Originally posted by jimmyman99

So no, its not like Planetside where certain bases give certain benefits and you lose your advanced vehicles if you have no access to a tech base. But also isn't a complete ignore - you have this small carrot hanging in front of you for trying to recapture the base/watchtower.

At the moment in the beta there isnt much to the Chosen really, they kinda drop from the sky in drop pods randomly around the map, form groups and move across the map try to take over nearby bases/watchtowers, though this is purely so the devs can work on the AI and balance their difficulty and find any bugs in them.

The actual plan is for the Chosen to push through the Melding (the electrical storm surrounding the map) with force and try take over bases/towns and then gather resources themselves and try to grow their army, and then expand to try to claim more and eventually try to take over the map, kinda like a RTS meta game within the game between the players and the Chosen. Any resources or technology that we own in these areas we lose, and the Chosen will gain.

As it stands in the game the current map is small, but once the mechanics for pushing back the Melding come into the game, the idea will be that the players will push back the melding to expand the world and open up more zones/technology/towns/etc and also meaning player will have more to try hold onto, and if neglected could either fall to the Chosen or maybe be swallowed up by the melding again. Thus creating a live world that players will have to try to constantly defend, and at the same to to try to expand.

Anyhow, this is not in the beta as it stands and the Chosen War mechanics are the focus of their current Milestone they are just starting, so hopefully this will start to flesh out a lot more over the next few months.

Originally posted by mayito7777
After GW2 fiasco I was very skeptical about any new game, I got a beta key weekend and I tried and since then my wife is mad with me because I am spending more time with the game than with her (I really need to pay more attention to her LOL)

LoL... or you could always get her a beta invite so you could play together, problem solved  :)

Personally, there are a lot of good things about this game, though a lot of the things I really like are still not in the beta yet and some of them we will never know how well they work until it goes live.

Some of the things I like :

1) Combat and jetpack movement - I'm not usually a shooter kinda player, infact... although I do play the occasional shooter I tend to get bored of them really quite fast. But somehow this is something that feels a bit different in Firefall, and I find myself coming back to this game constantly in the 8months I've been in beta, even though for the 1st half of my time there was absolutely nothing in the game to do really apart from Thumpers. The general gameplay and combat feels really quite smooth for me, and the jetpacks feel really great both in and out of combat. 

2) The world design - This was the main pull for me in the game, I love the world and how its designed. The world seems so natural and untouched and both the graphics and the sound for the areas really is great. The extra touches like having a full day and night cycle in the game really help make it feel alive also. Though I can fully understand how the giant rocks/cliffs in the game which make the world not so easy to get round at times can be frustrating to players, but I find it adds a real depth to the world compared to the fairly flat easy to get everywhere worlds we are used to.

3) The Chosen dynamic attacks/invasions- This is something thats not fully in game at the moment, but the idea is brilliant IMO. As it stands in beta at the moment, the Chosen (the enemy alien race) drop down randomly around the world and slowly push to take over nearly watch towers/bases/ or just generally try to kill anyone they see, which is great as it stands, though can be very Zergy at the moment. But the idea is to have proper tactics used by the chosen to try to take over the world, kinda like an RTS battle within the game between the players and the chosen. Its nowhere near this state at the moment, as at the moment its been more random to basically test volumes of mobs in the game and how the game handles it, but I'm really looking forward to see the improvements they do to this.

4)  Staged Contant approach - Again, something not in the game, and probably wont be seen until launch, but I think this idea is amazing and really quite original. The idea that the world will be constantly expanded by the players. Giving the players a chance to feel they are changing the world, pushing back the Melding (the electrical storm that covers the world) and expanding content as they go, instead of the standard apporach of "Here is all the content until next expansion in a year or 2". Ofc, this is something that all of us are yet to see, but if it works as they (and I) hope it will it will be quite ground breaking I feel.

Generally, what Ilike is the idea of the world being alive and the direction the game goes is up to the players, the more they push to expand the map and open more of the map, the more they have to defend and risk losing. A world where anything that is neglected can be lost.

Originally posted by gordiflu

When I mentioned that the map is tiny I was also considering the "purple" melding area, and even the black one. If we consider what's available now I would not have used the word tiny but rather microscopic. Not kidding here. And this is the second time I explain this in this same thread. Please, read before posting.

Artificial pathing is an old technique used by many devs to make up for it. Yes, we have jets. Even with them you are going to need to get around plenty of obstacles to get to your destination.

They can promise whatever about the future size of the world. I don't buy hype anymore, not even from a studio I respect like Red 5. What we have now, including the "melded" part is tiny, simple as. 

I did try to seperate out the discussions about the World Size to a seperate thread, but instead you try to discuss it further here and then complain when people discuss it here. You must know the typical forum appraoch for most people, read the 1st post, maybe read the last post...then respond, hence why I tried to seperated the discussion out.

I'm not going to explain any more why I felt that your comment of "Small map: nuf said. Really really tiny" needed a lot more explaining when their approach to expaning the world is entirely different to all games you are comparing it to. Fine, if you want to compare it to everything else, you will have a small map and you will be disapointed at launch... if you want to have an open mind and try to support a game that is trying to be original then go read....

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/566/view/forums/thread/372150/The-world-of-Firefall.html

...but "Small map: nuf said. Really really tiny" is only true if you don't understand (or as it seems to be in your case, dont believe) what they are trying to do in this game.

Originally posted by Ridelynn

So the map itself, not very big at all, maybe 4km x 4km (using the game's measurements), especially when compared to something like PS2's maps. But the fact that there are almost no straight shots to anywhere makes it feel bigger, or at least just take longer...

To give it something relative to compare to, I'd say it's probably about the same size as Barrens in WoW, only toss a lot more mountains and water in there to make getting anywhere a huge pain in the rear

I have done a thread that should hopefully clear up the concerns about Firefall's 'Small' world as this seems to pop up a lot, and basically is due to people not understanding why it is small and how it will expand.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/566/view/forums/thread/372150/The-world-of-Firefall.html

The design of the world, with the high cliffs, rocks, etc... and not having any clear path between point A and point B I love though, I can understand that its hard to get to some places and may be easier for people to accept once the dropship transport or fast travel is the game, which I understand are planned to be in. But for me personally it was one of the main attractions to the game, the world I think its amazingly done and not your standard false worlds from most other games. It feels natural and is the perfect exploration kind of terrain.

Though I can understand that this maybe a personal taste thing, but in a game where everyone has jetpacks it would be boring if it was flat.

I thought I'd start this thread as there seems to be quite a bit of talk about how 'Small' the world of Firefall is. Not that I think people are wrong, and its not just because its still in beta, its just that they do not seem to understand what they are planning to do with Firefall's world that makes it so different from other MMO worlds that everyone is comparing it to.

As it stands now, and when the game eventually launches (in maybe 6months or whenever it will be), the inital playable map will be small. Its meant to be. (See the Lore video below)

What they are going to be doing with Firefall is a Staged content approach, not your standard 'make available the whole world at start and then wait for next expansion for more content' like other MMOs that a people seems to be comparing it with.

The Idea behind this 'Staged Content' is that players will actively change the world and expand it in whichever direction they wish by working together to crafting Melding Repulsors to push back the Melding (the electrical storm covering the Earth). This creates a constant growing world that will keep expanding, and also allows the players to control and progress the story of the game as a community, as the playable world constantly grows.

Its understandable that not everyone understands this, especially those who have been part of the recent weekend beta stress tests only, as its not been communicated to everyone properly I feel.

To help a few understand here are a few video links.

The Lore of Firefall (explains about the world and why its only a small map initially)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPF7_hnINrE

Dev Diary explaining about how the world is to expand (from 2min 18sec)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JQrQWRiXFss#t=138s

Inside look at Firefall's Forge (short video Showing how the world is created)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjzmnUV2WQc

Extra Credit talking about Firefall's Staged Content

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgFcEW5nyGI

I hope this clears up a few peoples concerns about it being a 'Small world', and hope that you understand that just because  the standard MMO will have more zones at launch, this is not a standard MMO. Lets not knock a game just because it tries something original. In most (if not all MMOs) the world only grows when a new expansion comes out every 12-18months or so and only expands in the direction the delevoper's want it to expand to suit the story, here with Firefall they want players to expand and grow the map constantly, in whichever direction they chose.