Global Agenda - Now Subscription less, GW model.

[Spiff]

I don't disagree about the PvE, it's good fun in short bursts (the basics are good, even if the content is sparse and a bit repetitive as you said).

About AvA though, it's where the game could have shined imo; the whole class thing is geared for tactical team-play.
I got into it for a few months (start of this year) and my experience:
- the metagame requires a spreadsheet to compete, but doesn't offer any real depth or differing tactics (you capture hexes/land; some hexes give bonuses; the bonuses are huge. You have these hexes -> you win the season; you don't have them -> you lose. You use them to mostly produce a lot of small crap, like beacons).
- the tech you can use (and produce) in AvA sounded like a great idea; in practice it mostly ruins the gameplay imo. Most of it is rather boring to use, some of it is utterly ridiculous (i.e. the vindicator tank, which blasts AoE shots that oneshot anyone except tanks with shields).
- The fights (which is what it's all about for 90% of players) can be good fun, although they're mostly 'zerg the point' type battles.
One tip: get a good book, or have EvE open in another window or something: you will be waiting around most of the time.

I'm in Europe though, so maybe the US maps are a bit more active/competitive, I dunno.

The whole thing is only semi-persistent anyway, 'cause after each season (season is a few weeks long) the map gets wiped and reshuffled, which is probably a good thing because it would end up in completely dead-locked monopolies otherwise with the system as is.

It all left me a bit disappointed (as you may have noticed  ), but if they can take the basic gameplay and surround it with a better game/concept in Tribes I'll probably be playing that for a looong time.

I'm one the many that after playing Rift came to the conclusion I'm probably done with diku for a while, Hi-Rez is offering something different and it works. It deserves a better game though.

[Mrbloodworth]

Don't watch if you dont want spoilers.


Global Agenda - PTS Dome defense


Also, today is the day.

Server downtime: The Global Agenda Servers are expected to be down on THURSDAY, APRIL, 14 2010 from approximately 10:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. US Eastern (14:30 to 21:00 UTC) while the patch is deployed. Watch GAServerStatus on Twitter for the latest server availability information

EDIT: Now that i have read the patch notes.

Mercenary PvP:

   * Team-count restriction increased to allow premade teams of 3 to join the queue
    * 30+ Merc matches should now no longer award Uncommons.
    * 30+ Merc matches had their Epic drop rates increased significantly.
    * 30+ Merc matches now reward Crescent Jetpacks much more often.
    * 30+ Merc matches now have a chance to award new T5 dyes (see the "Other" section below)
    * Added Scramble: Tetra Pier and Scramble: Stockpile back to the Mercenary queue rotation

# Tier 5 Dye Rewards
#

    * Mercenary (30+) - Dragonscale, Giraffa, Chameleon, Iguana, Betta Fish
    * 4v4 Timed & Double Agent - Rainbow
    * Ultra-Max - Fire, Twilight
    * Dome Defense - Binary, Datastream, TriMachine, PyraMachine

[Nija]

I'm playing this more often now that I finally quit my day job.

If there's a friends list or whatever, feel free to add me - "Nijasan" in game. I have a 30s medic and assault and a 20s robo.

[Spiff]

The increased team-count restriction for Merc is enough for me to re-install it, interested to see how it works out for them this time.
(also: there really isn't anything else grabbing my attention out there right now and I already paid for this  )

[Mrbloodworth]

I have a agency, however I won't call it active. Its mostly just friends so we can group easier. I can add any of you that want in.

Also, Global Agenda - Free Agent.

[Ratman_tf]

Back playing this for a bit. I'd really like to get my characters up to level 20, so I can so some solo missions instead of waiting for a group. I want to try one of the raids too.

God damn them. I really hate XP boosters because of the fact that I'm tempted.

[Count Nerfedalot]

Wait, what?  You have to grind your way through pugs so you can get to the later-game soloing instances?  Well, that's different!   

[Nija]

I just bought my first XP booster last night. It's pretty amazing. It says that it doubles EXP but I think it does more than that. Matches where I'd get 900 exp normally (for losing) I'd wind up with a "total exp gain" of ~3200.

Went from level 24 to 28 in about 15 PVP matches.

[Furiously]

You also get 2x the items if you win... Which is a big deal....

I think they should change the "You would get an item like this...if you had boost" to "are you sure you don't want to boost now and get this item too..."

[Ratman_tf]

Wait, what?  You have to grind your way through pugs so you can get to the later-game soloing instances?  Well, that's different!   

 

[Mrbloodworth]

Wait, what?  You have to grind your way through pugs so you can get to the later-game soloing instances?  Well, that's different!  

I don't see what the issue is, its a team based game. You do not have to pug, no. You can group with friends. But even puging is not that bad. The intro takes to you to level 5, the desert to 15, at that point ( and slightly before ) you can PvE or PvP.  The only real level people need to worry about is level under/over level 30 for Mercenary grouping. Other than that, most restrictions are unnoticeable with regular play, and trust me, The solo missions, are F'ing hard and extremely challenging. A group of friends an I are just now really able to even atempt Ultra-max ( Not solo ) and have some level of success. Unlike many games, the solo missions are not the path of least resistance.



On another note, They rearranged all skill trees, and moved some stuff around, where previously filling a tree made you somewhat a one role, maybe two. The new system I feel really does allow for more variations with in classes. To their credit, they have seemingly held onto that impeccable balance they have always had. Nothing really feels overpowerd.

Good game info here:   Sadly, most of the skill tree tools online need to be updated to the new versions.

[Ratman_tf]

Made 20 with my Assault a day ago. Played a few solos. Not bad. Not as fun as MP, but also not as frustrating when I get a crap group. Also the boss, so far, is an elite and not a proper raid boss, which makes sense. The rewards are less, but not pitiful.

Next I need to do some PvP, just to try it.

[Malakili]

Made 20 with my Assault a day ago. Played a few solos. Not bad. Not as fun as MP, but also not as frustrating when I get a crap group. Also the boss, so far, is an elite and not a proper raid boss, which makes sense. The rewards are less, but not pitiful.

Next I need to do some PvP, just to try it.

Its the best part of the game I think.  A little slower paced than a lot of shooters, with the result being that its a big more tactical, even though there are giant guns and jetpacks.

[Kail]

Really enjoying the game so far.

Recons seem a bit.. useless?  I guess they're supposed to be "anti-robotics" like the TF2 spy, but I haven't had a lot of success taking out turret nests and things.  Even if you drop an EMP charge and a firebonb right on top of it, the turret survives, and unless the Engineer is asleep, he'll survive to rep it, which means dropping out of stealth and meleeing down the health station which is healing the engineer, then meleeing down the engineer who is healing the turret, and finally meleeing down the turret itself.  Hope he's off in the middle of nowhere, or you're going to be dead before you finish.  Sniping seems even more useless, given that the sniper bullet has a travel time which makes sniping moving targets very incinsistent, and if you do land a shot it doesn't kill in one hit.  How are you supposed to contribute as these guys?  I wish I didn't suck so much at them, since they look totally badass, but in combat they seem almost comparable to a medic who can't heal or an engineer with no turrets.

Medics are awesomely powerful and boring to play.  Select healing gun, hold down LMB, never die.  The healing gun seems a bit awkward to use, maybe I'm just used to WoW or League of Legends where you can just click on the health bar, but in this game, I'm often not really  sure who I'm healing.  I don't know if the beam sometimes doesn't appear or I'm schizing out or what, but it seems like the visuals aren't synching up with the audio which isn't synching up with the actual health bars I'm allegedly healing.  Since I don't know who is taking damage from what, health bars jump all over the place, and trying to find out if I'm healing the right guy in the middle of a crowd of allies and enemies with all the glowy particle effects is hard.  I'm also not clear on the function of the various healing beams.  You've got one which heals yourself and your target, which seems like the only one you'd ever use.  You've got one which only heals the target and gives them a 10% damage boost, which seems less than ideal given how much damage you'll be taking.  And you've got one which is like a "nanite gun" or something which shoots healing bullets or something rather than the beam, which I completely don't see the point of.

Robotics seem powerful, too, but kind of more like an amplifying effect on a team's suckyness.  You'll either get a turret set up in a choice spot with a bunch of guys defending it and spend the entire match racking up kill after kill, or you'll spend the entire match watching turrets pop as the enemy overruns position after position and you get nothing at all.  So far, I really like them, though their repair beam has the same problem as the medic's healing beam, with me having trouble sometimes telling what, if anything, it's healing in the heap of mechanical crap I have strewn around.

Assault I haven't tried yet, but it looks kind of neat.  I always wish there were more around, they seem like they d the most damage and take the most hits.

PvE is kind of meh, I'm enjoying it, but it seems a bit bolted on.  There's the weird lack of credit for anyone but the guy who gets in the last shot, the rediculous difficulty some classes have with certain bosses (or bosses in general, for that matter), the crazy respawn rate, the shared inventory across all your characters which includes quest items, etc.  Still, it's fun enough that I wonder why more semi-persistent games don't do something like this.  In general, really liking this game.

[Ratman_tf]

.  And you've got one which is like a "nanite gun" or something which shoots healing bullets or something rather than the beam, which I completely don't see the point of.

I believe you're talking about the heal gun that gives a HOT regeneration effect. You can be healing more than one person by HOTing them all up. I kind of prefer that one.

the crazy respawn rate,

I don't think I"ve ever seen mobs respawn. Maybe you're seeing the security spawns when some wonderful person trips an alarm?

[Spiff]

Recons seem a bit.. useless?  I guess they're supposed to be "anti-robotics" like the TF2 spy, but I haven't had a lot of success taking out turret nests and things.

They have the most options to improve as your skill improves; the difference between a bad engineer and a good one isn't nearly as big as that between a crappy recon and a great one.
That said: the most popular build atm seems to be bomber-con: the central skill-tree has been completely revamped and if you take all the relevant bomb-improvements it's fairly easy to be very annoying (the most important perks are the ones that make your bombs go off faster).
Not just vs. robot-nests though, spamming the objective can give quite a lot of points 'cause most assaults are slow as hell.

Medics are awesomely powerful and boring to play.  Select healing gun, hold down LMB, never die ... And you've got one which is like a "nanite gun" or something which shoots healing bullets

Healing isn't quite as exciting as blasting away to me neither no, especially since their survivability and their healing seems to be even better since the latest patch.
The difference between an ok and a great medic is the offhands though. The healing ones (healing grenade and healing wave mostly) can be amazing lifesavers if timed well.

Nanite gun is a bit more situational; it won't save anyone under focus fire (but that's hard even for a beam), but you will often outheal the entire team if you spec for duration and keep the HoT up on everyone. Fyi: if your HoT is ticking on someone and they get a kill, you get an assist, getting 40-50 assists in a match isn't uncommon for a nanite-medic.

I've turned down much of the particle effects myself, game may be a bit less pretty, but it makes it a lot easier to track who you're healing.

Robotics seem powerful, too, but kind of more like an amplifying effect on a team's suckyness.

It's a support class, even more since the new patch imo.
You can play more offensive by using drones (2 drones + 1 turret for instance, always take a turret  ) which is fun, but if you can keep up a nest (medcrate + power station/sensor) it'll probably do more for the team.

Assault I haven't tried yet, but it looks kind of neat.  I always wish there were more around, they seem like they d the most damage and take the most hits.

They certainly spray the most bullets/explosives 
If you spec the central (tanking) tree you'll take twice as many hits as most other classes to kill + since the latest patch the offhand shields are even more powerful.
The trade off is you're sluggish; your bigass main gun will either slow you to a crawl or just root you to the spot if you right-click fire it (conserving energy).

The alternative is the third tree which gives damage+mobility; loads of fun, but you won't be a tank and people will scream at you to get on the point ... because that's what assaults are for!    If you don't mind the screaming (or just turn of voice) it's probably the most fun class for PvP.


I'm really enjoying the changes they made so far, the skill-tree revamps opened up a lot more choice it seems.
I still wish they made separate PvP queues for teams and solo-players, but at least now I can play with 2 mates from time to time.
It all bodes well for Tribes (which I'm supahmegaexcited for!!  ).

[Ratman_tf]

Played my first Merc mission tonight. I love the idea of team PVP, but when I'm in there playing them, it seems so much less fun than the ideal in my head. Ah well, it's not that bad. Maybe I'll warm up to it.

[Nija]

Not sure why people wait so long to play merc missions.  I actually did the reverse of what most people do. I didn't do any PVE until I was over level 20.

Then again this was before Sandstorm was available. Sandstorm is pretty cool and I wouldn't mind to see it fleshed out a bit more. Merc mission/PVP is where it's at though.

[Mrbloodworth]

I keep checking for you when I'm on for invites, but we keep missing each other I think. PM me with names if you guys want in.

[Morfiend]

If you guys are actively playing this, maybe I will reinstall it. I love me some Global Agenda.

[Mrbloodworth]

My group is, I won't say we are on everyday, but we have been playing more then most lately. More people in agency, less Pugging. Win win. I think you are still in agency Morfiend.

[Ratman_tf]

Not sure why people wait so long to play merc missions. 

I'm just more into co-op than versus in my online gaming. I don't mind some PvP, but it's not what I'm most interested in.

[Furiously]

If you could do the base defense raids all the time, I would be playing A LOT MORE.

[Kail]

Not sure why people wait so long to play merc missions.  I actually did the reverse of what most people do. I didn't do any PVE until I was over level 20.

How did that even happen?  I didn't think you could queue for PvP until level 10?  Though the game is kind of wonked at telling me WTF these queues are ("I can queue for Special Forces missions?  The fuck is that?  *searches Wiki* Oh, I see, it's the hip and edgy way of spelling 'PvE'"), I could easily be mistaken.

Got to 20 and tried a solo PvE mission the other night.  Maybe it makes more sense if you don't lose the bonus (P.S. boss difficulty is still complete bullshit) but it seemed like it took a little longer than a PvP mission for less reward and way less fun.

[Nija]

At release there wasn't a minimum level required for mercenary queuing.

Everyone played the game like they played TF2. Which is still all it really is, with PVE tacked on here and there.

[Ratman_tf]

Heh. I had the most sucess in PvP with my Robo. Plop down a shield, turret, and keep it buffed while it shoots up the place. Occasionally blast some rude Recon who tries to melee the turret.
Is that a valid tactic? Recons seem to love whacking on turrets, and I've never seen one take it down.

[Malakili]

Heh. I had the most sucess in PvP with my Robo. Plop down a shield, turret, and keep it buffed while it shoots up the place. Occasionally blast some rude Recon who tries to melee the turret.
Is that a valid tactic? Recons seem to love whacking on turrets, and I've never seen one take it down.

A good recon should be able to take out a robo nest in my experience.  If they just run up and start beating it on though they are doing it wrong, they should be using EMP to weaken them and stop them from working for a bit.

[Mrbloodworth]

Heh. I had the most sucess in PvP with my Robo. Plop down a shield, turret, and keep it buffed while it shoots up the place. Occasionally blast some rude Recon who tries to melee the turret.
Is that a valid tactic? Recons seem to love whacking on turrets, and I've never seen one take it down.

A good recon should be able to take out a robo nest in my experience.  If they just run up and start beating it on though they are doing it wrong, they should be using EMP to weaken them and stop them from working for a bit.

Or just run by with some mines. Then hack you down as you repair it.

[Ratman_tf]

Yea. The EMP bombers did it effectivley. The guys meleeing must have just been frustrated. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Global Agenda - Defend The Dome

Also, The Training video contest seems to have completed: About Those Benjamins …

Some good videos came out of that.

[Ratman_tf]

Shit should not be gated to level 30. Fuck the treadmill and let me play.

[Nija]

Dome defense is actually level 40. Yeah it's worse than you expected.

[Mrbloodworth]

It also requires a 10 man pre-made team. AFAIK.

As for why stuff is gated at 30, 30 is when you have all skill points.

[Mrbloodworth]

06/29/2011: Global Agenda VERSION 1.44 Patch Notes

Global Agenda Version 1.44

Server downtime: The Global Agenda Servers are expected to be down on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2011 from approximately 11:00 a.m. until as late as 3:00 p.m. US Eastern (15:00 to 19:00 GMT) while the patch is deployed. Watch GAServerStatus on Twitter for the latest server availability information.
Major Highlights since Version 1.43
Dome City Changes:

    Carter’s Seasonal Accessories has closed up shop.
    Burning Fashion has arrived in Dome City and will be selling cosmetic flair where Carter’s used to be.
    The long awaited Skyward Jetpacks has finally landed at the upper deck of Dome City and is open for business. In addition to selling jetpacks available elsewhere in the game, Skyward also sells high-end jetpack trail effects. You must be a boosted customer with a jetpack in Dome City in order to reach the upper deck of Dome City where Skyward resides.
    Adjusted the position of the guard at the South gate to the Sonoran Desert to be less confusing to players attempting to exit the dome.

Open Zone Changes:

    Uncommon quality Repair Kits can now be purchased from Yuma Imports at New Yuma Station
    Fixed some issues with materials that appeared to flicker when using Direct X 10 on some clients

Gameplay Changes:

    Frenzy wave should now properly award buff points for hitting allies

Bugs Fixed in Version 1.44

    Finalized netcode update (initially deployed on 6/23). Significant changes to net code that improve communication between the Atlanta data center and the games` other data centers.  This should reduce occurrences of the "stuck on floor” issue for EU and NA West users,  as well as provide some other benefits while entering and leaving matches.

Map Changes

    New PvP Control map “Magmarock” has been promoted from Beta and added permanently to the Mercenary PvP Queue.
    New PvP Payload map “Haulin’ Acid” has been added to the Beta Maps Queue.

[Dren]

Slight necro.  Playing this game now with my sons.  I'm really pleasantly surprised with it.  I bought the elite package for myself with the coupon they provide so it was something like $16.33 once.  Once. 

Only at 27 with my highest class, so no comment on probably more than 50% of the game yet.  I'd like to get to a point where I can at least experience what all this AVA stuff is, but not sure I'll get there or have whatever catass mentality is required.

For now, it is a great fps with some persistency slightly above a TF2.  The mercenary missions are fun and quick.  The playerbase seems to be pretty decent so far too.  Yes, you get the occasional drama, but about 5% of that I experienced in random BGs in WoW. 

I'm having good successes now that I've been building up my items and understanding skills/equipment better.  Crafting my own mods and applying them has really tilted things in my favor too.  Robo and Medic are my prefered classes since they give diversity of killing and supporting teams.  Good stuff.  I'm working a recon and assault too, but they'll be way later in getting to 30.

Love the fact that you can change talents/skills anytime you want (outside of combat.)  Also, access to the missions page to start things up anywhere and anytime is great.  Balance seems fine and even lower level chars can be effective if player skill is good enough.  The most important thing to understand is that you should never stand still.  Ever. (good performance pc and connection is a must.)

I joined an agency that asked me to join.  I doubt it is any good.  Anyone know of a good agency to apply for long term or should I just wait until I can play AVA?

Anyway, I suggest anyone with a want for fps-type-sorta-mmo, give this a shot.  It's free and even if you want to bite the bullet and buy it, it is CHEAP!