Faces of Mankind?

[schmoo]

It seems that Faces of Mankind, some sort of MMOG, is starting open beta today.  I say seems, because the site http://www.fomportal.com/">http://www.fomportal.com/ is overloaded and I can't download the beta client, or get past the main page.

"Homepage difficult to reach:

The traffic to and from this portal has increased substantially to such an extent that this page might become very difficult to access. Our sincere apologies for this, we will find a solution to cope with the increased network traffix asap.

Due to the overwhelming amount of connection attempts, we've had to shutdown the forums until tomorrow night.

Duplex System Staff"

Anyone know anything about this game? It appears to be some sort of futuristic RPG/FPS.  I've never heard of it before.

[HaemishM]

I just signed up for it and got a response email. It says that even though it's an "open beta," not everyone who signed up will get in, because of overwhelming response or something.

The screenshots are somewhat underwhelming, but I'll try just about anything for free.

[schild]

It looks like it could be very Deus Ex-y. I'm not expecting it to be 1/10th as good, but it would be a start. I'm was accepted for this phase about a year ago, so I'll be in at somepoint tonight or tomorrow for a bit. I'll probably use the name Schild.

[SirBruce]

Their server has been going up and down the past few hours, and the web site is completely overloaded.  Basically, they can't handle all the attention.

It is opne beta now, so anyone can get you.  You just need to go to fomportal.com and create an account on the left and then go to options and click on the open beta button.  Sadly, the web site is so overloaded I can't even do that.

Bruce

[WayAbvPar]

The screenshots are somewhat underwhelming, but I'll try just about anything for free.

Beta slut.

[SirBruce]

Fuck this, I give up.

The game crashes ever few minutes and kicks me out with a mysterious Network Error.

The default controls are arrow keys, not WASD.  Okay, fixed that.

I can't seem to get out of first-person view.

You can't talk while actually doing anything.  You have to stop, and hit escape to bring up all the windows, and then click in the chat window, to chat.  There's no default "hit enter to start typing chat" or anything that I can find.

Oh, by the way, enter is the key that actually lets you interact with stuff.  Not left click.  Enter.  Although the two things in my apartment that I clicked on don't seem to do anything when I tried to hit enter.

Then I ran around for a bit and tried to get a misison.  Only I can't find any missions.  In fact, it seems like the only missions are player created missions.  And of course no one is creating any, or at least, the interface is too obscure for me to understand how to actually get one.

I surrender.

Bruce

[schmoo]

I can't even get into fomportal.com any more.  Guess I won't be trying this one today, although from the sound of it, I'm probably saving my myself a pile of aggravation.

[schild]

Given the number of games I've played, if I can't figure out what to do in the first 2 minutes after fixing controls that always suck, it's not worth playing.

Evaluation: Crap.

[SirBruce]

On a whim, I gave it another try.

People keep popping in and out of existance.  One guy was running around halfway stuck in the floor.  I went up a lift, and then jumped down in between two terminals and some guy who was standing there using one.  And I was trapped.  Couldn't get past him, you see.  Great design, guys.

I managed to find some mining terminals where I could start mining stuff.  So I did.  Only nothing seemed to work.  Because the messages were getting sent to the System chat box, not the regular one, so I had no feedback on what the hell I was actually doing.  So I left in frustration, not realizing until later I had set up automated mining ops.

Then I found some doors I could hack into, and I tried to hacking minigame.  And had no idea what I was actually doing.  So I went to the vortex pads, and then somehow I died.  I don't know how.  Cops came after me for hacking?  Who knows; the game didn't provide any feedback.  But I heard a pop, and then I died.  And slowly the world turned black.

Eventually I awoke in what I think was a cloning tube.  And I couldn't move, or click on anything.  I floated there for a while, delving through the interface for a helpful message telling me my condition and what I should do, but I didn't find anything.

I gave up again and decided to pre-order The Matrix Online instead.

Bruce

[Alkiera]

Someone probably shot you, Bruce.  If you knew who, you could report the crime via the Security Panel, and people of the LED faction could find them and arrest them.

Or something.

I managed to go to Mars, and did eventually find a mining terminal, but the game crashed with some kind of network error.

This is not a beta.  They may have called it that, but this is either effects of a severely overloaded system, or a just outright buggy one.

Some of what I could piece together about the system sounds innovative, however.  Looks to be a full PvP environment, MMOFPS style.  I promptly remapped the keys (once I found the window) to work like VtM:Bloodlines, which made moving around less annoying.  It looks as if they intend to have a 'player driven' system....  but, according to the faction chat I saw, no one knows how to do anything.  Or even what there is to do.

Alkiera

EDIT: Yet another developer has figured out how to patch their client in a non-sucky way...  Leaving Blizzard as a soloist singing 'Can't write a patcher to save our lives.'

[schild]

I gave up again and decided to pre-order The Matrix Online instead.

I lasted longer in this than I did Matrix Online.

[plummerx]

Next it'l be 6 or 8 shards, ice skating avatars and players falling into the center of the earth.

[SirBruce]

Ever heard the term 'broken record'?

Bruce

[Soukyan]

You can't talk while actually doing anything.  You have to stop, and hit escape to bring up all the windows, and then click in the chat window, to chat.  There's no default "hit enter to start typing chat" or anything that I can find.

Are they a German company? Because Neocron was the same way as far as chat goes and it seems that it's just the tedious German way of doing things. Heh. I don't know. I learned to deal with it in Neocron because TS was always more effective when doing team PvP, but I digress. I'll have to try out FOM sometime this week.

[dEOS]

I think that some of you guys have more fun playing those betas and find everything that is just moronic in terms of design than actually playing MMORPGs in a stable/polished environment.

Am I wrong ? :)

d

[Signe]

This game is obviously not ready for beta.  I demand a refund!

[schmoo]

I think that some of you guys have more fun playing those betas and find everything that is just moronic in terms of design than actually playing MMORPGs in a stable/polished environment.

Am I wrong ? :)

d

Whyever would you think that? :)

I play betas because 1) they are free, and 2) they don't cost anything.

Not to mention that someday, somehow, a MMOG might be made that is new and different and fun to play. It could happen.

[dEOS]

I tend to enjoy my MMORPG slowly because I know that there isn't that much goodness in them to last a very long time. I am glad that there are pioneers like you who feel the need to invest your time in beta-versions. I know I am not able to do it. Or not anymore. Just too many bugs/unfinished features to cope with.

I guess we could qualify the first year of MMORPGs as follow:
- buggy unfinished beta => first year or more dealing with bug fixes.
- stable beta => first year or more dealing with fixing/creating content for the starving gamers.

The problems already noted by SirBruce and others in this game make me think that this one is doomed. Game-stopping Bugs + complete lack of ergonomy/intuitiveness in game controls show that this game is on for a long recovery.

I think it's time for someone to make MMORPGs engine that other companies could buy to build games upon ala quake-engine from id software.

How many MMORPG-iterations will it take to understand that pressing ENTER should start a chat line ? or that left button is for selecting and right-button is context menu ?

It's like making an application where Alt+F4 is the way to save a file.
Doomed design.

d

[Jeff Kelly]

Are they a German company? Because Neocron was the same way as far as chat goes and it seems that it's just the tedious German way of doing things.

Never attribute to malice what can be more easily explained by stupidity. Most german development studios are just teh suck. Every recent game has been released with game stopping bugs which required extensive patching.

Gothic II was unplayable before the first patch. Anno 1503 left out multiplayer because they couldn't get it finished on time. The publisher sunflowers has since then promised to patch multiplayer support in (it was even announced on the package). That was a year ago and they have since silently cancelled the effort because their game design was not capable to support multiplayer.

Far Cry had to be patched to 1.7 in order to play it.

I could go on like this for some time.  No, german game developers are just incompetent bastards.

Heh. I don't know. I learned to deal with it in Neocron because TS was always more effective when doing team PvP, but I digress. I'll have to try out FOM sometime this week.

If only they would release TS on the Mac. Hell, it would suffice if they'd release the protocol design but they are just control freaks. No we will not release a TS Version for Mac but we will also not give you the specs to do it yourselves. Bah.

Jeff

[schmoo]

Okay, I managed to find the game menu (the little buttom at the bottom/left of the screen) and set up the controls.  There is a key to start chat, which I set to Enter, and a key to bring up the various windows temporarily while you hold it down. The keypad + and - will zoom in and out of 1st/3rd person view.  Apparently no way to set any keys to turn the view, so you have to use the mouse to turn.

I did manage to go somewhere else by using the Vortex transportation system, But I haven't found a way to get outside anywhere.  After running (and walking at times when my stamina got too low, I guess) through endless corridors and up and down vertical escalators, I gave up.  Bleh.

The default key setup is peculiar, the character graphics are meh, and I really hate the cricket that chirps at random intervals constantly.

Note to game devs: it would be nice if there was something to do in the game.

[Righ]

If only they would release TS on the Mac. Hell, it would suffice if they'd release the protocol design but they are just control freaks. No we will not release a TS Version for Mac but we will also not give you the specs to do it yourselves. Bah.

I think that they have every intention of creating a Mac version. However, they made the mistake of using a proprietry Pascal dialect and need to rewrite their code to gain more portability. Version 3 is the slated C++ rewrite. Meanwhile, they're not giving up the goose that lays the golden eggs.

[Signe]

You can download the client from Fileplanet, by the way.

[AOFanboi]

No, german game developers are just incompetent bastards.

This is an implicit dissing of Blue Byte, but the first Settlers did not suck.

But that's perhaps the exception to prove the rule?

[Jeff Kelly]

I think that they have every intention of creating a Mac version. However, they made the mistake of using a proprietry Pascal dialect and need to rewrite their code to gain more portability. Version 3 is the slated C++ rewrite.

OT: Every time I see your avatar I have to fight the urge to watch my Spinal Tap DVD for the n-th time.

Yeah, the infamous C++ rewrite. Eagerly awaited by the users but notoriously delayed. I understand that the main developers are doing this during their spare free time, but my patience is a bit strained after waiting for the better part of a year. I have at two times been very close to start developing my own TS clone but between my day job and minimal social life I have not enough time for such a project. So waiting is all I can do.

Meanwhile, they're not giving up the goose that lays the golden eggs.

It is strange that up until now no open source project has tried to develop a TS clone. They are usually very eager to improve on something useful but proprietary.   Apart from the audio codec such a clone is not a real challenge to write. The codec is a bit tricky however. You need to come up with something which can code and decode audio in real time but with minimal CPU load and you also have to make sure that it uses bandwidth efficiently.

Jeff

[Jeff Kelly]

But that's perhaps the exception to prove the rule?

Pretty much so I'm afraid. Blue Byte has an excellent track record.

Jeff

[AlteredOne]

I think it's time for someone to make MMORPGs engine that other companies could buy to build games upon ala quake-engine from id software.

I think Nevrax was trying to do this with Saga of Ryzom, developing an open-source 3D engine for MMO games.  But at some point they decided to release a game using the engine, and they hired the Themis group to help them with marketing and strategy.

Unfortunately Ryzom does not seem to be doing well, and I wonder whether Nevrax still hopes to somehow benefit from their engine.  But if it really is "Open Source," it would seem that their ability to license it would be limited.  Maybe they could make money off installing it.

This reminds me, I need to start a thread about Nevrax's new contest for people trying the free trial...

[Alkiera]

I think it's time for someone to make MMORPGs engine that other companies could buy to build games upon ala quake-engine from id software.

I think Nevrax was trying to do this with Saga of Ryzom, developing an open-source 3D engine for MMO games.  But at some point they decided to release a game using the engine, and they hired the Themis group to help them with marketing and strategy.

Unfortunately Ryzom does not seem to be doing well, and I wonder whether Nevrax still hopes to somehow benefit from their engine.  But if it really is "Open Source," it would seem that their ability to license it would be limited.  Maybe they could make money off installing it.

This reminds me, I need to start a thread about Nevrax's new contest for people trying the free trial...

I'm on the NeL mailing list...  Basically, yes, it is open-source.  However, I believe you can buy a 'license' for things like support and additional feature development, or some such.

Alkiera

[Soukyan]

Are they a German company? Because Neocron was the same way as far as chat goes and it seems that it's just the tedious German way of doing things.

Most german development studios are just teh suck.

That's no lie. See Maxon Cinema4D. When the development tools are just as irritating to use as the games, well, you get the idea. I attribute it to the "CAD" workflow style of thinking that a lot of German dev teams seem to embrace, even if that workflow is insanely inefficient for the task at hand.

[plummerx]

Ever heard the term 'broken record'?

Bruce

Hey, The friggin game is BETA and nobody has had to pay a dime to devs to play it yet.

[Alkiera]

Ever heard the term 'broken record'?

Bruce

Hey, The friggin game is BETA and

No, no it isn't.  Beta would imply that there is something to test, that there is something the devs aren't sure works.  Instead, bug reports leave testers wondering just where to start, and end up with something like 'everythings broken, please try again.'

nobody has had to pay a dime to devs to play it yet.

This is no excuse.  There is no game yet.  Apparently you could run around and shoot other people, except 90% of the time YOU CAN'T SEE THEM.

Alkiera

[daveNYC]

Ever heard the term 'broken record'?

Bruce

Hey, The friggin game is BETA and nobody has had to pay a dime to devs to play it yet.

Technically, the game is in alpha.  Beta means that this is a build that they would consider releasing, alpha means that they were able to compile it with no errors.

[Margalis]

Release candidates are things you might release. Betas typically have known issues that make them unreleasable.

The line between release candidate and beta is pretty clear. The line between alpha and beta is pretty blurry.

[Abel]

The difference between Alpha and Beta should be crystal-clear.

Alpha means internal testing, with beta you involve potential customers to evaluate your product.
Technically this of course means beta has to be more evolved then alpha, but different companies have a different opinion as on when in the development cycle exactly they should start to bring in external testers.

[HaemishM]

No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. Alpha means we have a workable build, but we aren't going to show you pigfuckers yet because we want to build anticipation we know will be dashed against the rocks of reality. Beta is a super-special privilege that only a select few will get to experience, making them automatically better than all non-beta players. Beta is also where the developers can finally market the game with more than just empty promises! It's the hype engine's first burping hiccups of combustion.

Sounds to me like this engine's flooded with string cheese.

[SirBruce]

Whether you call it alpha, beta, or gamma, Face of Mankind was obviously not in a condition to be exposed to thousands of potential customers.

Bruce