From what I understand there's been some incrediable updates, whole new systems, navigation, and even an updated engine and levels. I was just curious if anyone else would want to join me in starting up again. It's fully free.
To give a bit more about gameplay. You basically are in a sci-fi genre. You pick a faction, and factions choose to go to war or by allies, or just neutral. It's basically controlling the land, making profits, and expanding to take over. I thought it had a great plot when it first came out, and still do, just a tad overwhelming with bugs.
http://www.fomportal.com/ Holden fucked around with this message on 01-25-2006 at 12:07 AM.
What FPS aspects are in the game?
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x--KhyronO-('-'Q) :
What FPS aspects are in the game?
Sometimes there's a little "first" and there's definately some "person"
I know it's old hat to complain about lag in an open beta. Doing so would be like complaining about lines at an amusement park if there were such a thing as a free amusment park. I was able to complete the tutorial, but after that I literally could not do anything except stare at a "You have lost connection" screen that for some reason has both an OK and CANCEL button even though they both just terminate the program forcing me to start it again and log in only to immediately receive the same message.
After about eight or ten tries, I manged to actually log on. Amazingly the lag really wasn't that bad, I only went linkdead one more time in my ~35 minute tour.
Switching between "Windowed" and normal shootin' mode incurs a total game seizure that will last anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. This is kinda shitty, because it's something you do very, very frequently.
If I had to guess from the graphics alone, I'd say the game used some variant of the Quake 2 engine, except I'm also playing Anachronox right now, which also uses the Q2 engine but has decidedly superior graphics to this game. If the tutorial and starting area is any indicator, "Dated" would be an understatement.
The actual gun physics are kinda wonky, too. Firing your gun at something produces no reaction whatsoever outside a barely visible puff of smoke and for some bizarre reason a muzzle flash at the point of impact. You have no reticle in third person mode, and in first person mode your reticle is fairly inaccurate (for the noob pistol, the actual point of impact will be well below the entire reticle, let alone the center of the reticle. Or maybe it's just the puff of smoke that's off... I really have no way of knowing)
The game has mining and player crafting which, the tutorial claims, is the sole source of all items in the entire game. However, it looks boring enough to make your eyes bleed. Boring enough to make you reminisce about Master of Orion 3. Everything, including mining, is conducted through an elaborate series of terminals. You're "linked up" to a "mining facility" on another planet and may issue orders for certain materials to be mined and receive them... for a fee. Usually pretty steep. Where this money comes from is beyond me.
You then take the materials to a WHOLE different terminal and "link up" to a "production facility" where the item (or the components of an item) is actually made... for a fee. It's the equivalent of buying all your materials from one vendor and taking them to another vendor that you pay just to click the combine button.
Fun?
The game has an EverQuestian style of NPC interaction where you can actually [talk to] the NPC's in certain ways, minus the [brackets]. I goofed around with a few NPC's, then shot a couple, to which they had literally no reaction except to flee. No blood, no flinch, no injury at all. Whether that's because they're unkillable or just because the engine sucks, I don't know.
The gameplay is rather boring I can admit it. I mean, truly I played for about 3-4 hours last night doing "missions" and they were low priority missions where I would be assigned to patrol the cities we own, and during that whole time I never fired my gun once.
I think the game is just a little boring. I mean the idea is pretty cool, and I do enjoy the graphics engine. But I feel like I do nothing in it, I don't ever shoot anyone. Oh well.
I also cant remember what my appartment 3 is.
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Holden wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
It's not a game you easily pick up in 5 minutes, sorry. The whole focus is fairly complex that it takes time to read guides. Basically to join a mission, you need to find a mission check-in and select Join Mission. You'll transport to the mission-waiting room till it begins. Yeah, it's a bit complicated for the first time, it should of been made easier.
Sadly I found like 20 mission terminals, but there werent any missions at them...
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Verily, Holden doth proclaim:
It's not a game you easily pick up in 5 minutes, sorry.
Then it's not much of a game.
