Epsilon 5 Posted October 13, 2002 Report Posted October 13, 2002 Well Gamespot doesn't seem to like it
AWells Posted October 13, 2002 Report Posted October 13, 2002 Definitely a review I can agree with, at least from my Beta experiance. Never tried the retail product because there just wasn't enough substance to the game.
Commander Elio Jason Posted October 14, 2002 Report Posted October 14, 2002 well this is something future MMORPGs in space cna learn from. i was interested in this one at first but BCO mad eme forget it. besides. at least you know there are crew in your ship.
CommanderJohnson Posted October 14, 2002 Report Posted October 14, 2002 Well, since I don't think I need to care about the NDA anymore.... It was bad, even the retail part of the beta. That review hit it right on, but I just would have given it a lower score. One thing that it fails to mention though is the huge emphasis on levelling that arrogant people had, and probably still have (as in most massive multiplayer games). They are high level, they are powerful, and they get that way from wasting their time constantly hitting the "warp" or "fire" buttons. It's boring, it's repetitive, and you don't want to play it for more than 10 hours total, if that.
Epsilon 5 Posted October 15, 2002 Author Report Posted October 15, 2002 I found my MMOG home in Jumpgate, where I'm having a blast with my squad Jumpgate, as opposed to EnB, is hardly level based (there are levels but they only control what ship you can have, what you can buy, and what you're insured for). The game is about skill, and teamwork. Just today we had to go 3v1 to defeat some guy (he was good, Galactic escorting guild, pvp based), but at one time I was alone in a small Interceptor light fighter against his Intensity fighter - I was able to evade him for over 10 mins, until reinforcements arrived (my guns couldn't damage him fast enough to counter shield recharge) Hell, it takes SKILLS to mine faster - if you fly around an asteroid you'll mine faster than just standing there and shooting with the mining lasers - the faster you fly the faster you mine, but the higher the chance that you might kiss the roid ... (I lost costly equipment and artifacts that way) Me "simulating" docking at crazy speed Yup. you actually need to run into the docking tube. No more than 100 speed, or boom you go! [ 10-15-2002, 04:59 AM: Message edited by: Epsilon 5 ]
Supreme Cmdr Posted October 15, 2002 Report Posted October 15, 2002 Yep, Jumpgate is a far better game than this EnB travesty. All its [EnB] got is big publisher money and a massive marketing blitz. Thats how they [publishers] get you.
Kenada Posted October 15, 2002 Report Posted October 15, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Dredd: Well, since I don't think I need to care about the NDA anymore.... It was bad, even the retail part of the beta. That review hit it right on, but I just would have given it a lower score. One thing that it fails to mention though is the huge emphasis on levelling that arrogant people had, and probably still have (as in most massive multiplayer games). They are high level, they are powerful, and they get that way from wasting their time constantly hitting the "warp" or "fire" buttons. It's boring, it's repetitive, and you don't want to play it for more than 10 hours total, if that.i agree... this game just plan out sucked. i beta'ed it about 2 days and quit. just annoying to play i think. nothing new and innovative.
Supreme Cmdr Posted October 30, 2002 Report Posted October 30, 2002 Someone sent me an excerpt to a posting about EnB. They wanted me to prepared for the bum rush when BCO goes live. Still waiting for the person to send me the URL to where he found this unsurprising titbit. quote: EARTH & BEYOND FINAL BETA STRUGGLES On Saturday, 9/14, the final beta of Earth & Beyond went live, beset with last minute difficulties and irritating bugs. The Westwood team worked through most of Saturday, finally getting the first two servers fully functional late in the afternoon. Unfortunately, they failed to correctly estimates how many people would try the "full" game for nothing more than the cost of a 1GB download! Within minutes, gamers overran the initial two servers ("Galaxies" in E&B parlance), choking the "newbie zones" with huge crowds. Westwood techs struggled into the evening to get a third server launched, only to see it fill up by midday Sunday, necessitating launch of a fourth server Sunday evening. Server software and logic was not fully prepared for high load operation. Players frequently suffered crashes and dropped connections as servers lost contact with players in the crowd. This was especially true at key space stations. Although E&B has 18 "newbie garden" starting areas per server, these all connect to just three "choke points" in the Sol System (at Earth, Mars, and Jupiter). Here players frequently complained of huge lag times, graphics crashes, and dropped connections. The "trader" characters, who visit space stations frequently to buy, sell, and build items, found it especially difficult to remain in the game. Westwood's mistake of underestimating demand for free play of this heavily promoted MMORPG was compounded by their failure to bring up new servers fast enough. On Monday they revealed a new policy of "locking the doors" to a server at 2800 users. Unfortunately, E&B servers were clearly lagging even with 2500 users, and there is no limit to the number of characters per server, so players who create characters in slow times may find themselves unable to use them during peak periods. Needless to say, nothing will drive away paying customers faster than a policy that prevents them from playing their character! After over a year of missteps that were poorly received by gamers, such as Majestic and Motor City Online, EA seems unprepared for success. Having enough servers to handle the load when the game went live on September 24th would be extremely important. Just as important are the load and limit policies EA adopts for paying customers, since a game's early reputation will haunt it for the rest of its natural life, as Funcom discovered in Anarchy Online. Avid players are discovering that even on the least populated server, gamers are frequently disconnected, or crashed to their desktop, for no apparent reason. With the recent launch last month, Westwood programmers are still hard pressed to discover, fix, and test their fixes to these nagging but important problems. Will Earth & Beyond become another launch disaster, like last year's SciFi contender Anarchy Online? We will know shortly.
Epsilon 5 Posted October 31, 2002 Author Report Posted October 31, 2002 WHAT?? they haven't fixed the lag?? man at 1200 people the beta server was laggy to hell.
Supreme Cmdr Posted October 31, 2002 Report Posted October 31, 2002 Whoa Nelly!! Take a look at this list of fixes for the massive patch they just released! And you guys thought my patches were major. And this is a fully-funded, massively staffed team. And we are what? Four programmers (with me being the single lead)?
Epsilon 5 Posted October 31, 2002 Author Report Posted October 31, 2002 boy ... quote:We've adjusted the level of mobs which pop out of asteroids while they're being prospected. Now they are based on the prospector's combat level. You shouldn't have difficulties fighting or evading mobs when you're prospecting in asteroid fields that contain resources of a level that is within two levels of your Prospect Skill.Oh I remember that .. my puny jenquai explorer would mine some copper (basic ore) out of a roid and a LEVEL 75 enemy would pop out. What happens? everyone flee, 3 dies. At leasts it disappears after a while. If we're lucky a high-level warrior is around and can come and kill it. There's alot of stuff in there they should have fixed LOONG ago.
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