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Gonna download and install soon, got my account code and everything :)
This is a game I have been waiting to see. And since the French are getting absolutely wasted in WWIIOL I feel like a short break. Then I'll go back to fighting with the Brits if only because there is at least a fighting chance there.
Applied, but now word....
Just got my acceptance email....
It's so good to be accepted for who you are....
Man, I download the thing over night (took 12 hours). Then I go to work and print out the manual. Then I forget the manual at work (printer broke down here and I haven't bothered fixing it). No biggie, I think. I get home a little late, had to stop at the store, fix diner for me and the cat and take care of a few things. Then I sit down at the computer at 9:20 ready to play a little Planetside to check it out.
Now, since I have been trying to get on for the last 40 min and I can't even bring up the beta site I assume they are having some problems. I figgure many people were accepted yesterday and today and maybe tomorrow as it seems they are ramping up the beta membership for stress testing. That is good news but, damnit, I wanted to play NOW. Grrrrrrrr.
Well, I think I will read a book for a while and wait to see if it comes up. There is always the weekend (I hope).
They don't send you a CD in the mail?
Where did you download it from?
I don't want to wait.
Instant gratification please!
Many places don't do that anymore... they expect everyone to be on a broadband connection..
With the acceptance email is a link to fill out a form with your mailing address....
ahhhhh
Widowmaker is exclusive beta, i'm open beta so I wait for CD's, he gets to download.
Congrats guys! Please make sure you keep a steady flow of screenshots and updated information on your experience's with the game.
Everyone is special.
Some Widowmakers are more special than Choozoo's.
:proud:
I've been posting on the forums to try and "slip" into the exclusive....
I signed up for beta today.. *crosses fingers*
Hey, I'm accepted into the beta! First bit of good news I've had in a week.
According to a broadcast last night on the server, I got on for about half an hour before bed, they are adding 20,000 beta testers in the next couple weeks. I would expect most everyone who applied will be in it, that must be the "open" beta.
Of course I am exclusive... as it should be.
From what I saw last night the game has mass potential. It reminds me a lot of Tribes and the landscape is close to Anarchy Onlines world. I have no clue what to do. There is an "Instant action" button but I wanted to get the hang of things. In the sanctuary (your starting town) there is a virtual reality area with a shooting range to try out all weapons and armors (you are limited to what you can equip by "certificates", I need to read up on those) but no limits in VR training. There is a vehicle VR training area so you can try out things that roll (I like the quad runner and the dune car) and things that fly. Other people are there too in VR training so you can talk to them to ask questions and whatnot.
Some idiot was driving around the sanctuary area running over people, he was booted fast.
Friendly Fire is a part of the game, there is some sort of "grief point" system that I don't know anything about. I like FF on, if there is some way to curb the griefers.
First I need to learn of Certificates so I can get the cool equipment.
Medical certs will get you the ability to not only heal others but resurect them in the field if you can get to them in time.
From what I can tell it is one massive game of Capture and Hold from Tribes with some cool toys. I like it, will know more after this weekend I am sure.
*jumps up and down with glee* :D
*crosses fingers and prays*
I'm bound by the NDA so I can't tell you much.
The servers have been very unstable, they seem to crash a hell of a lot under load. Currently there are usualy 1100+ players when the server chokes up. From the chat I've seen it was much stabler before they added my lot in and they are working it out, I expect that will get much better soon.
I'll also say this. You guys are going to love the game. Read the website to get a feel for the different factions, they each have strengths and weaknesses. Certs are important too for access to equipment, you can not be a master of all so far so choose the role you want.
I'm probably breaking the NDA but I will say the graphics are not spectacular, somewhere between Tribes 1 and Tribes 2, the landscapes are pretty though. If the servers stay up from the battles I have seen... wow. Two wishes I have are for naval units of some sort and bomber craft, there is a ground attack craft though. Of course who knows what they will add in the future. The WWIIOL world is much larger but Planetside works.
The MAX armor (Planetsides version of Heavy) is very very cool, and scary if you are against them.
Each faction has some equipment unique to its side and there is some equipment that is common for all. The Terran Republic prefers machine gun type weapons (chainguns and such). The New Conglomorate prefers slower firing but heavier hitting weapons. The Vanu Soverignty usues some alien technology so their special guns are energy weapons that seem a little weaker than the other races but their energy guns have a built in armor piercig ability and their heavier ground armor are hovercrafts and can strafe as well as go across watter to a limited degree.
I can say no more or the NDA gnomes will pull out all my nose hair.
*whispers*
add me to the list of AKers in beta of PS
*jumps for joy* :D
I got in, as well. Just have to wait for the CDs now.
Weee, I have strep throat this week (been out since Monday realy) but Planetside has been non functional. The last patch they released Friday messed everything up. The servers were down from monday till late yesterday. I have no idea if they got everything working right, they were trying to address the server stability problems.
Since my lab test came back positive for bactirial strep throat and I am pumped full of penecillin the hostpital (I went to the emergency room on Tuesday just because I did not want to wait for a doctors appointment) wants me to stay home. They said I am contagious and should avoid going out for a couple days (48 hours after treetment I should be non-contagious, when symptoms start to fade they said).
Anyway, got some time to kill so I'll go see if the servers are up. I am hooked on this game, it may replace EQ for me. Nice that it does not require the super reflexes most FPS do since I am slower than I used to be.
Figgures, the bloody server is down for "stability improvements". Man, if I can ever play this game for more than an hour without a server crash I will be in trouble. Since I've only been able to play in short spurts (because of server instability) and I am as hooked as I am it will be full addiction when this thing gets stable.
Heres, hoping they have all the issues worked out before you open testers show up. Man, 20,000 new beta testers in your group and the server chokes with 1000 people on it now. Could be ugly, but if it works it will be grand.
aye, hope it works out well.. sounds as if its gonna be an incredible game..
Raven Shield is holding me over for now though. ;)
Well, they have gotten a lot of the server issues worked out. The main server is having its database software upgraded so it is down till further notice but they opened up another with the new database software. I have been playing for hours and just got dropped. It is laggy in many places but that could be due to the logging they are doing with the new code they just put in. When the regular server comes back it is said to be better. Even with some lag it is realy not that bad due to the Rainbow Six style "Cone of fire" system. I actualy like it even though we don't benefit from precise hit location (headshots do not do more damage, aim for the body). The hit system is good and bad but it eliminates a lot of cheezy stuff (like everybody being a sniper) and allows those with slower reflexes to compete. I've gotten used to it and with the gameplay it is a fine system.
I actualy got into some squad combat tonight. Squads in this game are the equivalent to groups in EQ, right down to having armor and hitpoint status of group members and group speak. Outfits are your basic "guilds", guildspeak and all. Squads share xp and everything.
Experience is a cool feature without the treadmill feel of EQ. Right now you get a lot of XP for taking a base (or inviting that solo stealth guy that just hacked the base into your squad, then you all still get the thousands of experience points... 100 to 200 for getting an infantry kill). You then level up with Battle Experience Points, you get one certification point (certs are like skill points, you buy access to equipment with certs) per level. In beta right now we all start at Battle Experience Level 10, when the game is live you start at 0 with 3 cert points. For reference the ability to use the machine gun armed quad runner (the Basalisk, common to all empires) costs 3 cert points. You could spawn that and be stuck with the default weapon and armor till you level up. Right now starting with BEP level 10 we get 13 points at character creation. I am going to hate having to choose with only 3 points. With 13 points I still have a small limit to what I can drive or weapons I can use but that is enough to specialize in one or two things with aenough left over for something fun to drive.
I believe the max BEP level is 20, but I can't confirm that.
Then there is Command Experience. We start with 0 just like when it is live. This dictates the number of implats that you can have. With 0 level I can have one implant. I normaly choose the Darklight implant, when I toggle it I use a small amount of stamina (none when crouched) it drops my veiwable distance to like 10 meters or so but then I can see those invisible infiltrators that sneek by and hack a station out from under you. Useful in defending the command console (where you hack to take a station). I believe you get more implant slots, up to 3 maybe as you get command levels. You get command experience by being the leader of a squad (group), never done it myself. Not sure if there are any other benefits of command experience.
I expect some of the gameplay stuff will be tweaked.
By the way, I am into the Terran Republic right now. Kind of fun being the Evil Empire, besides I like the red detailed look and the Heavy Assault weapon is a mini chaingun, very nice with both regular slug and armor piercing ammo. I like it better than the new conglomorate's shotgun (NC is the blue team). Those weirdo alien lovers in purple on the Vanu Sovereinty I have no idea about. Never realy played them much, I'll have to try them out someday, their weapons look cool... right before I die.
The NDA gnomes are scratching at my screen again. Got to go get the can of raid, they won't get my nose hair without a fight.
Don't tell anyone where you heard this stuff =)
What are the penalties for dying?
As far as I know the only penalty for dying is time to get back to battle (and not much time, nothing compared to WWIIOL). No XP loss or anything, death happens too often for them to penalize it more.
That kind of puts a kabosh on the whole role-playing element. IMO anyway...
There is no role playing element. Some character management with the whole cert thing. But certs can be "unlearned" but it takes 24 real hours for the cert point to be released for use again so whatever you choose to cert in can be changed.
And I just read we may get 4 certs to start with, that would be more useful. And the level cap may be higher than 20.
It is Tribes in a MMO FPS sense. It does not even pretend to be an RPG :)
Of course it isn't a pure RPG, but it has the RPG element of being able to boost your abilities via a point system.
The problem with a system devoid of penalties is that eventually everyone will be maxed out.
Really if you look at it there is not real penalty for death in EQ anymore.. there is one character on brell, a cleric, that has an item that has CSR on it (100% Rez) and most clerics have their epic, or have 96% rez.. so you never really lose a whole lot of XP.. and by 65 the 4% of XP you would lose would easily be gotten back.
That's one (of many) reasons why I only played EQ for a week.
How long ago was this Squid.. to my knowledge is hasn't been that way very long.. of course I also haven't been above 50 very long..
Nah, it was the treadmill... no real point. Gather experience, level, buff your character with no sting of death.
Ah... sometimes there is a sting to death.. ;) trust me...
Unless you have a cleric in your pocket to give you the res then indeed it does sting. I have only ever gotten a handful of rezzes and just ate the significant exp loss. Not everybody is a member of some uber guild with all classes in the 60+ range.
Planetsides "leveling" features do not bother me even if it is capped at level 20. Everybody will cap out on levels, yes. But is that not the same on any other MMORPG? From what I have seen, and I have dabbled with most MMORPG's out there including EQ for the playstation 2, all it takes to reach the highest level is time playing. Some people have more help and get there in less time, others (like me) are more casual and will take longer but I could still get there if I wanted to spend the time. So the only real requirement is time, eventualy anybody can reach the highest level.
An MMORPG is generaly all about leveling since levels and loot are realy the only way to get more powerful that in the end it is all about levels and loot. Hence they make the curve pretty steep to reach the top end but if you can spend the hours in front of the computer you can get there. Planetside has a flatter line of "leveling" since the focus of Planteside is not the levels or loot it is the battle itself. You do not need levels to get more powerful you learn how to move and shoot better (well, move the mouse better). Hence they do not need to make a steep climb with stiff death penalties for the game to be a challenge. Remember that even MMORPG developers admit they create the leveling curves in order to add a challenge to the game, that is not needed in a FPS since the other human shooting at you provides the challenge.
I have not payed a lot of attention to the marketing hype of Planetside (I learned long ago not to listen to game hype since it never lives up, the marketing people who write that junk usualy have never even played the game much less care about it). So I do not know if they have hyped up any RPG aspects or character management. If they did then ignore that, what RPG elements that are there are thin and more tuned toward picking what kind of fighter you want to be and specialize in that so you will have a "role" in a squad. Or you can do a little of everything so that you can solo but won't have access to the great equipment. So in that there is a bit of "role" playing just not the standard leveling treadmill (there is still some treadmill but that is not the focus of the game).
And since, as we know, death comes much more frequent in, say, Tribes 2 than Everquest or DAOC a simaler xp loss death penalty would be amazingly frustrating.
But to each his own, some will like planetside, some will love it, some will not like it at all. I love it so far and I hope you all do too.
Aye, I'm not in an uber guild.. but I always manage to be in a group with a 90%+ rez cleric.. so I don't eat too much XP loss..
And you're right, its all about time invested.. I could be 55 in EQ by now if I wanted to be.. but I don't have the time.. with balancing school and Raven Shield I'm left with little time for EQ... more than likely I will ding my first AA before I hit 52.. mainly because the time I am putting into the game is done raiding. I don't like putting time in to find a group, toil around with dying a lot (cause all the LFG tool has done is lead to bad groups for me, some good.. but lately bad) it just becomes a big pain in the arse.
Having never reached the high-level game, you have NO IDEA how bad the exp loss is in EQ, Squid. Believe me, it does sting. In the high-level game, a rez is a must every time you die. People like Wid take way longer to get into the high levels than most because they never ask for rezzes. :) The first time I quit for good was right after I lost level 54 for the fourth time in the Plane of Fear, where I died three times in a row and only got one rez (here's a hint: don't bind yourself in PoF). I was about ready to chuck the computer out the window; in less than five minutes, I literally lost a week's worth of work. EQ can be terrifically frustrating.
Aye, its pretty bad higher up I hear... 51 isn't bad at all.. a little more than normal.. but not too bad.. was grouped with someone that was lvl 57 once and they were about 1/4-1/3 through and lost 57... so I guess the death penalty there is pretty high.. Up through 50 the death penalty is only 10%..
Pay for play suxx0rs!
The EXP treadmill sounds about as interesting as getting my fingernails pulled out.
I've gotten more enjoyment out of EQ than any game I've ever played, so I don't mind paying a monthly fee. Besides, MMORPGs are a completely different animal; it costs a lot of money to host and maintain all the servers that EQ requires. Plus, they put the monthly fees to other good uses, like putting out expansions and constantly patching. What other game in history (with the exception of UO) has been continually updated for more than four years after release?
How is the experience treadmill in EQ different than just about any other roleplaying game? The drive to improve your character by gaining levels and wealth is what makes EQ and other RPGs so damned addictive. No other game in history has given players the same sense of achievement that EQ has.