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AA NDA Lifted
Drone-I9
Member Posts: 6
in Auto Assault
Comments
Wow. I didn't see that coming. Anyways, guess I'll be the first to mention some formerly protected NDA stuff. I don't have much time to answer questions or anything, so I'll just give a rough run-down.
I was invited in beta during the summer, about mid-June or so. I've played the game off and on since then because the playtime hours have been mercifully non-existant (at the time it was 14 hours a week over 3 days, then reduced to 10 hours over 2, now increased to 2 full 24 hour days).
Anyways, the game itself. Well, to be honest, it needs polish and lots of it. The game was delayed for a reason and it wasn't cosmetics. The game was a complete snoozefest. Since then, the devs have improved content quite a bit in both fluff (lore) and content (quests, skills, equipment, etc.) I should mention that these are some of the best devs I've ever been in a beta with. They're active, constantly taking feedback and working their hardest to make AA a great game. I just don't think it's there yet.
Crafting has been troubled since day 1 mostly due to balance issues and needless complexity. They're still working on fixing it, so I won't give it any more negative comments than that. (EDIT: I should mention that crafters will probably like the system, it just needs to be tweaked to avoid piles of useless disciplines)
PvP is still pretty messed up. I can't comment on it much since I wasn't high-level enough to do the PvP areas when they were open and not online enough to join planned arena events.
With all 3 races being developed by different dev teams, there is some notable imbalances/bugs that plague one side or the other. Either way you slice it, the Biomek team has made some of the best and balanced content in the game thus far. I love Mutants and all the devs, but at the current rate, 90% of the playerbase would be best served by playing Mek just so they can have fun. (EDIT 2: Forgot to mention that AA just got new lead devs for Humies and Muties. Things may change sooner than I thought.)
Combat...I've been on the fence for this forever. Alot of it has pretty much just been holding down the attack button and making sure you're in range of your target(s). It actually makes you wish for an auto-attack button so you don't wear down your mouse after the first month or so. Skills are still being balanced, so it's not uncommon for players to have next to no active skills. I know some players have been working solely on making the most over-powered characters possible by saving all their skill points for the highest levels. Armor and weapons can actually affect your character more than most skills. I know one player, back in the olden days, had a character immune to 4 out of 5 damage types. That was a beast, I'm sure.
Cosmetically, I like the current customization available to the cars, but it's still mostly based on your colours more than anything. The lower levels are plagued with everybody being forced to use the same vehicle (I think the first car upgrade is the exact same model as your starting car still).
Now I know this sounds like doom and gloom, but realize the game is still a way aways and I still have faith in the devs to turn things around. They've improved a number of aspects of the game and once skills are balanced and some nasty bugs are worked out, I suspect it'll be much improved. But if worse comes to worse, play Biomek
EDIT 3: Just want to summarize my thoughts into a concise statement: The game is fun in the short-run, but the long-term appeal is just not clicking with me.
Thanks also for info. Hope it gets better.
Sounds like Coh was. Fun at beginning, boring in long-run.
Played: Quite a few Mmos
Playing: Something
I've been in the beta since mid-summer as well. I think at the beginning of July or something. Anyways, Grimm did a pretty good job with the what's and what not's so far, but I just wanna add that even in it's current state, the game is really fun to play. There is alot of action, alot of explosions, and alot of speed.
As far as comparing AA to CoH, I can't say. I played CoH only during the free trial, and so far I like AA ALOT better, but it's not really fair to base my opinion on just the week that I played CoH. As far as AA's long term viability its really difficult to say. We've had such limited playtimes, that many of us haven't tested out the high end content. I WILL say however that it is going to be heavily PvP based. NetDevils first MMO "Jumpgate" still has a loyal following, and I've heard it touted as having one of the best PvP systems in any game to date. It appears that the later half of your career in Auto Assault will follow suit.
You spend your time levelling up in a faction zone free from PvP, doing missions and learning the combat. At about level 40-50 (cap at release has been stated as possibly 80 or 120) you pretty much have to head to a central area called Ground Zero. This is an area where all 3 factions finally meet for some heads up action. I have never seen this area personally, but other testers have said that there are lots of missions that require you to kill the other faction. Outposts were recently added to the game, but the testers haven't had a chance to check these out yet. Supposedly these are capturable areas out in Ground Zero, that provide some sort of benefit to either your team, or your faction as a whole. They've also mentioned unlockable PvE instances rewarded only to those factions who have achieved some sort of PvP goal. There are also rumored to be some individual obelisk type things that are easier to control than full fleged outposts. All of this is stuff taken from the beta boards, but we have been unable to test this so far.
Anyways, Grimm was right that PvP balancing does need alot of work at this point. HOWEVER to give NetDevil credit, this is the area that is currently under review. Right now levels play a MAJOR role in your PvP effectiveness, as in just a 2 level difference between players can be almost possible to overcome. This area was sort of put on the back burner though as NetDevil was busy revamping the entire map, the levelling process, drop rates, memory leaks and other major issues. They have stated that PvP is now being reworked, and balanced, so really we'll have to wait and see how it comes out. Based on their track record with Jumpgate though, ND has their stuff together when it comes to PvP, and I expect good things.
I may be a fanboi, but I'll try to answer anyones questions as objectively as I can. I visit this site quite a bit. So feel free to ask.
A few words from a newcomer:
I've been invited only a few weeks ago, at a time when playing was restricted to the newbie areas. So my observations are necessarily a bit limited. Anyway, here goes:
- Combat:
An improvement over traditional MMORPGs, because driving requires a bit of skill and makes for gameplay with some nice action. Unless you choose to drive in reverse to keep the distance open and "kite" mobs without distance attacks. That is a bit of a weak point right now, I hope that the higher level areas that will open now have more demanding mobs, mayb e with distance attacks of their own so you actually have to rely on speed to evade those.
- Graphics:
I like them. Of course, that is a matter of taste.
- Logistics and death penalty:
So far, nonexisting. Dying will only cost you a little time, while you are transported for free to the next repair station. There is no item drop. Also, ammo is unlimited so you don't have to think about taking enough with you. This makes for carefree but somewhat noncommittal fighting, as losing a fight is only a minor annoyance.
- Crafting:
Could not really test that due to the lack of commodities in the starter areas. It is, however, worth noting that there seems to be no item decay. So expect for a few consumable materials, I foresee a serious "MUDflation", where crafters have a short-lived usefulness.
Hmm, I guess I should head back to the beta forums and make a post about that. While it is hard to imagine that NetDevil have simply overlooked this aspect, weird things have happened before...
- General coding quality:
Looks good except for a major memory leak and a few bugged missions (as of patch level 0.0.14.84). These definitely have to be fixed, unless the new patch for this week already takes care of it. But overall, AA looks quite mature for a game months before release.
I played a few hours, just was let in a few weeks ago, but from my experience it's a ridiculous grind.
Hours of shooting stuff and I just made level 3 barely. I don't even know how many levels there are though. Just my impression from being a newbie mutant assasinator type. Perhaps I'll make a mek next as an above poster suggested.
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-Anarchyart
All you friggin suburban white kid wannabe poobutts that are in love with G-Unit are sad and pathetic. Find your own identity
HA! I knew it.
I give this game 3 months after the release of Fallen Earth before it becomes a deserted ghost town.
FALLEN EARTH > AA, FTW!
Every game seems like an unstoppable juggernaut of awesome when it's nothing but concepts, dreams, and screenshots. Don't compare a game that's actually real, and people have already played for 40+ hours to find all the probelms and flaws with, to a game that nobody's touched and is nothing but a fantasy at this point in time. It just isn't a fair comparison.
All in all I've enjoyed AutoAssault, I agree with some of the other posters that at times it's been a bit boring and hasn't really kept me engaged, but I should note that I haven't done the convoys (group play) yet, or done tradeskills, or any PvP. Also I don't know if the Outposts are in yet, but haven't done that either (it's a little dash of DAoC-ish RvR + GuildWarsish objective-based PvP, basically. Just read about it in CGW).
Another thing to bear in mind is that I've barely played the revamped content; they completely, and I mean completely redid all the areas and quests up to the point that I've got since the last player-wipe, and I'm only up to about level six or so. Barely got onto the highways, and they seem completely different too. They seem to really care about making this thing shine, even if it means doing a helluva lot of work.
p.s. After logging in and going back into the forums and clicking on Quote, during the trip from that page to this page I got hit with three installers for software I didn't ask for. They each said something about installing Microsoft Office Premium or something, but of course that's B.S., and then I got three processes in my task manager I never heard of, call CLI.exe or something. MMORPG.com needs to tell its advertisers to keep the malware the hell away from us I'm thinking...
Anyone having this problem lately? Guess that'll teach me for browsing with Internet Explorer, seriously I don't know why I even have thsi frigging thing installed anymore, the only reason it got booted up is I clicked in trillian to check my email and it's still the default browser for that problem.
It's too early to comment on this games long term viability at this point, since no one has played any of the late game stuff since overhaul. Every single tester here has been trapped inside the tier one zones since November. We just simply do not know what AA has in store. This is not an excuse, it's just simply what is. Q&A hasn't passed us any content at this point beyond the level 20 zones.
As a tester, it can get boring going over, and over, and over the same content with a fine toothed comb, but that is what NetDevil has asked from their beta community, and so that is what we continue to do. Each time a new zone opens up though, I get blown away, and I've no reason to believe this won't be true for tier two zones, and all the way up to Ground Zero.
There's only a handful of players in game right now who have received a rear weapon for example. These weapons add alot of varience to gameplay, as it prevents people from just driving up on your bumper and locking on to you with their turret. I'd say 30% or less of the community have received their first hazard kit, or have upgraded beyond their first chassis. We're talking about being locked into a tier one zone that would normally only last you to level 20 in a game where the cap could be as high as 120! Sure, there are hardcore players who have managed to tooth and nail their way up into the 30's and even 40's, but still all the content is designed around level 20. That includes crafting drops, vehicles, and missions, weapons, and everything else.
In light of this, I sort of expect some repetitive gameplay comments. It's the nature of the beast. However, it's almost impossible to comment on the games long term viability as we've only seen at best a quarter of the content at this point. Now, if the next two zones open up without any grouping or instancing, if stronger weapons and abilities don't add more varience to gameplay, if enemies don't get stronger and more intelligent, and if vehicles don't get new looks or a different feel, THEN I'll start talking about long term. Until that time though, I can only comment on what I've seen, and what I've seen so far is pretty amazing.
I guess I can't make a concise statement without feeling the need to expand on it. Bugger.
Just as an aside, Size Twelve is (IMO) one of the most respectable and dedicated beta testers in AA, and I just have to say I agree with almost everything he has said in his two posts. What can I say? I'm a fanboi of the fanbois
Anyways, the long-term problems I'm having with AA stem from a number of issues beyond those I mentioned in my first post. Namely, the game plays like a mule far too often on my computer and between that, the memory leak (that will hopefully be fixed soon), the inability for me to alt-tab (another issue I believe is related to my computer) and taking upwards of 5 minutes to quit AA and start any other application (once again, my computer), I've found it hard for me to sit and play the game, especially since my playstyle tends to center around 1-2 hour spurts. BTW, my computer specs are P4 2.0 Ghz, 768 RAM and a GeForce 5200 FX video card. I know it needs upgrading, but I was hoping it would at least run games until I graduate university this year.
I have experienced a fraction of the content not only planned, but available since my highest level has never breached 8 since the new content has arrived. Having a bugged "core" mission (i.e. missions that require completion to unlock new zones/content) occur twice blew the winds out of my sails and starting university classes again have stopped me even more. Basically, repetitiveness has definitely factored into my feelings for the game.
Despite that, I still believe that making gear and distributable stats more powerful than skills is going to be the number one problem come release since it's boring just using on your right mouse click for most battles. Even the support classes I've found doing very little in-combat outside of summoning pets (pre-battle) and casting heals (during and post-battle) while holding down attack. If you can get someone to constantly cycle enemies within your turret range and hold down attack, you could theoretically leave your vehicle parked in a hostile area and have the auto-fire kill everything with the right powerplant (for heat) and armor while you make a sandwitch.
And with all the criticism (finally) out of the way, given the recent staff shuffling with the Human and Mutant content (which to be honest, I suspect had something to do with the quality of work and not just timely coincidence) I beleive this game is a mere patch or two away from being better than most games at the same open beta stages (DDO and DnL for a cheap shot) and even a number of games when they first hit retail (Anarchy Online and WW2 Online being the most memorable blow-ups)
Also Siphons, I think you may have a bugged character or you missed something important, since Mutants and Humans don't have to grind until after they finish the first town (like I alluded to in my first post, Mutants and Humans are currently suffering a quest gap resulting in forced grinding, but not the Meks). When you first enter the mini-highway, Mutants only have one quest, but after they complete it, they should have a number of available quests from both outposts, the guy on "Death Lake" and 2 other out-of-the-way quests that should get you from 1 to 4.5 or so within 2 hours tops. Check your quest arrow or journal to make sure you have a quest or at least a lead.
Also, fun fact. The "tank" classes - Terminator, Commando and Champion - and "stealth" classes - Agent, Bounty Hunter and Avenger - far outnumber the support classes, with "pet" classes - Mastermind, Lieutenant and Archon - consistently coming in the smallest numbers. I do "/who" commands everytime I log on to compare and contrast numbers. While I have a hard time saying which race has the highest numbers (Meks, Mutants and Humans have all had that distinction at one time or another according to my stats), the numbers for the classes in any given race tend to be distributed as so:
Tank - 60+ players
Healer - 20-30 players
Pet - 15-20 players
Stealth - 55+ players
The numbers depend on time of day, faction analyzed and whether Britney Spears is pregnant, but I'd say they're fairly representative of the overall players' preference. I don't think for a second it's due to balance, but just player preference (e.g. In WoW the warrior and rogue were always overrepresented while the warlock and druid are underrepresented)
Man, talk about a discussion I've wanted to have for a long time now.
Thanks for the kind words earlier btw, and I think you are 101% right on the money here with this statement. The skills for EVERY class need to be looked at bigtime before release. I've posted many times about this, but for some reason it just seems to keep getting ignored, or swept under the rug.
Skills and abilities are what make or break MMO gameplay, I think. Mastering skills and abilities are HOW you become better in an MMO. I like the tac-arc design for the most part in this game, at least I'd rather have this system than the one employed in GunZ, but it also means that the skill element doesn't come from quick reflex aiming like in an FPS. That's ok with me, but then where DOES the skill element come from? Right now I'd have to say it really doesn't exist.
As far as the last build, as I levelled, I didn't feel myself getting any better AS A PLAYER. I felt as good at level 5 as I did at 25. Was I more powerful? Yes, but only because my chassis was faster, my equipment was better, and my weapons did more damage. That is all gear related. I didn't feel like my playstyle was any different from the guy next to me. I didn't feel like I could survive an encounter that maybe someone else couldn't.
If you could follow me off-topic for just a sec, do you ever remember playing some old 1 player console game like Mario Brothers, Devil May Cry, or Castlevania or something. When you first start out you suck horribly. Everything is kind of difficult, but as you learn, you keep getting better. Eventually after you beat the game you start over at level 1, and just DESTROY everything. Flawless victories left and right, whereas the first time you played you were dying to those same guys. You got better AS A PLAYER. That's what I think the game is missing, and I also think you nailed it when you said it has everything to do with the skill system.
I got into beta for AA awhile back and honestly I got bored of it withen like 2 weeks or so. I made it to around level 16 I think but the grind just seemed slow and really wasn't engaging enough. I was in early beta stages tho and alot of things were still definatly under development like voip wasn't in yet I'm not sure if it's in now or not but I was disappointed by that.
The pros
Graphics : They were good I was honestly pretty impressed with them overall
Controller/keyboard : Being able to use a game controller was nice but w/o voip in yet it made it a nuissence for grouping basically otherwise you can primarly use a controller np.
Enviroment : The enviroment was pretty destructible which was cool. Things blew up and caught on fire for example as well as little civilian people.
The Cons
Steering and Such: Steering felt a little awkward at times. Stop and go didn't really feel right. Braking felt really bad especially in the middle of a u-turn. You couldn't really skid or anything or do burnouts.
Quests : They felt boring honestly and much like world of warcraft questing a nuissence. I liked EQ's questing system much better than other games I've seen around that are heavily reliant on questing.
Enviroment : It felt like you slowed down too much when you ran into things.
Towns : Inside towns you had to controller a character rather than a car and it controlling the character in town felt very very awkard in fact most players that were in beta agreed and said the same thing. I haven't really kept up with the game since I found it too much of a grind and just wasn't what I was expecting from a auto mmorpg so things may have changed with that.
My overall impression was the game seem allright it definatly wasn't polished enough tho, but it was beta so it's hard to say for certain if come release time it will be alot better or not. I seemed a little boring after awhile since the level grind seemed sorta harsh to me but that's NCSoft I guess. It did have it's cool points and seemed like it had some cool customization to cars. I'm sure it's only gotten better since I last tryed it and will continue to improve how much however I'm just not sure. I was hoping it would be more similar to carmageddon or twisted metal gameplay wise and fun factor but it didn't really have that feel to it or at least to me. Carmageddon in perticular I was hoping it would be more like since that game had some awsome gameplay the cars were just plain fun to drive. It's better than the other options for car mmo's I guess which is none that's about all I can say.
Just to add my opinion, i've been in beta since octoberish (maybe september).
The game has a lot of work to do. I admit because of the fast paced action the quests seem very simple and downright boring. Most of them consist of "Run out and kill X enemies or collect Y items from X enemies' corpses"
While they have stories...and I've read a few (and some are interesting)...to be honest I, for the most part, don't read the stories anymore because they basically boil down to th esame thing. (oh yeah another type of quest is "Go to Z item in the enviroment (dead tree, a car wreck) and click so that it does something"
So basically the combat boils down to a grind.
The pro, as far as combat goes, though is that while combat may be a grind it is probably the most fun I've had in an MMORPG combat system to date. I've played WoW, Everquest 2, CoH, Lineage 2, Horizons, SWG, Neocron (Probably second most fun combat IMO), Asheron's Call 2...I know i'm missing some that I Just forgot. Anyway the point is...the car combat is just a lot of fun, and while I agree there are issues with "skill"....because I do agree as I level I don't find myself improving as a player, only in power based on items, the combat is still a lot of fun....I really don't get sick of driving through some pike base, smashing down their towers and running over their gunmen.
I also never EVER have the feeling of "frustration" in the game like I always have moments of in other games....like in World of Warcraft when I die getting irritated having to run back from the graveyard to my corpse...and then if its in pvp having to worry about the enemy camping it...sometimes spending 5-10 minutes just finding the right place to rez so I don't die...and when I do I have to run away without someone spotting me so I can drink and heal....Death in this game is really meaningless...and while some people may not like it...I LOVE it. The game is a game first and a chore second so I don't care that when I die all I lose is maybe 2 minutes of my time..it makes it more fun. It makes me more willing to run head first into a battle I think I won't win...and that makes it even more fun because of the times where I do run in head first and I DO win....if there was debt or some punishment for death I probably would avoid many of those "difficult" situations...and the fun of being succesful in those difficult situations would be lost.
I also think the towns, in human mode, really need something extra. As it is right now not only does walking around as a person feel awkward compared to most games (and compared to driving) but there really isn't a purpose to get out of your car...and I really don't see why we have to. It seems like we could drive up to the crafting stations if we wanted to and craft...we could talk to the people in our car if we wanted to...everything that I do in town I feel like I really shouldn't have needed to get out of my car. However I understand that from a roleplaying perspective it is nice to have a person inside the car...but then no one really uses that roleplaying point of view and they don't really help people or give people reason or places to use it. (No inns or pubs or some meeting place...just vendors, quest givers and crafting people).
In my opinion they do have a lot to improve on but I think they have a few things going for them that many games in beta just don't. First off, for me at least, the core system is fun to participate in...that is the combat system (and from what i've seen of crafting though I do a lot less of it) is also fairly fun to do. Since September/October I've played whenever I can and I really haven't gotten bored with it....even if I am just grinding all the time killing mobs over and over again...its a lot of fun.
Second, I feel like this developer team, when compared to every other game that I was in beta for, is probably one of the best if not the best team I have worked with. I feel when people on the beta forums are having good, intelligent discussions of gameplay issues the developers put in their point of view, or I really get the sense that they listen. On more then one occasion things have been implemented that I remember myself having participated in the discussion for (Item sorting in vendors...and once that was placed in I was one of the people on the forums asking for an ability to sort out items you can't use and that will be put in next patch I believe). Also during november or whenever it happened, when the beta testers weren't happy with what the gamew as like...they took it to heart and have really overhauled the highway zones...one by one, and while it is taking awhile and maybe making it a little bit more boring for the testers (Being stuck in 1 or 2 zones)....in the end they are trying to make the game that we want, as consumers...which you really don't see very often...Too often developers stick to what they think the game should be no matter what the actually people who play the game say (Even post release....SWG perhaps
) and this team really seems to listen which I love and which is why I will stick by them.
when in town, and you're an avatar instead of a car, it's like a less polished Earth and Beyond. I miss earth and beyond.
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-Anarchyart
All you friggin suburban white kid wannabe poobutts that are in love with G-Unit are sad and pathetic. Find your own identity
Lol, yeah I've heard that comment alot. I never played E&B, but people often compare the two crafting systems as well.
Lol, yeah I've heard that comment alot. I never played E&B, but people often compare the two crafting systems as well.
Ahh yes, and we all know what happened to Earth and Beyond?
DIE AA DIE!!! And take Pann with you!!
Why are you so anti-AA, and anti-Pann?
I was accepted into beta early last summer. The game was not what I would call bad. However it never felt like a MMORG to me, it was more like a single palyer game. I could have a lot of fun with it a couple of hours at a time once or twice a week but after a hour or so of shooting baddies I was ready to log off. Just my two cents worth.
I miss DAoC
rofl its simple size 12 the reason why ripper is so anti aa. He is sore that he won the mmorpg aa beta slot but then was removed from said slot due to ncsoft asking mmorpg to remove them from the winner's list. something about being banned from aa forums or something can't remember exactly. So now he takes every chance he can to slam aa.
I agree with whoever mentioned it not feeling like an MMORPG.
It is a really fun game but other then people talking in chat it really doesn't feel like an MMORPG. I know they never want to force people to group but they have taken it to the extreme...I never need to group, I never want to group and in that sense I Just drive past those other players ignoring them like most other people do and go about my business.
Sometimes I forget I am actually "online" to play the game.
Now mind you, in most MMORPGs I am quite social and group 95 percent of the time because usually I don't enjoy playing alone.
In this game however it is strange...usually I don't enjoy playing alone because of the frustration involved with dying, leveling slowly alone and grinding...in this game there is zero frustration so far (other then a memory leak issue that has me restarting every few hours) so that I DON"T get pissed off or bored or irritated when I solo....as good as that sounds it turns the game into one that really doesn't need other players around for very much.
I played for a while during one of the free weekends. I cant claim expertise, but I liked the game pretty well in terms of story and there seemed to be a lot of customisability within your class. I played a support class and was able to solo well (
) The game play was surprisingly clumsy. Steering was particularly cumbersome. Could have been my support class minivan chassis. But I was forever driving into things. I guess I was expecting gameplay like the mechs in Mechwarrior Mercs, or the Lightning in Planetside, which was my favorite ride. Nothing like either of those. The poor controls detracted from my enjoyment a lot.
If there were another free weekend, I'd be willing to give it a shot, but I am not willing to pay 50$ for the game to see if I like it.
I liked the soloability, but I can agree that they should have started creating incentives for players to group early on. Group only missions that gave nice loot or xp beyond what normal missions give.