f13.net

I've been playing this a bit and so far it's actually not too bad.  It's kind of a mix between Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare, Borderlands and 7 Days 2 die.  You gather resources during your missions to build your base and craft weapons (guns and melee weapons) and ammo.  Once you're ready, waves of zombies come and you try and stop them, either through direct combat or with traps you place around your base.  So far it seems to be all pve and I don't know if there is any pvp.  You can play co-op and single player.  If your looking for a hard core survival game, this isn't it.  It seems like a much more casual survival light type of game that you could safely play with your kids.  The zombies aren't very scary and the building and combat are pretty simple.  Not sure if there is an "end game" or how much longevity it will have but it's fun to just play for a while then go and do something else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8oRlDCwnE

Searching on Steam gives me nothing. Is this an EA or Ubisoft exclusive?

I got an email from epicgames.com.  I have to wait, though, it's still too pricey for me.  It looks VERY fun, though.

It's an Epic Games "exclusive" on the PC. As in you need an Epic Games account and use their launcher. There are PS4 and Xbox One versions as well. It's also currently in paid Beta (aka Early Access) right now.

I think it's supposed to be F2P when it releases next year right?

Yes but given the current setup it's going to be a very painful experience for people not willing to cough up cash. Things can obviously still change to make things nicer for those types of players but given what some alpha players have been posting it seems like big changes in that area are unlikely.

I have an extra code for the basic edition if anyone wants it.

I would take and appreciate if usable on PS4, otherwise I'll let it go to someone with a better rig.

I'll take it. I played the beta a bit, and it's not something I would pay for. But I'd dick around wiht it.

Did you mean alpha and didn't alpha players keep their accounts?

In that case... I'll take a pc code.  :awesome_for_real:

i uh

i didn't know that

wow i'm a dick

I took the code

Edit: Ok, less of a dick, no, it looks like that code gave me the standard edition, which was not showing up before.

You're still a dick.  :why_so_serious:

Anyone tried this on the xbone? If so how are the controls or is it more comfortable with kb/mouse?

Can't compare it to the PC version but it's fine on the Xbox for the most part if you're OK with shooters on a console. All the non shooting stuff works great with a controller, even melee.

Cool, thanks. Most shooters I play on the console anyway so that helps knowing the building stuff isn't a chore with controller.

I looked at it but I don't know that I want to spend $60 on it.  I'm also not sure how I'm supposed to pay for it.  I could do research but I just lost half my IT dept and boy are my arms tired.

In a moment of something, I put $60 on this and then many hours of time attempting to understand just what the holy shitfuck is going on.  There is a lot going on.

Doesn't help that the UI is an unholy clusterfuck of shit shifting around, incomplete information, and words that're interactive but look noninteractive. It's like someone glanced at hellish game city-sim/god-game UIs from 1992 and said "hey that looks like a fucking rad idea" and inked the final design on a wet bar napkin so they could go back to doing backflips on their BMX on the way home to play shareware Doom.

And the fact you have to go into a mission to manage your backpack is just icing on the cake.

I think that is pretty annoying.  I haven't determined the gameplay reason for it, not 100%.  I suspect it might be for design reasons, like you're supposed to do your gathering and crafting in the field like a real Rick Grimes or something.

What it really does is confuse the fuck out of some of us.  I swear to God that we had been playing for NINE HOURS and my friend says "So, I upgrade the schematics and then I have to make the weapon from that?".  Good for him that he was on the headset.  He had just been using traps that he scavenged during the mission, but I don't blame him.

I started out pretending that I was playing a CCG and that mindset works pretty well.  Even with the collection book, research points, skill points, separate XPs for everybody.  See, I upgrade cards at home and then while I'm really playing the game, I can tap houses for mana to cast weapons and traps using my upgraded cards.  But I'm also playing a shooter.

For a while, we were not sure if we were going to be able to replay missions.  Then we were able to.  We also were not getting mission credit while playing in the other guy's world, but later we were.

I had a good time but I wasn't sure I wanted to admit it.  This is the sort of game that F13 lives to rip apart.

It does, however, look pretty good and doesn't crash much.  So, there's that.  Also llamas.  The fuck?

The game and missions are decent. The loot card piñata fuckery are plain stupid. It's all the bullshit of every shitty mobile game tacked on to a fun co-op game. There's a bit of Hellgate going on here, but mostly the bad parts.

The core gameplay is fun but everything else around it including (or especially) the loot model is dire.

Hellgate?  Interesting move, sir.  I didn't see that one at all.

I am not sure what the core gameplay is.  Unfortunately, Mordheim has already claimed the title "Menu: The Game", while TESO has taken "Inventory: The Game" and so I'm not sure what to award Fortnite.  If the core is running around stylized maps, looting houses, shooting monsters, and wondering where the fucking firetrucks are, then sure.  That's fun.

I'll say that after enough time, it starts to come together.  I still haven't unlocked everything to do.  Of the things I have unlocked, I'm not sure what some of them do.  I have three squads unlocked but I'm left to assume they apply some passive bonus to my crew in the field.

I sent someone off to collect firewood on a dirtbike, which kinda made me feel like a dick.  I didn't imprison her in the Collection Book, which I feel is much like the Phantom Zone, so really she should be grateful.

I FEEL like I have been able to fiddle with the controller and cause some of the llamas to turn silver & gold, but it doesn't work all the time.

Just before I shut it down last night, we found daily quests.

Yes by core gameplay I mean the in-mission stuff of gathering resources, looting containers, building your fort and killing zombies.

The squads will increase your FORT stats and possibly give you bonuses in-mission *if* you slot them with survivors.

You are imagining things.

I'm being overly harsh, but only a bit.

I don't like how I got stuck in a menu opening ~17 loot lamas without any way to get out of that menu. I sat there for ten minutes opening them and received loot for things I hadn't unlocked yet. There's lots of stats that aren't explained, what appears to be classes and types/styles of those classes for heroes. Ultimately I now have ~80 cards in my inventory, anything from grey to blue and I don't really know what any of it does. Not only do I have to learn how to actually play the game, but I also have to learn what all this stuff does.

I just wanted to loot things and build things; didn't realize I would have to play the meta game.

I hope it grows and I hope this cash infusion gives them some devs to clean this up a bit. There's some great ideas under the hood.

Err'y day.  Sometimes I feel like my car is faster after I wash it.  It's a known issue.

About the classes.  Obviously Heroes are the ones you can control during the fun part.  Survivors are to be slotted into squads, which apply bonuses to your hero stats, but I'm not 100% on exactly when; research needed.  Defenders are to be slotted into your ... Defender slots?  I don't have the game in front of me, but basically you will eventually be able to summon them to defend your stormshield base.  This is different from home base: home base is where you open card packs and tickle llamas.

You can also slot them as squad bonuses in your Hero boxy thingy if you have those slots unlocked.

They also can be sent on expeditions. Note that most expeditions use up your "Survivors" resource, which is different than your actual individual Survivor cards, and you don't see the cost when you browse through the list of expeditions. So be careful about that.

Defenders are also slotted in your Hero boxy thingy, if you have those slots unlocked. They can be used in any mission with less than 4 people* if you place down one or more Defender pad and place them on the pads. Note that you need to give them weapons and ammo and they eat ammo like crazy (you get the weapons back).

* Players + Defenders <= 4. I.e. solo you can have up to 3 Defenders with you, with 4 players you can't have any Defenders.

He's not lying. They chew through ammo at a rate that makes them next to useless, especially for assault rifles or the like. I've seen some people argue that melee defenders are somewhat worthwhile, but the whole system is so clunky, I just never bother with them at all and regret nothing. I just recycle them now.

I think they go in another slot as well, but agree on the ammo thing.  Tried one last night, but a huge part of base building is knowing where the husks are going to come from and poor placement meant that I don't know how he did.  Not hard to do a field run just to gather ammo, though... I assume that I get to keep all my shit even if I fail.  Haven't failed yet.

I haven't actually failed a protect the storm shield mission yet, but I'm almost absolutely sure there's no further penalties beyond whatever damage they happened to do to your defenses on the way to destroying your shield/amplifier. Mind you, in the later storm shield missions that could theoretically be a *ton* of damage. I'm at around Plankerton 4 or 5, and the waves are getting pretty terrifying. Thus far I've been lucky with having people join me, but it seems that later waves are probably going to require pre-forming a party. This is probably at least partially because I'm falling further and further behind the recommended level for the storyline missions, but there's also just a metric buttload of husks, and more and more mist monsters included. Smashers can make pretty quick work of most defenses.

I haven't seen any places that can accept defenders other than the hero pane to be summoned during missions or in the storm shield pane to be used on defend missions, and neither modifies your stats, so I'm sticking to my "Dump one in the collection book and recycle all of the extras" plan for delicious, delicious training manuals and hero xp.

yes all loot and crafting stuff is kept if you fail a mission. I've failed a few now just doing crafting runs too stock up on ammo mats.

Any defenders that use ammo currently is a waste of time they burn through their ammo so fast it has to be a bug. Melee defenders seem to work decent enough to distract and slow down husk rushes giving you time to blast through them yourself.

Yes having certain types of loot auto-open when visit the Loot screen and having no way of canceling out is annoying. Even more annoying is getting one of those "choose one of two" selections and you have no idea which one you might have more of cause you can't view your inventory from the Loot UI.

Finally if you buy the Founders pack with the pair of Legendary heroes be warned that you will be forced to pick which pair of Legendary class heroes you want after doing the beginning tutorial missions. I.e. the game forces you to pick among classes you probably have no experience with other than Solider. Also the Founder pack Legendary hero male and female are identical which is different than the normal Hero cards where the male and female heroes of the same class and sub-class are usually different so you are really only getting one Legendary hero plus one "skin".

Good for slotting in the support/tactical slots on the hero pane at least, but yeah, it's sort of bullshit (but don't worry, you can throw another 150$ at them and get the complete set!!)

It's +$99 for the full set of Legendary weapons (which you actually have to do quests for to unlock...) and heroes :awesome_for_real:

You can also send the "dup" on expeditions so they aren't a total waste.

Oh, was it 100$? I couldn't recall exactly. The quests for legendary weapons didn't bother me terribly much. My initial legendaries hadn't worn out by the time I finished the quests to get the schematics up to legendary level.

Major update Survive the Storm (https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/survive-the-storm---release-notes) dropped earlier this week. Even if you aren't actively playing right now you should still log in to get the "Month One" rewards which will disappear when the special event ends. Rewards are 25 armory (inventory) slots, 10 backpack slots, 1 people llama and 1 weapon llama.

Now with PvP Battle Royale (public test) mode :facepalm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4T0nGU4pg

PvP?  I do not know why that exists.  I'm not even going to read that.

They're trying to get into the PUBG arena, which Epic helped the devs for that game create, and why the PUBG devs are now upset with Epic for doing it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-exec-clarifies-objection-to-fortnite-battle-royale-its-not-about-the-idea-itself-its-about-epic-games/

Can never take them seriously because the name is so stupid and the game is so ugly.

Which one? Fortnite or PUBG? Or both?  :why_so_serious:

Nah, Fortnite is a fine name. PUBG. Also, Epic themselves have never made a bad looking game.

Tried the free battle royale mode on the PC. TF2 to CSGO as Fortnite to PUBG?  Sort of?  Too small a map, I couldn't stealth out as easy.

Battle Royale is pretty damn fun. Does make me realize I'm old and rusty as fuck at FPS.

You know they're onto something when there's a front page story on WSJ.com about the game. Still every PS4 owner I know who plays this desperately wants to play PUBG.

It's harder, more frustrating and somehow the better game.

So, no one's playing this? This game is absolutely blowing up.

teenagers

I'd sort of hit the end of my interest back when it was a PvE base defense game. Now that it seems to have morphed into some sort of PvP battle royale game, I'm even less inclined to pick it back up.

Seriously, this game is Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, but bad. WoW graphics and jumping idiots everywhere. The building part disappears in this bullshit. Stop caring about this game.

(PUBG is the worst looking game given its fanbase in like a decade, what are you talking about)

(also, Fortnite is objectively better looking than WoW and PUBG)

(you're crazy)

(i'm not playing either, i'm not 15)

Seriously? We are back in 2005 and the debate between cartoonish and realistic graphics?
Anyway, when I said "This game is PUBG but bad" I was not comparing graphics. Just saying that I could not care less about another game with cartoonish graphics when there is A) already a better version of the same game... And B) ... which wasn't made for preschoolers.

They were both made for preschoolers.

There’s nothing realistic about pubg. It’s just ugly.

Both those statements are absurd.

Falc, you wouldn't know fun if it came up and bit ya in the ass. :P

PUBG is slow. Like painfully slow. The map is too big. The end game is good though. Just takes too long to get there. And I used to play DayZ and can handle downtimes in my PvP games. Fortnite is fast paced, the building adds another dimension, and it's smooth. I find there are enough bad players to make me sorta feel like I'm decent at scooters again. Sniping is super fun. You guys can hate and call it a kids game, and a lot of kids do play it, but I'll be over here having a great time.

Hmm, I’ll have to give Fortnite a try when I finally escape the mountains of Japan without being eaten by an Oni or something.  I think I’ve made my opinions of PUBG known, and I really don’t want to shit on anybody enjoying it because I thought I did for awhile (and great for you if it hits all your buttons).  But, IMO, there are just too many flaws in the base gameplay (A lot of what Slayerik mentioned) for me to get any real enjoyment out of it.  I realllllly want to like this genre.  Maybe this one will work.

I recommend watching a few Twitch streams to help you learn a few loot chest locations and basic tactics. I've really improved my gameplay from just watching them and killing time. My favorite streamers are Dakotaz (streams like 4:00am - 11:00am EST), High Distortion (Plays Solo squads, basically him vrs a ton of teams of 4 - mid-afternoon EST), Ninja (most popular and insanely skilled, regularly has 120k+ viewers). You can get a feel for the bullet drop on snipers and stuff, learn the weapons everyone uses (cause they are the best). Little things like drinking your small shields before the large shield potions (Small shields max out at 50, large can be used at 50).

My biggest problem is building. I find myself wanting to treat it like any other shooter, and it's not. I do way better when I throw up some quick cover for myself, and then fight. But my brain still says SHOOT THE BAD GUY NOW and half the time I forget.

Cant argue with the popularity of Fortnite (we could argue it in the you know 'battle royale' thread in this very forumcoughcough), but yeah I dont get the allure. It's cartoonish, the building mechanic is fucking STUPID and just feels like a game for kids.

PUBG is stupidly hard, is semi-realistic and has no silly building mechanic (seriously wtf). Try sniping someone at 400m and accounting for bullet drop. Best played in a squad, with vehicles. Vehicles are fun, or hilariously failures.  Bluehole needs to get better fucking coders though, it can be buggy at times.

Bullet drop is a thing in Fortnite as well. Have you played it?

Yeah I have, and I get there is some of that but it's not on the level of pubg. 

Plus there's the whole, 'I'm being shot! quick spin around and build a castle' mechanic which I cant stand. shrug, both games are popular. Fortnite is the big winner but I'm enjoying the fuck out of PUBG and simply can't get into Fortnite. Bluehole just needs to hire some better fucking coders.

New PUBG map looks pretty fun. 1/4 size of the normal maps.

The mobile version of this is now the #1 app, not just #1 game, for iOS, not it's not even fully released yet.  I would think even more money hats will be worn by Epic's people once the Android version goes live.

https://www.mmorpg.com/fortnite/news/mobile-ios-version-takes-1-app-spot-in-13-countries-around-the-world-1000047775

I just came in here because I'm avoiding work.  I build forts in Fortnite and let the 3 randos (who are all in middle school) shoot the husks.  I don't play PvP.  I'm not sure how BR games can be fun and I'm not inclined to try.

It's kinda hilarious but also kinda good actually that Epic is probably going to eat PUBG's lunch because they know/appreciate what polish/stability/performance means for a game. The F2P thing is probably a huge factor over PUBG but the fact that Fortnite doesn't run like dogshit where PUBG does I think probably helps people with shitty PCs get into the game.

I imagine this takes the sting right out of their spending millions on Paragon.

Also working console versions helps a lot.

Yeah, also that and literally being the people who own/develop the very engine that powers both games helps.

Very cool that I can run with my 15 y/o son on his PS4. IDK, it's a fun game. Still digging it.

Do we have a list of usernames anywhere? I'm in as Rendakor on PC; just started playing today.

Who in the fuck thought this kind of game was a good idea?

lol

Insert picture of Epic guys rolling in rooms full of cash.

It's shiet but the teens and kids love it. I'm also glad cause it's made Bluehole pick up there game with PUBG significantly. Regular patches, new map to test, event mode each weekend. A new muscle car on Miramar!

I think he’s talking about battle royal games in general.

Pretty much. I don't think it's a terrible concept in specific, but fuck me... you do not do that sort of thing with voice chat on by default.

URGE TO KILL... RISING.

Epic is going to be putting $100 million into Fortnite esport prizes this year alone. :ye_gods:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/epic-games-giving-100-million-fortnite-prize-pools/

Are middleschoolers allowed to compete in esports?

I've heard of a few of these esport teams signing 13 year olds.

It depends on the game/league. Middle school is a bit young to compete "professionally" though it might be possible depending.

Some examples: ESL for CS:GO is 16 minimum, LCS for LoL is 17 (though you can sign at 16), OWL for Overwatch is 18 (though you can sign younger than that), Overwatch Contenders is 13 minimum.