Let me tell you about Firefall

Arhra · 08-09-2013, 09:53 AM

So hey, I've been mucking around in Firefall for a while now and seeing it recently went into open beta and they've just started a beta weekend to help new players get started, I thought I'd bring it up here.

It's a free to play MMO first/third person shooter being made by Red 5 where you run around a (currently smallish) very pretty, post-apocalyptic open world shooting at various wildlife, performing missions that are some variety of 'go here and shoot people to take their thing and put it in another thing', fending off Chosen attacks and picking fights with crazy space-tornadoes.

The Chosen are bad people coming from the Melding, which is a dimensional barrier that has engulfed most of the world during the second apocalyptic event in recent history. They want your jawbones. The first apocalypse was the titular Firefall, where Earth was bombarded with dozens of asteroids, which also turned out to be full of magic rocks called crystite. The second one was caused by trying to make a space folding faster than light spaceship using the magic rocks, which apparently merged the Earth with an alien planet.

Luckily you're in a stable pocket of the Melding in South America, which seems to be the eye of the storm centered around the crashed Arclight. Plot is slowly getting revealed with new things like the Blackwater Anomaly mission, which is something I haven't yet been able to do. Red 5 is starting to roll out the Chosen War stuff, which should mix things up a bit more. Eventually people will be able to permanently push back the Melding Wall and reclaim Earth piece by piece.

You can also mine resources by deploying a thing called a thumper that enrages all the local wildlife and so must be protected. It, like most things, are best done with a squad of people, as the wildlife is very angry.

As far as class selection goes, perhaps "Team Fortress 2 with jetpacks" would be the best comparison. There's five base battleframes - Assault, Dreadnaught, Biotech, Engineer and Recon - with two unlockable advanced variants of each class which are more specialised.

Assault is a mobility focused class with a splash damage plasma cannon, Dreadnaught's your heavy weapons guy, Biotech is a medic who also runs around spreading clouds of poison gas everywhere, Engineer sets up sentries and supply stations, and the Recon is a sniper with a few abilities that can be used to help allies or abscond if the going is getting tough.

Also the basic engineer class has a sticky grenade launcher that sticks to enemies!

This video gives a pretty good overview of the game in its current state:

Even with the tutorials there's a lot to take in, but the other players are pretty helpful if people have questions.

My player name is Arhrahra! Friend me!

Aldurin · 08-09-2013, 01:40 PM

Add me as Aldurinn (yes, I am out to stab the guy who took my name, forcing me to add a second 'n').

It's a fun game, my only real gripes are that travel could be optimized better (maybe allow jump jets to accelerate gliders) and that the crafting and upgrading system is a bit odd to pick up on.

Bells · 08-09-2013, 02:43 PM

Open beta you say?

Engineer with sentries fending off war walls ?

Well, im in.

Arhra · 08-14-2013, 10:11 AM

I got a new laptop on the weekend so I got to go from not meeting the minimum specs to being able to run it on Ultra-High graphics setting.

Oh my goooooosh, everything's so pretty.

Anyone been to Diamondhead, Sargasso Sea or Antarctica yet? I wouldn't mind forming up a group to try and get the stuff for Blackwater Anomaly.

Bells · 08-14-2013, 11:10 AM

It really feels like an MMO Team Fortress 2, Jetpacking is fun but i'm super lost... i managed to upgrade a few things and kinda understand how the map and quest system works, but YIKES... still trying to cut the membrane on that one.

Also the tutorial voice girl is grating as all hell to me.

Aldurin · 08-14-2013, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bells

Also the tutorial voice girl is grating as all hell to me.

Sexy hispanic accent voice bothers you? Haven't you played Warframe where the VO's are lifeless and dead on the inside?

Bells · 08-14-2013, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aldurin

Sexy hispanic accent voice bothers you? Haven't you played Warframe where the VO's are lifeless and dead on the inside?

Well in Warframe it fits!

Also when Lotus goes "I detected multiple bio signatures ahead" she sounds like a Tween. the only thing missing was ah "Like OMGAAAAAWD" at the end of the sentence.

Arhra · 08-15-2013, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bells

It really feels like an MMO Team Fortress 2, Jetpacking is fun but i'm super lost... i managed to upgrade a few things and kinda understand how the map and quest system works, but YIKES... still trying to cut the membrane on that one.

Also the tutorial voice girl is grating as all hell to me.

Basically there's two big long term goals to shoot for at present.

Firstly, Baneclaw's been around for a while. You know those giant pillbug things? The terroclaws and rageclaws? He's a bigger one of them.

You need to build a Melding Anomaly Neutraliser, which is hideously expensive, then find about 25 friends, go up to the far north, fire up a Melding repulsor amplifier and use the neutraliser on the anomaly. Then you have to kill him before the repulsor runs out of power, the melding wall comes back and everyone dies.

I've only seen him once though, and we all died.

Apparently they're going to change the rewards though, so might see more people trying to do him soon.

The other one is much newer - Blackwater Anomaly. It's a mission for a squad that takes about an hour to do. Only the squad leader needs the key and you get the key by firing up the repulsors in Antartica, Sargasso Sea and Diamondhead (which need keys of their own, it's an intro mission) to do a salvage run to get parts for it. Salvage run needs probably a full strength squad with pretty good gear, and apparently it's random?

I haven't had much luck in getting on teams there either. I'm in a bit of a weird timezone compared to most of the servers. The arcfolder keys are much cheaper now though, so should see it happening more.

Bells · 08-15-2013, 01:03 PM

well raid level stuff in early beta days is usually tricky, specially with high number requirements like those. Are there guild in this game? i honestly can't remember... feels like the sort of thing that a guild would plan ahead to do.

Arhra · 08-25-2013, 12:07 PM

There are armies, but they're currently limited to 25 people.

Just managed to do Blackwater Anomaly - got in a group with a guy who already had the key. It was really nifty! Really did get the feeling of being a raid into enemy territory with the chosen everywhere and the need to keep moving.

Was a bit easier than I was expecting though.

Anyway, they've got a big patch coming this week. There's a new frame called the Arsenal which they'll be giving everyone free trials of. The abilities give you a variant weapon which has a limited number of shots (similar to things like the Dreadnought mortar and Biotech chemical sprayer), so it should be interesting to see how it plays.

Be bringing in more chosen and things too. Different tornado portal as well?

08-09-2013, 09:53 AM	#1
Arhra Ara ara! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Neo Venezia Posts: 5,013	Let me tell you about Firefall So hey, I've been mucking around in Firefall for a while now and seeing it recently went into open beta and they've just started a beta weekend to help new players get started, I thought I'd bring it up here. It's a free to play MMO first/third person shooter being made by Red 5 where you run around a (currently smallish) very pretty, post-apocalyptic open world shooting at various wildlife, performing missions that are some variety of 'go here and shoot people to take their thing and put it in another thing', fending off Chosen attacks and picking fights with crazy space-tornadoes. The Chosen are bad people coming from the Melding, which is a dimensional barrier that has engulfed most of the world during the second apocalyptic event in recent history. They want your jawbones. The first apocalypse was the titular Firefall, where Earth was bombarded with dozens of asteroids, which also turned out to be full of magic rocks called crystite. The second one was caused by trying to make a space folding faster than light spaceship using the magic rocks, which apparently merged the Earth with an alien planet. Luckily you're in a stable pocket of the Melding in South America, which seems to be the eye of the storm centered around the crashed Arclight. Plot is slowly getting revealed with new things like the Blackwater Anomaly mission, which is something I haven't yet been able to do. Red 5 is starting to roll out the Chosen War stuff, which should mix things up a bit more. Eventually people will be able to permanently push back the Melding Wall and reclaim Earth piece by piece. You can also mine resources by deploying a thing called a thumper that enrages all the local wildlife and so must be protected. It, like most things, are best done with a squad of people, as the wildlife is very angry. As far as class selection goes, perhaps "Team Fortress 2 with jetpacks" would be the best comparison. There's five base battleframes - Assault, Dreadnaught, Biotech, Engineer and Recon - with two unlockable advanced variants of each class which are more specialised. Assault is a mobility focused class with a splash damage plasma cannon, Dreadnaught's your heavy weapons guy, Biotech is a medic who also runs around spreading clouds of poison gas everywhere, Engineer sets up sentries and supply stations, and the Recon is a sniper with a few abilities that can be used to help allies or abscond if the going is getting tough. Also the basic engineer class has a sticky grenade launcher that sticks to enemies! This video gives a pretty good overview of the game in its current state: Even with the tutorials there's a lot to take in, but the other players are pretty helpful if people have questions. My player name is Arhrahra! Friend me! __________________ This post is a good source of Ara ara, ufufu.* *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

08-09-2013, 02:43 PM	#3
Bells That's so PC of you Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a Server-sided Dimension where time is meaningless Posts: 10,490	Open beta you say? Engineer with sentries fending off war walls ? Well, im in. __________________ *BELLS STORE : Clothes! You wear* them! Free US Shipping Subscription System? WTF?! Zazzle Black!**

08-14-2013, 10:11 AM	#4
Arhra Ara ara! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Neo Venezia Posts: 5,013	I got a new laptop on the weekend so I got to go from not meeting the minimum specs to being able to run it on Ultra-High graphics setting. Oh my goooooosh, everything's so pretty. Anyone been to Diamondhead, Sargasso Sea or Antarctica yet? I wouldn't mind forming up a group to try and get the stuff for Blackwater Anomaly. __________________ This post is a good source of Ara ara, ufufu.* *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

08-14-2013, 11:10 AM	#5
Bells That's so PC of you Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a Server-sided Dimension where time is meaningless Posts: 10,490	It really feels like an MMO Team Fortress 2, Jetpacking is fun but i'm super lost... i managed to upgrade a few things and kinda understand how the map and quest system works, but YIKES... still trying to cut the membrane on that one. Also the tutorial voice girl is grating as all hell to me. __________________ *BELLS STORE : Clothes! You wear* them! Free US Shipping Subscription System? WTF?! Zazzle Black!**

08-15-2013, 01:03 PM	#9
Bells That's so PC of you Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a Server-sided Dimension where time is meaningless Posts: 10,490	well raid level stuff in early beta days is usually tricky, specially with high number requirements like those. Are there guild in this game? i honestly can't remember... feels like the sort of thing that a guild would plan ahead to do. __________________ *BELLS STORE : Clothes! You wear* them! Free US Shipping Subscription System? WTF?! Zazzle Black!**

08-09-2013, 01:40 PM	#2
Aldurin Lakitu Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 4,648	Add me as Aldurinn (yes, I am out to stab the guy who took my name, forcing me to add a second 'n'). It's a fun game, my only real gripes are that travel could be optimized better (maybe allow jump jets to accelerate gliders) and that the crafting and upgrading system is a bit odd to pick up on.

08-25-2013, 12:07 PM	#10
Arhra Ara ara! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Neo Venezia Posts: 5,013	There are armies, but they're currently limited to 25 people. Just managed to do Blackwater Anomaly - got in a group with a guy who already had the key. It was really nifty! Really did get the feeling of being a raid into enemy territory with the chosen everywhere and the need to keep moving. Was a bit easier than I was expecting though. Anyway, they've got a big patch coming this week. There's a new frame called the Arsenal which they'll be giving everyone free trials of. The abilities give you a variant weapon which has a limited number of shots (similar to things like the Dreadnought mortar and Biotech chemical sprayer), so it should be interesting to see how it plays. Be bringing in more chosen and things too. Different tornado portal as well? __________________ This post is a good source of Ara ara, ufufu.* *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.