Huxley

Huxley (헉슬리) is a Korean multiplayer first-person shooter computer game with persistent player characters published by Webzen Games Inc.. It is being developed for Microsoft Windows. A Xbox 360 port was planned, but it has been put on an indeterminate hold. Huxley initially was going to be cross platform, but according to statements made at the 2009 E3 Expo press conference that feature is currently excluded from development. The contract to operate the game in China was sold to The9 for $35 million USD on February 12, 2007, considered the largest export transaction up until then for a Korean-developed game.

A trailer for the game was released in 2007 as a special DVD used to demonstrate LG LCD TVs.

In June 2009 NHN USA released the first English Closed Beta Test via its free games portal ijji.com. The initial test had a small number of users and was carried out over a space of two weeks. Keys for the test were made available through ijji(Globally) and FilePlanet(USA and Canada).

The second Closed Beta Test was initiated in late-July 2009 and lasted until the 12th of August. The second test allowed many more players to test the game. During the last two days of the test a high-volume stress test was carried out on to the servers where everyone with an ijji account was permitted to play the game during test hours.

In August 2010 an official message was posted on the North American Huxley forums at IJJI. Huxley for the North American region will now be self hosted by Webzen.

In April 2010 Huxley was integrated with Hangame game portal and went into open beta on May 3.

Plot
In the near future, Nuclearites bombarded the world. Destructive earthquakes, massive tsunami and dramatic climate changes wreak havoc around the globe, isolating continents and driving the human race into chaos. Those who survive the destruction dream of tranquillity, but an eruption among the human race and the appearance of horrible mutants drives the world into further disorder. Racism and oppression cause rebellious uprisings and war that divide the landscape between two powers: Sapiens and Alternative. At the heart of the war emerges a powerful energy source called the Lunarites. The Lunarites were created by Huxley, a scientist and possible saviour.

Both factions seek glory and victory, fighting mercilessly for the Lunarites and their very existence.

The story was thought to be based on the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, hence the name, however Webzen has stated there are no tie-ins to the book's story saying it was just an inspiration.

The game's visual style is reminiscent of the StarCraft series of games, which are extremely popular in South Korea (where the developer is based).

Gameplay
The speed and style of Huxley is fast paced and team oriented, combining gameplay from twitch shooters such as Unreal Tournament with the character advancement and large worlds seen in MMORPG's like World of Warcraft. In a recent interview, Huxley's main producer Kijong Kang said that the cities in Huxley will be able to accommodate up to 5,000 (according to recent publications that number was increased to 10,000 since summer 2006) people, and the individual battles will support over a hundred players. However, due to major changes in the game's engine and budget, the number of battling players has been reduced to 64 players (32 against 32) at the most. This number may or may not increase once the game is released.

There are two main types of Player versus Player battles. These are called Skirmishes and Battlefields. The skirmishes are small battles between two teams of 8 players on small to medium sized maps. One player acts as the host player and can choose between a variety of settings and gametypes. The other players in the game then connect to the host and are separated into teams based on their character's faction. Battlefields are much larger scale battles with higher stakes and more players. In the Open Frontier Test of Huxley, this mode supported 64 players, 32 of each faction. Battlefields generally take place on much larger maps, and have objectives that players need to capture, retrieve, gather, or defend. Because hosting 64 players on a player's PC would be incredibly difficult, the Battlefields are hosted by dedicated servers.

In the Player versus Environment portion of Huxley, players can either play alone or group up with three others to kill AI-controlled monsters and complete quests. All fighting takes place in instance dungeons. There is also a town where players can meet up to talk, trade, shop, and form parties.

Leveling and experience
In the early part of the character advancement player system, players can shape their character in the style they like best. After that, players can then add depth to their characters. ‘Experiences’ and ‘Battle points’ are two elements of character advancement. ‘Experiences’ will affect the earlier part of character development and ‘Battle Points’ will affect the later part of a character’s development in a big way.

In the earlier part, by acquiring licenses, characters can have opportunities to use upgraded weapons and armor. In the later part of the game, players will concentrate on developing their characters to be more effective under any circumstance. One developer has stated, "We are planning to make the earlier part of character development relatively fast and the later part of development a bit slower but more abundant. This is because we decided that too much difference between characters abilities that affect combat result is not good for an FPS game."

Webzen has considered the fact that in most MMOGs the players at earlier levels have no chance of defeating those at the higher levels, and therefore they have adjusted the game to make skill more significant than long periods of playing the game and leveling up. Leveling up will give players advantages, such as more slots for upgrades and perhaps faster aiming, but a lower level player can still measure up to a higher one.

Vehicles
Huxley includes vehicles for both player-vs-player and player-vs-environment gameplay, as well as general transportation. Gameplay footage has shown several visually interesting SciFi vehicles, including an APC, an aircraft resembling UT2004's Raptor, a large energy based tank, and a small assault buggy. Vehicles are used in both combat and transportation.

Developer interviews have also stated that players can obtain motorcycles for personal transportation, and that they will mainly serve as status symbols for wealthy players and as a quicker mean of transportation through town.

Weapons
Huxley has nine different types of weapons. Each class specializes in three weapons, and also has the option of using four weapons of the other classes, although with less proficiency. The weapon types are as follows.

Enforcer Shotgun: Fires a blast of pellets like a standard shotgun. It is arguably the most damaging weapon in the game. Flinger: Similar to a grenade launcher, this gun fires a projectile that detonates after a certain distance. Discharger (Flame): Similar to a flamethrower, this gun emits a stream of flames out of the end. Discharger (Cryo): A modified discharger, it emits ice instead of fire, slowing the enemy down in their place. The tradeoff is that Cryo Dischargers generally do less damage than Flame dischargers.

Avenger Machine Gun: A fully automatic weapon that partially bypasses opponents shields, making it an effective weapon against Enforcers. Rocket Launcher: A standard rocket launcher. Fires projectiles that explode upon contact with a wall or a player, and cause splash damage. Optical Rifle (Hitscan): An assault rifle that fires energy shots. When these shots hit an enemy, their position on the radar is sent to all players on your team, making it a great utility weapon. It also has a small splash damage effect. Optical Rifle(Projectile): Same as the hitscan optical rifle, only it fires energy balls that fly through the air and have an increased splash damage range.

Phantom Sniper Rifle: A standard sniper rifle with a scope. Getting a head shot is nearly always a guaranteed kill. Regulator (Hitscan): A precision energy rifle that deals less damage than the Sniper Rifle, but fires significantly faster. You can also use it to regenerate your teammates' shields. Regulator (Projectile): Same as the hitscan regulator, only it fires projectiles and also deals splash damage. Inquisitor: A remote control rocket that can be controlled by the player. It is most useful for destroying enemy vehicles.

There are also several different modifications of each type of weapon. These usually have minor tradeoffs like doing more damage with a lower fire rate, or being more accurate with less damage.

Some special weapon types start to appear for higher level classes. Notable ones of these are a splitting rocket launcher in which the rocket splits into two after a distance and an optical rifle which does a damage over time or slows the enemy. For the Enforcer they get special Flingers which have a longer distance of fire and will either stick the to wall or be able to be bounced off the wall. The Phantom gets Sniper rifles which have a chance to cause a devastating damage over time.

Abilities
Abilities, or skills, can be used in battle to give a player to a tactical advantage. As a player levels up, they are rewarded with new and more powerful skills. The type of skills available to the player differs based on their class. Skills are used by being "equipped" to armour. The number of skills that can be equipped depends on the players level and the rank of the armour. This system is very similar in concept to Call of Duty 4's perk system.

There are two types of skills, active and passive. Passive skills are skills that act as buffs, or skills that activate automatically when a certain condition is met, examples of this include health regeneration, and the ability to drop a flash grenade when low on health. Active skills are activated manually by hitting the assigned key.

Here are some samples of abilities, provided by Huxley Evolved

Enforcer

Rush : Provides a quick boost of speed. (Enforcer startout skill)

Tackle : Performs a very short dash, but if an enemy is hit by this will perform a massive amount of damage.

Head Shot Defence : This skill negates all headshots done to Enforcers causing them to act as normal hits.

Taunt : This ability draws all enemies within 20meters to attack the Enforcer.

Invulnerability : Protected from all physical damage for a period of time.

Avenger

Homing Rocket : This is performed with right click of the mouse and tracks the nearest enemy in front of the players view at the time of firing up to 25m.

Rocket Lock-On : This is performed the same as Homing Rocket but doesn't cost skill energy. It tracks a player after traveling 25m.

Weapon Stabilization : This is a passive skill which reduces the spread of bullets with the machinegun.

Hp-Scan : This skill allows the Avenger to see enemies health. This can also let you see the position of enemies through the wall as long as they're not invisible.

Battlefield Scan : This ability marks all enemies on the minimap for a few seconds in the last position for the entire team.

Infrared Vision : This skill lets you see Phantoms who have gone invisible.

Disengauge : This skill teleports the Avenger to the nearest spawn point.

Teleport : This teleports the Avenger a distance forward instantly. (Avenger startout skill)

Back-Teleport : This teleports the Avenger backwards a distance instantly.

Phantom

Sprint : Provides a slow but long lasting burst of speed. (Phantom startout skill)

Decoy : Creates a dummy image of your player to trick enemies.

Cloak : Become invisible to others (valuable to a sniper). Powerful Sniper Shot : Increased damage with sniper rifles.

Flashbang Drops a flashbang blinding all opponents in the phantoms position.

Shield Lock-On This skill allows the phantom to lock on a teammate to recharge their shields using the regulator.

Hosting
In June 2008, NHN USA announced that it had secured the rights to distribute Huxley via its ijji portal.

In August 2010, NHN USA announced that they will be transferring the publishing duties of Huxley: The Dystopia to developer Webzen.