A new blog post has cropped up on the Firefall site that deals with all things related to characters, classes and making progress in the Firefall universe. The article can be summed up by this quote from Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5 Studios: “Let’s show the shooter fans how great progression and community can be… just like how the early MMOs showed the RPG community.”

Traditional RPGs create the progression and long term goals through leveling systems or something similar where your character gains additional power over time. Usually this happens through a combination of increased inherent strength (+4 to Intellect!) as well as access to improved equipment (Gauntlet of Infinite Awesomeness). As your character improves, his ability to kill increases while his ability to be killed is reduced – a pure improvement in your character’s killing efficiency that allows you to fight tougher and tougher opponents.

This increase in power is a reward for your hard work, converting time into power, and can be easily felt by going to areas that used to be too tough for your character and defeating the enemies there, and also by going to areas that used to be a challenge and effortlessly laying waste to everything there. This is the progression path of the typical MMORPG where the goal is a pure increase in power with the goal of accessing and then defeating new content – creatures, dungeons, zones, etc..

Read more on the Firefall blog.

The author had me on tenterhooks wondering if he a) new what he was talking about b) was going to cave into the same old horsesh*t! Finally this paragraph:

So, a lot of the progression that we’ve built into Firefall is what we call “horizontal progression”. Not an increase in health, damage inflicted, or incoming damage mitigation, but an increase to your options. An enlargement of your toolset.

Keep up the good work.

How they described the skill based gameplay is exactly how I feel on the topic,  as well as what they went on to say about progression.

While I thought the game looked pretty good before and was just kind-of watching it,  I'm actually somewhat impressed.  They have my attention now.

This game is going to be absolutely epic for a f2p mmofps but I'm afraid it's not getting the attention it deserves. I can feel the epic in my bones, the little ones. And I'm usually right about this feeling.

People will catch on eventually.

I played this game at PAX East. It played like a slow version of Tribes. Hopefully the game improves tenfold by the time they release it. The main drawback for me is that it's going to be F2P. Meh, we'll see I guess.

---

Originally posted by remyburke
I played this game at PAX East. It played like a slow version of Tribes. Hopefully the game improves tenfold by the time they release it. The main drawback for me is that it's going to be F2P. Meh, we'll see I guess.

---

Like you said, we'll see. I feel the same way.

Kind of reminds me of the "horizontal progression" from PlanetSide... i.e. as you "leveled up" you simply got more points to spend on new types of weapons/ships/etc... but not better "AC" or "HP" per se... that was still wholly tied to skill and skill alone.

Can't wait till it comes out and I can get my hands on it.

Skill skill skill skill! Kill with skill! Can I be more OCD about it?! Yes. 

As time goes by I find that current MMOs battle-mechanic to be boring and unrealistic and eventually less fun for me. I used to play more FPSin the past, then focused more on MMOs. But every few months I dropped my account/subscription and started looking for something else. I was bored and wasn't sure why. But then some games arrived - like GA - and I realized I just hate with a capital T the fact that you can just click keys, not really aiming mind you, not even being close to the target (suddenly all hits are AoE in MMOs), sequencing like a maniac while drinking beer and watching TV. That's not action mister, it's pixel fluff party.

Originally posted by MumboJumbo

The author had me on tenterhooks wondering if he a) new what he was talking about b) was going to cave into the same old horsesh*t! Finally this paragraph:

 

So, a lot of the progression that we’ve built into Firefall is what we call “horizontal progression”. Not an increase in health, damage inflicted, or incoming damage mitigation, but an increase to your options. An enlargement of your toolset.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

I've been using that term for years!

More options as you level up.  Yeah, that's kinda how FPSes.  Planetside/WWIIOL both did it over a decade ago.  This isn't stunning, this is to be expected.

"horizontal progression"

just seeing this makes me know i will play this game!

10 years i'm waiting for this in mmo ...

It has to be a shooter that will use it first :/

Originally posted by Greyed

More options as you level up.  Yeah, that's kinda how FPSes.  Planetside/WWIIOL both did it over a decade ago.  This isn't stunning, this is to be expected.

It's not meant to be stunning, or to try and make the game out to be more than it is as something to revolutionize the entire world of gaming. It's just to clarrify that it's going to be skill based.

While the average age of a gamer already goes beyond 30 years old, horizontal progression is  future of the genre. People at this age value their free time so that's the obvious way to cater too more players. 

Well at least we now know who is behind this latest alien invasion:

It's Ming The Merciless!

Aanyone else having troubles opening their website ? I only get an empty page.