[BLOG] Firefall Patch 0.701694 Lands With Big Changes And Pr

[Kemosaabi]

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As is becoming typical of Fridays, Firefall introduced a new patch today, making some much needed changes to the game.



Today marks the beginning of the first promotional period we've seen in the open beta of Firefall. This weekend, starting August 19th, 17:00 GMT, through August 11th, all crystite rewards (the in game currency) will be doubled. There is also a “sale” running on the advanced battleframes where they will only cost 7 pilot tokens, instead of the standard 10. Both of these moves are probably in response to the criticism the game has been receiving for not making the advanced battleframes, which are generally a requirement for effective PvP, more easily available for everyone. Character progression has been described as “grindy” and players are getting scared off of the game by the amount of PvE required to unlock these features. It will be interesting to see how effective this is at placating players' worries.



In addition to the promotion, Red 5 has made a number of other, more permanent changes to early gameplay. Most notably, the early ARES missions in the game have been made easier to manage by beginning players. This has been a big complaint in the game's forums. Players are coming in, expecting to run missions that are listed as being solo appropriate, and getting completely blown away. While, it will be nice to have the game be more accessible, I hate to see any game that's manageable get easier. Another big step for beginning players comes in the form of each battleframe now starting with three of its four abilities. This will make the early game much easier to get into, as players are no longer limited to just running and shooting until they have enough experience to unlock the abilities.



PvP saw a big update this week with the addition of a leaderboard. Red 5 has made it very clear that they want Firefall to be the next big thing in eSports, and giving players the ability to track their progress, and really understand where they stand in the competition is a big leap towards that goal. Nothing quite inspires players to get competitive like seeing just how many others are above him.



It seems clear that Firefall is having trouble attracting and retaining gamers who want a more forgiving early game, and is taking steps to resolve them. While it is nice to see them respond so readily to problems, it is a little concerning that the game is in danger of being watered down for those of us who love a good challenge. It's still far too early to make any accurate predictions of what features will make it to the final product, but the response of Red 5 to the players concerns has been admirable so far, so I can only imagine what lies in store for the future of this game.



The full patch notes are viewable here.

[Lonesamurai]

I must admit, I found the early game in the earlier betas to be fairly easy, but the controls and the tutorial difficult to follow (it's a balance that has killed off many an MMO)

It will be interesting later today when I get in game to see how they've changed things and if it is a good change or not

I'm a little surprised about the PvP quarrels though, but maybe WoW and Guild Wars have given more hardcore MMOPvPers a guide they expect all MMO's to now follow and let people be competitive straight away, which 99% of the time is not realistic