Firefall - Immense Multiplayer Online Shooter

Since there's a new section for games I'll just paste the info from the "It is time!!!" thread.

A game which was announced at PAX the other day got my attention, Firefall.
It will have both PvE and PvP.
Skill will be required by the player like APB was first intended to.
Unfortunately it won't release until late 2011.

Gameplay video


I'll copy/paste some answers by the developers:

Q: What is Firefall?
A: Firefall is a team-based action shooter combining deep character progression with an open-world cooperative campaign that can be shared with hundreds of other players. Firefall will also have a rich competitive multiplayer component incorporating built-in features such as clan support, ladders, tournaments and stats.

Firefall takes place on Earth, but it is an Earth transformed. The year is 2233. A highly efficient form of energy was discovered by utilizing the resource Crystite. The overuse of Crystite led to the disastrous arrival of the Melding, an energy storm that has engulfed the majority of the planet. You play as a surviving human in the eye of the Melding storm.

Recently, humanity has been fighting for survival against a race calling themselves the Chosen. They emerged from the Melding with only one known goal, the destruction of the human race.

Q: Is Firefall an MMO?
A:No. Firefall is first and foremost an action shooter. We incorporated a lot of elements that you might find in various genres, including MMOs, but it is not an MMO in the traditional sense.

I'm guessing they mean like how APB isn't an MMO in the traditional sense either.

Q: Will Firefall have pvp?
A: Yep. We have two main goals: raise the bar on co-op (hundreds of players in open dynamic world) and build great support for competitive clan based armies, ladders, stats and tournaments (PvP)

Q: Will there be an anti-cheat solution?
A: At Red 5, cheating is something that we try to keep in mind at every stage of development. Firefall uses a powerful networked gameplay model, in which the server does NOT trust the client, but we are still able to provide responsive gameplay, eliminate extrapolation artifacts, etc. However, this is still no replacement for attentive GMs, and more importantly, an attentive community.

Personally, I believe that this is a very important discussion. So rest assured that we will do our research. But if you'd like to help, we do take your comments of different cheating problems and solutions seriously.

Q: I keep hearing that there will be only hundreds or players in the game. What exactly does that mean?
A: During our demo at PAX we talked about the open world and how hundreds of players will be in the open world space at the same time. Meaning as you run around the landscape you can bump into other squads, individuals, armies, other human controlled players essentially. You might also see them at Dredge, the mining town we showed at PAX. Hope that clarifies it more.

Q: Has the development team learned what works and what does not work from other games?
A: I would say at least half of the dev team played APB and several of us still play. As always when you play a game as a developer, it's hard to turn off the "Would I do *that* the same way?" questions that go on in your head. So, I'm comfortable saying we've thought quite a bit about what we liked and didn't like about APB and pretty much all the other shooters that have released lately.

Q: Will there be a party system?
A: Yes, squads ARE confirmed!

Q: How will ammo be distributed at the moment?
A: Right now ammo is free and drops pretty regularly. Rather than being a money sink, it's more of a spam prevention tool and a way to make sure people pick and choose their shots.

Q: How will headshots be handled in Firefall?
A: Headshots (critical hit volumes) are currently supported for both creatures and for player characters. Firefall is a skill based / physics based game... we didn't feel that it would be right to ship it without them.

It should be noted however, that how much damage headshots do is still in flux and will continue to be as we balance the game.

Q: Are there any additional details regarding the competitive multiplayer?
A:For now, we are only discussing the open-world co-op experience. You can expect to see a lot more about the muliplayer experience at a later date.

Q: What are battleframes?
A: Battleframes are sets of armor and weapons that denote your class in Firefall. You will customize these pieces of armor and weapons through modules and upgrades to create your own unique style of play. Battleframes can be switched out during gameplay at a battleframe station, giving you the option to change tactics on-the-fly.

Q: How many battleframes will there be at launch?
A: For PAX, we are only talking about the Assault and Medic battleframes. Additional details will be released later.

Q: How much will Firefall cost to play?
A: We are so excited about Firefall that we want to make sure everyone can play it and join their friends in the game. When Firefall releases, it will be available online for download and play for absolutely free.

Q: Will there be a subscription fee?
A: Absolutely not. We do not feel that a subscription fee best suits the style of game we are creating.

Q: How do you plan to make money?
A: We plan to offer a marketplace for Firefall that will offer players items to enhance their gaming experience. We are adamantly against selling anything that might compromise the skill-based aspect of the game.

Q: When is beta?
A: We haven't announced an official date for the start of beta. When it does start, it will most likely start small and grow as we need to put more and more stress on the servers. Keep your eyes open, we'll make an announcement when it's time to start checking your inboxes.

Q: How do I sign up for beta?
A: Just by signing up for the forums, you're automatically registered for the beta program when it begins. Hang out, have fun. Speculate with new friends or debate with new enemies.

I think we could have lots of fun as a clan/army/guild in this game.
At the very least it has potential!

Yeah, someone mentioned Firefall on our boards before. Looks interesting

Applied for beta and now I'm keeping my fingers crossed so I get in

I'm not building much hope on MMO shooters... we'll see how this one goes but i doubt it'll hit the sky.

Baojin wrote:I'm not building much hope on MMO shooters

Firefall is not an MMO

Azurite wrote:

Baojin wrote:I'm not building much hope on MMO shooters

Firefall is not an MMO

Yeah that's the problem with these kind of games, it's a "shooter with MMO elements" usually they fail at both levels.

Well tho i'm interested in the Agency which is more or less the same... i doubt it'll ever reach the action level of a BC2 where u got awesome graphics/sounds/feeling to it, and u got ubique saying "hey guys, i didn't see ya :p".

The game looks okey, but the graphic isn't rly catching my eye.

But looks interresting for peepz who have no prob with that sort of Graphixxx

Looks cool

Baojin wrote:it's a "shooter with MMO elements" usually they fail at both levels.

Usually, if we look at APB, it fails.
Tabula Rasa failed too since it wasn't a clean shooter, it had dice rolling and you selected enemies.
DDO works like Tabula Rasa, but it's not a shooter and based on DnD.
Though, perhaps you could call those MMOs with shooter elements.
Anyhow, agreed.

Baojin wrote:i doubt it'll ever reach the action level of a BC2 where u got awesome graphics/sounds/feeling to it

I think it's too early to tell.
But if by "action level" you'd meant "things happening at the same time" Firefall would be hard to beat.
Their co-op play will have hundreds of players on the same server at the same time.
Details about the competitive play is still shrouded in mystery but will likely have surprisingly many players duking it out at the same time(for a shooter).

M.A.G. has 256 players online, not sure if it will beat that, we'll have to wait and see.

Personally I think Firefall sounds more fun and diverse than your average online FPS/TPS.

The graphics shown are DX9, it will have DX10(at least) support.
It utilize a heavily modified Offset engine, if you've followed the tech videos shown by the Project Offset team you'll know what it is capable of.
Whether or not they'll use some of the unusual features is still unknown, but certainly hope so.

i dont like all that shit on his back

Does this look fucking awesome or just really good?

I've heard of this one and seen some screens, looks awesome. I'm not a fan of cell shading though but its FREE! lol

Must be good.. since it has two dedicated threads

https://rezistanceclan.forumotion.com/other-games-f14/firefall-immense-multiplayer-online-shooter-t674.htm

-- Merged --

I thought that I'd seen something about it around here before... Too lazy to search.

Just found this game and it looks pretty awesome. Gives off a borderlands kind of look. Signed up for beta and really looking forward to it.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is seeing how they will get paid for the game. It never turns out well.

Isn't that called micro transactions, where the games have cash shops? Yeah those usually are /fail.

Yeah, it's usually microtransaction or "freemium" - you CAN play the game for free but you can only access like 10% of the content.

Lots of new info coming out of PAX Prime regarding this game, but thats not why I am posting in this thread now. Just got a newsletter, they started sending out 500 beta invites on last Friday, and plan on sending out more during the next two weeks. Everyone who gets a invite can invite a friend. as well. I am very excited for this game and have been since I first heard of it last year.

Yeah people who haven't registered for the Newsletter should do it

In all that Time I've been supbscribed to it (like a long Time ) i only got 3 Newsletters i think. They don't spam you to much...

Yeah, same here.. only two newsletters so far, but the last one informing about beta (first beta keys were sent on 2nd of September)

Only 500 beta invites in first wave though :\ ...Anyone got one?