FireFall - I don't see nothin' wrong with a little thump & grind.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > FireFall - I don't see nothin' wrong with a little thump & grind.

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Christopher: May 29, 2006

Come play the constantly evolving, free-to-play, massively multiplayer shooter with sandbox elements, e-sport PvP, challenging PvE, crafting, and more.

What is Firefall?

"Firefall is a sci-fi MMO shooter set in a future Earth. A starship disaster unleashes a titanic energy storm called the Melding. It envelopes the earth, wipes out most of the planet, and spawns hostile creatures who self-proclaim themselves the Chosen.

Players must band together. Uniting in the form of armies, players will need to collect resources to craft weapons and vehicles to fight back the apocalyptic threat of the Chosen invasion. Special Nano-technology suits of armor called Battleframes enhance the human race in this future Earth and allow players to jumpjet across battlefields, wield a variety of exotic weapons of heavy destruction, and employ special abilities to reclaim the world.

Created by seasoned developers including the team-lead for vanilla WoW and the lead-designer of Tribes 1 and 2, Firefall�s combat is fast paced, furious, and plays like a top tier action oriented shooter. But Firefall is equally an MMO, plunging hundreds of players into an all-out Player vs. Environment war against the Chosen army. It is the largest co-op shooter made to date and offers a unique gameplay experience not found any where else."

Who are the Chosen?

"The Chosen are an intelligent and malevolent race. They invade by drop pods. They establish patrols, build outposts and lay siege to towns. They strike anywhere and at any time in small waves or huge incursions. These barrages of strategic attacks by the Chosen create a fully dynamic Massive Multiplayer Online open world warfront.

Players have the choice to watch the world fall by the wayside or fight back against the Chosen. Defend key points on the warfront to defy the Melding's consumption of the world. Advance into the heart of Chosen territory to reclaim areas once belonging to the Accord. Working together in cross-server events, players will uncover new parts of the world with each campaign to recoup the world and drive back the Melding storm."

Okay, I'm interested. What are some of the FireFall's features?

First off, the game is completely free; free to download and free to play. Microtransactions consist of mostly cosmetic items with a few exceptions but none will give you much of a competitive edge. The game offers open world PvE (open world PvP is in development), an in depth crafting system, e-sport PvP with shoutcasting and spectating, jetpacks, battleframe and warpaint customization, vehicles, missions, dynamic events, and a story-driven campaign.

What is the current state of the game?

The game is finally in open beta. Here is a screenshot of where we are in the developmental timeline:

What is PvP like in FireFall?

"Fighting in Firefall is fun and completely skill based. Movement is fast and vertical thanks to the jump jet feature on every Battleframe. There are no dice rolls or RPG elements to get in the way of your personal capabilities as a player. A natural extension of our combat system was to create an array of e-Sports PvP maps, where teams can compete on ladders and in our planned 2013 tournament schedule complete with a 1 million dollar prize pool."

Tell me about crafting.

The majority of items in Firefall are created with resources, known as Crystite Hybrids. These resources are generated dynamically in the world and players must survey for optimal mining points. You can check your map for the location of specific resources that you need. Once found, special rocket propelled mining drills called Thumpers are used to collect the resources. There are millions of possible combinations that create unique properties in player crafted items.

The current crafting system is very complex and has a bit of a learning curve but the customization is very cool once you get the hang of it.
The RAWR crafting guide is very useful.

Rawr posted:

The Firefall crafting system is by far one of the more unique ones that have existed within gaming, although it is certainly not the first to try to give meaningful depth to the process of resource gathering and item creation while trying to maintain enough simplicity to be accessible from the start. It borrows heavily from the crafting system found in Star Wars Galaxies and throws in a healthy helping of EVE Online. So if you have played either of those games the system will be more familar to you. For everyone else lets cover some quick basics.

1. QUALITY = QUALITY

The first thing to remember with Firefall is that all resources are not equal, they have there own properties, they are varied and they will periodically change their stats. We cover this in more detail with our Understanding Resources guide. Ultimately all resources have a defining stat called Quality, which is a total of the values the resource has for each stat. Unlike other crafting systems from games franchises like Fallout or Minecraft the item created will also have a Quality value and this is derived directly from the resources and components you used to create it. So just because you create a Shotgun II you will not always find that it is better than Shotgun I. This can seem confusing at first but as long as you remember that quality in means quality out you will be fine.

2. COMPONENTS AND SUB-COMPONENTS

Most items you make within Firefall will not simply accept resources and product the final product. The vast majority will need you to peice together several components to produce the item you want. While you may not see much point to this process during early crafting stages the system really doesn't come into full realization until later stages when you will be able to finely control the stats on items with precision. For example, a Plasma Cannon has many features that define how it works. From reloading speed and splash damage to rate of fire and clip size you will be able to manipulate these features through the quality of the components you use to create that weapon. Since resource qualities change and because everyone has freedom to customize the item being created you will find that it is very rare to find two items within Firefall with identical features and stats. As with resources the components will change their quality value based upon the quality of resources being used, the same goes for sub-components which are items use to create components.

3. MORE POWER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

In many games there is one simple rule to tell if an item is better or worse than the one you have. If it does more of anything, then it is better. But in Firefall power has a cost. This comes in the form of battleframe constraints which are defined as Power, Mass and CPU. These are constraints function as a pool of points, as you equip items they will use one or more of these points up. If an item requires more Mass, Power or CPU points than you have remaining on that battleframe then the item cannot be equipped. Typically a high quality item is very demanding so players may find they can equip a high quality item only if they take Stock quality gear for everything else. Sometimes that extra 10DPS on the weapon you made is not justified if it requires an additional 100 points of Power which you can only afford by removing an ability or using poorer quality armor plating. Keep this in mind when crafting.

4. A PLAYER-RUN ECONOMY

While it will quickly become clear that you can't get most of your gear from vendors found within Firefall not everyone understands how they will stay well equipped and why the game was designed this way. To begin with lets examine the 'why'. MMOs thrive on having active communities. This requires interaction of meaningful kinds beyond duels and the occasionally random Tiki-torch party that happens in Copacobana. When players need to interact with each other they natually build up associations, this can then lead to friendships and that ultimately leads to more enjoyment for the player. A player-run is the perfect way to encourage interaction because crafting is always easier when you have a strong network of associates or friends who can keep you well informed and supplied. In addition to this Red 5 has been smart enough to cause resources to shift qualities and to ensure that players have enough control over their crafted items to ensure they are usually unique, these two factors make it very hard for anyone (or any group) to create a monopoly on specific items which can happen so easily in other games. But at its core, you will find that a player-run economy does wonders for the community spirit you will find in Firefall.

5. CRAFTING REQUIRES REAL EXPERIENCE

EXP points have always been the best way to express progression within games when it comes to raw numbers. It is hard to define how 'experienced' a character is based upon their actions or performance and award a level based upon that. But Firefall crafting isn't simply progressed through by unlocking crafting tiers, it also takes real experience and understanding to get good at it. So if you want to genuinely level-up your crafting skill, check out our other guides. Starting with: Understanding Resources.

Check the aforementioned RAWR web page for more in-depth crafting guides.

Got screenshots?

Yeah, the game is absolutely beautiful. Ready to try it out yet?

Why is this a great time time to join?

Armies have been added, goons are banding together, there is a new progression system, chosen wars, dynamic events, and intricate crafting!

Okay I'm interested. How do I get started?

The game is now in open beta so just head to the main web page and set up an account, hop in our mumble and wait for authentication.

I've logged in. Game looks cool. But I don't know what to do!

There isn't much hand-holding in FireFall. This is not a bad thing. After the initial few missions, you are basically on your own. FireFall implements a lot of sandbox elements. PvP is very easy to get involved with. PvE and crating is a bit more complex. ARES missions, fighting off Chosen incursions, progressing through the tiers, scanning and thumping for resources, and crafting your desired gear are just some of your options. Get together with your fellow goons and ask questions. We are a very helpful bunch and enjoy helping new players get acclimated. More information will be added to this thread over time.

Try this guide for new players. It's a great resource to explain the basics and get you started. (Thanks babydonthurtme for the link.)

Are there addons/mods?

Yes. FireFall uses a lua-based GUI which fully supports user-created modifications and addons.

Check out the addons subforum for the newest addons and latest updates.

Here are a few you are definitely going to want to check out.

Melder
Helps install all your addons. Definitely use this.

Reactor Bar
This is by far the best addon available. It features ability and deployable information, energy and health feedback, glider angle display and more. It is also fully customizable. Oh yeah, and it's made by your fellow goon Lemon King! :love:

Reign
Another amazing addition by our homeboy Lemon King. This addon allows you to create and load customized courses for racing!

Site
This allows you to create and customize your own persistent waypoints in the game. Also very useful.

Cartographer
This allows you to create and customize your own persistent waypoints in the game, as well as share them with each other. Many goons use this to keep track of good thumping spots or ARES missions that are out of the SIN network.

Thumper Monitor
Adds information about your thumper to your UI so you will always be able to see how much health and time it has left. You can also stare at other player's thumpers to add it to your UI. Very useful when thumping for resources.

Nightvision
The nights in Firefall get very dark. Some people don't like how dark it gets. Nightvision dynamically adjusts your gamma and exposure levels to brighten up the night.

Check out more addons at the Brontodon web site.

How do I get together with goons?

:siren:

To meet up with goons in game and join the goon army, hop in mumble. :siren:

After logging in, right click your name and edit your user comment to include your SA Forums Name, a link to your SA profile (put something related to FireFall in it), and your in-game name. Please be patient and idle until someone registers you.

:siren:

If you're in game, ALWAYS IDLE IN MUMBLE! It's the BEST way to get together with one another in game and, while it can be useful at times, the in-game VOIP is still a bit buggy for some people. We also have had to make separate clans do to the 20 person limit so this is another way (in addition to the magical alliance bot) that we can all stay connected. :siren:

Here is the mumble information:

Address: [mumble-us.cleanvoice.ru
Port: 62307

:siren:

The mumble server resets once or twice a day. If you try to log in and it's down just try again in a few minutes. :siren:

Since closed beta, there has been two goon armies in the game: [GOONS] Goon Squad and [LLJK] Goon Squad II. Both armies have been subject to inactivity purges for months and have reached a point where the only the hardcore poopsockers remain. Since armies are limited to 20 players (thanks Red 5!) you may have to start your own goon army.

Current armies:
[GOONS] Goon Squad
[LLJK] Goon Squad II
[FAT] Goon Platoon

If you wish to apply for an army, press the O key in-game, scroll down to Army List, and left-click. You can now search for the army you wish to join. If you search via the army tag, make sure that you include the square brackets! E.g., [GOONS], not GOONS.

What is this GoonFall/AllianceBot thingy?
Red 5 has not implemented any sort of alliance level chat in the game. This makes it difficult for communication across multiple armies. Most large groups have taken to using an in-game IRC addon for communication. Since addons are difficult for goons to handle, our top goon wizards have created a chat relay program that can connect to Red 5's chat servers and join every single goon army channel. It then relays chat back and forth between the channels, effectively turning army chat into alliance chat. Yay!

Christopher fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Mar 23, 2014

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:10

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# ? May 3, 2024 00:56

Christopher: May 29, 2006

Developers Station: This section is reserved for information that is helpful for those creating addons and the like. If you have any delicious developmental data to display, send me a message.

Seibastian posted:

So I have been working on some stuff for connecting to Firefall's chat and crafting systems from outside of the client. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to work on it from here on out so I figured I would just provide a link to my repo and anyone could pick it up if they wanted to.

First off, here is a link to the repository:
https://bitbucket.org/mpy/firefall-stuff/overview

Now, as a quick overview, I'll list what is currently in the repo.

Chat
* Basic documentation on the connection and authentication process (It is XMPP). This should hopefully be enough information for anyone to write or modify their own XMPP client to auth against their servers.
* Barebones XMPP client set up to connect to Firefall's servers written in Python

Login/Crafting
* Documentation on the authentication process/generation of the auth headers for requests
* Python module that can handle the startup and generation of requests given some information
* Minor documentation on the crafting process, and URIs for some of the functionality
* Test python script that uses the login module to fetch the status of your workbenches. If a workbench is open, it will queue up a pack of sonic detonators as an example of using the crafting services.

As for what remains to be done:
* Get list of items/recipes IDs for use with the crafting services
* Wrap the crafting stuff in some functional UI for everyone to use
* Modify an existing XMPP capable chat client so that it can auth against FF's servers

On a side note, I was also looking into how scan hammers function along with the format of the data being sent over the wire. All I could figure out about the data was that some of it is a heartbeat message used as a keepalive or something. As for the scan hammer, I was only able to get as far as finding where it prints out the debug message when it is used, so pretty much no progress there.

I realize my documentation on their stuff is pretty sparse, so if anyone has questions about anything in there just PM me or ask here.

What's coming next?

Thanks to xxEightxx for the highlights from the latest Firefall Live.

xxEightxx posted:

Highlights (excluding the obvious)

new pvp map

graphical changes to your frame as you level up

expanded reward system

Sargasso Sea (new melding pocket zone, new monsters

Antarctica (new zone)

Diamond head (5 player instance)

Useful Links

RAWR: Refined Armor Weapons and Resources - Extensive crafting guides.

Brontodon.com - General info and addons.

Thump Dump DB - General info and extensive player/army database.

Astrek Association - General info and starting guides.

Christopher fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jun 7, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:11

Cruseydr: May 18, 2010; I am not an atomic playboy.

I am looking forward to trying out the new patch, as I was having a hard time motivating myself to grind out the Tier 2 stuff.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:23

Christopher: May 29, 2006

Cruseydr posted:

I am looking forward to trying out the new patch, as I was having a hard time motivating myself to grind out the Tier 2 stuff.

I'm less interested in unlocking anything new. I am, however, harvesting xp since it won't be wiped in the new patch.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:28

Tufty: May 21, 2006; The Traffic Safety Squirrel

Wait, Firefall is set on Earth? That makes me sad. Because of Copacabana I always assumed it was kind of party planet that turned out to be infested with alien bugs and The Chosen hate fun so they're attacking it and the Accord are going all out on defence because nobody fucks with our party planet.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:31

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

Thanks for the new thread and organizing this stuff Christopher!

The new milestone patch is going to be awesome, I'm also pretty sure I read that its bringing a new New Player Experience thing too, so hopefully it will be friendlier to new players. I'm personally stoked on the battleframe and crafting revamps.

If you're getting into the game for the first time, wait until after the patch! A lot is changing!

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:45

poptart_fairy: Apr 8, 2009; by R. Guyovich

Why do I get a feeling the whole "you can lose entire servers to the enemy " thing is just a fancy way of dealing with servers that plummet in terms of population?

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:55

Manifest Dynasty: Feb 29, 2008

I haven't played this since a while back, and everything felt really laggy/janky/weird half the time and there seemed to be nothing to do. I stopped and kinda forgot about it. I guess I should try it again!

# ? Mar 21, 2013 17:59

xxEightxx: Mar 5, 2010; Oh, it's true. You are Brock Landers!; Salad Prong

Cruseydr posted:

I am looking forward to trying out the new patch, as I was having a hard time motivating myself to grind out the Tier 2 stuff.

I got a little burned with the new changes, I have 120k exp on both t2 frames for assault and dread, and was close to that with engineer. Saving up for the now defunct T3. But oh well not like I'm going to be upset having a motivation to play assault now.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 18:28

precedence: Jun 28, 2010

xxEightxx posted:

I got a little burned with the new changes, I have 120k exp on both t2 frames for assault and dread, and was close to that with engineer. Saving up for the now defunct T3. But oh well not like I'm going to be upset having a motivation to play assault now.

There will be bigger trees within a class or something comparable. You probably aren't burned. There are a lot of people with plenty more than 200k on multiple frames.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 18:46

Pindakaas: Jul 8, 2003; I'm not a baby I'm a man! An Anchorman!

With tiers gone how are my shoulder reactor things supposed to get bigger?

# ? Mar 21, 2013 19:09

solarNativity: Nov 11, 2012

RIP servers.

Will I be able to get different-looking Sniper Rifles at any point? The default one is pretty ugly.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 19:18

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

N is for Nipples posted:

RIP servers.

Will I be able to get different-looking Sniper Rifles at any point? The default one is pretty ugly.

Different weapon models is one thing I hope they add.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 19:42

Tufty: May 21, 2006; The Traffic Safety Squirrel

Nooooooo! I was just about to log on to craft 3 more polymorphous fibres so I can finish making an Advanced Squad Thumper but the server is going down for the milestone patch in 5 minutes and they take 45 minutes each to craft

# ? Mar 21, 2013 19:56

Lemon King: Oct 4, 2009; im nt posting wif a mark on my head

Way better OP than I was making back in December.
Servers down, new patch on the way!

# ? Mar 21, 2013 19:59

precedence: Jun 28, 2010

CLAM DOWN posted:

Different weapon models is one thing I hope they add.

Both defiance and destiny appear to have much more customization with gear and weapons. I assume since these are firefall's main competitors they will try to add in more customization as they come out.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 20:37

Nalin: Sep 29, 2007; Hair Elf

Instead of having people fill this thread up with invite requests, you could always just point them to the currently existing thread:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3452147

# ? Mar 21, 2013 20:47

Christopher: May 29, 2006

Thanks Nalin. I'll add that as an option and see how it goes for now. If it gets too cluttered I'll remove invites as an option from this thread.

Christopher fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:00

Thor-Stryker: Nov 11, 2005

~~Just an fyi, I've been trying to get in contact with the guy that has [GOON]. The other option is to do {GOON} or (GOON) as different brackets work despite having the same lettering.~~

Edit: Problem Solved, thanks Ernutetnoiraud!

Thor-Stryker fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:15

Ernie.: Aug 31, 2012

Thor-Stryker posted:

Just an fyi, I've been trying to get in contact with the guy that has [GOON]. The other option is to do {GOON} or (GOON) as different brackets work despite having the same lettering.

What? Why? I was on throughout the night yesterday. You were in the afk channel and I couldn't send you a message to organize anything, but I did try to ask Christopher. He said he'd been busy and will do it tonight. Don't worry, I will get this sorted out tonight with you guys.

EDIT: To ease things, I'm idling the Mumble now. Beam me up (whenever), Scotty.

EDIT2: [GOON] Goon Squad are now together.

Ernie. fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:25

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

Thank god, we almost had to go with NOOG.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:32

Paraduck: Jan 7, 2010; OMG I'M A CHOCOBO.
KWEH! KWEH!

~~This looks amazing, I would love a key.~~

Paraduck fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:35

Ernie.: Aug 31, 2012

I just posted a few in the PGS thread.

Ernie. fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:36

Paraduck: Jan 7, 2010; OMG I'M A CHOCOBO.
KWEH! KWEH!

Ernutetnoiraud posted:

I just posted a few in the PGS thread.

Thanks!

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:37

sleeptides: Jul 7, 2006

So can someone go a bit more in depth about the term "open world PvE"? What does that actually mean in terms of how the game plays, and how close is it to a traditional mmo?

Is there leveling, questing, quest-hubs, etc.? Is any sort of instanced raiding planned?

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:41

Archonex: May 2, 2012; MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Not going to lie, the idea of having to retake entire servers from NPC's has me excited as hell.

That kind of NPC activity has been touted as a "feature" (Read: Not really a feature.) for years by different MMO's and games. No MMO has bothered to even try to pull it off properly, either. Mostly because it seems that none of them want to deal with players flipping their poo poo over their min-max questing time being hosed up.

The closest would be Rift when it was in beta. To the point where i've got fond memories of a nearby rift disgorging a freaking undead assassin to track my sorry rear end down and murder my character. But even that got ruined when they they nerfed the danger of rifts.

If Firefall gets it in properly i'm probably going to end up dropping a ton of money on this.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 21:43

My Gimmick Name: Sep 11, 2004

sleeptides posted:

So can someone go a bit more in depth about the term "open world PvE"? What does that actually mean in terms of how the game plays, and how close is it to a traditional mmo?

Is there leveling, questing, quest-hubs, etc.? Is any sort of instanced raiding planned?

As it was yesterday, you just run around and do events or kill random mobs for xp/crafting mats. There's a short quest chain at the start, but other than that is random events or start your own little king of the hill by dropping a thumper.

They added an open raid style boss event mob fairly recently, haven't gotten a chance to try it but I think it was just a zerg it untill it dies situation.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 22:03

Peechka: Nov 10, 2005

I have been paying this casually for a few weeks now and I gotta say, this game has me really excited. The base game right now is pretty dang good. It feels good, the controls are pretty crisp, I like the world design, the AI of the enemies is pretty spot on and the game at its current state is way more than playable and fun.

That being said, they really need to add more UI elements and some sort of better tutorial to get the basics down. It took me a few hours of loving around and finally hitting C to get my hammer out.

But yeah, this is the game im keeping an eye out for definitely. It feels like a cross between Borderlands and Tribes.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 22:04

xxEightxx: Mar 5, 2010; Oh, it's true. You are Brock Landers!; Salad Prong

sleeptides posted:

So can someone go a bit more in depth about the term "open world PvE"? What does that actually mean in terms of how the game plays, and how close is it to a traditional mmo?

Is there leveling, questing, quest-hubs, etc.? Is any sort of instanced raiding planned?

At present there is not an in depth questing system you might think of when you think of MMO. Instead there are persistent events that pop up that you can do. These evens are noted on the world map, and all you have to do is go to the event to participate in it (presuming it is still active when you get there). These events range from the easy: lasting a few minutes and soloable, to the more difficult, lasting a while, and not soloable (class dependant obviously). The events, off the top of my head are (my vernacular is by no means accurate because my finger is usually on the trigger blasting things into oblivion and not paying attention to the details):

1) Fix the thumper - a thumper has crashed, scattering its parts nearby. You collect the parts to send the thumper on its way while bandits pummel you.
2) Data retrieval from an LGV - while the data from a damaged lgv(motorcycle type vehicle) is uploaded you have to protect it from monsters that attack.
3) Waypoint take over - the choosen (evil npc) invade and take over a waypoint station. There are varying aspects to this, as the choosen arrive in drop pods, travel to the station, hack the mainframe to take it over, then set up camp. You can intervene at any point in that progression to stop the Choosen.
4) Drop pods - chosen drop pods will land randomly. Kill the drop pod and\or the nearby choosen.
5) Chosen incursion - larger drop pod scenario, where a larger choosen ship protected by a number of shielding pylons arrives with a large contingent of choosen. Kill the pylons to take down the shields, then kill the incursion ship.
6) Melding tornado - just what it sounds like, a melding (the evil stuff the arclight drive's tearing the fabric of space time resulted in) torando appears, you must destroy it by destroying a number of its cores.
7) Bounty hunting - there is one bounty terminal in the north. When there is an npc bounty in the world, it will show you where it is on your map. Slightly buggy. You do not need the terminal to receive the bounty award (if you stumble on the bounty target when you are running around, happens more often than you think)
8) LGV race - Just what it sounds like. Try to cover some a long distance in a certain amount of times. By the way did i mention there are no highways easily linking places? "Deer trails" best describes the road system in firefall.

There are also player activated events, the two most popular are 1) Baneclaw, you have to make a melding anomoly neutralizer (no small potatoes in that), and using it summons Baneclaw, a massive npc boss that requires 25 or people, and is as close as this game will get to a raid type scenario. Devs have said that Baneclaw is a tester for future type boss monster events to come. 2) Meld-thumping, make some sonic amplifier cores to push back the melding (its a veil that borders the entire world, enter it and you slowly lose health). Once in the previously inaccessable territory you can thump for very rare minerals (no idea how this works now since there was just a big shift in how minerals work).

This is just the beta events, if you look at the progression meter in the OP you will see the "Choosen War". There have been random samples of what this involves, like a chosen mothership invading copacabana, and it was loving awesome.

And remember if you ever get in a bind, position a brontodon herd between you and the baddies and watch the brontodons come to your rescue. Brontodon\Chosen fights are fun to watch.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 22:27

tlarn: Mar 1, 2013; You see,
God doesn't help little frogs.

He helps people like me.

sleeptides posted:

So can someone go a bit more in depth about the term "open world PvE"? What does that actually mean in terms of how the game plays, and how close is it to a traditional mmo?

Is there leveling, questing, quest-hubs, etc.? Is any sort of instanced raiding planned?

Open world as in you can immediately go anywhere and everywhere you want with no worries of being under- or overleveled, since the game has a strong lean towards skill-based gameplay rather than gear- or stat-based play. There used to be leveling, but it was then changed into tiers, and each class's (battleframe) tree was instead three branches which included gear and ability unlocks that you use your gathered XP on, as well as variants on gear and abilities. You unlock what you want for the most part, and at the end of the tree you can unlock the next tier, choosing between two new battleframes with their own specializations. However, thanks to skill-based play, you can do just about everything with a stock Tier-1 battleframe. You don't need gear and equipment at the end of your trees, but it does help.

Edit: Also every battleframe has a jetpack or rocket-boots, which adds a vertical element to exploration and fighting. That seems to get people's attention when I talk about this game and mention that.

There isn't the traditional Holy Trinity of Tank-DPS-Healer, though there kinda used to be. Every battleframe can hold its own in combat, each with their own play style. Yes, some battleframes have a decent lean towards certain roles, like the Dreadnaught's ability to avoid and mitigate damage and the Assault's mobility, but there isn't a real formal trinity anymore. The Biotech used to be a specialized healer, but has been completely overhauled to be arguably one of the better frames for combat, especially in PvE, in its later tiers.

At higher tiers, you can improve unlocked gear with minerals you gather through Thumping, which you can also do anywhere; it used to be literally anywhere, such as silly places like right on top of buildings and some scenery where it doesn't make sense, like on top of coral trees. The rule of thumb is, if you see dirt, you can Thump there. Thumpers are these big drills capable of guided flight with rocket boosters which automatically do their job, extracting minerals from the earth.

There's several different versions of Thumpers, which range from small Personal Thumpers and much larger ones; the larger it is, the more minerals in can carry per run, but the more enemies will spawn, sometimes even increasing in variety. If you fail to protect the Thumper, you not only lose the minerals it mined, you also permanently lose that Thumper. Thank goodness they're craftable, so make a stockpile of different sizes just in case.

Mineral deposit locations will change every once in a while or dry out after several Thumps, so just because you find a rich deposit in one spot at one time, there's no guarantee on whether it'll be the same mineral mix, quality, quantity, or just dirt the next time. It's not too hard to find these deposits though, thanks to the Scan Hammer. Just use it to smack the ground and you get a cone of effect in front of you that lets you see the presence and richness of mineral deposits in that local area.

There are some formal quests, but most content is done through dynamic events, such as walking up to a crashed vehicle and completing the given event or destroying Chosen drop-pods to stop them from spawning, which can also happen anywhere in the world. Enemies which aren't the local flora and fauna, the Chosen, will also try to storm and take watchtowers throughout the world, which obscures your world map and no longer lets you use that watchtower as a respawn point until it's taken back.

There's already a summonable world boss in the game which requires several full groups of people and coordinated play to take down; I'm not sure if traditional instanced raids will be a thing, but big badass creatures are already a thing!

:words:

I like Firefall.

tlarn fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Mar 21, 2013

# ? Mar 21, 2013 22:30

Doodles: Apr 14, 2001

You have 1 & 2 slightly mixed up. The thumper event is against monsters and the LGV one is against bandits.

Also, you forgot one other event, checking drones. That one is over in a specific area, where you go around relinking unlinked drones to their base. Each drone has a possibility of some sort of action, with the finale sometimes being a round against a set of Claws (giant pillbugs). In addition, in running around the territory you are almost certainly going to run into some of the other things listed above. There's one other event, a quest to find lost people with an antenna, but that thing has been hosed nine ways to hell from the moment it was introduced and is a good candidate to be pulled out completely.

Also, nothing more fun than getting a herd of brontodons to charge an incursion. All you have to do is stand back and take potshots at appropriate targets.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 22:40

VonLudwig: Apr 22, 2008

Note that the latest patch is doing away with tiers entirely, though. No longer are Accord frames something to burn through as fast as you can so you can get a good frame. They'll be equal in power to the manufacturer frames, but non-specialized, more flexible. You will be able to craft equipment for them, upgrade their specs, everything. It'll be really nice to have 15 viable battleframes. 20 when they finally release the kisuton frames. Plus they're no longer locked into a vertical progression model, where new frames released are just going to be slightly better versions of older ones.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 23:13

tlarn: Mar 1, 2013; You see,
God doesn't help little frogs.

He helps people like me.

VonLudwig posted:

Note that the latest patch is doing away with tiers entirely, though. No longer are Accord frames something to burn through as fast as you can so you can get a good frame. They'll be equal in power to the manufacturer frames, but non-specialized, more flexible. You will be able to craft equipment for them, upgrade their specs, everything. It'll be really nice to have 15 viable battleframes. 20 when they finally release the kisuton frames. Plus they're no longer locked into a vertical progression model, where new frames released are just going to be slightly better versions of older ones.

Yup, I'm definitely pumped for that. Makes for a great reason to come back into the game after taking a break from it to keep from burning out. :science:

# ? Mar 21, 2013 23:18

Christopher: May 29, 2006

So apparently the GOON tag is reserved by an unknown member. Our member who we thought had GOON reserved actually had [GOON] unnecessarily with the brackets. So we are deciding between GOONS, -GOON-, =GOONS=, and =GS=. It will show up as [GOONS], [-GOON-], [=GOON=], or [=GS=].

For now we're leaning toward [GOONS]. Feedback?

Note: If you have reserved GOON please let us know.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 23:25

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

LLJK?

# ? Mar 21, 2013 23:47

xxEightxx: Mar 5, 2010; Oh, it's true. You are Brock Landers!; Salad Prong

Christopher posted:

So apparently the GOON tag is reserved by an unknown member. Our member who we thought had GOON reserved actually had [GOON] unnecessarily with the brackets. So we are deciding between GOONS, -GOON-, =GOONS=, and =GS=. It will show up as [GOONS], [-GOON-], [=GOON=], or [=GS=].

For now we're leaning toward [GOONS]. Feedback?

Note: If you have reserved GOON please let us know.

Is "GS" not available? Otherwise Goons is not bad. GSquid, or other is fine. Not a big fan of the - =, adds a bunch of length to the clan name unncessarily.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 23:47

precedence: Jun 28, 2010

[[GOON]] ? I'm fine with [GOONS]

# ? Mar 22, 2013 00:05

Lemon King: Oct 4, 2009; im nt posting wif a mark on my head

Christopher posted:

So apparently the GOON tag is reserved by an unknown member. Our member who we thought had GOON reserved actually had [GOON] unnecessarily with the brackets. So we are deciding between GOONS, -GOON-, =GOONS=, and =GS=. It will show up as [GOONS], [-GOON-], [=GOON=], or [=GS=].

For now we're leaning toward [GOONS]. Feedback?

Note: If you have reserved GOON please let us know.

Whoops, misread that post and BEES might work.

e: Try contacting support and see what happens, you might get GOON if they can contact the person who has it on reserve.

Lemon King fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Mar 22, 2013

# ? Mar 22, 2013 00:17

My Gimmick Name: Sep 11, 2004

Double down on the brackets, use [[GOON]] for the first guild, [[[GOON]]] for the second, and so on.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 00:20

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# ? May 3, 2024 00:56

Nalin: Sep 29, 2007; Hair Elf

I'd be fine with GOONS, GS, or LLJK. wellwhoopdedooo in the old thread reserved [FAT] Goon Platoon, so that is an option too. I couldn't find anybody mention that they reserved GOON, unfortunately.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 00:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > FireFall - I don't see nothin' wrong with a little thump & grind.

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