I tried the game out a few months ago, compelled by the idea of open-world PvP, but a few things caused me to uninstall before investing any considerable amount of time in it:
1. Character Models: I don't mind stylistic and "cartoony" graphics at all, but the character models in this game just kind of creeped me out, particularly the female, which looked like a guy in drag. Combined with the lack of customization, it was just too hard to get invested in my character.
2. Performance: At least when I played a while back, the lag and rubberbanding was so bad that I couldn't imagine being able to enjoy the PvP.
3. Two faction system: We all know three factions work best. Why developers continue to ignore this is completely beyond me.
4. Annoying quest system: I found myself lost on a number of occasions. I don't mind having to pay attention to know what I need to do next, but deciphering poorly-written directions to find some random non-descript NPC in a huge parking-lot of a city just isn't my idea of fun. Some people have this weird notion that a lack of quest location indicators is engaging and intellectually rewarding...it's not. Figuring out a puzzle or strategizing an attack plan is intellectually challenging and rewarding, roaming around a lifeless city hoping to bump into an NPC in order to continue a pointless, tired, uninspired "fetch quest" is just tedious.
I may try it out again when the next patch goes live, but to be honest, it seems like quite a bit of development would have to go into this game for it to be enjoyable.
Example, in the city, walking/running on the flat ground/pavement, not texture or geometry changes involved. Fell through the world 3 times in 1 hour. That's a massive flaw. (Died 1st time, had to port out 2nd time, stuck 3rd time since the port hadn't cooled down yet.)
Also got really sick of getting ganked by some loser when I was talking to an npc (quest stuff or buy/selling junk). Basically, everywhere outside the city wall is kill anyone you want territory. I know for sure that at least one of them was a one-shot kill to my warrior type character with the heaviest armor available, so he had to be a much higher level than I was.
And the other posters are right, the graphics are 1990s quality, when they work right.
I'm willing to give a lot of slack to stuff in dev, but this thing is way behind the quality level it should be for open beta. I'd suggest leaving it alone. Now to say something nice... errr... ummm... uh, you character has wings.
Agree with others that the article was a bit bland for front page material.
Insofar as Faxion itself, last I checked, the open beta is actually under NDA. Which makes no sense to me. But then you've got a member of the team on here encouraging feedback?
What I will say is this: open-world PvP (whether its FFA or faction-based) does not work without a karma system. It doesn't work because high levels will always utterly annihilate lower levels. And since the lower levels (or even higher levels with inferior gear / skills) can't meaningfully participate in the majority of the game, they stop playing. Goodbye population. Goodbye game.
What do I mean by Karma system some may ask? Ultima Online (and I believe darkfall also does this) is a perfect example. "Innocent" players are blue. If you attacked a blue player, you turned grey which then allowed others to attack you with impunity (i.e. without turning grey). However, a grey player eventually turned blue, so PvP was certainly still alive and well. However, if someone killed too many blue players, he became red, which was a permanent form of grey. Red players couldn't even visit most of UO's towns (without getting insta killed by guards), except for the outlaw one.
I am amazed that so many games have tried open-world PvP without a similar karma system in place. It is absolutely essential because it strongly discourages high levels from ganging up on low levels. Why turn grey, or red, for very minor loot? And, with the case of the outlaw town, it forced the heavy PvPers together. Perfect!
Here's Faxion: a heavy PvP game where, to even meaningfully PvP, you need to grind/PvE to max level.
Seriously, what is the problem with the graphics talk? Games developed are meant for everyone to try and surely Faxion will have its core player base build up no matter how 1990s the graphics most of you think about.
Hate the graphics much? Just walk away, let those who wanted to try comes in. I work in CG Industry for long enough to hunger for pretty visuals but i am still enjoying DAOC which have horrible walking animation and stale combat animation.
No matter what, IGNORE those bashing comments, try the game and let it do the talking.
Cheers for coming here and making your voice heard, Xanther. I wish more game devs had a fraction of your courage and integrity. Shadowbane was my first true MMO love and probably always will be.
That said, I just couldn't feel the same attachment to Faxion. Graphics wise it feels like I have once again walked into SB during the Rise of Chaos days. Game mechanics wise it feels too much like other games that usurped my beloved SB while at the same time being less perfect and shiny.
Now I'm not saying Faxion is a bad game. Just that it seems many of we MMO players, even those of us who profess to be dyed in the wool, diehard, oldschool sandbox MMO players, seem to be suffering from MMO "Stockholm Syndrome" and refuse to accept ANY game if we don't find it to be absolutely shiny and perfect. So frankly "bleep" us and our warped and spoiled opinions. Keep making the game YOU guys want to make.
If however you really really want to hear my thoughts, even after I've explained the somehwhat spurious value of them, then my two cents would be to stop trying to be so much like the major game that is already out there rampaging across the MMO scene like a juggernaught, and more like the games that came before.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
But the repetitive pve grind and no destructible assets - makes this game a non starter for me.
This alone is the reason people quit Shadowbane sooner or later. Guilds/nations had 'farm groups', people who spent hours of grinding, so they could pay the upkeep and expand their city. Only to find out it'd all be destroyed a week from now because they did not belong to this massive alliance that destroys anything that's not with them.
An alliance which sooner or later would quit the game too, because they had crushed all competition. Nothing left to crush; cancelled subs. The 'crushed ones'; cancelled subs. People need to be able to fight and acutally hurt the ones the beat, but no to such extent that everything the losing side had done for the past few weeks/months, would simply be no more.
I was a member of Silent Tribe, with our capital Colossa. We had over 1500 people bound to our city, only to be sieged in the middle of the night, having all our non-protected buildings destroyed. The opposing side? The cowardly House of Lok-Ri and it's allies who switched sides and the Lords of Death and their allies. Where you once had 3 'factions', all of a sudden 2 would join up against the third. Needles to say the Lords of Death crushed the silly Elven alliance soon after... also after a very 'lowly' tactic; logging into the account of a Lok-Ri officer and using it to delete any available assets. Well deserved for all I care, but a lowly thing to do.
Not only did we get defeated, not only did the Elves get defeated, but soon after the entire server had been 'defeated' for it had become a ghost server.
Hey i´ve tried it and it it is buggy and very simple game. In my opinion, avoid it, waste of time and you can find other that is better . Look for other games if you wish to play "recently"
Agree with others that the article was a bit bland for front page material.
Insofar as Faxion itself, last I checked, the open beta is actually under NDA. Which makes no sense to me. But then you've got a member of the team on here encouraging feedback?
What I will say is this: open-world PvP (whether its FFA or faction-based) does not work without a karma system. It doesn't work because high levels will always utterly annihilate lower levels. And since the lower levels (or even higher levels with inferior gear / skills) can't meaningfully participate in the majority of the game, they stop playing. Goodbye population. Goodbye game.
What do I mean by Karma system some may ask? Ultima Online (and I believe darkfall also does this) is a perfect example. "Innocent" players are blue. If you attacked a blue player, you turned grey which then allowed others to attack you with impunity (i.e. without turning grey). However, a grey player eventually turned blue, so PvP was certainly still alive and well. However, if someone killed too many blue players, he became red, which was a permanent form of grey. Red players couldn't even visit most of UO's towns (without getting insta killed by guards), except for the outlaw one.
I am amazed that so many games have tried open-world PvP without a similar karma system in place. It is absolutely essential because it strongly discourages high levels from ganging up on low levels. Why turn grey, or red, for very minor loot? And, with the case of the outlaw town, it forced the heavy PvPers together. Perfect!
Here's Faxion: a heavy PvP game where, to even meaningfully PvP, you need to grind/PvE to max level.
It is absolutely untrrue that you need to grind/PVE to max level in order to meaningfully PVP. To state that it does means you don't understand the game at all. In fact, Faxion is the only PVP game I know of that's so incredibly friendly to casual players while still letting them be competitive. As an example, my main character is level 41, with less than 40 total hours played, but over 600 hours of offline skill training. I don't get to actively play often, but I try to remember to login every day and queue up some skills to train while I'm at work. This helps me stay very competitive, at least in terms of skill ranks. I also disagree that a karma system is necessary. The real issues, as I see them are twofold:
Lack of players - there simply aren't enough players online for meaningful pvp within most players' level ranges. You got killed by a high-level opposite faction character because you were soloing in a PvP zone. You were killed in a game where the only death penalty is a slight loss to the durability of your equipment and a short run back from your respawn crypt so you could pick right back up again. You don't lose experience, items, reputation, anything. You can't even really be spawn-camped, because you have multiple exits from the crypts to entirely different sections of the zone. So what's the problem?
Lack of content and battle incentives for higher levels players. As such, for those players who've reached max level, there isn't much for them to do...
Faxion is still very much a work in progress. Unlike other "open beta" games, Faxion's open beta isn't a "we're all done, this is a free sneak preview so you pre-order the game" marketing beta. The game is still in a very active development and testing cycle as evidenced by the huge patch today - major skill tweaks as well as new features, including new combat incentives. Eventually, there will be even further options like inter-guild conflict and potentially destructible assets.
Don't get me wrong - I like the game and I personally know somebody who works for UTV Ignition, but I'm not going to blow sunshine up your ass and tell you it's perfect. It's not. Faxion needs work. That being said, as somebody who takes beta testing seriously, I do my best to help test it, identify bugs, provided feedback and suggestions, etc.. Since the game is still officially in "beta", that's what everybody else should be doing, too - helping test it to make it a better game for when it launches. This isn't just "another free game"...
Hey i´ve tried it and it it is buggy and very simple game. In my opinion, avoid it, waste of time and you can find other that is better . Look for other games if you wish to play "recently"
Score 2/10
Please define "simple"? Is the PvP combat simple, or did you not get to epxerience it? It also has one of the most elaborate skill systems I've seen of any recent games. Is that simple, too? If all you did was play a level or two in the newbie pve zone, then yes, I could see how you would think it was simple.
~Ripper
OzzallosRunes of Magic CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 35
Originally posted by zigmund
The only reason Faxion is not getting the "player press" a game needs to get noticed is because it's nothing like Shadowbane, it's bug infested, graphics from the 1990's, horrible UI, lacks good game mechanics and has a host of other problems. So yes it's free, people try it for a few days and then uninstall it.Faxion needs 6 months to another year of development time.
I've got nothing but agreement on this one. Faxion is incredibly rough in any way that matters. So rough that there's no way it would ever survive as a retail product. The original Quake almost has a better graphics engine. Sound makes me cringe. After that, the gameplay isn't something you can't replicate on half a dozen better looking/feeling/playing MMOs found advertised on this very site.
Games like this just don't deserve your dollars until they show the effort.
I'm at purgatory, but the game seems old. Old graphic,, old way to play, old map system, boring quest system (a la WoW), and so on. There are some cool ideas, but as a tech point of view this game is horrible. If they will solve all tech problems (ìthe first one is the client) can become a great game.
OzzallosRunes of Magic CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 35
That actually makes it sadder. Even worse because they implimented it so horrendously that it ceases to matter. That alone should be a huge red flag to avoid at all costs.
And this is open beta. The game is all but set in stone for release if past experience is any indication.
That actually makes it sadder. Even worse because they implimented it so horrendously that it ceases to matter. That alone should be a huge red flag to avoid at all costs.
And this is open beta. The game is all but set in stone for release if past experience is any indication.
I've been playing since alpha. I was worried about bad player perception when open beta was announced, because open beta for most current games tends to be a marketing ploy to get players to pre-order the game, which is essentially "done". I'm happy to say that's not the case with Faxion. it's still very much a work in progress. For Faxion, "Open Beta" truly means it's still in beta. Since open beta began, there have been a couple of pretty significant patches that dramatically altered existing play. It's clear to those of us who've been testing it that open beta for Faxion is simply a way to get more testers into the game - after all, unless you're a big budget game like Rift or DCUO, how do you get adequate numbers of players to test your game anymore, especially if it's primary focus is factional PvP?
Perception's a pain, though. Even though the game is still in heavy development, most players who join now aren't doing so because of a desire to test and help it be better. Theyr'e doing so because they're looking for a new game to actually play. Faxion's not done, isn't polished and needs a lot of work and optimization still. As such, it doesn't meet their preconcieved notions of what it should be and they dismiss it.
That being said, there are definitely a few things I would have liked to have seen before the game was opened up for public testing:
Performance optimization - while I think the game runs acceptably well on my old laptop, players with machines better than mine have reported worse performance. When you log in to a game for the first time, especially under the perception that it's "done" and performance sucks, that's not a good thing
New player experience - Faxion's a PvP game. Almost every zone in the game is PvP and the actual PvP is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, new players begin in a large city with a lot of standard FedEx and Kill Ten Rats PvE quests that can be completed without ever stepping into a PvP zone. That really doens't give any true impression on what the core game is actually about. I'd much rather see most of hte quests force the players out into PvP areas from the very beginning.
Graphics settings - as of right now, some of the game's graphics settings don't work (high, med or low textures), there are some settings that aren't exposed in game (Antialiasing and vertical sync) and others that can't be modified at all (bloom). Additionally, some settings aren't fully tuned (dynamic shadows). New players login to the game for the first time without any Antialiasing and--unless they changed resolution at the launch or character selection screen--at a pretty low resolution. As such, their immediate perception is that graphcs are worse than they are, from a technical perspective.
Those three things would go a long ways to making a much better impression on new testers than what exists today, IMO. As for the graphical style of the game, irrespective of the technical issues mentioned above, there's no pleasing everybody. The "90's" comments are absurd, of course. Personally, I like the game's graphics. I think the world is very stylelized and each zone has a very unique identifying theme. I also don't mind the absurdly cartoonihs character models. I think they fit in well with the theme of the game, which is irreverent and wacky. Then again, I play with Antialising, which makes a world of difference.
~Ripper
OzzallosRunes of Magic CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 35
Sure, whatever you say.
You can quote giant walls of text all day long, but that doesn't change the fact that it's just horrid for something they're actually exposing to the public, not just a limited test group. And hey, I love cartoony style graphics too and I even applaud them for stylizing their game, but that doesn't make up for the fact that that a game in this condition should have never been released to the public regardless of how you want to define 'open beta'
I mean you can quibble over the meaning of beta all day long, but that fact remains, and it's already costing them in terms of press as this thread clearly indicates.
Whenever I see F2P red lights start to flash in front of my eyes. To many disappointments from past.
This is something we took into account when we first began to develop Faxion because some of us had similar experiences. We have made every effort to design and develop Faxion towards the interests of PvPers and what they would find acceptable in a Free-to-play modeled MMORPG.
As a fellow PvPer myself, as is the entire design team over here, it's hugely important to us to allow the players who want to play for free the ability to compete with players who have purchased in-game tokens to improve their character. We're selling time and convenience to players, not unbalancing power and gear.
Some examples of this:
Tokens can be spent to speed up ability ranking.
All items that are sold on the item shop are of equal power to what can be found in the game.
All zones and world locations are accessible by all players. No velvet ropes to content.
I can go on and on about this, but it might be better if I answer any questions you have about what is and isn't affected by spending money in Faxion.
Comments
I tried the game out a few months ago, compelled by the idea of open-world PvP, but a few things caused me to uninstall before investing any considerable amount of time in it:
1. Character Models: I don't mind stylistic and "cartoony" graphics at all, but the character models in this game just kind of creeped me out, particularly the female, which looked like a guy in drag. Combined with the lack of customization, it was just too hard to get invested in my character.
2. Performance: At least when I played a while back, the lag and rubberbanding was so bad that I couldn't imagine being able to enjoy the PvP.
3. Two faction system: We all know three factions work best. Why developers continue to ignore this is completely beyond me.
4. Annoying quest system: I found myself lost on a number of occasions. I don't mind having to pay attention to know what I need to do next, but deciphering poorly-written directions to find some random non-descript NPC in a huge parking-lot of a city just isn't my idea of fun. Some people have this weird notion that a lack of quest location indicators is engaging and intellectually rewarding...it's not. Figuring out a puzzle or strategizing an attack plan is intellectually challenging and rewarding, roaming around a lifeless city hoping to bump into an NPC in order to continue a pointless, tired, uninspired "fetch quest" is just tedious.
I may try it out again when the next patch goes live, but to be honest, it seems like quite a bit of development would have to go into this game for it to be enjoyable.
Tried it, got fed up with bugs and other issues.
Example, in the city, walking/running on the flat ground/pavement, not texture or geometry changes involved. Fell through the world 3 times in 1 hour. That's a massive flaw. (Died 1st time, had to port out 2nd time, stuck 3rd time since the port hadn't cooled down yet.)
Also got really sick of getting ganked by some loser when I was talking to an npc (quest stuff or buy/selling junk). Basically, everywhere outside the city wall is kill anyone you want territory. I know for sure that at least one of them was a one-shot kill to my warrior type character with the heaviest armor available, so he had to be a much higher level than I was.
And the other posters are right, the graphics are 1990s quality, when they work right.
I'm willing to give a lot of slack to stuff in dev, but this thing is way behind the quality level it should be for open beta. I'd suggest leaving it alone. Now to say something nice... errr... ummm... uh, you character has wings.
Lost my mind, now trying to lose yours...
Agree with others that the article was a bit bland for front page material.
Insofar as Faxion itself, last I checked, the open beta is actually under NDA. Which makes no sense to me. But then you've got a member of the team on here encouraging feedback?
What I will say is this: open-world PvP (whether its FFA or faction-based) does not work without a karma system. It doesn't work because high levels will always utterly annihilate lower levels. And since the lower levels (or even higher levels with inferior gear / skills) can't meaningfully participate in the majority of the game, they stop playing. Goodbye population. Goodbye game.
What do I mean by Karma system some may ask? Ultima Online (and I believe darkfall also does this) is a perfect example. "Innocent" players are blue. If you attacked a blue player, you turned grey which then allowed others to attack you with impunity (i.e. without turning grey). However, a grey player eventually turned blue, so PvP was certainly still alive and well. However, if someone killed too many blue players, he became red, which was a permanent form of grey. Red players couldn't even visit most of UO's towns (without getting insta killed by guards), except for the outlaw one.
I am amazed that so many games have tried open-world PvP without a similar karma system in place. It is absolutely essential because it strongly discourages high levels from ganging up on low levels. Why turn grey, or red, for very minor loot? And, with the case of the outlaw town, it forced the heavy PvPers together. Perfect!
Here's Faxion: a heavy PvP game where, to even meaningfully PvP, you need to grind/PvE to max level.
Hrm, I suppose they could have completely walked away from the very premise of the game (good vs evil) and added a third choice. How about... Canada?
Seriously, what is the problem with the graphics talk? Games developed are meant for everyone to try and surely Faxion will have its core player base build up no matter how 1990s the graphics most of you think about.
Hate the graphics much? Just walk away, let those who wanted to try comes in. I work in CG Industry for long enough to hunger for pretty visuals but i am still enjoying DAOC which have horrible walking animation and stale combat animation.
No matter what, IGNORE those bashing comments, try the game and let it do the talking.
Naah, Switzerland would be better.
"There are only 2 things I hate, people who are intollerant of other peoples cultures... ... ... and the Dutch".
Austin Power's Father
Work hard Play Harder
Cheers for coming here and making your voice heard, Xanther. I wish more game devs had a fraction of your courage and integrity. Shadowbane was my first true MMO love and probably always will be.
That said, I just couldn't feel the same attachment to Faxion. Graphics wise it feels like I have once again walked into SB during the Rise of Chaos days. Game mechanics wise it feels too much like other games that usurped my beloved SB while at the same time being less perfect and shiny.
Now I'm not saying Faxion is a bad game. Just that it seems many of we MMO players, even those of us who profess to be dyed in the wool, diehard, oldschool sandbox MMO players, seem to be suffering from MMO "Stockholm Syndrome" and refuse to accept ANY game if we don't find it to be absolutely shiny and perfect. So frankly "bleep" us and our warped and spoiled opinions. Keep making the game YOU guys want to make.
If however you really really want to hear my thoughts, even after I've explained the somehwhat spurious value of them, then my two cents would be to stop trying to be so much like the major game that is already out there rampaging across the MMO scene like a juggernaught, and more like the games that came before.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
This alone is the reason people quit Shadowbane sooner or later. Guilds/nations had 'farm groups', people who spent hours of grinding, so they could pay the upkeep and expand their city. Only to find out it'd all be destroyed a week from now because they did not belong to this massive alliance that destroys anything that's not with them.
An alliance which sooner or later would quit the game too, because they had crushed all competition. Nothing left to crush; cancelled subs. The 'crushed ones'; cancelled subs. People need to be able to fight and acutally hurt the ones the beat, but no to such extent that everything the losing side had done for the past few weeks/months, would simply be no more.
I was a member of Silent Tribe, with our capital Colossa. We had over 1500 people bound to our city, only to be sieged in the middle of the night, having all our non-protected buildings destroyed. The opposing side? The cowardly House of Lok-Ri and it's allies who switched sides and the Lords of Death and their allies. Where you once had 3 'factions', all of a sudden 2 would join up against the third. Needles to say the Lords of Death crushed the silly Elven alliance soon after... also after a very 'lowly' tactic; logging into the account of a Lok-Ri officer and using it to delete any available assets. Well deserved for all I care, but a lowly thing to do.
Not only did we get defeated, not only did the Elves get defeated, but soon after the entire server had been 'defeated' for it had become a ghost server.
Hey i´ve tried it and it it is buggy and very simple game. In my opinion, avoid it, waste of time and you can find other that is better . Look for other games if you wish to play "recently"
Score 2/10
It is absolutely untrrue that you need to grind/PVE to max level in order to meaningfully PVP. To state that it does means you don't understand the game at all. In fact, Faxion is the only PVP game I know of that's so incredibly friendly to casual players while still letting them be competitive. As an example, my main character is level 41, with less than 40 total hours played, but over 600 hours of offline skill training. I don't get to actively play often, but I try to remember to login every day and queue up some skills to train while I'm at work. This helps me stay very competitive, at least in terms of skill ranks. I also disagree that a karma system is necessary. The real issues, as I see them are twofold:
Lack of players - there simply aren't enough players online for meaningful pvp within most players' level ranges. You got killed by a high-level opposite faction character because you were soloing in a PvP zone. You were killed in a game where the only death penalty is a slight loss to the durability of your equipment and a short run back from your respawn crypt so you could pick right back up again. You don't lose experience, items, reputation, anything. You can't even really be spawn-camped, because you have multiple exits from the crypts to entirely different sections of the zone. So what's the problem?
Lack of content and battle incentives for higher levels players. As such, for those players who've reached max level, there isn't much for them to do...
Faxion is still very much a work in progress. Unlike other "open beta" games, Faxion's open beta isn't a "we're all done, this is a free sneak preview so you pre-order the game" marketing beta. The game is still in a very active development and testing cycle as evidenced by the huge patch today - major skill tweaks as well as new features, including new combat incentives. Eventually, there will be even further options like inter-guild conflict and potentially destructible assets.
Don't get me wrong - I like the game and I personally know somebody who works for UTV Ignition, but I'm not going to blow sunshine up your ass and tell you it's perfect. It's not. Faxion needs work. That being said, as somebody who takes beta testing seriously, I do my best to help test it, identify bugs, provided feedback and suggestions, etc.. Since the game is still officially in "beta", that's what everybody else should be doing, too - helping test it to make it a better game for when it launches. This isn't just "another free game"...
Please define "simple"? Is the PvP combat simple, or did you not get to epxerience it? It also has one of the most elaborate skill systems I've seen of any recent games. Is that simple, too? If all you did was play a level or two in the newbie pve zone, then yes, I could see how you would think it was simple.
~Ripper
I've got nothing but agreement on this one. Faxion is incredibly rough in any way that matters. So rough that there's no way it would ever survive as a retail product. The original Quake almost has a better graphics engine. Sound makes me cringe. After that, the gameplay isn't something you can't replicate on half a dozen better looking/feeling/playing MMOs found advertised on this very site.
Games like this just don't deserve your dollars until they show the effort.
Faxion hasn't.
I'm at purgatory, but the game seems old. Old graphic,, old way to play, old map system, boring quest system (a la WoW), and so on. There are some cool ideas, but as a tech point of view this game is horrible. If they will solve all tech problems (ìthe first one is the client) can become a great game.
My blog about (no more)MMORPG Addicted - a bog about videogames, cinema, politics and other things (in Italian)
That actually makes it sadder. Even worse because they implimented it so horrendously that it ceases to matter. That alone should be a huge red flag to avoid at all costs.
And this is open beta. The game is all but set in stone for release if past experience is any indication.
I've been playing since alpha. I was worried about bad player perception when open beta was announced, because open beta for most current games tends to be a marketing ploy to get players to pre-order the game, which is essentially "done". I'm happy to say that's not the case with Faxion. it's still very much a work in progress. For Faxion, "Open Beta" truly means it's still in beta. Since open beta began, there have been a couple of pretty significant patches that dramatically altered existing play. It's clear to those of us who've been testing it that open beta for Faxion is simply a way to get more testers into the game - after all, unless you're a big budget game like Rift or DCUO, how do you get adequate numbers of players to test your game anymore, especially if it's primary focus is factional PvP?
Perception's a pain, though. Even though the game is still in heavy development, most players who join now aren't doing so because of a desire to test and help it be better. Theyr'e doing so because they're looking for a new game to actually play. Faxion's not done, isn't polished and needs a lot of work and optimization still. As such, it doesn't meet their preconcieved notions of what it should be and they dismiss it.
That being said, there are definitely a few things I would have liked to have seen before the game was opened up for public testing:
Performance optimization - while I think the game runs acceptably well on my old laptop, players with machines better than mine have reported worse performance. When you log in to a game for the first time, especially under the perception that it's "done" and performance sucks, that's not a good thing
New player experience - Faxion's a PvP game. Almost every zone in the game is PvP and the actual PvP is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, new players begin in a large city with a lot of standard FedEx and Kill Ten Rats PvE quests that can be completed without ever stepping into a PvP zone. That really doens't give any true impression on what the core game is actually about. I'd much rather see most of hte quests force the players out into PvP areas from the very beginning.
Graphics settings - as of right now, some of the game's graphics settings don't work (high, med or low textures), there are some settings that aren't exposed in game (Antialiasing and vertical sync) and others that can't be modified at all (bloom). Additionally, some settings aren't fully tuned (dynamic shadows). New players login to the game for the first time without any Antialiasing and--unless they changed resolution at the launch or character selection screen--at a pretty low resolution. As such, their immediate perception is that graphcs are worse than they are, from a technical perspective.
Those three things would go a long ways to making a much better impression on new testers than what exists today, IMO. As for the graphical style of the game, irrespective of the technical issues mentioned above, there's no pleasing everybody. The "90's" comments are absurd, of course. Personally, I like the game's graphics. I think the world is very stylelized and each zone has a very unique identifying theme. I also don't mind the absurdly cartoonihs character models. I think they fit in well with the theme of the game, which is irreverent and wacky. Then again, I play with Antialising, which makes a world of difference.
~Ripper
Sure, whatever you say.
You can quote giant walls of text all day long, but that doesn't change the fact that it's just horrid for something they're actually exposing to the public, not just a limited test group. And hey, I love cartoony style graphics too and I even applaud them for stylizing their game, but that doesn't make up for the fact that that a game in this condition should have never been released to the public regardless of how you want to define 'open beta'
I mean you can quibble over the meaning of beta all day long, but that fact remains, and it's already costing them in terms of press as this thread clearly indicates.
Whenever I see F2P red lights start to flash in front of my eyes. To many disappointments from past.
This is something we took into account when we first began to develop Faxion because some of us had similar experiences. We have made every effort to design and develop Faxion towards the interests of PvPers and what they would find acceptable in a Free-to-play modeled MMORPG.
As a fellow PvPer myself, as is the entire design team over here, it's hugely important to us to allow the players who want to play for free the ability to compete with players who have purchased in-game tokens to improve their character. We're selling time and convenience to players, not unbalancing power and gear.
Some examples of this:
Tokens can be spent to speed up ability ranking.
All items that are sold on the item shop are of equal power to what can be found in the game.
All zones and world locations are accessible by all players. No velvet ropes to content.
I can go on and on about this, but it might be better if I answer any questions you have about what is and isn't affected by spending money in Faxion.
Brian "Xanther" Lucas
Faxion Designer
UTV Ignition Games