Let's Take a Look at..

Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#1
Hey all! I'm AdmiralStryker, and I was involved with Firefall from the Closed Beta until it went to being WoW-with-guns. I greatly enjoyed the Closed Beta of Firefall and I intend to use this thread and weekly spin-offs to discuss:

A. What we enjoyed about Firefall, and from that what we'd like to see carried over going off of what we know about Em8-er and its world now.
B. What we disliked about Firefall, and from that what we do NOT want to see in Em8-er.
C. What we'd like to see carried into both games.

Aside from reading my posts, my humble request to the community is that you guys post suggestions for me to write about. After a few days, I'll announce a topic here, and get a post written up about it. Your topics can be as vague as Lore or Guns, or as specific as the Plasma Cannon. Of course, once a post is written on a topic, I'd love to have the community keep the discussion going!

Cheers!
AdmiralStryker
 

PIghead Elderberry

Kaiju Slayer
JUMBO KAIJU SLAYER
Jun 4, 2017
248
510
93
CA USA
#4
NUT DRIVER

One thing that drove me nuts with FF was how much flat colored visual spam was layered all over the gorgeous world. We had red outlines, giant bouncing pointers, insanely large balloons over enemy heads...

It drove me nuts.

They somehow expected us to be so dumb as to think that Hissers or Bandits were our friends and we would not shoot them unless they had the giant flags flashing and huge arrows blinking saying 'target' 'target' 'target' - that was bad.

I would hope that we do not see that here - I am certain we will know what a Kaiju looks like pretty quick and not need it to appear with a 50 pixel thick solid red border around it and a 400 meter high red arrow blinking pointing at it.

Maybe I remember it a bit worse than it was...

We certainly had gorgeous melding, terrain, atmospheric effects, lighting, lots of hard work made by modelers on everything. All that ruined by the spamming of flat colors and such over it.

Please do not repeat that!

LOVE CREATOR

What I really loved (among a myriad of other things) was the constant nature of the dynamic encounters. Sure, they were pretty simple, but they always gave us something to do when walking (or driving) from place to place.

I loved to walk around and run around rather than drive, and it was always fun to find a Wounded Bandit hoping to eat me around the next tree.

It made for plenty of fun stuff for solo playing on off hours when not much else was going on, and it did a decent job of scaling with more folks around. It was perhaps simple compared to what we might expect today, but it seemed pretty revolutionary for the time and was indeed a huge part of why I loved FF.

I think this aspect (no static spawning) was discussed in Chief Chat. 100% dynamic spawns and dynamic encounters that scale with the players around and world state. That will be pure gold. Like a next generation FF as it always should have been.
 

PIghead Elderberry

Kaiju Slayer
JUMBO KAIJU SLAYER
Jun 4, 2017
248
510
93
CA USA
#5
MORE FABULOUS STUFF IN FF:

Another aspect that was incredible in FF was the use of visuals and audio to alert us to events and activities.

We could see and hear a Thumper coming down. We could see and hear Chosen Drop Pods. We could see and hear Derpships. We could see the burning fires of the Bandit Campfires etc.

It was really really nice to have the world itself alert us to what was going on through these visual cues and sounds.

Nados - ditto.

Cyrtitie meteors - ditto.

I hope we can keep that here, so that as we fly around or skim around, or just walk, we'll hear a sound, look up in the sky, and then see the trail of a THMPR coming down or a new frame for a wounded player, and then we can jet on over to investigate.

Similarly, with the right mix of lightening and fire, we should be able to see battles and combat light up the sky (or smoke plumes in the day) and say COME HERE COME HERE - BATTLE IN PROGRESS! The sounds and visuals should be what compels us to go participate in a battle not a little marker on a map!

Let's focus on the lore and organic nature of game play to alert us to what is going on in the world - and to call us to help one another.

At night - fire, sparks, plasma...

In day - smoke, derpships, debris plumes...

Let the world itself tell the story and not the minimap and UI clutter.
 
Likes: Pandagnome
#6
I honestly cannot even recall if the FireFall I was introduced to was still the Beta or if the WoW-fication was already in progress by the time I first arrived in the game-world. It was my first MMO experience. I stayed far away from MMOs, exactly because of what I saw with WoW. And whenever the genre was even mentioned WoW is always what came to mind, driving me away from touching MMOs.

The fact that my character wasn't standing around exchanging blows with a monster standing directly in front of it, playing I-hit-you-you-hit-me, then sometimes "MISS" was what gave me hope Firefall wouldn't be the kind of utter bore-fest I saw in WoW. That and the graphics were nice enough. Character creation and customization options allowed me to make a good-enough looking avatar, too. And I don't know which version of the game I dropped into, but it was very much enjoyable.

I very much liked being able to customize my HUD, its size, color, position of elements...etc. and the way I could switch it off, lock my character's heading and look around with the free camera during gliding. The chat was easy to use. The coordinates/location-giving system and linking of items was neat, as was the ability to only address people within a certain distance, shown with different colors in the chat, so those you wanted your message to reach could more easily notice it.

My first glider-flight was something to remember. I loved not just the freedom of movement, but the vertical-freedom, as well. Being able to scale my environment, not just for an edge in combat, but to explore the game-world, was amazing.

Hearing and seeing a melding-tornado in the distance, for the first time, getting chills and whispering to myself "What the f--- is that...?". Then dropping everything and hurrying towards it. Had a similar experience with Conan: Exiles. The first time I saw sand-storm approaching and sweeping across the landscape. The awe one can feel is something that makes a game memorable and greatly enhances the gaming experience.

Em-8er
should have similar phenomena and presentation. Considering how volatile the planet will be, huge storms aren't out of the question.

I also liked some of the new systems the 1.6 version had, when I came back to Firefall, after a year and a half. I liked the weapon upgrading. The bounty-system. If noting else you could break down the loot for resources. With that said, less repetition (even in repeatable side-missions or activities) should be a goal, in Em-8er. Less scripted stuff. More dynamic encounters and objectives.

Also, objectives that might even change, depending on the situation, the number of people participating in a given task/mission/event, the current state of the environment they're in and the kind of enemies that are around or may be drawn in or just wander by. Say, you need to eliminate Tsi-Hu, but then a horde of otherwise docile creatures would be nearby, so you'd get an additional objective to be mindful of them and even protect them. Activate a shield-generator to get protection from an approaching storm, but get a distress call from injured NPCs near or within the storm, who you could rescue and escort to safety, while others fight off wildlife and Tsi-Hu.

Branching and evolving objectives. Starting from an initial goal and turning into something more, bonus objectives or even entirely different ones, depending on certain factors, some of which could be influenced by the players, too.

Changing environment and creatures. Apart from the obvious terra-forming we'll be doing, wildlife could be increasingly more hostile towards players, depending on their own hostility towards animals. I always hated seeing Brontodon King encounters and people who shot at otherwise peaceful animals. Not expecting there to be many friendly or neutral creatures on a hell-scape that will be Em-8er, but it would be nice. One could be tasked by biologist NPCs and such, to find, tag and track wildlife or protect them from poachers, then be rewarded not only with resources, but with lore. A growing bestiary. Hostile wildlife, that one could not avoid could be used for study, as well. The hides could be used to craft tribal or other wild clothing for the player character. Warpaint for the Omni-Frame could depict certain animals one killed or studied (or both). Neat things like that.


Since Firefall, I tried out a number of MMOs and there were certain elements I was glad to also see in Firefall. Ones that thankfully weren't a part of it. And ones that I'd like to see in Em-8er.

Defiance
- Lked it, because of the TV series, but the constant DDOSs made me abandon it. Usually don't care about achievements, but it had this neat reward system that gave boosts to my attributes. Proficiency levels with every weapon-type and the exploring, plus stunts with your vehicle gave you small boosts to award you.

ArcheAge - meh. Thought it'd be good. Character creation had nice lore and all, but the moment the attacks of the first enemies magically started hitting me, even as was already retreating and not in range of them, I realized it was bad WoW-clone. Or the crap from Dragon Age: Origins, where once an ogre initiated a ground-slam, even if I moved rolled halfway across the room, I was still flattened against the ground.

Skyforge -
good graphics, animations, story and character creation, customization and progression system - but not exactly a free, open-world, and the way the mobs just lingered around in groups, close to you, not responding to you unless within very close proximity, was something I found annoying in more WoW-like MMOs. Was glad Firefall didn't really have this.

TERA - Now THIS was essentially FireFall with swords to me. My survival depended on my own reflexes and ability to time my attacks and to dodge. Didn't matter if a creature towered over me, both literally and in level, if it couldn't hit me I could wear it down and eventually kill it. I'm not expecting to go one on one with higher category Kaijus, though. But, still. Skill should matter. Not dice-rolling.
 

Pandagnome

Kaiju Slayer
Fart Siege
Welcome Wagon
Happy Kaiju
Jul 27, 2016
7,730
10,079
113
Island of Tofu
#7
My main game before Firefall which i probably mentioned before was Global Agenda that game was super fun it had more similarities to Firefall than other games in my opinion. Firefall when i first played was a bit slow but i guess my computer would be to blame until i got a better one and it was smooth. I haven't seen a game like Global agenda or Firefall and its sad that such games with potential began to fade.

Games like cod and all alright fun as it may be though i'd pick ff over then, some may call me nuts but its the whole thing that made the game special at the time such as the various terrains, the npc's some with really funny personalities it gave the game a unique twist that wasn't the usual norm. Not forgetting Bikes, and other vehicles it was very cool i would of loved if they added more various sounds to bikes i remember having a cool classic bike and absoultly loved the sound of it made me feel like a true rebel haha. Also remember the turbo boost on the bike when not sure when they added it but it made racing around much better and ofc ramming into npc's to see them flying into the sunset XD

What things I would of liked to have seen in the game
1) If i had to add things would of said that vehicles could of had various engine options and mods to make it more tanky or much faster depending on what kind of ride you wanted. For recons i would of imagined some ultra faster bike with a mine layer as an example speeding out of the enemy territory as it zoomed laying a few presents for the npc's to appreciate!

2) Effects are great but i like unique sounds when you hear a strange sound your more likely to perk those ears and think what the heck and it could be some crazy midget that pops out of nowhere with its weapon charged! So for sure would love to hear more sounds to the collection.

3) Now just say you didn't want to fly or hover about and were more land based than most what if your stats could be better improved on what way you played for example if you preferred land you would have option for grappling hooks, better traction on vehicles, etc Say if you preferred using gliders and jetpacks the player could get better power for longer flights and invasive maneuverability. But say if you preferred to just go on the sea then you could last longer on the sea and be able to submerge for a certain time for peek a boo pew pew!

For sure i would of wished firefall or GA could of continued but that's how it goes... hopefully and certainly Em8er will be in for the long and amazing ride that like so many keep going back to wow for all these years!!

I loved to walk around and run around rather than drive, and it was always fun to find a Wounded Bandit hoping to eat me around the next tree.
Some good fun there i tend to squish a few with my sleek bike was always into road rash i just wish they had a way to be able to use a melee weapon while riding around that would of been so much fun!!


Not expecting there to be many friendly or neutral creatures on a hell-scape that will be Em-8er, but it would be nice. One could be tasked by biologist NPCs and such, to find, tag and track wildlife or protect them from poachers, then be rewarded not only with resources, but with lore. A growing bestiary. Hostile wildlife, that one could not avoid could be used for study, as well. The hides could be used to craft tribal or other wild clothing for the player character. Warpaint for the Omni-Frame could depict certain animals one killed or studied (or both). Neat things like that.
The idea of roles we have by assisting with research finding new cures, making poisons, protecting species or vip, infiltrating guarded areas, recon work for intelligence etc etc gave the game alot of purpose linking it to the development of the story and why we are doing it etc. This was why i felt the game was so much more interesting and not forgetting absolutely love the firefall manga they had too!!
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#8
Looking at the current posts, I think I'll try to get one up about the game environment. Firefall did a lot of things well in that regard(Some poorly of course), but that seems to be something good to talk about. I'll get replied up to individual posts here soon!
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#9
NUT DRIVER

One thing that drove me nuts with FF was how much flat colored visual spam was layered all over the gorgeous world. We had red outlines, giant bouncing pointers, insanely large balloons over enemy heads...

It drove me nuts.

They somehow expected us to be so dumb as to think that Hissers or Bandits were our friends and we would not shoot them unless they had the giant flags flashing and huge arrows blinking saying 'target' 'target' 'target' - that was bad.

I would hope that we do not see that here - I am certain we will know what a Kaiju looks like pretty quick and not need it to appear with a 50 pixel thick solid red border around it and a 400 meter high red arrow blinking pointing at it.

Maybe I remember it a bit worse than it was...

We certainly had gorgeous melding, terrain, atmospheric effects, lighting, lots of hard work made by modelers on everything. All that ruined by the spamming of flat colors and such over it.

Please do not repeat that!

LOVE CREATOR

What I really loved (among a myriad of other things) was the constant nature of the dynamic encounters. Sure, they were pretty simple, but they always gave us something to do when walking (or driving) from place to place.

I loved to walk around and run around rather than drive, and it was always fun to find a Wounded Bandit hoping to eat me around the next tree.

It made for plenty of fun stuff for solo playing on off hours when not much else was going on, and it did a decent job of scaling with more folks around. It was perhaps simple compared to what we might expect today, but it seemed pretty revolutionary for the time and was indeed a huge part of why I loved FF.

I think this aspect (no static spawning) was discussed in Chief Chat. 100% dynamic spawns and dynamic encounters that scale with the players around and world state. That will be pure gold. Like a next generation FF as it always should have been.

As FF transformed from an Open-World MMOFPS to a MMOFPS, the MMO stuff got stronger-the borders, the flashing arrows, etc. This game is intended to be an Open-World MMOFPS and as such I imagine they will keep the borders and jazz out. The only place I see it having any real purpose is in a tutorial to show what to shoot at-it's common logic in any FPS that if something is running at you or shooting at you, you should probably shoot back or run away.

The visuals in the game were indeed gorgeous. The game sucked me in for many long days and nights and without the visuals it would not have done so.I'll be talking about environmental effects later on in another post. I do agree, though, that the targeting stuff should not be so blatant or interfere with the game world. At the very least, if those markers HAVE to be there, there needs to be an option to disable them.

I greatly enjoyed the dynamic encounters. Early FF was full of things to do-there'd always be a chosen attack, drop pods, or something to go fight, and that was great. When it was simplified because "we might scare off the new players", that killed the game. Nothing's going to keep a newbie in a fight more than a lot of enemies to shoot at(within reason, but it's a FPS!) I loved waking up early just so I could massacre Chosen on a red map. I hope Em8-er keeps that alive-the game should have enough big action that driving around is warranted, but at the same time if you want to go for a nice "peaceful" stroll, you should be able to and have no shortage of things to do. A game so focused on mobility MUST keep you engaged. Any long travel times need to be purposeful.

I agree with no static spawns. Obviously the bigger things will have limited variety due to how large they are, but they can move, appear in different places, etc.
 

PIghead Elderberry

Kaiju Slayer
JUMBO KAIJU SLAYER
Jun 4, 2017
248
510
93
CA USA
#10
As FF transformed from an Open-World MMOFPS to a MMOFPS, the MMO stuff got stronger-the borders, the flashing arrows, etc. This game is intended to be an Open-World MMOFPS and as such I imagine they will keep the borders and jazz out. The only place I see it having any real purpose is in a tutorial to show what to shoot at-it's common logic in any FPS that if something is running at you or shooting at you, you should probably shoot back or run away.

The visuals in the game were indeed gorgeous. The game sucked me in for many long days and nights and without the visuals it would not have done so.I'll be talking about environmental effects later on in another post. I do agree, though, that the targeting stuff should not be so blatant or interfere with the game world. At the very least, if those markers HAVE to be there, there needs to be an option to disable them.

I greatly enjoyed the dynamic encounters. Early FF was full of things to do-there'd always be a chosen attack, drop pods, or something to go fight, and that was great. When it was simplified because "we might scare off the new players", that killed the game. Nothing's going to keep a newbie in a fight more than a lot of enemies to shoot at(within reason, but it's a FPS!) I loved waking up early just so I could massacre Chosen on a red map. I hope Em8-er keeps that alive-the game should have enough big action that driving around is warranted, but at the same time if you want to go for a nice "peaceful" stroll, you should be able to and have no shortage of things to do. A game so focused on mobility MUST keep you engaged. Any long travel times need to be purposeful.

I agree with no static spawns. Obviously the bigger things will have limited variety due to how large they are, but they can move, appear in different places, etc.
Can I agree more than 1000%? Is that a thing?

FF almost went back to the old EverQuest skeletons popping up like little clockwork coocooclock (sp) items.

I smite thee down! You pop up! I smite thee down! You pop up! Ad infinitum.
 
Likes: Pandagnome
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#11
I honestly cannot even recall if the FireFall I was introduced to was still the Beta or if the WoW-fication was already in progress by the time I first arrived in the game-world. It was my first MMO experience. I stayed far away from MMOs, exactly because of what I saw with WoW. And whenever the genre was even mentioned WoW is always what came to mind, driving me away from touching MMOs.

The fact that my character wasn't standing around exchanging blows with a monster standing directly in front of it, playing I-hit-you-you-hit-me, then sometimes "MISS" was what gave me hope Firefall wouldn't be the kind of utter bore-fest I saw in WoW. That and the graphics were nice enough. Character creation and customization options allowed me to make a good-enough looking avatar, too. And I don't know which version of the game I dropped into, but it was very much enjoyable.

I very much liked being able to customize my HUD, its size, color, position of elements...etc. and the way I could switch it off, lock my character's heading and look around with the free camera during gliding. The chat was easy to use. The coordinates/location-giving system and linking of items was neat, as was the ability to only address people within a certain distance, shown with different colors in the chat, so those you wanted your message to reach could more easily notice it.

My first glider-flight was something to remember. I loved not just the freedom of movement, but the vertical-freedom, as well. Being able to scale my environment, not just for an edge in combat, but to explore the game-world, was amazing.

Hearing and seeing a melding-tornado in the distance, for the first time, getting chills and whispering to myself "What the f--- is that...?". Then dropping everything and hurrying towards it. Had a similar experience with Conan: Exiles. The first time I saw sand-storm approaching and sweeping across the landscape. The awe one can feel is something that makes a game memorable and greatly enhances the gaming experience.

Em-8er
should have similar phenomena and presentation. Considering how volatile the planet will be, huge storms aren't out of the question.

I also liked some of the new systems the 1.6 version had, when I came back to Firefall, after a year and a half. I liked the weapon upgrading. The bounty-system. If noting else you could break down the loot for resources. With that said, less repetition (even in repeatable side-missions or activities) should be a goal, in Em-8er. Less scripted stuff. More dynamic encounters and objectives.

Also, objectives that might even change, depending on the situation, the number of people participating in a given task/mission/event, the current state of the environment they're in and the kind of enemies that are around or may be drawn in or just wander by. Say, you need to eliminate Tsi-Hu, but then a horde of otherwise docile creatures would be nearby, so you'd get an additional objective to be mindful of them and even protect them. Activate a shield-generator to get protection from an approaching storm, but get a distress call from injured NPCs near or within the storm, who you could rescue and escort to safety, while others fight off wildlife and Tsi-Hu.

Branching and evolving objectives. Starting from an initial goal and turning into something more, bonus objectives or even entirely different ones, depending on certain factors, some of which could be influenced by the players, too.

Changing environment and creatures. Apart from the obvious terra-forming we'll be doing, wildlife could be increasingly more hostile towards players, depending on their own hostility towards animals. I always hated seeing Brontodon King encounters and people who shot at otherwise peaceful animals. Not expecting there to be many friendly or neutral creatures on a hell-scape that will be Em-8er, but it would be nice. One could be tasked by biologist NPCs and such, to find, tag and track wildlife or protect them from poachers, then be rewarded not only with resources, but with lore. A growing bestiary. Hostile wildlife, that one could not avoid could be used for study, as well. The hides could be used to craft tribal or other wild clothing for the player character. Warpaint for the Omni-Frame could depict certain animals one killed or studied (or both). Neat things like that.


Since Firefall, I tried out a number of MMOs and there were certain elements I was glad to also see in Firefall. Ones that thankfully weren't a part of it. And ones that I'd like to see in Em-8er.

Defiance
- Lked it, because of the TV series, but the constant DDOSs made me abandon it. Usually don't care about achievements, but it had this neat reward system that gave boosts to my attributes. Proficiency levels with every weapon-type and the exploring, plus stunts with your vehicle gave you small boosts to award you.

ArcheAge - meh. Thought it'd be good. Character creation had nice lore and all, but the moment the attacks of the first enemies magically started hitting me, even as was already retreating and not in range of them, I realized it was bad WoW-clone. Or the crap from Dragon Age: Origins, where once an ogre initiated a ground-slam, even if I moved rolled halfway across the room, I was still flattened against the ground.

Skyforge -
good graphics, animations, story and character creation, customization and progression system - but not exactly a free, open-world, and the way the mobs just lingered around in groups, close to you, not responding to you unless within very close proximity, was something I found annoying in more WoW-like MMOs. Was glad Firefall didn't really have this.

TERA - Now THIS was essentially FireFall with swords to me. My survival depended on my own reflexes and ability to time my attacks and to dodge. Didn't matter if a creature towered over me, both literally and in level, if it couldn't hit me I could wear it down and eventually kill it. I'm not expecting to go one on one with higher category Kaijus, though. But, still. Skill should matter. Not dice-rolling.

If you played a version of FF with leveled items, you were playing FF as it moved towards being WoW-ified. HUD customization should stay, as should mod support to a reasonable degree. Certain mods were too much, but overall modding allows you to see what the community really wants.

I too had a similar experience with a melding tornado, on my first day of gameplay. Oh, I died at least twenty times. I had no clue what was going on. But it was fun and my heart was racing the whole time because it was awesome.

I'm a fan of the horizontal progression version of upgrading-ie +25% damage, -25% rof, or what not. Everything balances out in the end. When it started going towards just every item was a complete upgrade, the game lost a lot of its appeal.

Evolving objectives are a must. Firefall did well with having encounters that although objectively the same, moved around, but to have those objectives interact and change with(and maybe even affect) the environment would be golden. I want to see a Kaiju rip up a hillside or a base. I want to see us be able to terraform it back. I'd love to see us have to fight a Kaiju, but summarily have to keep it away from a base(the downside being said base has a lot of artillery guns that would make things easier). I want to see more community objectives, such as terraforming more gameplay areas in. Obviously those are limited by the pace of the dev team, but they're good to have. On the flip side though, anything we gain needs to be losable.
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#12
Can I agree more than 1000%? Is that a thing?

FF almost went back to the old EverQuest skeletons popping up like little clockwork coocooclock (sp) items.

I smite thee down! You pop up! I smite thee down! You pop up! Ad infinitum.
There's a place for that-some of the most amazing times were when two Warbringers spawned next to each other, or a Death squad targeted you at a Warbringer, etc. I'd like to see those merge more officially within the game(ie trigger a special event), but those were awesome moments.

I truly enjoyed being able to run around in the mornings and fight off Chosen endlessly. Clearing a small portion of the map felt awesome because even though futile, you did it on your own and it was hard and it was fun!
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#13
MORE FABULOUS STUFF IN FF:

Another aspect that was incredible in FF was the use of visuals and audio to alert us to events and activities.

We could see and hear a Thumper coming down. We could see and hear Chosen Drop Pods. We could see and hear Derpships. We could see the burning fires of the Bandit Campfires etc.

It was really really nice to have the world itself alert us to what was going on through these visual cues and sounds.

Nados - ditto.

Cyrtitie meteors - ditto.

I hope we can keep that here, so that as we fly around or skim around, or just walk, we'll hear a sound, look up in the sky, and then see the trail of a THMPR coming down or a new frame for a wounded player, and then we can jet on over to investigate.

Similarly, with the right mix of lightening and fire, we should be able to see battles and combat light up the sky (or smoke plumes in the day) and say COME HERE COME HERE - BATTLE IN PROGRESS! The sounds and visuals should be what compels us to go participate in a battle not a little marker on a map!

Let's focus on the lore and organic nature of game play to alert us to what is going on in the world - and to call us to help one another.

At night - fire, sparks, plasma...

In day - smoke, derpships, debris plumes...

Let the world itself tell the story and not the minimap and UI clutter.
The audio of the game was another thing done really well. From Crystite meteors, to Melding tornados, Thumpers, and drop pods, to Graves' voice in Blackwater Anomaly or the revving up of a Siegebreaker or Elite Juggernaut's gun, the sound was awesome. Even Aero, repetitive as she was, was great. I completely agree-I'd love to see gameplay that brings you in with logic(sparks are flying, there's fire and explosions, there's a shootout here, not oooh a minimap marker) and curiosity. Having terrain and an open world means that won't get old, too, because every encounter is a little bit different, and that's a good thing.


I want to see visual cues add to the game as well, though as has been previously stated, they can't become too much. I'd honestly like the option to disable the UI stuff and play the game from that perspective. The option to have it should be there, but the option to not have it should be as well.
 

PIghead Elderberry

Kaiju Slayer
JUMBO KAIJU SLAYER
Jun 4, 2017
248
510
93
CA USA
#14
Back in early FF I did a lot of PM with some of the guys (I forget names now) working on the dynamic nature of the encounters and they were 100% devoted to make happen what you talk about - true dynamically scaling encounters that ebb and flow as people come and go interacting with them.

Those people got slain in a back room one day, I think.

That was exactly what you are describing, AdmiralStryuker!

The FF simple encounters were supposed to be the START for where FF would go with them, but unfortunately they never got very far. Though, they were still fun and nicely spiced up the world whenever you found them.
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#15

Defiance
- Lked it, because of the TV series, but the constant DDOSs made me abandon it. Usually don't care about achievements, but it had this neat reward system that gave boosts to my attributes. Proficiency levels with every weapon-type and the exploring, plus stunts with your vehicle gave you small boosts to award you.

TERA - Now THIS was essentially FireFall with swords to me. My survival depended on my own reflexes and ability to time my attacks and to dodge. Didn't matter if a creature towered over me, both literally and in level, if it couldn't hit me I could wear it down and eventually kill it. I'm not expecting to go one on one with higher category Kaijus, though. But, still. Skill should matter. Not dice-rolling.
Defiance's proficiency system: I think it's something to be echoed. In a game with horizontal progression, one hard point is how to keep the veterans interested, as there's a limit to how much they can progress over a newbie and even then, all the progression is net equal. That being said this needs to be watched. I don't want it becoming too influential-it should be a slight edge, nothing more.

TERA: Yes, however the MMO stuff of "You play x class so you must be y role in a group" is something that shouldn't exist here. Skill should always triumph here, save for the large stuff as you mentioned.
 
Feb 24, 2017
2
4
3
#17
The early days of Firefall were fantastic. I started in Closed Beta and played well into "release". I loved how massive and detailed the world felt. I could go anywhere I wanted and found beautiful views and awesome secrets areas. No missions attached to those places at the time, they were just cool to see and wonder at. Complete freedom to explore.

The dynamic nature of the missions and events in Firefall made for some get moments. A favorite memory of mine was when two incursions occurred at the same time within a few meters of each other. It was a crazy intense battle with Chosen everywhere and lots of action.

Two words, Horizontal Progression. The game was so much fun back then. There was a little vertical progression (x4 I think was the limit) which was nice but once the power curve became steep then the game was about getting the next gun. Originally, it was about finding/building a gun I liked and roasting the Chosen. Another great part of the progression was that the strongest gun could be matched by a single squad of newbies. Playing with a new player wasn't a real impediment to your enjoyment and you weren't necessarily carrying them. They could significantly contribute.

Finally, I really liked one of the many iterations of the customization system. The one I liked the most was very early where you had a set amount of resources (I believe it was energy) and could allot that to min-max your equipment the way you wanted. I loved to max jet energy and recharge and climb to the next highest plateau.

CB Firefall was the best game I had ever played, and I had played a lot.
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#18
Back in early FF I did a lot of PM with some of the guys (I forget names now) working on the dynamic nature of the encounters and they were 100% devoted to make happen what you talk about - true dynamically scaling encounters that ebb and flow as people come and go interacting with them.

Those people got slain in a back room one day, I think.

That was exactly what you are describing, AdmiralStryuker!

The FF simple encounters were supposed to be the START for where FF would go with them, but unfortunately they never got very far. Though, they were still fun and nicely spiced up the world whenever you found them.
Much of where Firefall lost its way was with differing leadership. The game essentially had two teams working on it, one working on old FF, one pushing for it to become like WoW. The lack of a direction damaged the game.
 

PIghead Elderberry

Kaiju Slayer
JUMBO KAIJU SLAYER
Jun 4, 2017
248
510
93
CA USA
#19
The early days of Firefall were fantastic. I started in Closed Beta and played well into "release". I loved how massive and detailed the world felt. I could go anywhere I wanted and found beautiful views and awesome secrets areas. No missions attached to those places at the time, they were just cool to see and wonder at. Complete freedom to explore.

The dynamic nature of the missions and events in Firefall made for some get moments. A favorite memory of mine was when two incursions occurred at the same time within a few meters of each other. It was a crazy intense battle with Chosen everywhere and lots of action.

Two words, Horizontal Progression. The game was so much fun back then. There was a little vertical progression (x4 I think was the limit) which was nice but once the power curve became steep then the game was about getting the next gun. Originally, it was about finding/building a gun I liked and roasting the Chosen. Another great part of the progression was that the strongest gun could be matched by a single squad of newbies. Playing with a new player wasn't a real impediment to your enjoyment and you weren't necessarily carrying them. They could significantly contribute.

Finally, I really liked one of the many iterations of the customization system. The one I liked the most was very early where you had a set amount of resources (I believe it was energy) and could allot that to min-max your equipment the way you wanted. I loved to max jet energy and recharge and climb to the next highest plateau.

CB Firefall was the best game I had ever played, and I had played a lot.
Another 1000% agreement for me!

Yes - dynamic events that kept you active 100% of the time.

I remember days when literally I NEVER had to stop action because there was always something within sight of what I had just finished - or I just saw a chosen Drop Pod land over the brow of the next hill.

If you wanted to run/ride past things, or glide by, you could it you wanted to. If you wanted to engage 100% in actions all day and all night, you could do that.

Only later did we roam around vacant theme park rides all shut down and broken.
 
Jul 27, 2016
167
234
43
#20
The early days of Firefall were fantastic. I started in Closed Beta and played well into "release". I loved how massive and detailed the world felt. I could go anywhere I wanted and found beautiful views and awesome secrets areas. No missions attached to those places at the time, they were just cool to see and wonder at. Complete freedom to explore.

The dynamic nature of the missions and events in Firefall made for some get moments. A favorite memory of mine was when two incursions occurred at the same time within a few meters of each other. It was a crazy intense battle with Chosen everywhere and lots of action.

Two words, Horizontal Progression. The game was so much fun back then. There was a little vertical progression (x4 I think was the limit) which was nice but once the power curve became steep then the game was about getting the next gun. Originally, it was about finding/building a gun I liked and roasting the Chosen. Another great part of the progression was that the strongest gun could be matched by a single squad of newbies. Playing with a new player wasn't a real impediment to your enjoyment and you weren't necessarily carrying them. They could significantly contribute.

Finally, I really liked one of the many iterations of the customization system. The one I liked the most was very early where you had a set amount of resources (I believe it was energy) and could allot that to min-max your equipment the way you wanted. I loved to max jet energy and recharge and climb to the next highest plateau.

CB Firefall was the best game I had ever played, and I had played a lot.
Completely agreed here. I'd like to see Vertical progression cut a bit from x4, but Horizontal progression is where it's at here. Specialization will make or break you here, and as a DnD power gamer, I want to specialize. The ability for newbies to contribute but at the same time for veterans to have their power fantasy(ie a newbie biotech could be decent but a veteran biotech could be a healing god). That being said, I want to see specialized enemies as well. Snipers, Engineers, should come back. They're far more engaging gameplay wise, and the game could use that.