Getting a beta key is extremely easy, look in the offtopic section of their forums since people constantly give them out or just participate on the forums, act nice, and eventually someone will give you one.

As for the actual changes, it is probably the best solution they could have come up with in my opinion. The instanced PvP, which is the esport part of Firefall, will have "regulation" gear so people who spent hundreds of hours in PvE grinding for amazing resources don't get large gear advantages over the truly skilled players/teams.

But the open world PvP will not be regulated so you will retain your crafted gear. It is literally the best of both worlds and I feel like it caters to all three types of players equally and in the best possible way, something I'm sure many developers wouldn't have thought to do and come up with, much less implement it effectively.

Right now there's not info on open world PvP and how it will be implemented. I'm guessing it will mostly be armies fighting against each other but there is literally no information yet.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by KingofHartz
Why isn't this released already ? Defiance is just about to release and well I probably going to throw my money that way.

Because its not ready yet.  Red5 is taking their time with this beta. Keep in mind that this IS a REAL beta. Not a demo to hype up word of mouth.  As things stand, I suspect it will be late 2013 or early 2014 before the game is in its near final form.

Gonna throw this out there because I have the seen the statement "this is a REAL beta" said about this and other games and I'm not sure everyone here knows what a Beta actually is.

Alpha: Feature complete. This means every feature that will be in the 1.0 shipping game is already functional. It's not pretty but you can do it all; PvE, PvP, Open World PvP, Crafting, housing, whatever else you got...until you got all of that, you aren't in Alpha state yet.

Beta: Content/Art complete. Art/mission fixes are allowed but to get something new in is usually a pretty big uphill battle. In Beta builds, everything should be getting fixed not implemented.

Close Beta Tests for Online elements: This is a more for stress tests and network/graphics card compatibility tests. You should not be adding new features in this version of beta, you should only be testing/fixing your current systems. If your current systems are proven to need major changes, you take it offline, change it, put up another closed Beta.

Open Beta: Let's make sure this can funtion for an extended period of time (1-6 month period without too much pain) 

tl;dr - if open world PvP is still to come, then its not in Closed Beta, it's pre-Alpha. 

I think most people just use "beta" loosely as a way to say it's still in heavy development AND testing. Most bugs are pretty much ironed out, gameplay is stable and functional, therefore saying it's in alpha I really don't feel is accurate at all.

Simply having new features added is in no way indicitive of a game being in a certain stage of development, the only difference here is that Red5 is more than willing to add huge features that are often in expansion packs for other game/MMOs while the game is in beta, and completely change how something works if it's not working out (ex: PvE gear in PvP).

Originally posted by Alka_Setzer

I think most people just use "beta" loosely as a way to say it's still in heavy development AND testing. Most bugs are pretty much ironed out, gameplay is stable and functional, therefore saying it's in alpha I really don't feel is accurate at all.

If it is in heavy development, then it's not in Beta. Just telling you what the terms actually mean. When you hear about a Beta test, you're assuming that product will be out very shortly. In gaming terms that means 3-6 months.  Right now it is in a  pre-Alpha state. It's not a bad thing, it's just very misleading to call it a Beta. Beta definately DOES NOT mean heavy development. 

Originally posted by Shredder420

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by KingofHartz
Why isn't this released already ? Defiance is just about to release and well I probably going to throw my money that way.

Because its not ready yet.  Red5 is taking their time with this beta. Keep in mind that this IS a REAL beta. Not a demo to hype up word of mouth.  As things stand, I suspect it will be late 2013 or early 2014 before the game is in its near final form.

Gonna throw this out there because I have the seen the statement "this is a REAL beta" said about this and other games and I'm not sure everyone here knows what a Beta actually is.

Alpha: Feature complete. This means every feature that will be in the 1.0 shipping game is already functional. It's not pretty but you can do it all; PvE, PvP, Open World PvP, Crafting, housing, whatever else you got...until you got all of that, you aren't in Alpha state yet.

Beta: Content/Art complete. Art/mission fixes are allowed but to get something new in is usually a pretty big uphill battle. In Beta builds, everything should be getting fixed not implemented.

Close Beta Tests for Online elements: This is a more for stress tests and network/graphics card compatibility tests. You should not be adding new features in this version of beta, you should only be testing/fixing your current systems. If your current systems are proven to need major changes, you take it offline, change it, put up another closed Beta.

Open Beta: Let's make sure this can funtion for an extended period of time (1-6 month period without too much pain) 

tl;dr - if open world PvP is still to come, then its not in Closed Beta, it's pre-Alpha. 

From the wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

Alpha

The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, used as the number 1). In this phase, developers generally test the software using white box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black box or gray box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release.^[2]

Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. The exception to this is when the alpha is available publicly (such as a pre-order bonus), in which developers normally push for stability so that their testers can test properly. External availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software. However, open source software, in particular, often have publicly available alpha versions, often distributed as the raw source code of the software. The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete.

[edit]Beta

Beta (in other words prototype) (named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet) is the software development phase following alpha. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporatingusability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it.

The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software without charge, often receiving the final software free of charge or for a reduced price. Beta version software is often useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization and to prospective customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, prototype, technical preview (TP), or early access. Some software is kept in perpetual beta—where new features and functionality are continually added to the software without establishing a firm "final" release.

[edit]Open and closed beta

Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation, while open beta testers are from a larger group, or anyone interested. The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in the final version. Examples of a major public beta test are:

• In September 2000 a boxed version of Apple's Mac OS X Public Beta operating system was released.^[3]
• Microsoft's release of community technology previews (CTPs) for "Longhorn" in January 2005.^[4]

Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among an extremely wide user base likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team might not find.

Originally posted by Shredder420

Originally posted by Alka_Setzer

I think most people just use "beta" loosely as a way to say it's still in heavy development AND testing. Most bugs are pretty much ironed out, gameplay is stable and functional, therefore saying it's in alpha I really don't feel is accurate at all.

If it is in heavy development, then it's not in Beta. Just telling you what the terms actually mean. When you hear about a Beta test, you're assuming that product will be out very shortly. In gaming terms that means 3-6 months.  Right now it is in a  pre-Alpha state. It's not a bad thing, it's just very misleading to call it a Beta. Beta definately DOES NOT mean heavy development. 

Imo labeling it as a pre-alpha is even more misleading than labeling it a beta. Pre-alpha means it's almost not even functioning or playable, just a prototype/bare-bones idea of the finished product and Firefall is leagues beyond that. All the gameplay mechanics for the most part have the polish of a finished product. And again, stability is pretty much as stable as it's going to get, not even close to being in an Alpha state.

By heavy development I mean there is still a TON of content and features they want to add before slapping a "release" title on it and it should not be labeled as a product in alpha, much less pre-alpha, just because of that. If you're really going to be strict about trying to label it something it would have to fall somewhere between alpha and beta because it has aspects from both stages of the development cycle. It's just a million times easier simply saying it's in beta because it has the polish and feel of something that is truly in beta or even fully released. The only thing Firefall is currently lacking is content, but they also want to add more to the gameplay. If it DID have a large amount more content it could easily qualify as a released MMO in my opinion. But like I said they want to add more to the gameplay in general.

Originally posted by nepulas
defiance is a piece of crap ...

If played both,and no.. Defiance is not.  I will say I think Firefall has more potential though.  But Defiance  knows what it wants to be, so right now it's the better game.

Originally posted by Alka_Setzer

I think most people just use "beta" loosely as a way to say it's still in heavy development AND testing. Most bugs are pretty much ironed out, gameplay is stable and functional, therefore saying it's in alpha I really don't feel is accurate at all.

Simply having new features added is in no way indicitive of a game being in a certain stage of development, the only difference here is that Red5 is more than willing to add huge features that are often in expansion packs for other game/MMOs while the game is in beta, and completely change how something works if it's not working out (ex: PvE gear in PvP).

Honestly the sweeping changes that red5 has made are very much alpha level changes.  I've been in plenty of alphas and closed betas, and you only get core mechanic changes like this in an alpha.

Originally posted by Siveria
I don't think this is going to fix the games main problem: its quite franjly boring, because all u do is shoot npcs all day, no gear to collect, the quests suck, everything gear wise is handed to you once you hit the exp needed. I found the game a major letdown when i was in beta, I lost interest in it really fast because the game was just that boring. Even a korean grinder is alot more entertaining than firefall was, and thats pretty damned sad.

No shit...you joined beta where it clearly shows this is the first phase of many for pve and you think there isn't enough to do ? That's like joining an mmo beta where they've only added up to lvl 10 of 60  and saying this game needs more lvls. 10 gets boring.

Still waiting for  increased PvE content.  I could care less about PvP; wish they focused on the aspects of the game that are rare in the MMORPG scene (actual MMOFPSRPG instead of standard PvP garbage like tons of publishing companies try to quote their game as).

The last game to actually be a real MMOFPS was Huxley, and that never really made it to the market in the west, which sucked as I kind of liked what I played of it.

Originally posted by nepulas
defiance is a piece of crap ...

I agree

If anyone still has some beta keys left I could use them.

This seems like a fun game me my gf and a friend would love to try it out.

I have some DOTA keys if you need :)

Thanks in advance.