Earth & Beyond Beta

[CommanderJohnson]

Yeah, if they have rules based space combat, it'll have to be like E&B. Some people like that, but the fan base will sharply decline at some point when the older players get sick of being so powerful, and the newer players stop coming because they are so weak and hate the fact the game caters to the people playing for 50 hours a week. That's why real-time combat is good....it's your skill, not how much time you play.

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dredd:

Yeah, if they have rules based space combat, it'll have to be like E&B. Some people like that, but the fan base will sharply decline at some point when the older players get sick of being so powerful, and the newer players stop coming because they are so weak and hate the fact the game caters to the people playing for 50 hours a week. That's why real-time combat is good....it's your skill, not how much time you play.

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Well .. personally I believe there should be a middle ground... I mean, just reduce how much your firepower increase from newbie to supergeek, but still, I'd like to have a little more raw strength overtime, yet, I must not be so powerful that attacking me is suicide.

But accesory skills (not directly related to combat) should stay at they are, or better. Over time, someone should become a l33t weapon builder or something, and either use that power to 0wn, to help his party or just make some money.

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dredd:

but the fan base will sharply decline at some point when the older players get sick of being so powerful, and the newer players stop coming because they are so weak and hate the fact the game caters to the people playing for 50 hours a week.

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heh, try telling that to the 400K+ EQ players

I suppose for fantasy RPGs, rule based combat is more appropriate. As a gamer from the old days, I really, truly don't see how rules games combat could possible compete with real-time combat. Maybe they know something that I don't. But, we'll just have to wait and see how E&B works out.

I dunno if Eve uses real-time combat (like Darkspace) or not. Anyone in the Beta?

[TARWMSRK]

quote:

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heh, try telling that to the 400K+ EQ players

I suppose for fantasy RPGs, rule based combat is more appropriate. As a gamer from the old days, I really, truly don't see how rules games combat could possible compete with real-time combat. Maybe they know something that I don't. But, we'll just have to wait and see how E&B works out.

I dunno if Eve uses real-time combat (like Darkspace) or not. Anyone in the Beta?

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Ive been told its more like a RTS-- ex: homeworld

[CommanderJohnson]

More people play counter-strike than Everquest...right?

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Carl Burning:

Ive been told its more like a RTS-- ex: homeworld

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ack! Thats right, I forgot.

[LordDavid]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dredd:

I'll post more once I know LordDavid hasn't been kicked out

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Well, I haven't been kicked out yet, but then again, I haven't even tried the game since before my last post in this thread. I just don't care to play it.... (yawn). Now, back to playing more BCM.

[Charles Lindsey]

Just got a "confirmation" email asking if I still want to participate. Don't think that means I have actually been asked to join yet. I will have to respond.

It could mean they are just keeping in touch with those interested.

Or; it could mean people are bailing out left and right and they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Hehe. Shame on me.

I might like it. Who knows?

[Epsilon 5]

Everquest in space. fun at first, sucks after a while.

[Supreme Cmdr]

heh, nabbed this off the web

quote:

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Beta testers for the upcoming massively-multiplayer space game from Westwood Studios, Earth and Beyond, seem to be done with the game. In a game where levelling is quite easy, there is no player vs. player combat, and lacking completely in any unique qualities, the game that's been in development for over 4 years is said to be dead before it's even released. Testers have been reportedly quitting in droves, with EA/Westwood even offering them the ability to bring their beta test characters over into the official release version, once it hits stores. A sign of desperation? You decide. But with competitors Star Wars Galaxies and EVE: The Second Genesis looming on the horizon, the future does not bode well for Earth and Beyond.

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[Guest Grayfox]

wow... they havent conatcted me yet, so they cant be too desperate

i think they drained the C&C well too many times... mine, build, rinse, repeat... gets old after awhile.

[Unforgiven_Killer]

The new C&C Generals looks pretty good...but all RTS games are the same...some have little differents..but its nothing too big..

As for E&B ..its no surprise... The game didnt look that great...nor did its ships...most likely it will explode with a bunch of people buying it and playing it..but within 2 months it will die...

[Epsilon 5]

The biggest mistake they made is when they implanted the EXP debt after you get killed. now people are afraid to fight. Man I was once part of a 6 player group, I'm level 50 and the others are around 60-70. We're fighting level 60 enemies, one dies, we ALL flee instantaneously.

Normally, we used to fight until we were all dead (and it was fun, many exps and good loot). Oh and you should hear the screaming when people die because an enemy was too close to the exit point of a gate and was killing all the new people in the sector. I died 6 times in a row that way once, only way to my destination, making a trade run....

Oh, and also when they made so that low enemies compared to you give less or no exps. Now levelling is too hard. As a level ~40-50 player, I used to go and mass hunt level ~25 enemies, but now they're worthless. to have good exps I must hunt ~35-40 enemies, but enemies always flock in large packs (from 10 to 25, depending on how unlucky you are), and I can only beat 1 or 2 of them before needing to flee (low shields)....

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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Originally posted by Unforgiven_Killer:

As for E&B ..its no surprise... The game didnt look that great...nor did its ships...most likely it will explode with a bunch of people buying it and playing it..but within 2 months it will die...

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Well it actually looks pretty nice, graphics are not cutting edge, but they are more than decent... except for the *cough* planets *cough*. But I played for about 3 weeks, and, well, got bored.

Kill an enemy, get exp, get loot, kill more enemies, get more loot, more exps, get level ups, get bigger guns and stuff, kill bigger enemies, get bigger loot, bigger exps, get more levels, bigger reactors, and stuff ....

Fighting :

1 - find target

2 - jump to target

case bored = false

do

3 - face target

4 - get in range

break;

case bored = true

do

5 - engage autopilot

break;

6 - do (target_health - weapon_damage)

fire_guns

while (target_health > 0)

7 - get exps and loot.

8 - goto 1

you get the picture.

[Supreme Cmdr]

You see, thats the problem with MMOG games. It all boils down to a treadmill (nice algo there btw )

When you are playing an mp game in which your stats aren't saved i.e. you only get to play for a few hours...and come back another day, its different.

But when you have an MMOG where it gets to be repetive, it takes a special kind of person to keep playing it.

The problem with space games is that there isn't much of a variety outside of destroying things or trading. Think about it, there's really not much else you can do in a space game, is there?

Hence the reason I keep dreaming up more and more ludicrous things to put into the BC games in order to provide a variety. It truly is a tough call, but only the folks burning millions of dollars on games like this, don't know that.

It all boils down to design really.

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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The problem with space games is that there isn't much of a variety outside of destroying things or trading. Think about it, there's really not much else you can do in a space game, is there?

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Well that depends. The problem is that everything is made too simple. What if different stations required different types of items, depending on it's specialty (e.g. research, industrial production, food processing, drydock), so there would be a a demand / offer sheme, pretty much like current economic? Let's say Alderon got too much heat in combat, everyone would then rush t the station to be able to sell repair materials and equipment for a flaming hot price, since the demand would be great. But then the prices would drop as the station have too much, and then would need something else, or another station elsewhere would require certain type of items. And considering stations can / will be owned by players / organisations, the demand could vary even more.

What if destroying REALLY had an effect on the world? Hell a great raider killing tons of military starships would get tons of people after him (npcs or pcs), and could figure on that race's top ten wanted people, and players would get a bounty for killing him (hmm bounty hunters ...), or even then could be requested ALIVE , and then increase its status within the concerned military, getting lower prices on weapon systems at their stations, etc etc etc...

It's all about the abstract complexity.

That's pretty what you meant, huh?

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Epsilon 5:

That's pretty what you meant, huh?

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No. I don't have f*cking what you're talking about - nor what your post has to do with what I wrote.

[ 08-27-2002, 05:53 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

quote:

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Originally posted by Epsilon 5:

That's pretty what you meant, huh?

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No. I don't have f*cking what you're talking about - nor what your post has to do with what I wrote.

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*sigh*

I meant that in a way, trade, combat and explorations are the only thoings you can do in space. Thing is, those things are the root of 3 branches of what you can specifically do, and the "branches" are too short in most games, too simple. It just lacks complexity, and with greater complexity comes greater possibilities, such as what I said in my previous post.

[CommanderJohnson]

I played the Beta for awhile, but it has the really bad habit of getting extremely old, and letting the beta people bring in their chars is just going to scare off more new players than anything else when it's released.

[Epsilon 5]

Everyone is waiting for pvp

[CommanderJohnson]

Gee, that's just genius. Lets take the level 100 people that are going to be in the game carried over from beta, and let them start blowing up all the level 10 players from the other factions. I wonder how long E & B is going to last past release date?

[Wolferz]

*bump*

D/L'ing this 800+ Meg beast now.

Have a report for you tomorrow.

I wonder if I'm bound by an NDA?

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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Originally posted by Wolferz:

*bump*

D/L'ing this 800+ Meg beast now.

Have a report for you tomorrow.

I wonder if I'm bound by an NDA?

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*grin* a 800 download, but about 750 megs worth of auto-updating (patching) if they haven't updated the download files.

Yes, there's an NDA, but who cares?

[Wolferz]

310Meg update.

With DSL, it only took 4 hours to D/L the executable and 2 hours to get the update.

And last but not least, a half an hour to come to the conclusion that this game blows CHUNKS!

[Supreme Cmdr]

LMAO!!!

Why can't someone give ME $5m to do a game?