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flibulzbuth · 11-05-2002, 08:20 PM

I played the early beta for about 2 hours (way back in early 2001, or was it 2000?)... It didn't impress me.

Here's what i remember, and things might have changed since:

Most of all, forget about Freespace, X-Wing/Tie-fighter or any other space sim:
aiming is done automatically, you don't shoot just in front of you, you get a lock on the target as long as you can see it. So basically it's much like any other MMORPG where you step in front of the monster and press 'A'. Accuracy is related to a skill that improves with experience (bad, bad, verrry bad!).

3 classes of ships and three races:
- merchant (best race humans). A jack-of-all-trades doing Fedex missions.
- fighter (best race alien A). Think 'tank' as in any other mmorpg.
- Explorer (best race alien B), with stealth and other cool goodies (buffs and curses for the enemy). Support class or risky solo missions.

Ship is customizable.

Basically, it follows the same pattern than any other moorpg (AOM, from now on [img]smile.gif[/img] ): you begin in the noob zone, and as you power up, you can survive the next zone and have nothing to gain in the last one. You'll have loads of fun looting fallen enemies AOM. Once your cargo is full, head back to the base and sell what's not worth keeping...

What makes it different than AOM:
in space, it's tougher to keep the tanks in fronts and the healers-casters types in the back. So strategies are a bit more subtles.

Missions: (take this cargo from there to there, come back with a map of this area, go destroy ten zorkon rebel ships...) are, as they say for AOM, the core of the game. But it wasn't implemented yet when i played.

All the action is in the space, the humanoid character is only for the bases (no fighting there) which are made of merchants and mission machines, npcs. Basicaly big chat rooms to gather a party of adventurers.

But, things might have changed drastically since.

11-05-2002, 08:20 PM	#2
flibulzbuth Drow Warrior Join Date: April 6, 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 254	I played the early beta for about 2 hours (way back in early 2001, or was it 2000?)... It didn't impress me. Here's what i remember, and things might have changed since: Most of all, forget about Freespace, X-Wing/Tie-fighter or any other space sim: aiming is done automatically, you don't shoot just in front of you, you get a lock on the target as long as you can see it. So basically it's much like any other MMORPG where you step in front of the monster and press 'A'. Accuracy is related to a skill that improves with experience (bad, bad, verrry bad!). 3 classes of ships and three races: - merchant (best race humans). A jack-of-all-trades doing Fedex missions. - fighter (best race alien A). Think 'tank' as in any other mmorpg. - Explorer (best race alien B), with stealth and other cool goodies (buffs and curses for the enemy). Support class or risky solo missions. Ship is customizable. Basically, it follows the same pattern than any other moorpg (AOM, from now on [img]smile.gif[/img] ): you begin in the noob zone, and as you power up, you can survive the next zone and have nothing to gain in the last one. You'll have loads of fun looting fallen enemies AOM. Once your cargo is full, head back to the base and sell what's not worth keeping... What makes it different than AOM: in space, it's tougher to keep the tanks in fronts and the healers-casters types in the back. So strategies are a bit more subtles. Missions: (take this cargo from there to there, come back with a map of this area, go destroy ten zorkon rebel ships...) are, as they say for AOM, the core of the game. But it wasn't implemented yet when i played. All the action is in the space, the humanoid character is only for the bases (no fighting there) which are made of merchants and mission machines, npcs. Basicaly big chat rooms to gather a party of adventurers. But, things might have changed drastically since. __________________ Boo for president!