EGO skills in Defiance are going to be critical to a player's success. In the latest in a series of article detailing some of those skills, we take a look at "Cloak". See what it's all about before heading to the comments to leave your thoughts.

Cloak is ideal for the sneaky buggers out there.  It conceals the player completely for a short period of time, only uncloaking him or her if they fire a shot.  The speedy and strategic player can find higher ground, get a good shot lined up, and open a fight with a rim-rattling noggin buster from an acidic sniper rifle. Nothing like picking off a mutant before the swarm of them are alerted right?  On top of that, it increases shield regen for survival, and can easily be used in the middle of a tense fight to make an escape or find someplace to re-fuel before going at it again.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Defiance: Cloaked and Ready.

The game seems like a MMO version of borderlands, only less fun and diverse.  There are no classes, and only 4 abilities total.  You get to choose 1 to be active at a time.  All those other little square are just enhancements.  How that is better than classes with diverse skill trees, is beyond me.  Stealth, overcharge, run fast (based on the picture), these aren't even exciting skills when that is all you get.  For PVP they are at least okay, but PVE?  Shoot. Shoot.  Shoot.  Throw Grenade.  Shoot.  Go invisible.  Shoot. Shoot.  They need to delay the game and rethink their skill system and add some diversity, unless they are relying on PVP to support the game.  

Borderlands was fun because of story and progression, with little filler content.  MMOs are mostly filler.  This is true of nearly all MMOs, so mechanics and sense of character advancement becomes far more important.  Doing 10% more damage isn't a sense of advanvcement, not when enemies are scaled with the player.  Also a sense of identy.  ALL the players will have 1 of the same 4 abilities?  Characters should start with 1 active and progress to 3-4, and there should be a dozen or so to pick from.  THAT is a sense of personalization and customization.

I like Trion and the concept they have with this game, but this game is destined to dine with Tabula Rasa, unless changes are made to mechanics.  

Originally posted by taziar

The game seems like a MMO version of borderlands, only less fun and diverse.  There are no classes, and only 4 abilities total.  You get to choose 1 to be active at a time.  All those other little square are just enhancements.  How that is better than classes with diverse skill trees, is beyond me.  Stealth, overcharge, run fast (based on the picture), these aren't even exciting skills when that is all you get.  For PVP they are at least okay, but PVE?  Shoot. Shoot.  Shoot.  Throw Grenade.  Shoot.  Go invisible.  Shoot. Shoot.  They need to delay the game and rethink their skill system and add some diversity, unless they are relying on PVP to support the game.  

Borderlands was fun because of story and progression, with little filler content.  MMOs are mostly filler.  This is true of nearly all MMOs, so mechanics and sense of character advancement becomes far more important.  Doing 10% more damage isn't a sense of advanvcement, not when enemies are scaled with the player.  Also a sense of identy.  ALL the players will have 1 of the same 4 abilities?  Characters should start with 1 active and progress to 3-4, and there should be a dozen or so to pick from.  THAT is a sense of personalization and customization.

 

I like Trion and the concept they have with this game, but this game is destined to dine with Tabula Rasa, unless changes are made to mechanics.  

Remember,  this is a MMO that runs along side the SyFy Channel  TV series that is coming this April. Both the show and the MMO cant be to far apart. They cant simply add a bunch of stuff in game thats not in the TV series. The two are going to intertwine you might say.

I specificly love how the tv series is going to interact with the game community. For instance an example given by Trion is that in the show which takes place in St. Louis for the most part, the people there will need a cure for some type of nano infection. The doctor they know that may have the cure is in San Francisco. Guess where the game takes place? out skirts and inside San Francisco. A quest line will be added to the game after the show with something to do with finding the doctor and getting the cure but will be complex and involve the entire game community. The gaming communnity has up to the next episode to complete the task. Depending on the outcome of the story line the gaming community has created, will be reflected somehow in the next episode.

So theres more then just "Shoot. Shoot.  Shoot.  Throw Grenade.  Shoot.  Go invisible.  Shoot. Shoot" enemies and complete every day normal quests. The game continues to evolve with the TV series. Who knows what other abilities the Ark Hunters in the TV show will get further in the season or seasons. They certainly can be added in game at that time.

If they pull this off, this is going to be a blast.

I am aware of the TV tie-in, I do like that part.  That doesn't mean the mechanics need to match completely.  I am pretty sure the TV show is not going to have the actors drive around killing groups of respawning raiders and swarming Arkfalls.  Over and over.  Also you need to keep players for that tie-in to matter.  

The tie-in is mostly just sharing the same universe/I.P.  There will be references and such (perhaps even a few story missions), but they are basically separate.   Much like the Starwars universe.  So, as example, KOTOR Jedis had numerous abilities that don't appear in the movies.  Or SWTOR if you want an MMO example.  The games have to be able to stand on their own, to suceed.

I want the show to suceed, as well as the game.  I love scifi and think this world needs more of it.  I just don't see the game having any staying power without significant mechanics changes.  

Originally posted by Volgore
Question: may i state something negative about the game or will it get deleted again, like you delete ANY negative comment about Defiance?

Honestly, I myself am getting pretty tired of those who feel the need to go spout negative stuff about a game they dont like on this site.If you dont like it go play something you do like and spend your time posting positive stuff there.

It only takes a $5 dollar pre-order from gamestop to get a beta code which can be returned so it really isnt all that hard for anyone who wants to try the game and see for themselves whether they like it or not.

I personally am enjoying it and I am glad that they started open up alpha test(24/7) invites to those who did pre purchase.

Originally posted by Asheram

Originally posted by Volgore
Question: may i state something negative about the game or will it get deleted again, like you delete ANY negative comment about Defiance?

Honestly, I myself am getting pretty tired of those who feel the need to go spout negative stuff about a game they dont like on this site.If you dont like it go play something you do like and spend your time posting positive stuff there.

It only takes a $5 dollar pre-order from gamestop to get a beta code which can be returned so it really isnt all that hard for anyone who wants to try the game and see for themselves whether they like it or not.

I personally am enjoying it and I am glad that they started open up alpha test(24/7) invites to those who did pre purchase.

And those who didn't :)

Originally posted by Volgore

Originally posted by Asheram

Originally posted by Volgore
Question: may i state something negative about the game or will it get deleted again, like you delete ANY negative comment about Defiance?

Honestly, I myself am getting pretty tired of those who feel the need to go spout negative stuff about a game they dont like on this site.If you dont like it go play something you do like and spend your time posting positive stuff there.

It only takes a $5 dollar pre-order from gamestop to get a beta code which can be returned so it really isnt all that hard for anyone who wants to try the game and see for themselves whether they like it or not.

I personally am enjoying it and I am glad that they started open up alpha test(24/7) invites to those who did pre purchase.

See, it's not about "spounting negative things about a game we don't like". In fact, i like the game -but it has issues.

 I can think of alot of betas in which people who loved a certain game voiced their concerns, but it all went unheard for month. I can also think of a couple of games with which just this happened - critic getting shut down on these boards. Then, days after release, the forums were on fire, as just a couple of month later the games tanked hard, went F2P, people got laid off etc. etc. The problem of the industrie today is that devs are rockstars with an attitude and sites like these depend on them (no matter how hard they declare their independence).

The mods on this forums have been on a rampage constantly deleting critic and negative opinions about Defiance, at time whole threads at once. Much of was has been said by the users hasn't broken the NDA at all, but was official info everyone who watched a video or read an interview has had access to. Some of it was even related to the tv show.

It won't help Defiance, it never helped ANY game.

But i understand, once again it's the "our friends in the industry" thing.

 

 

LOL.  Have a word with yourself.  Games fail because no one listened to you whining on a forum, people's jobs were lost because they just took no notice of you?  You're really not that important, my friend.  Games will launch whether you moan about them or wish them the best - and that's not a "our friends in the industry" type thing, it's a "it's going to happen and your opinion on whether it does or not is largely insignificant" thing.

One thing that I find awkward is the way skills are designed as a whole, in relation to the difference between PvE and PvP.

For example, I can see "Overcharge" being a good PvP skill, since it increases damage AND defense (funny combination). However something like "Decoy" sounds pretty wierd, appart from the teleport-to-decoy part, but that might prove too complicated to abuse (unless it's something like 0sec cooldown and u still aim at the same target after you teleport). I'm sure mobs are nice to script to shoot at the decoy, but players are probably less retarded (at least some of them are).

Stealth, is wierd. I mean, it either keeps you stealthed when you shoot (OP again), or it goes away after 1-shot, making it rather silly. Given that the game also uses a radar-type thing for marking enemies apparently, would you still appear as a target in PvP, even if only for a brief second as you shoot the first bullet? From the description, stealth seems much rather like a melee-type ability: middle of fight, things going bad -> stealth, go behind some1, use the increased-dmg-from-behind trick and all that burst (kill him) -> move on to the next, or resume machine-gunning every1 else from your new and improved position.

Hope the devs get it right...

Originally posted by gunmanvlad

One thing that I find awkward is the way skills are designed as a whole, in relation to the difference between PvE and PvP.

For example, I can see "Overcharge" being a good PvP skill, since it increases damage AND defense (funny combination). However something like "Decoy" sounds pretty wierd, appart from the teleport-to-decoy part, but that might prove too complicated to abuse (unless it's something like 0sec cooldown and u still aim at the same target after you teleport). I'm sure mobs are nice to script to shoot at the decoy, but players are probably less retarded (at least some of them are).

Stealth, is wierd. I mean, it either keeps you stealthed when you shoot (OP again), or it goes away after 1-shot, making it rather silly. Given that the game also uses a radar-type thing for marking enemies apparently, would you still appear as a target in PvP, even if only for a brief second as you shoot the first bullet? From the description, stealth seems much rather like a melee-type ability: middle of fight, things going bad -> stealth, go behind some1, use the increased-dmg-from-behind trick and all that burst (kill him) -> move on to the next, or resume machine-gunning every1 else from your new and improved position.

Hope the devs get it right...

Decay works fine in PvP so long as they can remove all visual indications of it being a decoy... Which shouldn't be too hard.

Cloak has a built in recharge shield function, so it has multiple uses.   It's not for you to run around invisible for "x" amount of seconds blasting away while invisible.  It's an ambush and retreat skill.

Originally posted by Draemos

Originally posted by gunmanvlad

One thing that I find awkward is the way skills are designed as a whole, in relation to the difference between PvE and PvP.

For example, I can see "Overcharge" being a good PvP skill, since it increases damage AND defense (funny combination). However something like "Decoy" sounds pretty wierd, appart from the teleport-to-decoy part, but that might prove too complicated to abuse (unless it's something like 0sec cooldown and u still aim at the same target after you teleport). I'm sure mobs are nice to script to shoot at the decoy, but players are probably less retarded (at least some of them are).

Stealth, is wierd. I mean, it either keeps you stealthed when you shoot (OP again), or it goes away after 1-shot, making it rather silly. Given that the game also uses a radar-type thing for marking enemies apparently, would you still appear as a target in PvP, even if only for a brief second as you shoot the first bullet? From the description, stealth seems much rather like a melee-type ability: middle of fight, things going bad -> stealth, go behind some1, use the increased-dmg-from-behind trick and all that burst (kill him) -> move on to the next, or resume machine-gunning every1 else from your new and improved position.

Hope the devs get it right...

Decay works fine in PvP so long as they can remove all visual indications of it being a decoy... Which shouldn't be too hard.

Cloak has a built in recharge shield function, so it has multiple uses.   It's not for you to run around invisible for "x" amount of seconds blasting away while invisible.  It's an ambush and retreat skill.

 

 

PvP is one area I am really looking forward to trying, but haven't yet.  I am not a console or FPS (yeah, I know, it's not an FPS... but it kinda is) gamer so it's taking all my time just to stay on my buggy without crashing every four seconds.  PvP seems like a billion miles away for me right now.

I am sorry to say this but the only good thing about this game is the fact its running along side a TV series, i would really like to see...

Other than that its an average third person shooter and thats at best..

Firefall is a lot better..

Originally posted by Caldrin

I am sorry to say this but the only good thing about this game is the fact its running along side a TV series, i would really like to see...

Other than that its an average third person shooter and thats at best..

Had the same feeling.  Tried the public beta weekend and got bored of the game pretty quick and uninstalled at the end.

Was looking forward to the game, due to it's setting and with the TV show and all.

But the whole character, skill and progression system is so utterly boring and simplistic... it's not even funny!

Tabula Rasa was a thousand leagues better than this and that's saying something. /shrug

Tabula Rasa's setting and overal storyline felt much deeper, more exciting and involving. With the game world more alive and dynamic.

The gameworld in Defiance is just too linear and static. It's just the same old same old linear formula.  /sigh

Originally posted by MindTrigger
3rd person shooter... no thanks. (and wtf?)

i wouldnt buy this game if it was only First Person. But hey, thats where everyones opinions differ. :)

Trion seems to have a tendency to make generic looking games that don't really jump out and grab you, but if you give them a chance you will realize how well done they are.  Rift didn't get me at first, either, but when you jump around to other games and then come back, you suddenly realize it has the best of everything that is out there. 

I am hoping this game will follow the same pattern.  My only concern is that they are splitting it up by platform, meaning you might have a ton of players on PC and hardly any on PS3 or something.  If you choose the wrong platform it may be a ghost town.