Eric the BAF and aggro ranges seems to grow exponentially the higher the mobs levels get. Most stuff around the starter towns and in the south of secter 1 are easy kills for the low levels.

Heading north to kings and reststop and further north I quickly had to switch from what I thought aggro ranges and BAF were to what the new mobs were doing. Yea and they start going after the horse a lot too, where before they always ignored him.

That may just depend on comparative levels...I found the stuff around Reststop no different from further south, if anything it was even easier to kill solo because all the corrupted clones come pre-snared. They also completely ignored my horse, I'd leave it parked for hours while I slaughtered stuff and they'd walk right past it.

Clones yea, thier little more then zombies. Mutants, throwbacks, coyotes up there had a much higher aggro range and BAF.

Originally posted by blakavar

Clones yea, thier little more then zombies. Mutants, throwbacks, coyotes up there had a much higher aggro range and BAF.

Do they? Or is it just that they are packed much more densely into the area? I just went back to Kingman and the raiders there were as oblivious as ever...yeah they'd "bring a friend" but only if they were virtually on top of each other to start with...I was pulling guys out of rooms and others in the same room would ignore it...same with aggro range, I could walk down the middle of a street and guys on either side would ignore me.

Anyways, I have to agree with feeling rather "meh" about this game...the more I play, the more bored with it I seem to get..not sure if it was area driven or what but was having rather more frontend crashes today too.

Originally posted by ericbelser

The way I describe the graphics is "well done, but technically dated". FE has a solid art team and a very nice overall look and "feel"...but it is a good 3-5 yrs behind the current generation of graphics capabilities.

The PvE is about on par with most MMOs these days really...anything remotely near your level solo is a fairly easy kill and mob aggro and "BAF" (bring a friend) code ranges are ludicrously short.  I don't like it, because it is moronic to be able to pull one guy from a campfire while his 3 buddies just sit there and watch him die...but that's the dumbed down standard of MMOs these days.

 

the graphics engine might well be that old, im not technically inclined enough to know this or not. i have heard it said more than once though. i think FE's graphics, or appreciation of them also has to do with perspective (like many things do).

- i do not at all attempt to detract from your assessment, one thing ive made quite clear is that everyone's opinion matters...when i consider the opinions of others the more i know of their perspective, the more i can infer from their stated opinion. (i once asked a fellow poster how many pvp environments they had played in and they were insulted - however what i wanted to know better was their perspective)

my perspective on the graphics is from a fairly dated machine, i have a dell xps gen 2, a pentium 4 processor that im nearly certain is single core. i have 4 gbs ram and a raedon 1650 card w 512 mbs vram. quite often i do not have graphics notched all the way up in any game i play, it is always a balance between eye candy and lag with me.  the graphics look fairly good in comparison with what my machine's top end is.

what also looks fairly good is the detail in which they have painted the landscape, i dont mean this literally of course...the landscape is a barren wasteland. what i mean is that they have portrayed the apocolyptic environment visually in excellent fashion.

as to the ai, you have noted also that the mobs are a bit easy, like i said compared to other mmorpgs it seems im a bit in godmode, this could be quite intentional in the design, or could be the result of a tankertruck worth of qqing - im not sure which. if intentional by design i can see some sense in it, but as i mentioned above, they should make the mobs a tad more likely to agro, and as well agro from a tad farther away. i noticed the other post also about npc to npc logical commo - i feel as well this is something for them to look at as far as an improvement toward a more challenging pve experience.

this evening's game session was cut a bit short as i had to go to work in the real world - im a professional killer by trade, lolz, its true, considering perspective.

during the session i had gravitated back toward midway to lvl up a few harveting skills to be able to hit the next tier harvestable goodies. i have come to the point that im carrying all the weight i can and finally must bank - i hate this part of gameplay - managing all the incidentals, the stuff, that is both precious resource and a pain in the arse. (i know i know, if you want to have a complex crafting system...im not whining)

anyway i'd already taken to potshotting at peeps for fun along the way when i ran past...and then i see a player in a prone position...at what would gauge to be 20 mph going up and down the streets of midway. i took this opportunity to rediscover the new player chat channel i'd had collapsed and almost always do while i play.

many things were being said...one player asked why there were nodes in teh pvp area...i replied that those are called /carrots in an effort to be helpful. the next player scoffed : 'pvp in this game sucks'.

here i paused a moment (still watching the player do his proneshimmy through the streets of the town) and i thought about it...and i have to potentially disagree. the pvp doesnt necessarily at all suck in this game, from what i have read of others telling of it its very balanced as far as combat, what i would agree with and what i think that player meant is that it should be much more widely enabled. there is quite a difference.

i asked in the chat (as id seen a few mods names mixed in the bustly stream of text) if anyone else had noted this prone speed phenomena and was it a new game feature...

after a moment of postulation i began chasing the prone player repeatedly shooting him in the ass with my xbow. after using about 40 or so rounds of ammo i took a few screenshots (to get the name) and headed to the bank...

in the bank a naked character named pillow pants was wildly rocking out to muzak that i must assume only he could hear on top of the vaults...and i mentioned this oddity as well in new player chat...noting that pillow pants was obviously looking for attention.

this is when i got scared.

what scared me was the sudden and stark appearance of a tall svelte woman with a giant hammer named morgana directly in front of me. she idly looked about the room, seemed to giggle a bit at pillow pants and left hastedly off on some unknown errand i prefer imagining had to do with a player in a prone position.

i must admit to feeling a little owned as i completely failed the opportunity of the screenshotting of a CM.

what i noted this evening is a key element in game design, testing, and production...it is staff paying attention to the players and i must say, it was a beautiful illustration. this is such a major plus to their production any attempt to quantify it would be an understatement...and as evidenced this evening, they seem to be paying attention - especially to what new players are saying while playing their game. /thumbs up for this.

more later..

Baahh...half the people complain that the famerate sucks and the other half complain that the graphics are dated

How bad do you think the framerate would be if the world was as "bit bumpy" as AOC?   Graphics are eye-candy and any seasoned MMO player (im talking MUD.....pre 1995 if you please, not you "ive played eq1 for 10 years" people who are scared to branch out from Sony...) will overlook graphics that dont glow in the dark like WOW or eat 3 gigs of ram like AOC.

I've put tissues at the door for those crying both coming and going..

 i mention perspective, actually several times, for a reason.

i point out that although my machine is old, the graphics are done fairly well imo, ive no idea what they look like from your uberware model 1337zxt. im glad that you like them and note your objectivity.

as far as lag, i have 8 computers feeding off my wireless router, 5 of which are playing streaming games of some type nearly constantly, one is downloading music, one surfs the web in search of senior romance, and one is dedicated to surfing various  online game forums. no i do not operate all of the machines personally. i imagine, though im not technically inclined, that this is part of what would cause me ingame lag as well as my machine.

that said, i still think the graphics and lag will improve...one of the reasons given for the delay in launch was optimization.

- eqlive has lasted about that long - and that's saying something. i've also played a couple other titles too.

edit> btw i played eqlive originally on a machine with 384 mb of system ram and 32 mb vram.

Welcome to the life of a minority.    Pvp players who want to control land or have more control of the game and other players are either a minority or seen as such.   Sorry man. It sucks I know but you are going to just have to deal with it.   Or get rich and make your own game. 

Let's review for a moment that no matter what people want, it's a bitter pill that we all must swallow when it's not.

There have been less than 10 posts in the pvp forum in the last 2 days... and half of them were from non-pvpr's.

There simply isn't support for this type of server in the game community. No magical 10k players have materialized and ever since greenion has been banned, the pvp forum is quiet as a peep.

This is not, nor ever will be, a pvp'rs game.

It just goes to show how one person can create a lot of drama and claim he represents the community, but when banned, the forum goes silent.. if he represented the 'community', they would have come out. They simply did not.

To this i just must give a 'haha', because the rest of us told you so.

Originally posted by DeadDingo

Let's review for a moment that no matter what people want, it's a bitter pill that we all must swallow when it's not.

There have been less than 10 posts in the pvp forum in the last 2 days... and half of them were from non-pvpr's.

There simply isn't support for this type of server in the game community. No magical 10k players have materialized and ever since greenion has been banned, the pvp forum is quiet as a peep.

This is not, nor ever will be, a pvp'rs game.

It just goes to show how one person can create a lot of drama and claim he represents the community, but when banned, the forum goes silent.. if he represented the 'community', they would have come out. They simply did not.
 

To this i just must give a 'haha', because the rest of us told you so.  

- wtf dood are you a 2yo?

 lolz, im sure the nice people with money invested in teh game's development are happy to hear it dood. i'll be unbanned tommorow btw...i thought that forum was 17+? you dont sound like an adult...

- personally i hope it does well. itd do better opening a pvp server. they should also consider a few tweeks to their existing ruleset - like the radar.

This game is such a dead subject on these forums, it's good that it gets a little play.

In reference to the , this game isn't for PvP'rs, there is no community support, etc...

There was, they realized it wasn't going to change, so they left.

It really entertains me that the things I loath most about the game (agonizingly slow travel with no reason)

and that god forsaken jump/pause straddle a cow thing. were both implemented for PvP reasons.

The game is so un-hostile and forgiving I'm surprised they just don't rename it Pigpen's Sand pit or Beachless

Blanket Bingo.

---

For the record I found the PvP a bit distasteful and I'm not an avid PvPr. Unfortunately the game screams PvP,

but instead you get a whimpering pew pew v e.

the game does have a lot of unrealized versatility in its design relative especially to pvp...

{the internets is full of tubes}

 this is teh crux of the reasoning behind my interest in the title at this point. of the three titles launching nearly simultaneously, champions, aion, and fallen earth, this one is the single overall design that seems to allow the leeway for the future expansion into an alternate more pvp focused ruleset.

{harvesting for those with a less discriminating palate}

 the graphics are good imo, better than some of the games im currently playing, the apoc genre is new to me so the environment very novel, i like the semblance of realism. having played 8 simultaneous solo unguilded exiles in eqii pvp for several years running i have to say i like the solo feel of the gameplay as a whole in relation to crafting, harvesting, missions, and general random wanderings. self sufficiency in this game is rewarded in and at an appropriate calibration and measure. playing the game is what seems to advance a character...

 ...i had a lowbie ask me for some armor last night...first, i tried to explain several times about the chat filters to him and to talk in local instead of new player chat (since im standing right in front of him - dood totally failed to catch on to this complex set of actions). then i went on to explain that i had no armor to give him and that a tee shirt, if i happened to have all the materials for one on me, would take 8 minutes or so, as well as each piece of first tier armor individually...and armor doesnt drop off mobs (much, some stuff does on the oddish occasion - i've scavaged several pieces of wearable gear and weapons from nodes)... so, to make a fullish set of armor would take me well over an hour at very least...not to mention weapons and ammo. the point is, is crafting is a key part in character development in this design...and its something i like about it.

the combat system deserves a paragraph of its own. this i really dig. changing out weapons, the dual action of weilding single handeds, missing a target with ranged and melee, having to move while pveing...an excellent combat system. the hybrid between fps and mmorpg style i think is a step forward in mmorpg combat mechanic design. the ai is there but seems throttled a bit back perhaps. the point is it isnt point and click pve, it does take maneuvering and cover does seem to come into play when combatting ranged pve mobs (they can hit you when prone, but not with a wall between you) in melee situations pve mobs dont simply agro and stand and fight, they maneuver and try to flank as well, they wander into the agro area of potential adds. there is some challenge to the pve imo especially with the nuanced combat system seeming to induce reflexive logical strategic response as a skill base.

the factional system is interesting in scope, at least seemingly, if it is cleverly implemented then it should be an asset to the overall gameplay. im honestly a bit unfamiliar with the higher tiers of gameplay other than reading other people's views and explanations (ultimately connotated by their views)...and this is where the bulk of the pvp is.

i have to say that the pvp system in this game needs some tweeking immediately in its standard ruleset, seeing any other player friend or foe imo should not be on radar. i think an optional flagging system for their current ruleset would be a smart consideration. as well, an open pvp server with some other relative settings changed to make gameplay as a whole more challenging for the avid gamer would greatly behoove them.

- out of this year's games im going to play this one due to its core properties coupled with the versatility i see as potential for expansion in terms of ruleset, as well as in the traditional sense in potential for further expansion level and environment wise.

for now though...

...lets just party up as if the server might crash any minute...

- happy camps, lucky loots, and...

Long Live the Leaf !!!

-Greenion.

some end of the world/crash the server party pics...

noone paid any mind to the local fire codes...which likely aided to the inevitability of the disaster...

...andy warhol...eat heart out.

...i attended for the free popcorn, really.

- soooo tempted to /pinch.

........................

famous ingame dev quotes : "expect the server to crash!"

/znikrz.

.

Originally posted by Cablespider

Jeezus....get a blog man! j/k

My reply to the second poster was going to be similar, nothing wrong with the post but definitely strikes me of a blog entry.

What I've always appreciated was elective PvP where, at some point (say an arbitrary level 10), I can remove my Immortal Ring of Peace and Tranquiility - permanently - and then become eligible to attack or be attacked.  Not being able to attack, just not BEING ABLE TO, another player is incredibly artificial.  To put it in perspective, one of the things that bugs me about WoW's "pvp" servers is I still cannot attack my own faction.  Some of the folks NEED TO BE ATTACKED, and I cannot do it.  UO at release was interesting, and I confess probably a little more on that end of the spectrum than I would appreciate these days, but it is disappointing to hear these kind of reports coming out about FE because I thought it may be something I'd give a chance.  I still might, but not with the same expectations.

Originally posted by Greenion

reading my threads is optional.

pick an option and stick with it.

- have a nice day.

I'd have a nice day if you'd do what emo's do best. :)

thx for teh bump?

Originally posted by Greenion .

the combat system deserves a paragraph of its own. this i really dig. changing out weapons, the dual action of weilding single handeds, missing a target with ranged and melee, having to move while pveing...an excellent combat system. the hybrid between fps and mmorpg style i think is a step forward in mmorpg combat mechanic design.

 

IMHO that's the worst side of this game, unfortunately...

Originally posted by UsedManatee

Originally posted by Cablespider

Jeezus....get a blog man! j/k

 

My reply to the second poster was going to be similar, nothing wrong with the post but definitely strikes me of a blog entry.

 

What I've always appreciated was elective PvP where, at some point (say an arbitrary level 10), I can remove my Immortal Ring of Peace and Tranquiility - permanently - and then become eligible to attack or be attacked.  Not being able to attack, just not BEING ABLE TO, another player is incredibly artificial.  To put it in perspective, one of the things that bugs me about WoW's "pvp" servers is I still cannot attack my own faction.  Some of the folks NEED TO BE ATTACKED, and I cannot do it.  UO at release was interesting, and I confess probably a little more on that end of the spectrum than I would appreciate these days, but it is disappointing to hear these kind of reports coming out about FE because I thought it may be something I'd give a chance.  I still might, but not with the same expectations.

Yeah, I have to say a hybrid system is what is pretty fun, like what Warhammer did initially with it's keep battles and such. This is what FE does as well, to some degree, but I just don't know what kind of effect the conflict towns really have and what incentive there is to actually go there to try and affect the town one way or another.

Ideally, what I would really love is a combination of player housing and conflict towns. The idea of player housing being that people can either buy a place in existing towns for exorbitant amounts of money, or be able to pitch a tent out in the wilderness, then upgrade it with materials over time, going up a chain of enhancements, like a lean-to, then a shack, then a hut, then a house, etc, but the structure is destructible. And when people build, let's say, structures in a small area, then a village crops up and NPC's start appearing, merchants and quest givers, and the area becomes a conflict town. On top of this, these structures can be attacked by NPC's, with regular schedules of fighting of bands of mutants and animals, with them trying to destroy the structures. This on top of the idea that other players can attack as well. This would allow the more timid people to buy in town without having to worry about losing their home, or the more adventurous people to build outside of the existing towns to form communities of their own.

You know what the free popcorn was in reference too yeah?