f13.net

One part Borderlands, one part Tabula Rasa, two parts Global Agenda.

Fake edit: What's with the Starcraft font anyway?

The world looks great, gameplay not so much. Also pet peeve number one: why are scifi guns always so shit? A mob called "Titan" shoots a huge energy ball at mudbrick houses, a tiny explosion happens and nobody's impressed. Have some ambition people, that thing is less powerful than a 17th century mortar.

EDIT: I think the most impressive thing about the landscape is the extraordinary richness of the color palatte. Even relatively monochromatic areas are interesting to look at.

Firefall will feature a free-to-play model that allows players to experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a penny. Updates to the game, dynamic world events, and other content will also be offered without a price tag, while a marketplace will allow fans to purchase optional enhancements.

Also lacking friendly fire from the bit of gameplay I watched at the end.  Gun games without FF always lose my interest.

We can't have nice things.  Online game + friendly fire = massive griefing.

They somehow got their heightfields to make overhangs. That's pretty damn awesome.

I also saw a multi-user air ship (that I suspect wasn't 100% done as there was an inside but they did not climb in) and some motorbikes of some sort. That's just ...  :drill:

I wonder in what ways it will be MMGish.


Weapon lock system from PS was a good way of dealing with it I thought.

We are so excited about Firefall that we want to make sure everyone can play it and join their friends in the game. When Firefall releases, it will be available online for download and play for absolutely free.

Will there be a subscription fee?

Absolutely not. We do not feel that a subscription fee best suits the style of game we are creating.

How do you plan to make money?

We plan to offer a marketplace for Firefall that will offer players items to enhance their gaming experience. We are adamantly against selling anything that might compromise the skill-based aspect of the game.

My interest just went down a notch.

The Melding is one of the worst villain names I've seen.

Are we also going to have an argument over the practicality of that armour?  :grin:

Why exactly? Assuming they follow through with not letting the items ruin the skill based part of the game, I don't see an issue.

This is not an MMO, right?

Nah.  TR wasn't a shooter.

That does look like some good fun, though the lack of a reticule makes me sad. Also, StarCraft logo.

That game looks fun as hell.

Firefall is a team-based action shooter combining deep character progression with an open-world cooperative campaign that can be shared with hundreds of other players. Firefall will also have a rich competitive multiplayer component incorporating built-in features such as clan support, ladders, tournaments and stats.

Are there any additional details regarding the competitive multiplayer?

For now, we are only discussing the open-world co-op experience. You can expect to see a lot more about the muliplayer experience at a later date.

Firefall is an odd beast.  An odd, but so far exciting and fun beast.  It’s part TF2, and part MMO.  Like Global Agenda before it, Firefall seems to be pushing the envelope in a lot of ways that should make fans of both online games and shooters very excited.  At this year’s PAX East, I had the chance to meet up with Scott Youngblood of Red 5 Studios and dive headfirst into one of the game’s many competitive PvP maps.  For those not familiar with the title since its debut at last year’s PAX Prime, Firefall is aiming to blur the line between MMO and FPS (or TPS really) and it plans on doing so completely free of charge with both fully-featured PvE and PvP modes.  That’s right: Firefall is going to be free to both download and play.  Read on to see how I fared in the death-match combat and what Scott Youngblood had to say about Firefall.
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As our own Garrett Fuller hopped onto the machine and began to fire his way through one of the ongoing PvP matches that were running at the show, I had a chance to speak to Scott Youngblood about what I was watching.  The booth was set up to have multiple 5v5 games running, and Garrett had just hopped in on the Blue Team playing as an Assault character (aptly named AngryPigeon) in one of the game’s many team-based PvP maps.  Scott told me that there was definitely plenty of PvE content in the game where you can group up with your Army (guild/clan) mates, do missions, gather loot and resources, and advance your character and gear as well as that of your Army.  And then from there you’ll take all that you’ve earned into the PvP areas of the game and put them to use for all to see and (hopefully) fear your Army.

The game will sport a familiar match-making system that allows players to queue as an individual or an Army into one of many different modes.  What was being shown at PAX was a good ol’ fashioned team death-match where the sole purpose is to kill the other guys as much as possible.  Scott was quick to point out that each Army will be able to design their own logos, pick their own colors, and so forth.  During the show, the game’s built-in spectator camera was up and running demonstrating a feature that many shooter fans have come to love in an e-sport sort of way.  I asked Scott if the team was targeting the e-sport side of things and he nodded and said they most definitely were hoping as much.  Basically the team’s split the game into two halves.  There’s plenty to do for those who want a co-op experience, and then there’s the whole competitive team-based and Army-based side, and no matter what you do you’ll be progressing your character and helping your Army.

I asked Scott if this meant that Firefall was going to have two different sets of gear for players to chase after, noting that it’s often contentious that players have to straddle two different games in essence.  He quickly said that this won’t be a problem in Firefall.  Everything you do in either part of the game will help you perform better in either the PvE side or the PvP.  That said, Scott did say that players will want to obtain multiple types of gear, as the weapons and upgrades in Firefall aren’t about stats, but about functionality.  It’s a skill-based game, with no dice rolls performing the hits and misses.  It’s a shooter and action game, but one that includes character progression through the different types of functions your character can perform.  Some such items drop in the open world, some will be crafted, and even more are from completing missions.  Again, items in Firefall aren’t about boosting stats, but rather about boosting the types of things your character and Army is capable of doing in battle.  Scott went on to tell me that Firefall is a lot like the kind of game he always wanted to make when he was Lead Designer on Tribes 1 and 2, but was never able to because of tech and resources.

The game has three announced frameworks (classes) to choose from, with more to come: the assault, the medic, and the recon.  I took my turn behind the controls, and was quickly hit with the opposing Recon’s “Resonating Shot”.  Resonating Shot is one of the Recon class’ modifications (skills).  Basically it’s a bullet that sticks to the player, can be stacked with multiple hits, and after a short few seconds of beeping blows up with a satisfying effect.  I was lucky enough to only have one shot on me, so I didn’t die from the hit, but one can easily see how a good sharpshooting Recon would be a team’s worst nightmare.  

But I got back on my feet after a few seconds, spawning in our team’s safe house and charged back into the fray.  As my team’s main damage dealing heavy, I quickly learned that the modification known as “Crater” is a force to be reckoned with.  I charged into a group of unsuspecting opposing players and pressed the corresponding key only to watch my character launch himself high into the air and come back down with a resounding force that killed one player and sent the other two sprawling.  They’d been hunkered down behind some terrain and this little action gave my more fragile teammates time to come in and finish off the stragglers.

The game’s UI is fairly straightforward; your health is displayed along the bottom of the screen, along with your equipped modifications.  Right now it seems like players will be able to have three mods at any one time, so obviously picking and choosing those which work best in situations will be of the utmost importance.  I had another that acted as a buff to my damage and another that launched me in the direction I was aiming at a high velocity.  If I connected with the latter, I could send the enemy flailing and do some fantastic damage to boot.  Like Tribes and Global Agenda, players all have jetpacks and can satisfyingly hover and cover large distances by jumping with the spacebar and holding it to glide until the pack’s out of power.  It recharges quickly, but the short time you have is obviously intended to make sure the game doesn’t all take place in the air.

I asked Scott if he was worried about the amount of importance placed on skill, since they were hoping to attract a wide audience with the game.  Would casual gamers be too afraid to step into the competitive nature, and so on?  He said their goal is to make sure that each Framework gives something for players to feel competent in doing.  He noted Team Fortress 2 as a game that allowed casual shooter fans in on the fun, by not making it so that everyone needed to of high twitch capability.  He noted that he was very optimistic that Firefall’s blend of co-op and PvP would go a long way towards attracting many kinds of shooter and MMO fans.

I then asked the loaded question: when’s it coming out and what’s the revenue model going to be like?  Expecting a dodge instead of a full-frontal assault, my eyes popped open when Scott said Firefall will be releasing in Q4 of 2011 and it will be completely free to download and play for as long as you like.  Obviously learning from some of the hurdles of other MMOFPS, Red 5 Studios wants their flagship title to send a message of value to players.  The main revenue for the game will be coming from cosmetic and convenience purchases, like war-paint, and different boosts or upgrades but nothing that players won’t already be able to get from just playing the game.  In short, the purchasable items will simply be a way for those with less time or less drive to keep up with their Army.  I asked if there were any plans to charge for additional content like maps and so forth, and Scott told me that their goal is to never segment the game’s population in terms of content.  If they start to make some new maps or content exclusive to paying players, then it’s only going to split the population.  Take that for what it’s worth, but it sounds like Red 5 is committed to adding content post-launch without picking the wallets of its players.

In the end, I left impressed by the studio’s vision and addicted to the action of the game.  I’m still not 100% sure how Firefall’s PvE and PvP will blend, as I’ve not yet experienced the co-op side of things for myself.  But if what Mr. Youngblood says rings true, Firefall is bound to be one of online gaming’s more ambitious F2P experiments.  I barely had time with the title, but I can tell there’s focus on polish and playability.  It plays remarkably smooth and really looks fantastic at this early stage.  But I’m curious to see how the MMO side of things plays out, and how the whole PvE experience factors in.  It’s a very fun game, but there’s still a lot left to explore.  Still, with beta nearing it won’t be long before we know more about Red 5 Studios’ freshman release.

I just signed up for beta.

I liked GA, but there wasn't enough PvE for me. (I know GA isn't supposed to be a PvE game...)

I liked GA, but there wasn't enough PvE for me. (I know GA isn't supposed to be a PvE game...)

I just signed up for beta.

I liked GA, but there wasn't enough PvE for me. (I know GA isn't supposed to be a PvE game...)

The game looks great.  Love the jet/flight packs and vehicales.  I read "medic" and "sniper" and despair.

Philosophically, I'm willing to admit that there is a non-zero possibility that a game dev might release a medic class that isn't required and/or is fun to play.  I'll also admit that, in theory, it's possible that a game dev might release a sniper class that wasn't either stupidly overpowered or completely useless.

I'm just not willing to spend time and/or money to find out.  Bummer.

Didn't play TF2

Next Friday, May 6th at 6pm PDT we will be doing the first ever live broadcast of Firefall to the world on Justin.tv. We’ve invited a group of e-Sports broadcasters to the studio to not only provide their insights into the game and help us tune the competitive side of Firefall, but they will also be broadcasting an internal dev match live. Be sure to join us at http://justin.tv/r5studios

Haha, excellent! Overrated writer who happens to be a religious zealot and psychopath!

Haha, excellent! Overrated writer who happens to be a religious zealot and psychopath!

Screw you, I thought Ender's Game was great!

Will be keeping my eye on this game...

Yeah it does. It seems too perfect though, something has to go terribly wrong.

If you like FPS at all you should. It an example of a brilliant design in so many aspects that  it should be thought in schools.   - It manages to balance wide variety of interesting classes within a framework of FPS shooter. Being accessible to people of wide range of skill levels without sacrificing skill element itself. Really MMO designers could learn quite a bit about class design from TF2 imho.

If you like FPS at all you should. It an example of a brilliant design in so many aspects that  it should be thought in schools.   - It manages to balance wide variety of interesting classes within a framework of FPS shooter. Being accessible to people of wide range of skill levels without sacrificing skill element itself. Really MMO designers could learn quite a bit about class design from TF2 imho.

I despised COD-series and counter-strike, loved Doom 3, anything Unreal and Tribes.

Wouldn't not liking CoD means you like slower, HP based shooters?

Not really, CoD doesn't have a particularly fast pace.  Compare it to Quake 2 or 3, for example.

"We already consider ourselves 'launched.' We will not have a traditional beta, open beta, launch process," Kern toldThe Escapist Magazine. "We no longer feel this [cycle] makes sense in a modern, online, service-oriented business, especially a free to play game. Instead, we have modeled our launch after Gmail's invite system."

Do PAX attendees get guaranteed access to beta?

The people that picked up badges at the booth have special codes associated with their accounts that give them access to unique items when the game launches. Bringing these badges to the next show we attend or host will get them even more cool stuff. They are not granted guaranteed access to the closed beta.

These guys have a huge presence at pax.  Huge.  Any info requests?

For the past two months, the Red 5 team has been hard at work preparing for the launch of our beta while at the same time travelling the world spreading the word of Firefall. We stated in previous posts that the beta would begin shortly after PAX Prime.

Well, PAX Prime is over. The current plan is that by the end of this week, we will begin sending out invites to participate in the upcoming scheduled beta tests. I wanted to take some time to clarify a few things that I’ve seen come up on the forums, on twitter, and on other websites regarding the Firefall beta.

Those of you that signed up at PAX, GamesCom, or any other event we have done, have the same chance to get into the beta as those that signed up on our website. Date of registration or number of posts will not have any impact on your chances. We still need to merge the database of all those that signed up at PAX, so expect to see an e-mail to confirm your account in the next day or two. Those of you that registered at GamesCom should have received your e-mail verification already. If you haven’t, please register on the website.

Our initial invite wave will be very small. I will announce on the forums once the first wave of invites has been sent out so that you know when to check your e-mail. After you receive an invite, you will need to follow some additional steps to be included in the beta. More information will be provided to those invited.

This is a very exciting time for all of us at Red 5. While we have been beta testing with our Friends & Family for multiple months now, we are now ready to expand the beta and start getting feedback from all of you. Thank you for being a part of the Firefall community and welcome to the next phase.

I sense another Draegan beta lotto incoming.   :awesome_for_real:

I'm just a spectator on this one.

I am confused. Does this mean we should play the game but ignore the content, or not play the game at all?

Here's the punch line: Old King Hamlet was an inadequate king because he was gay, an evil person because he was gay, and, ultimately, a demonic and ghostly father of lies who convinces young Hamlet to exact imaginary revenge on innocent people. The old king was actually murdered by Horatio, in revenge for molesting him as a young boy—along with Laertes, and Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, thereby turning all of them gay. We learn that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are now "as fusty and peculiar as an old married couple. I pity the woman who tries to wed her way into that house."

Hamlet is damned for all the needless death he inflicts, and Dead Gay Dad will now do gay things to him for the rest of eternity: "Welcome to Hell, my beautiful son. At last we'll be together as I always longed for us to be."

He seems a little obsessed with the Gay.

Firefall GStar 2011 Trailer  (http://youtu.be/3g9xRCxWWd0?hd=1)

Firefall Dreadnaught Introduction  (http://youtu.be/jcrCXrr1j-4?hd=1)

The E3 cancellation is a bit boggling; is the organization behind E3 in support of SOPA?

"We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation", Firefall CEO Mark Kern told Shacknews. "We are also ashamed of the ESA for supporting a bill which is clearly not in the best interests of gamers or the game industry".

The ESA is the group organising E3, so as an added gesture, Kern later adds "I just had my staff cancel our E3 plans".

Red 5 is shutting down beta for a day and cancelling their E3 appearance in protest of SOPA.  The E3 cancellation is a bit boggling; is the organization behind E3 in support of SOPA?  Seems like it would have made a great platform to both pitch the game and explain why they think SOPA is bad.

Kotaku link (http://kotaku.com/5875740/pc-game-cancels-e3-appearance-as-sopa-protest-shutting-down-beta-for-24-hours)

Firefall Closed Beta LiveStream  (http://youtu.be/8cnFZyx_v7U?hd=1) 2 Hours of Game play. Prerecorded Livestream. Mostly PvP.

Firefall Closed Beta LiveStream  (http://youtu.be/8cnFZyx_v7U?hd=1) 2 Hours of Game play. Prerecorded Livestream. Mostly PvP.

I get a strong Global agenda Vibe from this.

Watching some of that video I noticed the same thing.  In that respect, I'm rather uninterested.  Not because GA is terrible, but because I'd rather just play Tribes.

I'm not seeing the draw personally.

From what I've picked up from a friend of mine who is into this pretty heavily.  They are working on promoting the esport aspect of the game.  Coupled with their recent milestone patch that made the game twitch/skill based, it seems that is the direction they want to go.

Firefall has yet to officially launch, but Red 5 Studios already has ambitious plans for integrating the online shooter with the eSports community. This week they backed up that commitment by announcing that $1 million in cash prizes will be up for grabs in 2013 through Firefall eSports tournaments.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/firefall/news/red-5-supports-firefall-esports-in-2013-with-1-million-in-prize-money


Is it me or is this batshit?  Yea, Valve can get away with this in DOTA 2 because 1) They are Valve and 2) DOTA is already an incredibly well established competitive title.  I guess you can look at it as a one million dollar advertising expenditure, but this looks nuts to me.

It certainly doesn't make any sense to me, but then very little about this game does.  It's such a disappointment right now.

wat

Manged to get through that mission by switching to the Engineering Battleframe and getting some help. Did the next mission after that and then the PvE quests just stopped. Didn't even get a thank you for (apparently) saving the water supply. :oh_i_see:

Yeah I went looking for other SIN locations and found a couple but haven't found another quest chain yet (I did find a random quest with a damaged thumper).

I'm in the beta weekend. So far the PvE is shallow and pedantic.  :awesome_for_real: I don't plan to do the PvP, no interest in it.

The "Hammer Time" intro mission is ridiculous. I'm stuck already in the PvE. :oh_i_see:

Edit: Yup, way too hard:

http://www.firefallthegame.com/community/threads/impossible-to-solo-hammer-time-mission.53447/page-2#post-1329272

Hey Everyone!

We are excited to announce that on the weekend of January 25th, Red 5 Studios™ will be hosting our January Firefall™ Beta Weekend!

Starting at 10:00am PDT on January 25th and continuing through 11:59pm PDT on January 27th 2013, we will be unlocking the servers and allowing anybody who registers for Firefall access to the beta. This means that anyone who has yet to experience the war torn Earth will now have the chance to defend the Earth against the mysterious Chosen, explore the land of New Eden, and face off against their fellow players in fast-paced PvP.

Additionally, throughout the weekend, players who take part in our Beta Weekend will unlock an exclusive in-game decal for use on their many Battleframes! To get your exclusive decal, all you have to do is log in during the Beta Weekend.  Following the Beta Weekend, you’ll be able to obtain your badge of honor at the New You station in game.

During our Firefall Beta Weekend, we’re offering players the chance to win themselves a huge Firefall prize package, including a Razer 2013 Deathadder mouse and Firefall swag! For more information, check out www.firefallthegame.com/betaweekends to see how your videos and screenshots of skill shots can win you these awesome prizes!

Be sure to download the client to pre-load the game. This way, once the Beta Weekend begins, you can log on and jump right in!

Download here: http://beta.firefallthegame.com/download 

-- Red 5 Tribe

Bluh. This thing has fallen off my radar.

Open beta this weekend.

Looks like the consensus 6 months ago was a resounding "MEH".

Has it improved to a "try the free game"?

With all the quests completed and nothing to do.  :uhrr:

This seems like the kind of game that is progressing slower than the state of the art is moving and is just falling further behind. By the time it releases I suspect nobody will care.

He aims plenty of disparaging remarks at WoW's accessibility formula and its mandate to acquire casual players by streamlining or omitting traditional MMORPG systems. "And it worked. Players came in droves, millions of them," Kern writes. "But at what cost? Sometimes I look at WoW and think 'what have we done?' I think I know. I think we killed a genre."

Kern goes on to lament the lack of difficulty inherent in post-WoW MMOs, and naturally he says that Firefall has found just the right balance between accessibility and challenge.

He's right, in a sense. The post-WoW world is replete with smaller games offering narrower experiences to whatever bit of the pie they could carve off of the game they were knocking off.

Firefall is a steaming pile of poop. I didn't have any expectations for it other than it actually be something rather than nothing at all.

However, I had no idea what the hell was going on with the item system.  It seemed complicated to be complicated, which is what I'm sensing from others here.

The embarrassing thing about this is that its from ex-Bliz peeps.  I guess maybe that's why they're ex-Bliz?  :why_so_serious:

That's the PVP minigame.

Basically because PvP is seen as relatively "cheap" content I think. It's an extremely competitive area though and I'm not sure firefall is competitive there either.

... It makes me wonder if the eventual winner will come from the other direction. World of Modern Warfare Online?

I may power through Engineer to top tier in one line and tier 5 or 7 in the other two. I really want that multi-turrent :-)

A Letter from the CEO:
Firefall fans, we owe you an apology. When Open Beta commenced on July 9th, our servers were overwhelmed. There were several issues that prevented people from logging in, completing the tutorial, or using calldowns and garages and printers. As I stated on the forums, this was our fault, and we take full responsibility. Stage 1 of Open Beta was meant to stress our system, and we gained many, many players during that time that did, indeed, stress our servers.
We have also taken many steps to improve the way the service handles load. While we still have more to do, we have greatly stabilized the service and restored functionality. Some specific fixes include:
Login Works
- We have resolved the vast majority of login errors, including 503 errors, and have raised server capacity in all regions to better handle the load.
Blackwater 5-man instance & Melding Pockets Online
- Nearly all issues with visiting these new zones have been resolved. Players can reliably reach these new areas now.

Printer & Garage are Greatly Improved
- The responsiveness of these terminals are greatly improved and enhanced. The vast majority of UI glitches have been fixed with these stations. Tutorial videos have been added to help explain how to use the garage and crafting system.

Calldown Menus are Back
- Players no longer lose their calldown menus and do not have to relog to get their 5th ability slot to work. Players can now reliably access their thumpers, daily mission crates, scanhammer, etc.
Dropships Resume Regular Flights
- Dropships are now working consistently and can be found ferrying passengers all over New Eden.

Tutorials are Unstuck
- Players who create new characters no longer get stuck on the secondary weapon or jet crafting missions. Most charactesr who were stuck should be able to resume play normally, or have customer support restore their character. Our support staff has cleared their tickets and are now back to running at nominal 24-48 hour response time. We expedite all stuck character issues, so often this issue will be resolved the same day.

Please accept our apologies for the rocky start, and while we are not past all of it yet, things have improved tremendously and we are working on resolving the remaining issues.
Meanwhile, please join us for a series of new content and features that are rolling out regularly. Its been an incredible experience and only made possible by you, the community. Thank you and see you in Firefall.

- Mark Kern
CEO & CCO, Red 5 Studios

Look at this fucking thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKpaI46mSlU

Look at this fucking thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKpaI46mSlU

Increased Chosen and Melding Activity.

Warning, we are also detecting increased Chosen activity with key elite troop movements. Some isolated reports are now reporting new types of Chosen, never seen before. We believe they may be attempting to steal the new Arsenal Battleframe technology, so all ARES teams should be on the lookout for tougher and larger numbers of Chosen forces during the Omnicon event!

Melding Tornadoes Spiking New Energy Patterns!

The Accord has also noticed a change in energy readings being reported from the Melding Tornadoes. Aero and the Accord science teams believe that additional wormholes are opening up, leading to new locations. We expect the energy pattern to reach their peak on Tuesday. Coincidence, or part of a massive Chosen initiative to sabotage Omnicon? Stay vigilant!

SIN Improvements mean New Global Perspective Online!

With the effort of ARES teams who have been working diligently to restore SIN to New Eden, we have managed to significantly enhance the speed and reliability of all SIN related terminals including inventory, garages and printers. Also, the Accord has managed to reactive a few of the remaining SIN satellites in orbit, allowing us to see first hand the scope and extent of the Melding attack on our world. Work is preceding feverishly on a new global SIN map for pilots everyone. Read more details on our blog!

Whoah, Red 5's CEO got fired and all the sordid details are on Reddit.


http://www.gamefront.com/breaking-red-5-board-votes-out-founder-mark-kern/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1tuf3c/this_is_why_mark_kern_was_removed_as_ceo_by_red_5/

How did this go on for so long? The game has been an obvious disaster for years.