Auto Assault NDA lifted

[shiznitz]

Worst major MMOG? I wouldn't consider Horizons a major MMOG. Everything about it was no name.

THE worst major MMOG? EQ. It fucked us all. Forever.

The only way to win is not to play, huh?  :-D

[schild]

Don't hate the players. Hate the games.

I'm definately hating the games.

But I also hate the players. It works out well. Winback 2 comes out this Wed. I don't think I'm keyed (or whatthefuckever) for a raid with my paladin. So, good stuff.

[Falconeer]

The only way to win is not to play, huh?  :-D

Awesome reference :)

--
the Falconeer

[Miasma]

At lunch today I walked to a bunch of stores and there were still old boxes of AC2 on some of the shelves.  If anyone buys them they're going to be pretty pissed off when they get home.  That must make for some awkward/amusing help desk calls.

[Trippy]

Veteran Rewards!

Subscribe for 3 months to get the Veteran’s Silver Award

• +2% increased chance for loot to drop
• +2% bonus to the amount of clink (in-game money) dropped
• Apocalypse Device – equip your vehicle with a glowing device that’ll mark you out as a member of the road warrior elite

Subscribe for 6 months to get the Veteran’s Gold Award

• +2% bonus chance for dropped loot to be enhanced
• +2% bonus chance for clink (in-game money) to drop
• Burnout Device - This causes a flame to burst from the your vehicle's wheels and of course, that is a very cool thing because fire rocks.

A user who purchases the 6 month sub will get both the Veteran’s Gold and the Veteran’s Silver. Both the VG and VS will stack with the Pre-Order bonus of  “+5% bonus chance for loot to be enhanced.”

The last part is not worded correctly -- you don't have to buy a "6 month sub" to get the Gold reward -- you just need to have been subscribed for 6 months (e.g. six 1 month subs works fine, same applies to Silver reward).

[Telemediocrity]

Am I the only one who finds it odd they're handing out 'Veterans rewards' for a game that's been out maybe a month at most?

[Trippy]

No you are not.

[schild]

Ok, that's depressing.

[Modern Angel]

Burnout device for six months ain't kidding...

[Hoax]

Everything about this game is sad, I had high hopes for it but the second I heard tank/rogue/healer cars I went to the bathroom, threw up, and tried to forget I had ever heard about it.

Limp-dick-EQ-cloning-interesting-world-ruining-pricks, enjoy explaining this flop to your investors.

[Telemediocrity]

Waaaiitasec, rogue cars?  Like with stealth and shit?  Now that's cool.  Tell me more.

[Falconeer]

Ok, let's make it clearer.

Auto Assault is just Diablo 2 with Cars.
Just as dumb (and fun) as that.
The devs specifically admitted they wanted to recreate the Diablo feeling. Especially loot-wise.

If this makes for a good product or not, it's up to you to decide.
I love it.

--
the Falconeer

[Falconeer]

If this makes for a good product or not, it's up to you to decide.
I love it.

--
the Falconeer

I am not satisfied with my previous post, but instead of editing it I'll add something.

I DON'T think Auto Assault is a good product. Too many unpolished, unfinished, underdeveloped aspects.
I just enjoy it a lot.
As I said it's vintage fun for me, as MAME or any other emulation kind of fun. But with a hint of modernity that injects the addiction factor.

I think the Devs accomplished their mission: to deliver an old school videogame based on an old school setting with old school mechanics. As I already said, It would be the PERFECT mindless fun for me if it weren't for the monthly fee (as, go figure, Diablo and Diablo 2). As it stands, I think it is as short lived as many other single player action games out there.


--
the Falconeer

[Mesozoic]

Veteran Rewards!

These are just cleverly-worded "power-for-cash" schemes.  Really no different than officially-sanctioned RMT.

[Wolf]

I just finished localising a flash banner ad for the game. I feel dirty.

"... It may be just the inovation massivly multiplayer games needed." Game Informer

"... a breath of fresh air in a genre that just doesn't need any more magic swords." Gamespy

"... an incredibly promising, polished and wonderfully different MMO." 1up.com

  Heh. Press rocks.

[Nija]

Diablo2 is infinitely deeper than Auto Assault. It's painful to me each time you compare the two.

[Falconeer]

Diablo2 is infinitely deeper than Auto Assault. It's painful to me each time you compare the two.

I sincerely respect your point of view, but would love to know more about it.
Deeper, like how?

--
the Falconeer

[HaemishM]

Making cars fit the same tank/healer/rogue/mage archtypes of other shitty MMOG's was just the first of many, many mistakes with this game. Not subtly ripping off the old Car Wars game is another.

Fuck, you could have ripped off Twisted Metal and been more interesting.

[Telemediocrity]

I want to hear more about these Rogue Cars.  Stealthy stealth?

[Hoax]

If Mel Gibson had designed and coded the fucking thing it would have probably been more interesting.

[HaemishM]

If Mel Gibson had designed and coded the fucking thing it would have probably been more interesting.

AUTO PASSION! NOW WITH MORE BLOOD! JETS OF BLOOD!

[Nija]

I sincerely respect your point of view, but would love to know more about it.
Deeper, like how?

--
the Falconeer

How many viable templates does the D2 Necromancer class have? The number is around 8.

What can you do in autoassault aside from shake your head in shame at the lack of physics and actual control of the cars? I'd be ashamed to have worked on it. Like Haemish said, but a step further. If it was HALF the game Twisted Metal was, it would be a great mmo to play.

[Falconeer]

How many viable templates does the D2 Necromancer class have? The number is around 8.

What can you do in autoassault aside from shake your head in shame at the lack of physics and actual control of the cars? I'd be ashamed to have worked on it. Like Haemish said, but a step further. If it was HALF the game Twisted Metal was, it would be a great mmo to play.

Honest question 1: do you know how many templates, for example, does the Human Engineer class have in AA?

Honest question 2: Was Diablo "infinitely deeper" because one of the 5 classes, the Necromancer, had 8 templates compared to the yet unknown viable templates of one of the 12 classes of AA?

--
the Falconeer

[Falconeer]

I want to hear more about these Rogue Cars.  Stealthy stealth?

Yes totally :)
You become transparent (a la EQ2) to yourself, but completely invisible to everyone else (groupmates too, save for a green party arrow above your car).
It last about 30 seconds if I remember correctly, and you move as slow as my son's RC car without batteries.
Actually, stealth is technologically way more "believable" than "remote healing/fixing" to me :) Just to state that it's not the cheesier thing in AA.

--
the Falconeer

[Telemediocrity]

Stealth slows you down and/or you can't turn it on forever?  That's bullshit.

[Nija]

Honest question 1: do you know how many templates, for example, does the Human Engineer class have in AA?

Honest question 2: Was Diablo "infinitely deeper" because one of the 5 classes, the Necromancer, had 8 templates compared to the yet unknown viable templates of one of the 12 classes of AA?

--
the Falconeer

1. No, I could only stomach AA for about 20 minutes.
2. Yes.

Honest question for you, now:

Are there magical cars that can cast healing spells on other cars?

[Yegolev]

I just finished localising a flash banner ad for the game. I feel dirty.

"... It may be just the inovation massivly multiplayer games needed." Game Informer

"... a breath of fresh air in a genre that just doesn't need any more magic swords." Gamespy

"... an incredibly promising, polished and wonderfully different MMO." 1up.com

  Heh. Press rocks.

Does the Grammar Snake have a cousin, perhaps the Spelling Horny Toad?

[tazelbain]

No, it's the Spelling Gerbil; and they're are business partners, not cousins. There is a lot of tension in their relationship because snakes eat gerbils and because spellcheckers are more common than grammercheckers.  Probably shouldn't say anymore, I don't want to spoil the end of the first trilogy.

[Rasix]

What's wrong with the Phonics Monkey?

[Lantyssa]

No, it's the Spelling Gerbil; and they're are business partners, not cousins. There is a lot of tension in their relationship because snakes eat gerbils and because spellcheckers are more common than grammercheckers.  Probably shouldn't say anymore, I don't want to spoil the end of the first trilogy.

Aochan and Gohan 

[Llava]

Are there magical cars that can cast healing spells on other cars?

To their credit, they attempted to explain this.

The biomeks, I believe, launch small repair bots at other cars.

The mutants.... okay, get this.  The toxic waste that caused the mutants to become mutants and which they now use in just about everything is called Blood.  They can use this Blood on their vehicles, and it will I guess solidify and do something like... I dunno, collaboratin' with all the chemicals 'n' shit.  It fixes it.  So it's not magic.  It's magic radioactive waste.

I don't know about the humans.

(And you're just being fucking stupid by saying that D2 is deeper because we've seen all the various templates that can be done, whereas Auto Assault has been out all of a week and we don't know how many potential templates it will offer.  If AA had been out a year, you'd have a point.  First week into Diablo2 people still thought it was impossible to make a Necromancer without the Summoning tree.)

[Falconeer]

Honest question for you, now:
Are there magical cars that can cast healing spells on other cars?

You know they are in, and I agree that sounds stupid. :)
My point is just that Diablo was NOT deep at all, but was lots of fun.
I am not sure AA is lots of fun, and I know is as shallow as Diablo 2.
But I think they wanted to do a game similar to Diablo 2 (with a different setting) and in my opinion they delivered.
And believe me, 12 classes are better than 5 and tons of skills per class are better than... uh... well, less than that :)

I have no problem with you or everyone else hating Auto Assault, but there's no point in trying to demonstrate that Diablo 2 was a Sid Meier game while AA is a crapbag.
They are very closely related, and yes. Builds/templates in AA are probably much deeper than Diablo 2 ones.

--
the Falconeer

[Yegolev]

First week into Diablo2 people still thought it was impossible to make a Necromancer without the Summoning tree.

I'd agree since this was before they "fixed" the blood golem.

And believe me, 12 classes are better than 5 and tons of skills per class are better than... uh... well, less than that :)

If this was universally true, Atari would not have had to scrape Horizons off of its boots.

[Falconeer]

And in the whole AA bashing, this crapbag is slowly gaining points to me.
I just participated in my first AA PvP tournament, and it has been very nice.

Let me explain:
There are cities where you can check the OCD terminal, actually the Arena terminal.
Here you can see your global ranking for all the different kind of matches, as in 1v1, 2v2, 4v4.. up to 32v32. Right now I am ranked 982 on the 1vs1 ranking and no ranked in the other ones, as I have yet to compete.
Or you can apply for Instant Action, entering a queue similar to the WoW battlegrounds one that will follow you in the game until a match is actually ready for you to join. This is a nice tool but definitely nothing so new or worth me eating my hat.
The shiny part is the tournament section.
On the OCD terminal there's a "Tournament" tab that lists all the upcoming tournaments, their limitations (levels, number of players, size of teams) and their prizes. This sounds interesting but it's actually better!
I logged in at 7pm and noticed there was the usual very long lists of upcoming tournaments, but luckily a 1vs1 lev 5 - 10 was about to start on 1 hour. Prize being money (not bad) and XP. I applied and got the said WoW-is queue window with a countdown to tournament start.
I went in the field and xped to level 6 and got some new skills until he countdown expired and I got teleported into the arena to face my first (and last, alas) opponent.
Match are 10 minutes long and I faced an opponent 3 levels higher than me (my fault, I was level 5 in a 5 - 10 tournament :) ), I went close to kill him a couple of times, but in the end, I lost 5 to nil.
End of tournament, but great fun.
And not the match itself, where it was basically carnage. But the whole tournament feeling.
I played in the Best of the Best in EQ1, Clash of the Guilds in EQ2, I love duels and arenas. This kind of things in mmorpgs usually have to be player made and no matter how well they are organized, it's different when a game gives you the ultimate duel tool :)
Again, it's nothing so special or new. It's just that it feels nice. It's good to go to the OCD terminal, browse upcoming tournaments (there are lots everyday, usually in peak hours) and join one or just check for the most interesting for better experience or money payouts. And the whole thing is gamewide, completely cross-server. In a way that when it comes to the arena and the OCD you are not limited to your server, you can face players from any server and the global ranking is cross server. And as soon as the final matcc ends, the winner is broadcasted to the whole server, or should I say to the whole game. Again, that's nice to me.
I know all of that was in Guild Wars already. Ok. It's good to see it in AA too, and let's put it in every existant mmorpg, I say.

Bottom line: Arena and tournaments are lots of fun, they are easily accessible and the whole duel/battle thing look very interesting, especially for a mmorpg in its early days.

It's sad that such a feature is lacking in other, better, bigger mmorpgs.
Now keep on the bashing :)

--
the Falconeer

[Falconeer]

If this was universally true, Atari would not have had to scrape Horizons off of its boots.

Touchée :)
Anyway, in a Diablo kind of game, I welcome a higher degree of customization.

-
the Falconeer