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FE Impressions
tuscarora
Member Posts: 52
I had a difficult time making a decision to buy or not to buy this game. The local gamestop employees had real knowledge of the game, I hadn't even heard of it until a few short days ago. I took the plunge, bought the game and am going to record my early impressions for those who are undecided
For the record, my rig is decent but nothing to write home about. However, I exceed the minimum requirements.
Day 1:
Tutorial: Everyone should do this at least once. The storyline for the tutorial is one of the better ones I have seen. I was impressed mostly that all the mobs talk to you when you are "conversing" with them. This enhanced the experience greatly. I had a concern that the combat would be difficult having read about the steep learning curve for the game. However as I am an FPSer first and an RPGer second, I gave it a go. The mobs do move around quite a bit, but if you have any skill whatsoever the misses should be few to none, the glancing blows rare, and the mayhem magnificent. I admit I put the melee weapon down as soon as I obtained a ranged weapon and have not looked back since. The tutorial is really fun and shows me that the developers put a lot of effort into the first impression they would give you. Bravo to the development team.
Pick a Village, Any Village: Picking a starting location was a process for me. I am an engineer in real life, so I overanalyze everything. Probably part of the reason I am usually disenchanted quickly with MMO's. I chose the enforcer's village as it was a combat skill starting location and if you were paying attention before, I am an FPSer first. The questgiver system is reminiscient of other games, look on your map (M key) and gather the quests up and head out. As I bought the game from Fallenearth.com I clicked on the key in my inventory and went for my first ATV ride into the desert. The ATV controls are simple and intuitive and gave me the impression of playing one of those early ATV games on the console. I did not make it to the questgiver before I realized I was amongst a bunch of potential kills and gathering points. Prairie Chickens, good sport to kill, they drop items mostly for cooking skill and you can gather from their bodies again for other tradeskill components. I killed these for 5-10 minutes to practice with my crossbow and gathered from plants in the location. Moving through the desert I repeated this with coyotes and then finally got my first quest. I found myself unexpectedly enjoying the game thoroughly.
Quest 1: Drove out to the desert, picked up the next stage of the quest from a guy hiding in a shack, headed back. Started to get a bit concerned about my fuel usage on my ATV. More on this as I progress further into the game, for now I will worry about it. At this point, it has not become a problem. Again, engineer overanalyzing. Once I got up into the airport, I found a lot of hostile mobs. This was good, something a bit more challenging. With my crossbow, I rarely had to hit them more than twice to put one down. I walked around killing mobs while others gathered materials around me. I was a bit concerned that someone would gather materials right beneath you after you killed a mob, but this is nothing new to RPG's. People have no respect for one another. So I took it as an oppurtunity to make a friend, keeping mobs off him since he kept getting in trouble with them. Some RPGer's have no real combat skills, but hey... that's my job. Finished the quest mob off, headed back to guy in shack. Quest drove me back to the original starter town, so I took the oppurtunity to try my hand at crafting.
Crafting: For the record, I hate crafting. I have a masters in engineering so that others can do that menial stuff for me. I can't say I enjoy it in a game any more than in real life. But, I decided to try it anyways. The system is nice in that once you start crafting and put an item in queue, you can go kill, quest, whatever, while the items are being made. This made me consider crafting less problematic, but I still doubt its for me. I did make my own crossbow bolts which is convenient but unnecessary as humanoid mobs tend to drop them about as quickly as I use them up (at least for now).
Realized it was getting late, decided to call it a night. So far, I am impressed. This is the best I have experienced a mmorpg in early release. The help channel is awesome, everyone seems more than willing to help each other out. The game is intuitive, much moreso than the reviews had led me to believe. I typically assess a game in the first 30 minutes and decide if I can continue playing it. In this case, I am so far content to have spent $50 on this game. To be honest, this game impressed me as much as Champions Online disappointed. Of course, I had no expectation for this game. To the developers, good job so far, hope end game is as good. To the players, thank you for your honest assistance on my questions. To those on the fence, I would wait a few more days and see if I am still as happy with the game. However, my experience so far is very good.
Tuscarora
BaptizedbyBullets.com
Comments
Nice post. I also tried the game for the first time last night - My expectations were pretty low, but after playing through the tutorial and getting to the Enforcer Village, I was blown away. Can't wait to get in tonight and sink my teeth into this some more. This game is a breath of fresh air for the MMO genre.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'll probably end up getting FE this weekend sometime so I can check it out myself.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
I will say the OP is a nice write up and same thing most people go through when running the game for the first time. I will say to anyone looking into this game that played SWG before the NGE will blend into the interface pretty easily as the interface is very familiar to those players.
Nice to see that you are enjoying yourself
I would say the opposite about the help channel due to many lame people covering the good people. Some might be helpful, but many make me ridiculed and disguisted.
ESS O ESS. O ESS O. OR ESS? Bah, fuck it, just call 911.
Sorry for the delay in the next installment. By day I am an engineer, by night I am a farmer, husband and father. This weekend in particular was one of my last chances to winterize the farm, so I did not get to play much until last night.
Day 2: Running low on fuel.
One of the things I really like about this game is the fuel consumption for vehicles (or stamina for horses, you feed them to replenish stamina). One of the things I dislike about this game is the fuel consumption for vehicles. In the process of exploring the map a bit, getting a feel for the lay of the land, etc... I expended 12k of the 20k fuel I had in my ATV. I figured I better find a source and soon or be walking through the desert (not my preferred choice of movement, nor likely yours). So, I tried to ask on help a few times. Apparently the GM in the help channel was having difficulty with a few individuals as he kept muting the channel to all players. At first, I tried to be understanding... he has a tough job and had to deal with it as best he could. He kept muting and unmuting the channel and I was getting worked up over typing my question over and over to have the channel muted when I hit enter. I finally got a simple, why don't you mute the players, not the channel in when I decided to log for a few hours. I blamed the entire issue on my logging in when the kids who lied about their age were online (in reality, the problem was probably people whose age far exceeds their maturity).
A few hours later, I logged back in. Asked in help channel where I could find a garage and finally after a few immature replies, one person private tells me to follow the road out of the starter town. So, I set off, hoping to pass a station soon. Watching my fuel go down as I went further away, I began to panic a bit. I had passed agro mobs and never bothered to determine their level, if I were to run out of fuel, it could be a LONG trek back with potential if not certain death. I came along a small town, where I checked the map thoroughly for the Fuel and Feed Merchant I had been told of. No luck, I dismounted my ATV and checked the vendors, just in case I did not understand that naming convention. I did discover that the science vendor could teach me how to make fuel but my science skill had to be 30 and I have not trained it as yet. I marked this on my handwritten map (sorry, old D&D player here, I keep my own set of notes for reference) and set off.
Alas, I come upon a town called Oilville. The name sounds promising. I come to the gate, and hit a wall HARD! I don't mean a pixel wall, I mean a wall of lag. This town is loaded with people and the lagmmonster is on my back. I check my computer to see if I am running a virus scan to no avail. I check the internet connection, checks out okay. This is not a client issue, this is a server side issue. I pull out my printed copy of the game manual and make the suggested changes to my computer (I will insert a visual here later). The changes are miraculous, the lagmonster beaten back and I am playing again.
I am finally able dismount at the gate not wanting to expend any more fuel than I had already. I travel into town and discover on my map a Fuel and Food Merchant. At last, I am cooking with grease. Well, except for one small issue... the sordid topic of coin. I have little money available, though I have a backpack of tradeskill items. So, I load up my goodies, head to the local cafeteria and start making goodies to sell. Hoping there is profit to make in using my characters time. I set up my crafting queue, realize I need to think about my crafting skills more carefully and head outside the town to try my hand at some of the mobs outside.
I find Prairie Chickens, one of my favorites, and quite delicious too! These are a bit bigger and higher level than those from my starter town. They are also much higher in level than I. Why not? I load my crossbow, let the bolt fly, good hit, critical area... oh no... he only lost about 1/4 of his hit points. This is not good. I back away quickly, reloading and firing as I go. The mob drops just before killing me. Not a good pull, but successful just the same. I realize my weapon is still the first crossbow I was given. Now I have a multitude of issues, low on fuel, low on money, crafting what I have to sell, and I need a better weapon.
With that, I decided to call it a night. Queue up some crafting and wait for my buddy to log in tomorrow.
I am still excited about the game, but I did have difficulties I was not prepared for. It's nothing that is new to any MMO player, but the lack of fuel and its cost is a real problem for early players. On the other hand, if they had not given me the freebie ATV, I would not have had a fuel issue to be concerned about. However, if they had not given me the starter ATV, I would have had to walk to oilville which I am VERY glad I did not have to do. It reminded me too much of the long walk from the starter Tauren village in WoW to the next one. It was long and boring. More later.
Tuscarora
BaptizedbyBullets.com
actually sounds interesting, because of the challenges... so few new games are challenging.
actually sounds interesting, because of the challenges... so few new games are challenging.
Without the ATV he would have had to buy a horse, horses are cheap.. about 7 blue chips.. which, when you first start out may seem like a ton, but in actuality by level 10 - 13 (for adventurers or successful crafters) its change. The challenge is there, for sure, but it all relies on your ability to know what you want to do from the beginning. Not starting with a clear vision of how you want to build your character can really make the game way more challenging then it already is.
First of all: great write up and cool that you like that game
Second of all: get back to the starter towns and do all missions you can, get a horse while you're there (cheaper on maintainance) do the quests for free skillbooks and level up your crafting a little more to be able to make better weapons and armor. Second day in Oilville is a little too soon and you are bound to die a lot as a low leveled rifle / x-bow character. (-60% pennalty against melee (as in: 99% of all the mobs in S1).
Last of all: It's fun to find out stuff for yourself so don't mind the above if you don't feel like it
My brand new bloggity blog.
Appreciate the tips actually. It is my intention to run back to the starter town again and finish up missions in them all. Someone offered to make me a free horse the other day, going to contact them and take them up on it.