Well, today was my first & last day of playing FoM, at least for now.

Today was Sunday, and every MMO I have ever played was packed with things to do & players on a Sunday (compared to normal days). I, and 3 friends played for about 4 hours eash today, 2 of us for about 6 hours.

Let me start by listing the positives:

• Great Tutorial
• Great Overall Design
• Interesting Backstory
• Good Basic Gameplay
• GREAT Community

And the Two Great Negatives:

• NO Content
• NO Guidence

Now, for those that say that the Player Content is Content, it's just not... a game should NOT be waiting around for a Player to make content, and currently there's nothing to do for well over 70% of the time. That is not a game, it's a chat room.

If you were to argue that there is content in the form of Player Made Non-Combat Quests, you'ld be right.... for 25% of people who play at most, as seen on the in-game Markets.

As far as the Guidence, there is none. I come from the "here's your Melon" days of SWG, and that is truely an un-guided game, but it had Content that you could discover. This game not only is unguided, it's to the point where you have no CLUE what's going on unless you're in the know coming in.

The only saving grace regarding guidence are the players. I met GREAT players who were VERY helpful (/cough **Ben**), and this is a great community. But that doesn't save this game.

Dev's, this is for you:

You have a base for a GREAT game, do something with it. Player driven content just isn't practical, since players for 8 Factions won't be on 24hrs a day to keep the content alive. You also have a great Tutorial (best I have EVER seen), yet you dump people into a world with no Guidence. I'd suggest:

• Create NPC Heads of the Factions that create the content, while letting players influance parts of it.
• Make finding content easier.
• Crafting and getting ganked does NOT make a good game. A friend quit today before me because of it. Not every space needs to be PVP.
• Add NPC Content into the mix. PVP should guide the whole, but NPC/Fortifying could add a real conflict element.
• Look at other games: PS's capture system, MxO's original Event concept (it was GREAT), other game's NPC support systems... I don't want to see you become those games, but not all things they did were bad, and some were great.

I'll close with this: This is a GREAT base of a game, with no game on it. I, and 3 friends all agreed. It's just a shame.

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Originally posted by GoldenKiller
what faction were you and your friends?

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BoS

While doing research, most seem to think they had the most going on, and since Content seemed a large concern on the Forums, we took the advice. We saw LOTS of BoS running around, all with nothing to do.

The Content we did do was a BLAST. Unfortunatly, that was about 30 minutes of fun for: 6 hours of play, 2 sets of Armor, 2 Clonings, 3 weapons and 50k credits...

We all logged off too broke to even buy a weapon. That in itself is a serious game flaw. Oh, and yes, I know about the Faction Stuff in the Mission Start Area.

With that I'll also add: I'm all for stiff penalties for death, but loosing everything is a bit extream when you can't even do a corpse run for it. I was told I could, but when I got to where I died, there was nothing there for me to retrieve. That's a serious mechanics issue for beginners, especially when there nothing to do to earn cash when you're new besides Combat Missions, and EVERYTHING cost you cash.

Oh, and: We created characters thinking we could delete them once we got the hang of the game, and start over (we were testing for our Guild). I attempted to do so once I had lost everything, only to discover there is no way to start over. My Test Toon was my Only Toon. That would have been nice to have been told. FYI Dev's, a bit more guidence on your site & ingame would go a long way.

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Originally posted by MX13

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Originally posted by GoldenKiller
what faction were you and your friends?

---

BoS

While doing research, most seem to think they had the most going on, and since Content seemed a large concern on the Forums, we took the advice. We saw LOTS of BoS running around, all with nothing to do.

The Content we did do was a BLAST. Unfortunatly, that was about 30 minutes of fun for: 6 hours of play, 2 sets of Armor, 2 Clonings, 3 weapons and 50k credits...

We all logged off too broke to even buy a weapon. That in itself is a serious game flaw. Oh, and yes, I know about the Faction Stuff in the Mission Start Area.

With that I'll also add: I'm all for stiff penalties for death, but loosing everything is a bit extream when you can't even do a corpse run for it. I was told I could, but when I got to where I died, there was nothing there for me to retrieve. That's a serious mechanics issue for beginners, especially when there nothing to do to earn cash when you're new besides Combat Missions, and EVERYTHING cost you cash.

Oh, and: We created characters thinking we could delete them once we got the hang of the game, and start over (we were testing for our Guild). I attempted to do so once I had lost everything, only to discover there is no way to start over. My Test Toon was my Only Toon. That would have been nice to have been told. FYI Dev's, a bit more guidence on your site & ingame would go a long way.

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All you could've done to avoid this debacle was to join a certain faction with the right training program, which explains your dissapointment. Now with the BoS, at current state of war at every second with the GD, that carries down the PvP storyline atm. BoS has a poor training system, which ceases to exist with their players not achieving that goal due to their misfit state of war.

If you have joined one of the GD clans, FDC or LED for instance, they have the best training program available, since in Roleplay terms, they are the army and police of the universe of FoM. Training their members is their main priority....joining the right factions is the main reason for the amount playability for you and your friends can experience and enjoy.

It all depends on the meeting of the right players that can lead and guide you through certain steps in the game. But some part of the community despises this. There are always pros and cons, especially in a player run environment. It was a shame you didn't meet the right people, nor did you join the right faction. The clans of MoB and BoS are probably not for the light-hearted....since they are mostly filled with veterans throughout the ages of the timeline of FoM.

FDC, LED, GoM are probably the best factions to join for starters and new players, eager to ease in on a training program that revolves IG mechanics guide and for simplistic forms of Roleplay. Shame that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hope you visit the right people so you can enjoy and experience the true meaning of FoM through meanings of prosperity and tranquility.

If you wish for more information, please check the forums in the Knowledge base of the forums = www.fomportal.com/forum

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Originally posted by MrAce

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Originally posted by MX13

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Originally posted by GoldenKiller
what faction were you and your friends?

---

BoS

While doing research, most seem to think they had the most going on, and since Content seemed a large concern on the Forums, we took the advice. We saw LOTS of BoS running around, all with nothing to do.

The Content we did do was a BLAST. Unfortunatly, that was about 30 minutes of fun for: 6 hours of play, 2 sets of Armor, 2 Clonings, 3 weapons and 50k credits...

We all logged off too broke to even buy a weapon. That in itself is a serious game flaw. Oh, and yes, I know about the Faction Stuff in the Mission Start Area.

With that I'll also add: I'm all for stiff penalties for death, but loosing everything is a bit extream when you can't even do a corpse run for it. I was told I could, but when I got to where I died, there was nothing there for me to retrieve. That's a serious mechanics issue for beginners, especially when there nothing to do to earn cash when you're new besides Combat Missions, and EVERYTHING cost you cash.

Oh, and: We created characters thinking we could delete them once we got the hang of the game, and start over (we were testing for our Guild). I attempted to do so once I had lost everything, only to discover there is no way to start over. My Test Toon was my Only Toon. That would have been nice to have been told. FYI Dev's, a bit more guidence on your site & ingame would go a long way.

---

All you could've done to avoid this debacle was to join a certain faction with the right training program, which explains your dissapointment. Now with the BoS, at current state of war at every second with the GD, that carries down the PvP storyline atm. BoS has a poor training system, which ceases to exist with their players not achieving that goal due to their misfit state of war.

If you have joined one of the GD clans, FDC or LED for instance, they have the best training program available, since in Roleplay terms, they are the army and police of the universe of FoM. Training their members is their main priority....joining the right factions is the main reason for the amount playability for you and your friends can experience and enjoy.

It all depends on the meeting of the right players that can lead and guide you through certain steps in the game. But some part of the community despises this. There are always pros and cons, especially in a player run environment. It was a shame you didn't meet the right people, nor did you join the right faction. The clans of MoB and BoS are probably not for the light-hearted....since they are mostly filled with veterans throughout the ages of the timeline of FoM.

FDC, LED, GoM are probably the best factions to join for starters and new players, eager to ease in on a training program that revolves IG mechanics guide and for simplistic forms of Roleplay. Shame that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hope you visit the right people so you can enjoy and experience the true meaning of FoM through meanings of prosperity and tranquility.

If you wish for more information, please check the forums in the Knowledge base of the forums = www.fomportal.com/forum

---

Oh, we read the Forums, and they pretty much say join GD, LED or BoS, depending on the poster. I personally think the a major Flaw of the game is that it depends on Player RP to train and start players off. The game needs more Guidence IMO, and my guilds. There just isn't enough going on for the average player, that's just a fact. I understand that the higher in the Faction you get, the more goes on, but honestly, that just isn't a good system.

Don't get me wrong... we're RP'ers and LOVE the idea for the Players Content, but it just isn't practical to depend on Players to create ALL of the game's content. Adding Faction NPC Guards to captured Areas, game generated missions, and letting a NPC Faction Leader set the dirrection with Players influencing it would go a long way for this game, while keeping Faction RP.

I'd offer the example of the Matrix RP / Faction System (not the game play, don't get me started). Our Guild were leaders in the Merovingian Faction, and we regularly had meetings with eachother & high level NPC's (CSR/Event Folks) to discuss events and help influance the direction of the battles.

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Originally posted by MX13

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Originally posted by MrAce

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Originally posted by MX13

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Originally posted by GoldenKiller
what faction were you and your friends?

---

BoS

While doing research, most seem to think they had the most going on, and since Content seemed a large concern on the Forums, we took the advice. We saw LOTS of BoS running around, all with nothing to do.

The Content we did do was a BLAST. Unfortunatly, that was about 30 minutes of fun for: 6 hours of play, 2 sets of Armor, 2 Clonings, 3 weapons and 50k credits...

We all logged off too broke to even buy a weapon. That in itself is a serious game flaw. Oh, and yes, I know about the Faction Stuff in the Mission Start Area.

With that I'll also add: I'm all for stiff penalties for death, but loosing everything is a bit extream when you can't even do a corpse run for it. I was told I could, but when I got to where I died, there was nothing there for me to retrieve. That's a serious mechanics issue for beginners, especially when there nothing to do to earn cash when you're new besides Combat Missions, and EVERYTHING cost you cash.

Oh, and: We created characters thinking we could delete them once we got the hang of the game, and start over (we were testing for our Guild). I attempted to do so once I had lost everything, only to discover there is no way to start over. My Test Toon was my Only Toon. That would have been nice to have been told. FYI Dev's, a bit more guidence on your site & ingame would go a long way.

---

All you could've done to avoid this debacle was to join a certain faction with the right training program, which explains your dissapointment. Now with the BoS, at current state of war at every second with the GD, that carries down the PvP storyline atm. BoS has a poor training system, which ceases to exist with their players not achieving that goal due to their misfit state of war.

If you have joined one of the GD clans, FDC or LED for instance, they have the best training program available, since in Roleplay terms, they are the army and police of the universe of FoM. Training their members is their main priority....joining the right factions is the main reason for the amount playability for you and your friends can experience and enjoy.

It all depends on the meeting of the right players that can lead and guide you through certain steps in the game. But some part of the community despises this. There are always pros and cons, especially in a player run environment. It was a shame you didn't meet the right people, nor did you join the right faction. The clans of MoB and BoS are probably not for the light-hearted....since they are mostly filled with veterans throughout the ages of the timeline of FoM.

FDC, LED, GoM are probably the best factions to join for starters and new players, eager to ease in on a training program that revolves IG mechanics guide and for simplistic forms of Roleplay. Shame that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hope you visit the right people so you can enjoy and experience the true meaning of FoM through meanings of prosperity and tranquility.

If you wish for more information, please check the forums in the Knowledge base of the forums = www.fomportal.com/forum

---

Oh, we read the Forums, and they pretty much say join GD, LED or BoS, depending on the poster. I personally think the a major Flaw of the game is that it depends on Player RP to train and start players off. The game needs more Guidence IMO, and my guilds. There just isn't enough going on for the average player, that's just a fact. I understand that the higher in the Faction you get, the more goes on, but honestly, that just isn't a good system.

Don't get me wrong... we're RP'ers and LOVE the idea for the Players Content, but it just isn't practical to depend on Players to create ALL of the game's content. Adding Faction NPC Guards to captured Areas, game generated missions, and letting a NPC Faction Leader set the dirrection with Players influencing it would go a long way for this game, while keeping Faction RP.

I'd offer the example of the Matrix RP / Faction System (not the game play, don't get me started). Our Guild were leaders in the Merovingian Faction, and we regularly had meetings with eachother & high level NPC's (CSR/Event Folks) to discuss events and help influance the direction of the battles.

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i personally like the fact that players have to help you, but you are right, there could be more help to get you started. A lot of things like faction NPC guards have been suggested, and soon htere will be more NPC type things to do ((they have yet to re-implement aliens, but when they do there will be 10 differant "races")), aswell as basic missions, for all proffessions except commanders.

but what do you mean by "NPC Faction Leaders"?

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Originally posted by GoldenKiller

but what do you mean by "NPC Faction Leaders"?

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If the Matrix they had NPC's as the Faction Leaders. When you ere an Exile, you worked for the Merovingian. The Mervongian was "played" by a member of the event staff (and acted.RP'ed very well in the beginning) and only appeared from time to time. This allowed the Larger "Story" to be driven by the Dev's, but the content to be filled in by the Faction Player Leaders.

A better example would be the upcoming Vangaurd:SoH. Players can work their way up all the way to the right hand of the king, inluancing all the King's decisions, but the King is an NPC/Dev/Actor/RP'er. The Dev's have said the Players will influance everything, but they will be driving the Action in the Kingdoms.

And for me, that was the real issue. Player Content is great, but it doesn't make a game when it's only happening 30% of the time.

We were lucky enough for a GM to help us. He even looked around to see if there was going to be some action, but nothing. I personally was lucky enough to do a few missions, and they were a blast, but the rest of the time was waiting around, and that's just boring. EVERYONE we met said the game was boring until things happen. Doesn't that seem wrong?

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Originally posted by srohek
The beauty of the game is that you create your own content through the interaction with other players, both friendly and hostile. You can't just stand around waiting for something to happen, you have to seek it, you have to create it, with your imagination. It's a sandbox game, and no other game even comes close to drawing out the emotions I get from this game. Fear, excitement, betrayal, comradeship, thrill, business, honor, vengeance.. it's all here.

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We didn't stand around. We asked players, had them show us how thin