now just one thing, al looks good and now i want to play it as fast as possible, is MS really gonna do a Europe releas half April? (more then a month after US)

because, if so i have to say i will have to download it
(and many others will too) it's just the question then, if it's good enough that i will buy the game after i finished it (if that's even possible)

Or wait and buy it legally, or ship it in from the states. No warez is justified.

This is great news! I leave m comp for 3 hours and look what I'm missing
Great news on the cockpit!!


"God bless this acid house!"
"I was near the scene of another crime at the time, officer."

You can probably get it shipped out of US to you VIA ebay.

Damnit sting? 250 hours have you no life, i counted up a total of 200
150 in mp and 50 in SP

PPL this game witll rock your boat!

-----------------------

United SL Modelers¸
Administrator for World Of Gamers
Webmaster for Red Faction World

Got another question for ya, Stinger.

When you group up in multiplayer, does everyone's map automatically get updated with locations other players have discovered on their own?

Interesting you should ask that. There is a story behind my hesitance. The short answer is heck no, go discover things yourself you "slackers." The long answer...this is one point that was really morphed during the testing, big time. At first the entire map was full of info. In the later stages it was completely devoid of information. You HAD to at least get within eyesight of a base or planet or whatever in order for it to show on your map. Funny thing was, the info didn't hold too well for a while. But it was fixed to a point and a few other things added that REAAAALLLYYY made up for not having all the info at your fingertips from the get go. Now, when you land, all things about the place is retianed in your Neural Net for future reference. And that really comes in handy if you're trying to find out the best place to sell cargo.

Bottom line is when you group, the only thing that is automatically uploaded into everyone Neural Net is mission info including objectives and Nav points. If you do happen to cruise by a place it gets logged or "named" if you will in your Neural Net. You do have to land to get the specifics about the place loaded tho (i.e. ships available, commodities bought and sold, hard points available, shields etc. )

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 01:32:54

I knew you had to be a beta tester Stinger, you sly dog, I just knew it!!!

It would surpise you that quite a few TLR regulars where beta testers it's been hard for us not to rant about FL in these forums, reall hard!

-----------------------

United SL Modelers¸
Administrator for World Of Gamers
Webmaster for Red Faction World

Ah, cool. I was worried that I might have to play through as much of the single-player as I could before I started MP, because I didn't want to ruin the thrill of discovery.

I was wondering why you had dissapeared for so long Mad Dog.

Come on who else was a tester?
So far we have Stinger, Gibby and Mad Dog.

Okay, lets talk missions now. Again, we can focus on the mission types you'll see in MP. I don't want to touch on the single player just yet.

We've seen in a few different previews guys writing about their concerns regarding the repetetive nature of just being given mission after mission that basically revolve around the a few general points. Kill person X at place Y. Escort cargo ship Z. Patrol quadrant Beta, etc. etc. etc.

Can you guys speak to how much variation and wrinkles they were able to throw in regarding different mission types? Just how many types and what types will we see?

The variations of the missions is most likely going to be the weakest point of most players in the game be it MP or SP (once yer done). They do seem to get a bit repetative, but please keep this in mind. I ran litereally countless missions and my personal perspective on this might be a little off. I will say this, by the time I was into my 100th hour, I could pretty much tell when I was looking over jobs almost exactly what the perfect configuration for my ship on any given mission would be. That is something that only comes from experience. I'm not making any excuses for the variation, but there are definitely a few type of missions that generally feel like they plug in NPC's to fill the mission.

This is a difficult subject because the testing didn't really afford us the chance to take her out for a spin like most people will in MP. We were really forced to find the fastest ways of upgrading ourselves so we could become strong enough to bug hunt the systems. That is NOT the way most people will play this game. You're going to have to scratch and claw your way to the top and this point alone will make the lack of missions variations seem like a godsend when failure of said mission potentially can set you back so far it very painful. Having the "feel" of what type of mission you're taking is an asset early on. Once you upgrade to the better ships they become mundane, but the path to superiority is is paved with well executed missions.

I will say this in closing, the missions in the inner systems are NOTHING compared to the ones in the Borderworlds. The type may be similar, but the enemies are far from easy... Life in the Borderworlds is simply a dog eat dog world and the life you lead will be purely defined by the character you develope along the way, trust me. You want wrinkles, they reside in the Borderworld!!

Also, what will change from one mission type to another (i.e. what might be different between one escort mission and another escort mission?) and so on.

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 01:48:51

The random missions are kind of repetitive. That said, it's not really a huge issue... It would be better to have more, as it was a major selling point earlier. The story missions are very nice, no two are alike

Another topic: PvP

We've talked a lot and heard a lot about the co-op options, now what about the PvP? Sure I get that you can shoot each other down and dog fight and so on and so forth.

PvP is something I engaged in once, it was a lot of fun, but I got my tail handed to me.

But what hooks are built in to facilitate PvP? Would one NPC ever give out a mission and another NPC get triggered to give out the other half of that mission?

Not that I've seen no, that doesn't happen in MP at all

Example: NPC 1 of the Space Navy gives a mission to protect cargo ship A.

NPC 2 of the Pirates is now triggered to give out a mission to attack cargo ship A.

Anything like that and maybe you could speak in generally about this type of stuff?

Only one mission at a time in MP, and sometimes the missions do get extended, but not very far from the original Nav points of the mssion.

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 01:57:28

All I can say is thank GOD I got the PR beta! I could not have come to this site and not talked about this. Gibby, EB, Tach, and I were the only ones I'm aware of that had the non-NDA PR beta, but many were part of the actual testing beta. To Stinger, MD, and others, hat's off to you for keeping the secret!

Stinger was our Multiplayer Guru, I focused more on the missions and single player after the storyline missions were over. EB, Stinger, and I are beginning to put the walkthrough together, we will have it posted before release, that's a promise!

We got the first beta last October, and I can't even begin to tell you how much has been done since then. The last release we received feels like a finished game.

When I posted before (several times) about DA listening to TLR people, I was NOT JOKING. So many things discussed on these forums were implemented. They know all the regulars on the boards here, and read the forums regularly. To Jorg, Phil, Tony, and EVERYONE at DA, go enjoy those Carribean trips already, YOU DESERVE IT!!!



-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
The Next Thing I Say To You Will Be True
The Last Thing I Said Was False