f13.net

So, just got the prebeta? email to this today.

http://www.instantaction.com/

Looks like a casual game portal/platform w/ 3D games, 'Action Points' which I assume you use for microtransactions. Also, chat client w/ friends who are on, apparently to aid in getting you fired from work.

From what I can tell they have a Tribes-a-like, Marble Madness, an Atari Tank game and some sort of coop puzzle game that I can see in the ads. 

I'm very curious about whether it will work from work, as I LOVE me some procrastination tools.

Also, I get sexy points pyramid-scheme style for sending out invites, so PM if you want one.  I'd assume you can just sign up @ the site though.

Edit:

From their "About Us":

Extra Edit: Wait, Zepp already told us about this a while back didn't he?  -Yes he did: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11112.0 (but it's in that smarty forum).

Zepp tells us everything. Even things he shouldn't.

I intentionally don't tell much anymore :P

My marketing folks wanted me to lay back so we could see how the viral messaging goes on this, but yes, we have a semi-private beta incoming very shortly.

Currently there are three games available in the beta:

Marble Blast Ultra (enhanced from the XBLA version with several new levels)
ScrewJumper -- same as the XBLA version
Think Tanks -- a team/solo pvp game in a cartoony theme

In addition, we just recently announced Fallen Empire: Legions, our first person shooter which will be on IA as well. There is a pretty good interview on ShackNews (http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=750) with the Project Manager as well as our CEO, as well as a video.

Cool.

I'm probably most interested in trying out the tanks and tribes ones.  Look forward to seeing how it goes.

Viral marketing only works if someone starts the virus.

No one started this virus. A beta email is not viral marketing. ^_^

Shit.

Does this make me the mole?

Actually, it's the ability beta testers will have to invite friends directly to the beta test--I just didn't want to hype it on my own initiative here--wanted to see if forum action happened on it's own :)

Stephen is there some technical info available on this stuff? It looks intriguing but I haven't been able to find out much about the underlying technology. Like is it a custom plugin, what is the API or programming language, etc etc etc.

We're really not releasing technical details, mostly due to the vast amount of competition that suddenly announced intentions within weeks of our initial announcement. That being said, here are a few bullet points:

1) It's an API that interfaces a game engine (any) to a browser, and includes both the operating system level events (input, rendering, etc.) as well as a set of community features that you would expect from a "software console" environment--friends list, party management, etc.

2) Currently works in IE 6, 7, and Firefox.

3) Marketing terms are always hard to nail down tightly, but when the articles and interviews you see online say "no download/installs", what they mean is that per game, you don't do anything but say "I want to play XXX" in the browser interface, and it handles the rest. Games are streamed down to the computer you are currently on in chunks, so you don't have to wait many minutes to play. It's all tied to your IA account--if the computer you happen to be on doesn't have cached what it needs for that particular game, it will take care of it.

4) IA is a managed portfolio (just like all other consoles), and is not directly intended as an "all access, anyone can publish" type of portal. That being said, we're extremely interested in all game submissions from any studios (indie, pro, small, large). Concern about the specifics of IA shouldn't in any way slow you down if you want to present, although game designs that take into account the concept of playing within a browser and all that allows you to do.

5) The seamless party concept to me at least is the biggest change from other console experiences--the primary flow is form a party of friends first, and then select the game you want to play. When you get bored with that game, you move the entire party as a unit to the next.

Thought folks might be interested in the latest trailer for

Fallen Empire:Legions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVsemgxoHxA)

Aside from the truly horrible music that actually looks like an awful lot of fun. Reminds me of Tribes and some other game thats on the tip of my brain.

Yeah the music sucked balls. Gave me a headache. And I'm not opposed to heavy music either. I've been listening to Rammstein and Rob Zombie all morning. Just shit heavy music becomes intrusive (ie if it wasn't a trailer from an f13'er, I'd have clicked it off after 20 seconds).

Aw, come on, the music wasn't so bad. Could improve, but it wasn't off putting to me. I wouldn't even have remarked on it without you guys kvetching.

This was one of the three things I made time to hit during the whole hour (cumulative) I ended up having to spend at GDC. Played very well, what you'd expect from in-window 3D games that aren't total system hogs. Multiplayer Marble Blast Ultra was awesome :-)

Only question I couldn't get a straight answer on was fullscreen vs windowed support. Everything I played was windowed.

That looked like a helluva good time.  No complaints about the music. 

Sign me up!

More detailed game play video (actually recorded at the booth from a hand held video cam) at ShackNews (http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=51457).

The main question with full screen is not 100% answered because we're exploring all options. I'm not on either the IA or game dev teams so I don't have the most recent info, but the main issue is how to maintain the social/party features while in full screen, since they are an integral part of the total experience of IA.

It's a hard call, and no one really knows for sure what the final iteration will be, but we're exploring everything from windowed only to user choice to full screen + party features overlay.

I know we're big on hyperbole here, but I was dead serious about the music being literally painful to listen (it did give me a headache) to and something that would have made me close down the video almost immediately if it wasn't something from Zepp I was watching.

Did you have your volume cranked up super high or something?

Not being sarcastic, it's possible there was a codec issue or something, I dunno. I'm not a huge fan of metal myself, but I personally really like the stuff Tim puts against the legions clips. Yes, it's got a heavy beat and drums, but It's not thrash or death metal or anything.

In other news, there is a developer walkthrough (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30963.html) available on gametrailers now. The video of the game itself isn't that great (it's another shaky-cam), but you get to hear Tim Aste talk through a bunch of stuff.

A+ for the focus and realistic expectations.  Looks fun.

Got a beta invite for this, played a bit this morning with a friend. Mostly the tank game. It's fun, but I'm lagging like a mofo. Are all the servers in the states?

Like the 360, there are no "servers"--the Party leader is the server for whichever game is hosted, and others connect to him via IA.com.

We're aware of the issues with people getting a bad host and therefore having a bad experience, and the team is working on a couple of different ways to either display the status of a host, warn on joining a particular host, or simply not allowing certain people to host depending on their machine's performance.

They are also looking into dedicated servers for some of the higher bandwidth games, but Think Tanks is really pretty low key bandwidth wise, so I'm not sure it would be given dedicated servers off the bat.

So is InstantAction only for MP games?

I PMed Mr Hat so he could sign me up on his dodgy pyramid scheme thing for this, and the bastardo never got back to me. Guess I'll sign up on the webpage. Tomorrow. Probably.

Anyone else who wants to send me an invite thingamabob to get their scientology pyramid scheme credit thing running, you've got a day or so.

It's not restricted to either, although the general nature is designed to support the concept of friends getting together to play games. Marble Blast Ultra, Cyclomite and ScrewJumper all have single player modes, and while Think Tanks can allow you to play by yourself, it's only against bots.

Fallen Empire:Legions of course is MP only (just like Tribes), but it's not in the beta yet. I have no information on any of the other games that are in the pipeline (and from what I understand there are a lot).

Had a fool around with this just now, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

How much do the games rely on the host computer's processing power/3d card etc to run them? Or could you run these games with any computer that can surf the web passably?

It depends on the game--IA is just an interface and rendering medium. The game itself is driven by the underlying engine (can be any engine) that it was written in. All 4 of the current beta games are some form of Torque, but that isn't required by either IA technology, or our publishing division.

For example, we have internal R&D engine builds that support from DX7 to DX10, as well as pure software rendering, so effectively any game can go to any hardware configuration--although of course performance is always an issue when you go to the least common denominator.

IA just went into open beta today, so anyone can join up at InstantAction (http://www.instantaction.com), register, and play.

ZAP! (Zero All Productivity) was released in open beta last night on InstantAction (http://www.instantaction.com/).

ZAP! is a retro 2D team based shooter that, according to the marketing guys, "plays like asteroids on caffeine".

I've been trying to figure out how to describe it, and it's pretty difficult, but it's one of the most fun games I've ever played when it comes to arcade style, especially with a good organized team. Fast, furious, and full of different gameplay styles (there are user configurable loadouts for weapon type, as well asprimary and secondary modules for things like boost, shield, repair), and 6+ different game types (CTF, Rabbit, Zone Capture just to name a few).

If you like the idea of multiplayer team based 2D shooters, you should check it out!

Still no support for Safari  :sad_panda:

Still in beta!

Although to be honest Safari is most probably one of the last things on their list. There are lots of higher market penetration/size issues (Mac support being one off the top of my head), as well as many others. I'm not on the IA team, so I honestly have no idea what their priority list looks like.

My only feedback so far is it needs to be easier to sort the party list, so we can look for a party playing a specific game.

Aye--the game selection mode is currently extremely bare bones. I can't say for certain, but I'm reasonably sure that's the current functionality upgrade the IA team is working on.

Kinda figured.  It seemed like a no-brainer thing that I would be surprised if I was the first to recommend it.

You guys sure love action.  No puzzle, no strategy, no basic mmorpg?

Couple of reasons behind that:

--this is not another casual portal. The main purpose is to basically build a new market niche between casual and AAA hardcore games, what we call "core games". A lot of very smart people (and several with quite a few million behind them in capital) think this is a market that will discover itself in the next year, and grow exponentially.

--it's still very young. As a software platform, IA has only been in development for coming on 7 months (not counting research time--it's been prototyped several ways over the last couple of years). There are actually a couple of different strategy games in the pipeline that have been hinted at publicly (the developer contest we held last month awarded an IA slot to a team based on their RTS, and there is another one that has been announced that I can't remember at the moment).

--as to MMO's? :nda: --sorry :(

Nice.  I dunno if I'm representative of any market but I've been dying to throw my money at MTGO but apparently WoTC doesn't want my money.
 
:wink:

Ask your smart and wealthy guys if they want mine.

The Community Managers name is Dr. Wiley?

Is this a joke, plz say it's a joke.

Actually, no, it's not--his real name is James Wiley, so it was a pretty obvious tie in :P

Btw, shacknews just posted a short preview: Fallen Empire: Legions Hands-on Impressions (http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=847#), with a new marketing trailer. There are quite a few full on gameplay videos scattered around the 'net, let me know if anyone is interested but can't find any recent ones.

I loved tribes 1&2. In fact they are my two favorite fps of all time. I just don't see this one working well as a browser game. I have yet to see a 3d browser game that didn't suck to be honest. Not to mention the lack of dedicated servers at launch isn't going to go over well with the average fps player. Who is going to want to play 4v4 games on some guys home connection only to get dropped after 10 mins because he has a cheap wireless router?

I will still try to get into open beta, but my expectations are low.

the "browser" thing:

--do you use Live MarketPlace on the 360, or any other game browsing/social networking service? In a nutshell, that's all InstantAction is--just on your PC, using a browser to deliver the content. The games themselves are still created and run with game engines (mostly Torque to this point, although there are several in the pipeline that are not made with Torque), which uses a browser as a window handle to render within.

It's not Java (although parts of the web interface are), it's not Flash--Legions uses a descendant of the original Tribes engine.

--Legions already has full screen capability. If you don't like having a browser interface, then go full screen :)

--dedicated servers are already in internal/alpha testing.

Fricken Hardcore.......very stoked.

No I hate all of those. I don't like fancy portals, or socializing with random losers. I just want to pick a server and kill people as fast as possible,

I really hope this game delivers. If it's anything like the tribes experience I would buy it in a minute. I signed up for the beta, but got a reply telling me that I probably wont get in. I never got into any of the tribes betas despite signing up for all of them.

Finally found this post!


So I tried out the Legions game today. Man, that takes me back! It's totally "Tribes The TravelGame Version." I am simply amazed you managed to put that quality of a product straight into my browser.


Now if you could do something to make my team a little bit better  :oh_i_see:

Thanks :)

For those that haven't heard, Fallen Empire: Legions went open beta today--free play for all :) It is a true open beta (see my previous threads on what a beta should be, so expect rough edges, but it's coming along very nicely.

I would try it out but at this very second I am attempting to get bscmake.exe to be called directly so I can build a Torque Game Engine Advance demo...grumble grumble..

Stephen, I would suggest taht GG clarify all the different engines. You guys have a lot and it's hard to tell them apart. You have detailed comparisons but that doesn't really get at the problem so well. Also different parts of documentation say different things about the differences.

My understanding is that TGEA is a partial port or Torque with support for modern GPUs. Correct?

Correct..TGEA is effectively Torque, with the entire rendering system re-wired for modern GPU's (shaders, render batches, etc. etc.). There are literally hundreds of other features that are only in TGEA, but at the root that's the difference.

It us currently Windows only, so I'm betting that your issue is OS compatibility--sounds like a linux or Mac OS attempt? For Windows, it is literally a 5 minute setup tops (unless you do not have VS 2005/2008 and the required DirectX development libs installed, which can take a bit of download time).

It does sound as if you missed the documentation link in your Start->Programs->TGEA 1.7.x (1.7.1 is most current as of last week) drop down--there is a Getting Started page that should cover everything you need.

I'm not sure if it's my imagination, or what, but it seems like if you are the host for a game, you have a substantial advantage. I seem to be able to get way more mid-air hits and can time my ski runs better. Also, A+ for adding DOWN thrust  :heart:

Yes, hosting a listen server does give you an advantage--dedicated servers (the servers named "shazbot") are in very early testing right now, bu playable. I don't know for certain, but I would imagine that as they get more testing and further development time, most of the competitive games will go to dedicated server only, so everyone has relatively the same latency.

I got past it, was just some shitty Visual Studio config problem. Path to bscmake.exe was wrong for some reason. Maybe because I installed Visual Studio on a different drive. All my problems are related to the fact that I haven't used Visual Studio in about 5 years.  Either I'm using it wrong or it just sucks balls compared to Eclipse. I really want to see all the relevant files in Visual Studio, including material definitions and shaders.

Has anyone done cell-shading with TGEA? Seems like it would be fun to try.

There are a couple of non-shader techniques that have been used in the past, but I'm reasonably sure (I'm not a shader techie) that you could write a reasonable cell shading pixel and vertex shader combo with some research.

Ok, what is this overdrive people keep dieing to? Is there an extra speed boost on top of all the jetting and skiing?

IwillnotplaythisatworkIwillnotplaythisatworkIwillnotplaythisatwork

 :drill:  Fucking Tribes man!!

Yes--at 88 mps you can kick in overdrive, which both accelerates you, but more importantly changes the movement model. It's not actually particularly useful in most circumstances for more speed (the acceleration in that regard isn't that great)--it gives you some pretty radical ability to change direction and make other interesting moves.

It also has a large health drain component.

Which button do I use for that  :drill:

The flux capacitor button.

Which is apparently "R" by default!


It's kinda weird, It gives you extra 'weight' so you can blow through people, but in most situations where you would want to use it, its really freaking hard to get the require speed AND be on the ground. I watched the little tutorial video they have up, I've spent like 30 minutes trying duplicate that flag cap run with the overdrive.

No Success so far :(

Hint: massive speed is not generated by overdrive. I'm not by any means a Legions player, but overdrive is an alternate movement mode, not a way to get super duper fast.

Speed is mostly generated by using the physics of skiing and gravity to increase your velocity while gliding down, and maintaining your momentum while regaining altitude.

The big thing about overdrive more than anything else is that you change from wasd to "move wherever the mouse indicates" mode, giving you huge maneuverability. Of course, rapid momentum changes destroy your speed quickly as well, but timed properly you can do a 180 degree hairpin turn at speeds over 140 mps (and that's getting speeds like that --before-- using OD).

You guys got a mention on penny-arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/6/25/), I see!

PA is how I even found out about it.


Yea I know Overdrive isn't for raw speed, but you need 88+ to use it, while on the ground. In the Tutorial video, the guy flew in for a cap, 180'd mid air and swooped onto the enemy flag hitting Overdrive as he hit the ground and blew through everyone on the flag roof.

I can't duplicate that yet  :tantrum:

If you do plan on getting serious with TGEA dev (or even just playing around), grab Torsion (can find it on the GG Product page, under Developer Tools). Torsion is basically "Visual Studio for TorqueScript"--intellisense, error reporting on script compiles, and full breakpoint style debugging (watches, breakpoints, callstacks, etc).

Visual Studio has no innate understanding of how TorqueScript actually works (obviously), whereas Torsion is built from the ground up to work specifically with TorqueScript, and uses the Torque remote/telnet debuffer to do run time debugging.

A couple of our most experienced/skilled closed beta testers recently made a Legions Survival Guide (http://www.legionsplayers.com/videos/survival-guide/) that can be very useful if you are new to FPS+Z shooters, or even if just new to Legions.

It's about a 12 minute video, and a touch hokey in places, but an excellent video tutorial in the big picture.

Yea that thing, about 5min in, he storms the flag with Overdrive, I can't duplicate that :(

<-- Noob

One real complaint so far, is the team balancing. Doesn't seem to do it right.


"Yea were kicking ass this game!" *checks the score* "Shit, it's Six vs. Two ><"

I haven't figured out how to ski yet, will check out that video.  I'm played twice though and I'm getting there a bit more, still feel gimped but whatever.  Am I crazy though or is therre nothing that tells you the flag status and position of the flag carrier?  Because thats a really really bad idea.

Ok, both Avant Browser and Firefox 2.0 had rendering issues with this game. The ground texture is completely invisible. Ground clutter is there (grass, snow and such) but it's like the underlying mesh the ground lays on top of is completely transparent. Sometimes the buildings are too. It makes it very difficult to move, and of course I'm seeing guys through the terrain but shooting at them doesn't work because there's a hill between the two of us.

Intel P4 3.2 Ghz
Nvidia 7900 GT w/ 169.21 drivers
3 GB RAM

You can see if a flag is home or not, that's about it. So yes, you totally have games where both flag carriers are hiding in the hills behind a rock while everyone else searches or just kills each other for an hour before one of them has to leave.

FF 2.0 is definitely supported on Win. I doubt seriously that Avant is.

This is actually a (known) problem with hardware anti-aliasing. Try turning it off in your nVidia settings and see if it helps.

I'm not up to speed quite yet on the latest implementation, but from memory, this is how HUD indicators work:

--any character or other HUD marked object that is in true line of sight of anyone on your team is visible to the entire team on the HUD. If a marked target goes out of los of everyone on the team, 5 seconds later it is removed from the HUD.

There is a lot of game balance discussion on this mechanic in the forums, feel free to stop by FE:Legions beta discussion forums (http://forum.beta.instantaction.com/smf/index.php/board,22.0.html) if you want to put your feedback in.

The latest 1up podcast mentions this very favorably.

Now that I've played this for a fair amount of time, I REALLY miss all the mines and turrets and base generators and repairing and sensors etc...


Basically, I find you can have a pretty even PuG vs PuG experience, but all it takes is ONE player to be of superior skill, and there is little to nothing to stop him. I've been on both ends of it, and it isn't any fun either way. I've played games where I could just waltz in whichever way I pleased and vanish before anyone could catch me. Games where it doesn't matter who has the flag, I could retrieve it at a whim.

I've also been on the other end, playing against what must be a old Tribesman, whose routes and timing and speed were so perfect, nothing could come close to him. In the previous Tribes games, you could counter the raw ability with a little ingenuity. Capper using the same route? Mine his route. Buzzing by to quickly? Set up Elf guns. Even the old heavy on the flag is missing.


Because the game is so bare bones currently, speed can win you anything nearly. The even games are often just about the top guys from either team, dueling each other for the flag, with everyone else being a spectator. I either feel I am the best player on the field, or I am just getting in someones way. There's no in between I find. It lacks that 'you can contribute, even if you can't hit the side of a barn'.

Some of this is due to the two maps currently. The Flag is very open and difficult to defend. The maps are also kinda small. If you really get a route going, you can go from Snag to Cap in 10 seconds roughly. It's obscene.


PS. Grasslands sucks!  :grin:

PPS. Permanent Flag Indicators and Flag indicators that aren't SMALLER then the normal indicators.

I'm not sure who might have read my /soapbox on alpha/beta/gamma testing I wrote last fall, but at least in part it was a foretelling of how IA in general would be executed, and FE:L specifically.

Marketing still has some pull and got the names of the stages filtered around some, but what you are really seeing right now is a mid first stage beta--game mechanics testing. Once the mechanics and core game are as solid as feasible (crashes fixed, features complete, game mechanics solid), then the game will move into "live development"--adding in game play features and expanding current resources available to the players.

I'm not on the team so I can't detail what all is in the development pipeline (I have heard rumors of the new maps being close to completion), and I honestly don't know if/when deployables of that large variety will be available, but it is going to continue to get more "stuff" :)

The host can go fuck them him self.


Average ping across the board, 200-250. The host? 20.


Yea, he might as well be super man since you'd have to be clairvoyant to actually hit him or avoid his shots. Eating a grenade explosion before I physically see the grenade fired?


 :awesome_for_real:

Best bet is play on the shazbot servers (dedicated's). Still in beta of course, so we only have a few in one region (Portland), but they will be scaling up in the future.

Finally got onto a Shazbot, was certainly superior to having the host running around as RaptorJesus.

The Chaingun seems to be improved in this build, I personally still can't hit the broad side of a barn with one, but some people seem to know what they are doing with it at least.

New Map is out! It's a little over twice the size of the previous 2 maps, also a lot more flat. Haven't had a decent game on it yet sadly, either too few people playing, or No one knows how to freaking ski but me.