New Eden Chronicles: Prologue

This is it. The best anteater simulation game ev... Crap wrong review. Who loves free-to-play?

This will be the first of a series of co-written posts aimed at chronicling our adventures on the up-coming Free-To-Play massively multi-player first-person shooter being developed by Red 5 Studios. The name of the game is Firefall. It is currently in a closed beta, but after testing out the game at PAX East 2012, we have been opted in ever since! We did, however, put Firefall on the back-burner for a few months as we chewed our way through Diablo 3, Civilization 5 Gods & Kings, and a few other games that have held our collective attention. But now in the past month we have sunk our teeth into Firefall, and dang is it crispy. Like bacon. An upcoming patch will overhaul the game's approach to character development, combat, and content offered, but there's no reason we can't dive in and share what we've seen so far. We want to see where Firefall goes and we plan to ride shotgun as Red 5 Studios drives this game's development and innovation into new areas of gaming.


One of the things we want to convey is how awesome Red 5 Studios is. An independent developer with veteran talent and tons of ambition. They want to evolve the Free-To-Play (FTP) model into something more than it has been. We remember speaking with one of the Firefall devs at PAX (who we later learned was James Macauley, their VP of Development!), and he mentioned that their goal was to be Free-To-Play, without being "Pay-To-Win". If you've ever played a FTP game, the more you pay, the more perks you tend to get that can accelerate your leveling and character development, or you can buy better weapons and abilities that you can lord over the non-paying players. It's notion that is not as appealing to us, so we are glad that Red 5 Studios is taking this task seriously.

Red 5 Studios was also at the forefront of the protest against the SOPA/PIPA bills in Congress that could have brought the Internet to its knees as far as content generation was concerned. Disappointed by the Entertainment Software Association ESA and their Video Game Voters Network's lack of advocation for the gamer community, Red 5 Studio's founder and CEO, Mark Kern, formed the League For Gamers as a rival to the ESA that could rally the community and appeared on a special video with Extra Credits to speak out against the legislation as well as the ESA's indifference to the legislation. The ESA, if you didn't know, puts on the famous E3 every year. Well, in order to show how serious Red 5 Studios was, they up and pulled out of E3 and called on the media and other developers to boycott E3 if they were serious about protesting against SOPA/PIPA. This is not something done lightly. E3 is a place where those in the media are piped into your booth and they turn around and tell the world how awesome (or sucky) your product is shaping up to be. It's a hype machine. It's a marketer's dream world. Red 5 Studios had the conviction to avoid supporting the ESA by refusing to rent a booth. Mad props.

The ESA eventually did come out against SOPA/PIPA, but the genie was out of the bottle. The boycott continued because it was obvious that the ESA and their VGVN alone could not be trusted to advocate for the gamer community and smaller developers/publishers when they needed it most. The LFG has successfully filed for non-profit status and stands as the untethered voice of gamers. Independent from the media and large publishers whom the ESA seem to favor when the chips are down.

Anyways, now that we have the backstory out of the way... on to Firefall!

Suiting Up

Going into PAX East, we didn't know a ton about Firefall. One of us saw the Extra Credits episode with Mark Kern, and an investigation into this new developer began out of curiosity. We saw what videos were available earlier in the year and it looked incredible what they were setting out to do. Their booth became a "must-see" even though our friends really didn't have a clue why we were excited to check out the game. We waited until Sunday, when the crowds weren't so oppressive, to check out Firefall. We learned that we could opt-in to the beta by playing and that we weren't playing on some isolated server. It was the real deal. Here's a summary of our first forays:

WF: I started out with the Dreadnaught battleframe. I'm a sucker for miniguns. When playing any given shooter, I look at things and wonder "how much better would that look with a thousand bullet holes in it?" I was running around, noticing that the HUD for the game was really helpful to figure out where I needed to go. I only used the map once, and that was only to see what the terrain map would look like and I was not disappointed. And jumpjets. Sweet fancy Moses jumpjets are fun. Want to make a game more fun? Add jumpjets. I don't care if it's Tetris, add freakin' jumpjets. I set out with my newfound mobility to dispatch a couple missions, laid out scores of "Aranhas" with my minigun, and then decided to check out how PVP worked. I jumped into a match almost immediately and got to see how the other battleframes looked in action. I remembered what James Macauley had told me about one of the Dreadnaught's secondary fire abilities, where you create a reflective forcefield in front of you. And I have to agree with him, there is nothing more satisfying than reflecting my opponent's bullets back at them for the kill. I was instantly sold on the Dreadnaught. Before I knew it, my time was up, but I was hooked. I would see this game again.

EF: Since the dawn of any kind of multiplayer game I have felt this need, to bring the pain. I started with being a tank in my first unmentionable MMO and then quickly decided it was time to put some number's on the board. Finally, with Firefall, I could start with being the healing class. So I went with the class soon to be formally known as the Medic. At first it wasn't really anything to write home about. You had a heal gun. That heals some things. You have a rifle. That shoots things and hurts other things. Fairly simple equation. As any class should, leveling up made me extremely viable. The day I got Healing Wave was the day I grew into my big boy battleframe. Not only does this ability heal everything within my vision, including myself, it also knows how to take a nice chunk from my foe's health bar. You can imagine the viability of this ability from thumping all the way to PVP. It's always nice to have that emergency button when healing my brother in PVP. Having a Medic/Dreadnaught combo for PVP holds the same reaction as Jason Statham showing up to your super secret drug party in a suit. Just don't. Until I show up to this party, our opponent usually does not like to keep my brother around and usually focus him. Then I show up showering him with my green healy goodness. Sometimes giving him a pick-me-up with the Defibrillator. With my insanely trigger happy brother and my decent skills of jump jetting and changing my angle every 1.7 seconds I have come to believe we are a decent combo. I will say, right now, the medic is an under rated class but the engineer is just a sexy class and has my attention at the moment. Who knows what the magical world of the milestone patch might bring though...

For those who aren't in the beta yet and haven't applied for a key, here's what we have experienced over time. And forgive the military parlance. The game puts us in one of those moods.

Disembarkment

Time passed as we got sucked into a few other games, but we had promised each other that we would jump into Firefall. We had both installed and tested the clients, so we were ready the moment we got the itch to play. A few weeks ago we jumped in and finished up the missions offered so far. They did well in leaving us off with the activity called "thumping". Pound the ground with a "scan hammer" until you find the right minerals you want to collect, call down a rocket-fueled thumper to mine the resources, piss off a bunch of mutant space bugs, defend the thumper in a furious firefight, profit.

Once we grasped how the minerals tie in to generating equipment and crystite (the game's core currency), we went nuts. The resources in the ground are not static. You cannot sit in one place and milk it all night. Once you tap out a spot, you have to move on and find another location that has what you want, shooting stuff all along the way. For most of the time we were an Army of Two. We'd spread out and scan the terrain until we found the right mineral and we'd spend the next 20 to 30 minutes fending off waves of all types of bugs. Burrowing bugs, poison-slinging bugs, flying bugs, huge earthquake-inducing bugs,  huge lava-slinging bugs. And that was just the tiny thumper which yields very little in the way of mineral rewards.

(Interjection by WF): It was around this time that I learned  that the story to this game is being fleshed out by one my favorite authors: Orson Scott Card. If you haven't read Ender's Game and consider yourself a science fiction enthusiast, get off your ass! Go buy it or visit your library. Read it and come back. Won't take long because you won't be able to to put the book down. The manga accompanying the game is being developed by Card's daughter with his assistance, which can only mean that awesome runs in their family. More pages of the manga are being released over time, so keep an eye on it!

Into the Roil

Once we had put some time into mineral refining, we were making serious money, err... crystite. We made light thumpers and set back out to see what challenges we would be presented by this technological step up. Hot damn. The difficulty got cranked up once we landed one of those puppies. It wasn't just a steady stream of bugs now, it was whole mobs of things that wanted to eat our faces. And now there were icy bugs that blasted you with ice upon dying as well as explody bugs that could set off a chain reaction of death if they were grouped too closely. An Army of Two was barely sufficient enough to succeed in filling up the thumper. It didn't help that there was an invasion going on in the server where alien soldiers called The Chosen were landing in certain spots throughout the map and would be inevitably drawn to our mass insecticide. These guys hurt. A lot. And they're butt ugly. Fighting these guys as they crash your party is difficult because if you ignore them, they whittle your health down until you end up dying. If you tackle them right away, you now have to clear off a hundred bugs that are now gnawing on your gravy train. At least they will sometimes shoot at the bugs, temporarily drawing some of them away for a moment.

During this time, there are other things to do that can gain one experience while the leveling system is still in place. Wandering the landscape encased by the Melding (more on the Melding another time), you will happen upon a couple events. One is a Chosen Patrol. A little dropship will land out of the blue and out will pop a few Chosen soldiers. You know you're close to a Chosen soldier when you hear what sounds like several otherworldly beings whispering in your ear at the same time. Always gives me goosebumps right before I ramp up my minigun and start strafing and jetting around to avoid their shots. Once you eliminate their dropship, you get some special resources and an attaboy from the Accord.

Another way to spend some time is locating crashed thumpers and proceeding to salvage the debris for resources and experience. Not as easy as it sounds, for the Chosen REALLY don't like you doing that. They beam in soldiers very frequently, sans dropship, and start either shooting you or the salvage. So far this has gone one of a couple ways. We've either been outnumbered and slaughtered, or they managed to destroy enough salvage to end the event. Our little Army of Two once again is barely enough to manage to situation.

The grand-daddy of events is the "incursion" in Copacabana by a lagoon/resort location on the south-east portion of the map. A moderate-sized, rather insect-like device hovers over the area with gaseous/ethereal tendrils that extend to the ground. Our hats are off to the special effects guys at Red 5 Studios for those. Some turrets pop up in the immediate area to defend this "Warbringer Generator" from us pesky battleframes. And out of these tendrils comes a small army of Chosen. And these aren't your normal Chosen that you find in other areas of the map. These guys swarm in masse with big honking Juggernauts with plasma rockets and Overseers with dreadnaught-like miniguns. They hurl a wall of damage at you and if you stand still for one moment, you're gonna have a bad time. Players seem to love this event due to the perfect XP grind situation. Get enough players in the area and the onslaught becomes manageable. There will be, inevitably, that guy that prematurely ends the XP-apalooza, garnering disappointment and derision from their peers who use this as the most efficient means to leveling. Given that the game and characters will be overhauled and it is uncertain to what degree our characters will get wiped, we don't get too broken up when this happens.

Reconnaissance

The main reason we want to level right now is that it allows us to explore each of the battleframes and the abilities they currently have. Some of the classes have been featured in dev diaries detailing how they are going to be overhauled in order to allow for a higher skill ceiling. The Medic (soon to be Biotech), Assault, and Engineer have had their make-overs made public. Here's our quick overview on the different battleframes and our take on the changes that are going into effect. Xenogenic's dev blog details more information on these changes.

Medic--->Biotech

The Medic (and Ethan's main battleframe so far), once a primarily support class with gameplay reminiscent of the Doctor in Team Fortress 2, is getting one of the biggest makeovers. The Medic's Healing Wave and Defibrillator are fun ways to both help teammates and damage enemies. When doing thumping, it is almost always necessary to have a Medic on hand due to the sustained onslaught that is sure to whittle even the most defensive of battleframes.

As a Biotech, players will be able to customize the class to be more offensive or supportive in its capabilities depending on your play-style. One of the offensive capabilities will allow the biotech to lay down a curtain of gas that will damage enemies while obscuring their view. Another features a projectile that does more damage the further it travels to it's target. Higher risk, but higher reward. On the support/healing side, the Biotech will be able to shoot a low-speed ball that heals whoever comes into contact with it, friend and foe alike. The twist is that the Biotech can shoot the ball to create a one-time area healing effect for only friendlies. These new abilities should certainly achieve Red 5 Studios' goal of making this class harder to master.

(Interjection by EF): The changes to the medic actually make me excited. After reading on the forums of some disdain, I cannot see how this class will not be key in a good PVP team. With the low-speed ball that heals whom ever, creates a nice skill curve to the class. Losing the healing beam will be missed but in replace  makes you think a tad more rather than run into the fray and just over healing any friendly in sight. Being more of a support attracts me back to this class because before strictly healing wasn't much of a job. Being able to run around, be some what of a distraction, and disperse their ranks with the gas cloud will create a fun class to play.

Assault

The Assault battleframe is going to see tweaks to damage output. If you've ever done some PVP, you'll notice that Assaults are the most popular choice since their damage output can rival other battleframes. We've seen Assaults in PVE combat just decimate with their abilities. We're not sure if the Assault's popularity is due to the damage output, or the relative ease at which it is to hit your targets. At any rate, it's a rare day where we are the only ones NOT Assaults in any PVP match.

Red 5 Studio's goal seems to be to make the Assault a quick, offensive powerhouse. A mid-range fighter with unmatched speed and maneuverability. They've noticed how much Assault's are favored in PVP, so their tweaks to damage output will be significantly appreciated to balance this battleframe against the others.

 The Assault will now use something called a "Fusion Cannon" that rewards accuracy by eliminating splash damage but delivering high direct-damage. It is the successor to the Plasma Cannon where a player can cut their teeth learning how that type of a weapon feels.

An ability called "Cannonball" will be a new movement-based ability that turns the Assault into a flying version of the Juggernaut. Fast, dangerous, but opens up the battleframe to predictability and being vulnerable coming out of the ability.

"Bombs Away" causes the Assault to drop a load of bombs. Depending on the flight path of the Assault, it could be a sustained bombardment or a carpet bomb that coats the landscape in confusion and death. Sounds fun but brings to mind the imagery of an innocent man getting seagull dookie dropped on him whilst strolling on the beach. As long as the dookie was actually a grenade.

If that ain't enough, they're boosting the speed of the Assault to make it the undisputed battleframe equivalent to Usain Bolt. Combined with the reduction in air friction, it's going to be a fun little pony to ride.

Engineer

Ah yes, the Engineer. One of our favorites, also reminiscent of the Team Fortress 2 class of the same name. As of right now, it also has very similar abilities, with upgradeable turrets and repair stations that deliver ammo when upgraded. One of the differences is the ability to lay down a one-way forcefield that stops projectiles on one side but allows them through from the other. Fancy!

The changes coming up will split the single big turrent into 3 smaller turrets that, based on the sneak peak video, can attach to ANY surface. Our minds reel at the potential to set turrets up to ambush enemies in interesting places. It's a whole different ballgame when you have to be aware of turrets located in 3 dimensions. There will be instant forcefields are also going to help in a pinch vs the current forcefields that take their sweet time to get up and upgraded. The repair station will no longer be the oasis of life that delivers us from the evils of death and running out of ammo. It will be a free-for-all with a limited number of heals and ammo.

Instead of an arm-mounted homing "pew pew pew" machine, there will be an arm mounted "Tesla" cannon that requires skill in order to maximize your damage. It will do more damage the longer you can connect with an opponent. If you miss, the damage decays. Add a mine that can snare unwitting battleframes and you can have yourself a field day.

It sounds like the engineer will be an all-around ally in both PVE and PVP, allowing for more mobility and strategies to take place. Between point defense or creating traps and defenses in the thick of combat, it is highly likely we will both keep an Engineer in our 1st or 2nd string of battleframes.

Dreadnaught

The juggernaut of the battleframes and Will's main battleframe so far. He's a close quarter fighter capable of hurling massive amounts of bullets in a short amount of time, but with terrible long-range accuracy. And Dreadnaughts ain't easy to kill. Between the higher HP and Heavy Armor ability, they have the survivability that other battleframes lack. One thing that was a drawback was the turret ability. Locking the frame so it can only rotate though a 45 degree arc, accuracy and firing speed are increased. Sounds great on paper, but when you got a space bug chewing on your butt during a thumping expedition, it leaves you vulnerable while you exit turret mode just to smear the bug into smithereens. And the arc is suprisingly small when mobs are busy chasing around your teammates in and out of your field of death.

Thankfully, this ability is getting revamped to allow a 160 degree arc. While Red 5 Studios is instituting a severe degradation of the Dreadnaught's damage as distance increases, the turret mode will prevent that degradation, allowing for mid-distance kills as long as you sacrifice mobility. The new gravity field will make for some interesting firefights, as it bends the trajectory of projectiles passing through the spherical field. Chances are that this will force the players to either wait for the field to end, or maneuver toward the Dreadnaught. We can already start planning team-based strategies to make use of this ability based on the reactions of other players. Lastly, and most juicily, is the currently-named Teleport Shot. Since the Dreadnaught's domain is close-quarter combat, but is the slowest of the battleframes, it will need a means of ensuring maximum combat efficiency. The Teleport Shot fills this need nicely by allowing the Dreadnaught to appear next to your soon-to-be-dead-enemy. The skill aspect of it comes into play by making it necessary to hit an opponent with the Teleport Shot in order to actually teleport.

(Interjection by EF): Watching my brother play this make it look just insanely fun. As I mentioned before, it's perfect for him due to having a lead finger. Just imagine a man in a huge robotic suit coming from above with a mini-gun showering you in bullets with this mentality. I have missed too many screen shot moments that would explain this class in a single picture.

Recon

The Recon is currently a very isolated class with the exception of the existing SIN beacon. Not the most involved team battleframe. The current hitbox setup makes sniping pretty easy in PVP and only somewhat challenging in PVE. The set-and-forget proximity mine works well as a defensive or offensive weapon. The teleport beacon makes getting out of close combat easy, but can be circumvented if an observant player notices where the beacon landed. The ammo-modifying abilities like cryo-bullets make for interesting crowd control or area of effect attacks.

Thankfully, Red 5 Studios is looking to make the Recon the master of SIN information as well as high potential for DPS that takes far more skill than currently needed. The SIN beacon will now be an ammo override that, if hitting the ground, will create a 10 second SIN beacon that provides a stationary point of delivering info to your allies. If, however, you can stick that puppy on your enemy, it will feed off their energy slowly. Now your opponent has to decide on whether to burn through their energy, putting them at a disadvantage, or becoming a tattle-taler on his own teammates.

The "Scramble Shot" will be an interesting monkey wrench to throw in the mix. One of the nice things about Firefall is the complete lack of friendly fire with the exception of some explosives. No more. Scramble Shot, when it hits an enemy, will allow that enemy to be targeted by their allies. As a Dreadnaught, Will can't wait till he accidentally plows over one of his friends in the back.

Debrief

This sums up what we have seen so far and what we know is coming down the pike with Firefall. And even then we only made a dent in all of the changes to the world and battleframe mechanics. The changes are going to be dramatic and, we hope, for the better. And again, sorry for all the military verbiage. Won't happen again. Maybe.

See you on the battlefield,

-WF & EF