FIREFALL - Page 3

Crator · 2011-12-12, 11:28 AM

He's going to read and reply to this thread?

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 11:50 AM

Hi,

My name is Mark Kern, and I'm the CEO/CCO of Red 5 Studios. As IDukeNukem said, he invited me to answer questions about Firefall, which I'm happy to do.

I will tackle the first question when I get into work this morning. Just wanted to say "hi" at this point.

Crator · 2011-12-12, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

Looks like cartoon shit to me. Haven't played it, but I don't think I'd want to either. Graphics also remind me of Unreal Tournament.

I actually cannot stand the cartoony graphics being used on the character models. They don't blend in with the environment around them and it just looks bad.

Lonehunter · 2011-12-12, 12:46 PM

I think Duke's question is one of the most important. There is a huge difference in FPSs that instance 30-60 players, and an MMOFPS like Planetside.

The game looks like fun for PvE and PvP, but my questions is how many different game modes do you plan on reaching for PvP? (Deathmatch, Flag, Capture Points, etc)

and thanks for stopping by, if you read our Planetside 2 Discussion forums you can see how much of an impact strong community interaction has.

Raymac · 2011-12-12, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by Grummz

Hi,

My name is Mark Kern, and I'm the CEO/CCO of Red 5 Studios. As IDukeNukem said, he invited me to answer questions about Firefall, which I'm happy to do.

I will tackle the first question when I get into work this morning. Just wanted to say "hi" at this point.

Hey! Welcome to Planetside fans' little corner of the interwebs.

The biggest question I have about FireFall is about the scale. It seems that Red 5 is very vocal about not calling FireFall an "MMO" which I find curious. It sounds fairly "massive" (on the PvE side anyways), it's "multiplayer", and it's certainly "online". I can understand not wanting people to confuse it with a cookie cutter MMORPG, but I see FireFall and Planetside 2 as literal game changers in the way people view MMOs. Most people have zero exposure to a true MMO shooter.

So, my question is, why not embrace the "MMO" label? Or am I misunderstanding the scale of the game?

I'd also like to take the opportunity to tell you that FireFall was #1 on my most inticipated list...until Planetside 2 got announced, but that is primarily because I'm such a huge fan of the original. It's like when an ex-girlfriend comes back into your life, and she is looking reallllly good. Having that history goes a long way.

I'm actually really excited about the PvE aspect of FireFall because it is something that Planetside 2 won't have, and I really like the way it looks in FireFall.

Xyntech · 2011-12-12, 02:27 PM

I'm more into Planetside 2 than Firefall, but I'm pretty excited about both titles. I haven't been at all active on my Firefall account (spending too much time here), so I assume it will be quite a while before I make it into Firefall, but I am certainly interested in playing it.

From my perspective, Firefall isn't embracing the MMOFPS title as much because it is towing it's line a little closer towards MMORPG than Planetside. Most MMO's have instanced PvP and open world PvE and Firefall is the same (for now). This isn't to say that it isn't a FPS first and foremost, but I can understand why they would want to play up the FPS aspect more than the MMO to avoid easy confusion.

This is where I think that Firefall and Planetside 2 will be able to work together to blow the lid off of this MMOFPS genre. They both are shooters on a massive scale, but they are attracting people with radically different approaches.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the future, we look back on games like Planetside and WWII Online as the grandfathers of the MMOFPS and Planetside 2 and Firefall as the fathers.

I do have to say though, that massive scale open world combat is one of the biggest attractions of Planetside for me. I've read that there are possibly plans to add open world PvP combat to Firefall in the future, but given that the game isn't designed with open world PvP at it's core, I foresee it being a very tricky proposition to implement.

Either way, I'm not too worried about it. I have Planetside 2 to look forward to for my open world PvP battlefield, so I plan to enjoy Firefall more for it's PvE gameplay.

I had fun with Left 4 Dead Co-op, so I think that a MMO co-op shooter will be a blast. The art style isn't a turn off for me, I'm cool with stylized graphics. Unreal Tournament and Team Fortress 2 are a lot of fun.

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 03:57 PM

Firefall has both PvP and PvE elements. We call these our e-sports and our open world modes. We have instanced maps for e-Sports ranging from 5v5 to 15v15, with build in support for clans such as naming them and designing custom logos for your armies.

We also have 10 square miles of co-op space (around the size of GTA IV) where 300 or so players can adventure together gathering resources to craft armor and weapon module upgrades and also fight against the NPC faction known as the Chosen.

Firefall was built with open world PvP in mind. We created our own server tech and graphics tech to handle this (built upon some legacy code from the Offset Engine). We will be revealing our plans for open world PvP early in 2012.

Scott Youngblood is our lead designer. He was the lead designer on Tribes 1 and 2, and I was the Team Lead for World of Warcraft and worked on Diablo 2, Starcraft, Broodwar, etc.

But you're only as good as your last game, so none of that really matters. We're in exclusive beta right now and use a G-mail style invite system to grow our testing base.

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 03:58 PM

Yes, there is. Plans will be revealed in early 2012, but we've had test maps with 120 plus players.

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by Crator

I actually cannot stand the cartoony graphics being used on the character models. They don't blend in with the environment around them and it just looks bad.

Yep, it's not for everyone. We only use it for the characters. We are considering an option to have players turn off the outlines.

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by Lonehunter

I think Duke's question is one of the most important. There is a huge difference in FPSs that instance 30-60 players, and an MMOFPS like Planetside.

The game looks like fun for PvE and PvP, but my questions is how many different game modes do you plan on reaching for PvP? (Deathmatch, Flag, Capture Points, etc)

and thanks for stopping by, if you read our Planetside 2 Discussion forums you can see how much of an impact strong community interaction has.

We have three modes in beta right now. Deathmatch, Sabotage (attack/defend), and Harverster (capture and hold). We have several more in testing.

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by Raymac

Hey! Welcome to Planetside fans' little corner of the interwebs.

The biggest question I have about FireFall is about the scale. It seems that Red 5 is very vocal about not calling FireFall an "MMO" which I find curious. It sounds fairly "massive" (on the PvE side anyways), it's "multiplayer", and it's certainly "online". I can understand not wanting people to confuse it with a cookie cutter MMORPG, but I see FireFall and Planetside 2 as literal game changers in the way people view MMOs. Most people have zero exposure to a true MMO shooter.

So, my question is, why not embrace the "MMO" label? Or am I misunderstanding the scale of the game?

I'd also like to take the opportunity to tell you that FireFall was #1 on my most inticipated list...until Planetside 2 got announced, but that is primarily because I'm such a huge fan of the original. It's like when an ex-girlfriend comes back into your life, and she is looking reallllly good. Having that history goes a long way.

I'm actually really excited about the PvE aspect of FireFall because it is something that Planetside 2 won't have, and I really like the way it looks in FireFall.

We don't call it an MMO because we feel people just start to think that our combat is action-bar based. It's not. It's a shooter first and foremost. Because we have PvE though, I guess if you use the same standard to measure Planetside and Firefall, Firefall is just as much an MMO as Planetside is. We just didn't want to confuse people about the nature of the combat.

LOL about the old GF.

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by Xyntech

I'm more into Planetside 2 than Firefall, but I'm pretty excited about both titles. I haven't been at all active on my Firefall account (spending too much time here), so I assume it will be quite a while before I make it into Firefall, but I am certainly interested in playing it.

From my perspective, Firefall isn't embracing the MMOFPS title as much because it is towing it's line a little closer towards MMORPG than Planetside. Most MMO's have instanced PvP and open world PvE and Firefall is the same (for now). This isn't to say that it isn't a FPS first and foremost, but I can understand why they would want to play up the FPS aspect more than the MMO to avoid easy confusion.

This is where I think that Firefall and Planetside 2 will be able to work together to blow the lid off of this MMOFPS genre. They both are shooters on a massive scale, but they are attracting people with radically different approaches.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the future, we look back on games like Planetside and WWII Online as the grandfathers of the MMOFPS and Planetside 2 and Firefall as the fathers.

I do have to say though, that massive scale open world combat is one of the biggest attractions of Planetside for me. I've read that there are possibly plans to add open world PvP combat to Firefall in the future, but given that the game isn't designed with open world PvP at it's core, I foresee it being a very tricky proposition to implement.

Either way, I'm not too worried about it. I have Planetside 2 to look forward to for my open world PvP battlefield, so I plan to enjoy Firefall more for it's PvE gameplay.

I had fun with Left 4 Dead Co-op, so I think that a MMO co-op shooter will be a blast. The art style isn't a turn off for me, I'm cool with stylized graphics. Unreal Tournament and Team Fortress 2 are a lot of fun.

We don't have many RPG elements. We have resources, crafting and leveling, but the level curve is very flat from a power standpoint. It's more about horizontal progression and lvl 30 and lvl 1 can still duke it out...its about player skill.

Here's a secret...Firefall was designed from the beginning for open world PvP. All our tech is built this way, and all our designs have this in mind. We also have many, many test maps that feature over 100+ players fighting. We just wanted to focus on getting the e-Sports and PvE stuff in place first.

Atavax · 2011-12-12, 04:14 PM

previously it has been said that you were aiming for sometime in December to have the last character wipes and the in game store opened. Since then it has been indicated that the last character wipe will probably be after December. I was wondering if you could give a ballpark of when you think the last character wipe will happen. Are we talking about a month delay? 3? 6? 12?

**Grummz** · 2011-12-12, 04:17 PM

We'll stop wiping chars soon after we get the open world into the Beta testers hands, very early next year, but it all depends. We strive to find the fun first.

We won't have a traditional launch, we'll just keep releasing more keys. Store should be online in Feb or so.

Siantlark · 2011-12-12, 04:27 PM

So whatever happened to the December launch of the store?