service in North America, Europe and other select markets worldwide. Developed by Colorado-based developer, NetDevil®, LTD, Auto Assault is the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game set in a post-apocalyptic world featuring vehicle combat on an epic scale and fully destructible environments.

Auto Assault is available at retailers in North America at an expected price of US$49.99. The Limited Edition, which includes a headset to utilize the game’s voice chat system and a game soundtrack CD, will be available for an expected price of US$59.99. Both the standard and Limited editions of the game include the first month of online game play. After the first month, players will be charged a monthly subscription fee of US$14.99. Sixty-day game time cards will also be available at many North American retailers for an expected price of US$29.99.

In Auto Assault, players choose from three races and venture into a post-apocalyptic Earth wreaking havoc and vying for control over the few resources left. Players can design their characters and customize many different vehicle chassis to make their own unique fleet of death machines. Players may go on missions with others or on their own, craft unique items, and participate in player-versus-player combat via the arena system and contested outpost battles. No matter what they are doing, players are encouraged to interact with the game world by blasting through buildings, leveling towns and destroying just about everything they see.

“Auto Assault is a truly unique game, and a fantastic addition to our catalog,” said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. “There is nothing like it in the MMO game space – it is easy to play, fast, and very fun. Auto Assault gives players the best of action games, the best of role-playing games and a super-cool world to discover and destroy.”

The release of Auto Assault represents both a continuation of NCsoft’s efforts to provide gamers many compelling products to play online, and the beginning of another great service with free content updates and expansions in the years to come. Additionally, a veteran rewards program has been put in place for players who subscribe to Auto Assault within the first thirty days of service. A detailed description of the veteran rewards is available on the Auto Assault website (www.autoassault.com/gameinfo/vetawards.html).

“Compelling characters, tricked-out vehicles, crazy-fast combat and full-blown destruction make Auto Assault a blast,” said Scott Brown, president of NetDevil, LTD. “This is the game we’ve wanted to play for years; it feels good to launch commercial service. Now the real work starts – today marks the beginning of our ideas for the product and we look forward to rolling out new content for players to enjoy.”

Auto Assault is rated T for teen. For more information about Auto Assault go to: www.autoassault.com.

Tabula Rasa™ is looking for a few elite road warriors!

The Allied Free Sentient forces need your combat skills to go up against an enemy that has ravaged and enslaved star systems across the galaxy. How do you enlist in this desperate struggle? Be one of the first 200 Auto Assault® players to sign up for a monthly subscription after your first month of included time and you’ll win the opportunity to strap on body armor and high-tech weapons in the Tabula Rasa™ closed beta.

The contest begins on Auto Assault® launch day – April 13 - and ends 31 days later on May 14.

Notification of approved enlistments will be sent out starting May 15 via e-mail. It’s very important that you make sure your PlayNC™ account e-mail is up to date; if you’re using a spam filter, please ensure that you can receive e-mails ending in @plaync.com (watch that spam filter!). Once you’ve received your official orders, you will report for duty when the Tabula Rasa™ closed beta begins—at a time to be announced later. Players must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

One entry per PlayNC™ account and e-mail address – you can only win ONE beta slot per person. See the contest rules below for details.

Winners list will be posted on both http://www.playtr.com/ and http://www.autoassault.com/ on May 31.

Good luck, recruit! We're looking forward to having you join the fight!

Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

If you see the smoke rising from our corner of the internet, don’t be alarmed! It’s just the mushroom cloud erupting again in our hot new banner, one of many new effects you’ll see when you visit our newly re-vamped website at http://www.autoassault.com. This week, we unveiled a massive redesign, adding an easier navigation system, a huge FAQ and enough post-apocalyptic vehicular combat goodness to melt a Geiger Counter.

Here’s a quick look at some of other big news we’d like to share with you:

- A special wave of invitations was sent to preorder account holders only, inviting them to join us in our beta playtest that’s currently underway. More information about how to preorder and get in on the action is available here: http://www.autoassault.com/pre-order/

- The beta itself is still going strong. We’ve completely overhauled the introductory maps – making them the fastest, most destructive tutorials ever – and added mini-highways, getting you settled in behind the wheel and quickly into the action with other players.

- Character creation has been enhanced with more customization options, even allowing you to customize – and name – your starter vehicle.

- Suspension, more ramps and acceleration tubes have been added to make driving a greater adventure!

Don’t get stuck on the sidelines, watching the action from a safe distance. Beta applications are still being accepted. Visit https://secure.plaync.com/aa_beta.html to sign up! No license required.

We’ll see you soon in Auto Assault!

- The Auto Assault team

Scott “Scorch” Brown, Auto Assault Project Lead, on the game’s influences and how they have affected its development

Q: Games like Guild Wars and World of Warcraft have shown that it's possible and very desirable to make a game accessible and rewarding for both hardcore gamers and the average Joe Blogs on the street with a couple of hours a week to spend on his PC. Does Auto Assault have similar aspirations? And what is it that determines your approach in this regard - resources, time, commercial obligations, etc?
Scott Brown: From the start, Auto Assault was built to be friendly to players who had never played an MMO before. Arrows to find your next mission objective, simple group finding, no death penalty and so on. We are committed to bringing action gamers to the MMO space.

Q: Do you think that massively-multiplayer game developers will learn the lessons of games like GW and WOW, or are those two exceptional cases?

Scott Brown: I think those two games specifically have spelled out that if you want big numbers you must be an accessible, fun game. I don't believe that a user that is new to MMOs, thanks to these two games, is going to accept a more hardcore or grinding-style form of game play. Thankfully, this has been our focus right from the start.

Q: Apart from the obvious, what would you say influenced you in the development of Auto Assault? Not just in a broad sense either - were there any games, movies, or what-have-you that had a direct bearing on some aspect of the game?

Scott Brown: I don't know that there is a direct influence on the game - so many different people's ideas and backgrounds have shaped the game into what it is today. We have wanted to do a car combat MMO for a long time and setting it in a post-apocalyptic universe just makes sense thanks to movies like Mad Max and games like Wasteland and Fallout.

Q: Furthermore, was there anything that you saw or played during development that had a sudden bearing on Auto Assault's direction?

Scott Brown: Certainly, we all play lots of games here and have been influenced by ideas from those games that we thought would make sense in Auto Assault. We have also seen games do some things we were trying that did not work and allowed us to rethink and remove during development and early testing. An example would be that we had the goal of making Auto Assault very mission-centric – looking at WoW gave us some additional ideas as to how to make this happen. Another example is from City of Heroes where when you do something the text element moves to the place in the UI for you to interact with - such a great idea!

Q: In terms of technology, games obviously tend toward standing on the shoulders of giants rather than reinventing everything - would you say that your game draws more inspiration from past games technologically or creatively?

Scott Brown: This is a tough question, but I would have to say creatively. Even though our story is very unique, the "feel" of what it means to be a post-apocalyptic game has been defined pretty well and we are certainly influenced somewhat by this. Technologically, since we are the first physics-based MMO there is little of our engine that we could glean from existing technologies.

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Auto Assault Developer Diary Installment #2:

Auto Assault is an RPG at heart

NetDevil answers more questions about the role-playing elements of Auto Assault and talks about what they are learning from players during the closed beta process.

Q. How do I get ahead in Auto Assault?

A. A big part of your time in Auto Assault will be spent customizing your character and vehicle statistics. As you gain levels you can spend points on both attributes and skills. Attributes affect your combat abilities while skills give you additional bonuses or types of strategic capabilities you can bring to the fight. As you play the game you will find drops from enemy AI that you can equip, trade, sell or reverse engineer to try and create something even better

Q. What are some of the key changes that have been made since opening the game to beta testers? Who get’s first priority in getting into the Closed Beta?

A. Now that the closed beta has started we are fixing more than just bugs. The crafting system has already gone through a complete overhaul based on early feedback as have mission rewards. We have also added several interface improvements and tweaked the driving model to enhance the way vehicles control. We want true fans of Auto Assault in the beta, so customers that purchase the pre-sale box get priority during our closed beta roll out.

Q. What is Dynamic Loot?

A. All the loot in Auto Assault is dynamically generated to be statistically unique. This will allow players to continue to hunt for loot that is always just a little better than anything else they might own. It also means that no two players will have the exact same inventory…even if you both have a flame thrower, it is likely that the stats on that weapon will differ for each player, so in essence, every item is rare in Auto Assault.

Q. Can I ‘Craft in Auto Assault’?

A. Crafting ties into the dynamic loot system, allowing players to have the opportunity to be the only player in the game capable of making a particular piece of equipment. Players can train in multiple disciplines and, through practice, can gain new crafting abilities. Some items in the game allow for multiple enhancements that crafters can utilize through experimentation on an object. Though there are no set recipes for enhancements, different commodities will tend towards a particular class of enhancements. The more the crafter experiments the better the chance for greater enhancements, but this also increases the chance for failure.

Q. Are there traditional RPG missions in Auto Assault?

A. There are a number of major story arcs for the players to discover as they play each race. You will learn more about why your race is where it is today, and where your race plans to take what is left of the Earth from here. There are a wide variety of mission types in the game. Some you will have seen before in other MMORPGs, like deliveries or kill tasks and some are completely unique to Auto Assault – for instance environmental destruction or that ability to jump over obstacles.

At the end of many of the story arcs in Auto Assault are instanced missions for either the individual player or their convoy. Instances include scripted events, frequently showing off our physics engine, a feature found typically in single player games only. Giving the players a way to feel a sense of progress and change of the world, Auto Assault remembers the missions you have completed on these maps so that when you return the map will progress to its next state. For example, if you destroy a base on a map, you may return to find the base being rebuilt by another enemy faction or the base may be completely gone replaced by a new mining facility your own faction needs help setting up.

These instances often conclude with a variety of cool boss encounters. The types of encounters range from souped-up vehicles to alien craft which require the destruction of a number of items on the map to even begin to damage them.

Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

Our beta test for Auto Assault is proceeding very well; we've introduced a new online process for NDAs that makes it as simple as a few mouse clicks to get approved and into the beta. We hit a new high for server population this week and we know it'll be jumping even higher in the weeks to come as we add thousands more to the beta. There’s still time to sign up; simply direct your browser to https://secure.plaync.com/aa_beta.html.

We recently kicked off the first of our Roadhouse Sessions, teleconferences intended to give selected news organizations and gaming websites a chance to learn more about Auto Assault. Every week we focus on a different topic; last week dealt with character creation, leveling, and stats. A number of sites that took part in have posted their impressions: MMORPG (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/149/setView/features/loadFeature/143), RPGVault (http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/627/627229p1.html), and TenTonHammer (http://autoassault.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=3&meid=31).

TenTonHammer also has published a Q&A with NetDevil's Scott "Scorch" Brown, available at http://autoassault.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=5&meid=32.

We've concluded our Supersonic Sounds of the Central Wastelands month with a fourth MP3 track from the Auto Assault soundtrack (http://www.autoassault.com/downloads/music.html), created by the game's music composer and sound designer, Richard Dekkard.

Planet Auto Assault (http://www.autoassault.org/) has started a new contest, offering Auto Assault hats, signed concept art, pre-sale boxes, art prints, and posters.

Our major Recon item this week deals with Convoys in Auto Assault - what they are intended for and their benefits to players (http://www.autoassault.com/recon/convoys.html).





Have a great weekend!

--- The Auto Assault Team

Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

We are proud to announce that earlier this week we were presented with Yahoo’s “Best MMO of E3” award. The full story is available on the Yahoo! Games site at http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/feature/118658 and we’ve added it to the Auto Assault at E3 page on our own site, http://www.autoassault.com/e3_2005.html, which showcases all of the tremendous coverage about our game from E3 2005. The Auto Assault team would like to thank everyone who came out to see us at the show. If you weren’t able to attend, that also means you missed the fiery hot performances by The Mutaytor. Now is your chance to see what all the excitement was about by watching the video they’ve compiled with clips from their performances in this QuickTime clip: http://www.mutaytor.com/video/Mutaytor_E3.mov

The “Supersonic Sounds of the Central Wastelands” series on our site continues this week with the second MP3, “Wanderer,” from the Auto Assault soundtrack by composer Richard Dekkard. The tracks are available in the Downloads section, http://www.autoassault.com/downloads/music.html

In Recon news, the Mutant Shaman and Biomek Agent classes have been added at http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_class_shaman.html and http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_faction_biomek.html respectively. Check them out to find out more about how these classes contribute to the battle for their faction’s dominance in the post-apocalyptic world. If you’re itching to see more, browse through our updated Screenshots http://www.autoassault.com/downloads/ss_gallery/screenshots.html and Concept Art http://www.autoassault.com/downloads/concept.html sections.

If all of that has you jonesing to get behind the wheel of your very own Tonko Hammer or Shemi 10, head over to https://secure.plaync.com/aa_beta.html and sign up for a chance to be a part of our great community of beta testers. Another wave of invitations will be going out soon. Watch for more news at http://www.autoassault.com



Have a blast this weekend!

- The Auto Assault Team

Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

We’re back from E3, tired and weary, but did we have a great time! We appreciate everyone stopping by the booth, jamming with The Mutaytor (weren’t they awesome?!), and playing Auto Assault in droves. Now that E3 is done and gone, the in-depth previews, booth reviews, and various awards are starting to come out, and so far Auto Assault has gotten its share of positive press everywhere we look. We’re stoked and working that much harder to get the game on a store shelf near you as soon as possible!

We are proud to announce that the Game Critics Awards site, which is comprised of 33 media outlets from around the world, has nominated Auto Assault as one of the five best online multiplayer games of the show (the full nominee list is available at http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/nom.html).
A wide selection of information, links, and images from E3 can be seen at http://www.autoassault.com/e3_2005.html. Some new previews are now available from G4TV (http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/features/51828/E3_2005_NCsoft_Booth_Report.html) and RPGFan (http://rpgfan.com/news/2005/1508.html).

We have a number of updates this week on the Auto Assault (http:/www.autoassault.com) website, including a new chapter in our historical preludes, called As Good As New (http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_history_prelude_chapter4.html), a look at the Mutant Archon class (http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_class_archon.html), and we’ve added the first entry in our new Enemies section (http://www.autoassault.com/recon/enemies.html), detailing the Pike Duster (http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_enemies_pikeduster.html).

Our beta is still going strong and we are in the process of selecting the next wave of testers to join us. It’s not too late to register! Zoom over to https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/plaync_aa_beta_signup.pl and sign up!

--- The Auto Assault Team

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Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

We are proud to announce the grand opening of the Auto Assault Public Forum at http://boards.autoassault.com. We cordially invite you to join us and the growing Auto Assault community in discussions about our highly anticipated vehicular combat MMO.

The Recon section has been updated with an article entitled “Destruction,” a prime feature of what makes Auto Assault so damned cool. Read all about it here: http://www.autoassault.com/recon.

Also presented for your reading pleasure is the recent interview by GameOgre with Auto Assault Community Coordinator Valerie “Pann” Massey, available at http://www.gameogre.com/autoassaultinterview.htm.

Wishing you all a fun (and safe!) St. Patty’s Day!

- The Auto Assault team

Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

Just a quick little note to let you know that we updated the Auto Assault website today. In this week’s Recon feature update, we have introduced information about Infantry. In addition to the ripples of sheer maniacal pleasure people get while playing Auto Assault and blasting buildings into smoking rubble, there’s a special sort of glee one feels when mowing down these expendable cogs in the bad guys’ arsenals. Read more about them here: http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_feature_infantry.html.

The Rocky Mountain News (http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_84_3592667,00.html) ran a nice little story about their recent visit to the NetDevil office and preview of Auto Assault. Though the reporter accidentally got SamuraiPenguin’s real name wrong (it’s Ryan, not Brian, Seabury,) the article is a good read and features some new artwork. Check it out!

The light is still green for our beta sign-up! If you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for? Go to http://www.plaync.com/aa_beta.html. It’s fast, free and if you are selected as a tester, you get a car! (In the game, of course…) =)

- The Auto Assault team

Greetings from the Central Wastelands!

We’d like to encourage you take a road trip over to your favorite bookstore or newsstand and pick up a copy of this month’s Computer Games magazine. It’s the one with the badass car on the cover under the big, yellow letters that spell AUTO ASSAULT - you can’t miss it, and wouldn’t want to! Inside are eight pages overflowing with exciting, new information about character classes, killer cars and Hazard Modes.

We also wanted to let you know that our website was updated this morning with a new Recon article -

http://www.autoassault.com/recon/recon_feature_death.html

- explaining how the icy hand of death is smacked down in Auto Assault.