Global Agenda

Mantel

I've seen this advertised on steam a bit and a had a look through the trailers, it looks shiney enough but I can't tell if it's going to be worth it tbh. One of the main points that got me intrested is a Tribes reference. "Characters will have jetpacks, as well as various weapon types"

It's being billed as a massively-multiplayer online third-person shooter. Persistant worlds, guilds (agencies), holding locations to advance your agencies power/tech/etc. Sounds somewhat like planetside with extra tacked on with the option of a single purchase or montly payments for the MMO side of things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Agenda

Anyone in the beta/had a look at this? I'm intrested in the persistant world side of things but haven't heard enough to make my mind up about it.

Gunmonkey

Heard a bit about this from a guy in the beta a few months back. Sounds quite good, graphics arent too bad also.

What I dont know is it open world territory holding like Planetside or you enter a seperate area which is one of multiple versions with only the standard 12 a side teams like most online shooters??

Mantel

Gunmonkey wrote: »

What I dont know is it open world territory holding like Planetside or you enter a seperate area which is one of multiple versions with only the standard 12 a side teams like most online shooters??

Yes, it's kinda vague. From what I can see they're going to be intances that will vary in size. They've talked about 60v60 raid instances for example.

Gunmonkey

That could be either very cool or very ****, maps with too many people in it can become dull very quickly.

BeansBeans

Just started in the beta, bought the game yesterday. Playing as a robotics, its nice and quick to level. Its low on the MMO aspect, the armours are just aesthetic (although very very cool), there are upgrades you can craft and 3 skill trees per character.
There are hubs for players to go about their business, sell and buy from the auction house, buy dyes and stuff. The server set up is similar to guild wars.

The pve and pvp is instanced, but the game really is all about the pvp aspect being a twitch game. The AvA (Conquest) aspect (which you subscribe for) does look very interesting, they were running a conquest test last night and was looking at the map there were alliances fighting for territory and resources although i didnt enter it, not sure how . Its all instanced but its a lot of fun, very fast paced.
Will have to see if its worth subscribing for, but certainly worth the purchase for me so far.

There is plenty of info on the Conquest part of the game, it seems quite complex, unfortunately its within the official closed beta forum so im not sure if i could post it here, seems a bit ridiculous to hide something so complex in the closed beta forum. Theres actually very little info on the game on the site, strangely enough. But I got into the game due to a few guys i know playing it.


Plenty of info on Tentonhammer, interviews about the classes and pvp mission types. good stuff.

Noxin

Looks like a shiny version of Planetside imo.
Could be interesting if done right..

Samurai

ooof I like the look of this!

have been waiting for a decent original mmo for ages, hopefully I can rope a few friends in

Samurai

BeansBeans wrote: »

Just started in the beta, bought the game yesterday. Playing as a robotics, its nice and quick to level. Its low on the MMO aspect, the armours are just aesthetic (although very very cool), there are upgrades you can craft and 3 skill trees per character.
There are hubs for players to go about their business, sell and buy from the auction house, buy dyes and stuff. The server set up is similar to guild wars.

The pve and pvp is instanced, but the game really is all about the pvp aspect being a twitch game. The AvA (Conquest) aspect (which you subscribe for) does look very interesting, they were running a conquest test last night and was looking at the map there were alliances fighting for territory and resources although i didnt enter it, not sure how . Its all instanced but its a lot of fun, very fast paced.
Will have to see if its worth subscribing for, but certainly worth the purchase for me so far.

There is plenty of info on the Conquest part of the game, it seems quite complex, unfortunately its within the official closed beta forum so im not sure if i could post it here, seems a bit ridiculous to hide something so complex in the closed beta forum. Theres actually very little info on the game on the site, strangely enough. But I got into the game due to a few guys i know playing it.


Plenty of info on Tentonhammer, interviews about the classes and pvp mission types. good stuff.

Did you get a referall code thats being unused with that by any chance? I'd love to give it a try but dont want to fork out 50 bucks without testing it first!

BeansBeans

No unfortunately they dont give out other codes. Its a bit of a gamble all right to whether one will like it. Its more of a shooter than an rpg as i said previously.

Its going a similar way to Guild Wars though, you do need to have premade teams going into conquest games, my agencies alliance lost our territory last night to a premade game in about 30 seconds .

Im loving it at the moment, i would be slightly worried about the depth of the game but the developers are ambitious about it, they are adding a casual racing game to the social hub to give you something to do if youre waiting for matches, they will be adding more social areas as well.

So it looks like it will be well supported and will expand frequently. Id love to recommend the game whole heartedly but i think due to the conventional nature of most peoples thinking due to the domination of the market by games such as modern warfare or WoW a lot of people cant think outside the box.
€41 isnt too bad though, im well happy with the game.

The NDA has been lifted so i might post some game info later, the website is very very lacking about the game, i have no way to find out about skills besides ingame tooltips, nothing on the site really.

Funky

been checking out some youtube videos of this, looks pretty damn awesome

ShadowHearth

well it sounds amazing specially about those controlled territories, but just one thing...


if it will be all instanced like hellgate or AOC it will fail alot... as i cant imagine how territories will work in instanced game...


i have huge hopes for it, it will be so sad if it will be crap like the rest of mmorpgs out recently: AOC,AOIN,WAR...

Funky

The unique mechanic that unfolds in our territory framework is you have a base raid set up with takes organised teams of 60 versus 60 which is kind of the maximum size. We’re actually using some technical tricks to do that, to run in multiple linked instances.” So you’ll have multiple instances of ten on ten all influencing each other’s games based on the objectives they complete. So you have six strike teams, all with different missions. “One is ‘go, take down the generators’, so each one of the six teams has a mission. And they interconnect, so once the generator is down, the turrets go down over the whole base, which helps everyone else.

if this is actually good and works then instancing should be better than limitless zergs imo

its sounding like some sort of planetside, tf2, halo, eve mash

BeansBeans

ShadowHearth wrote: »

well it sounds amazing specially about those controlled territories, but just one thing...


if it will be all instanced like hellgate or AOC it will fail alot... as i cant imagine how territories will work in instanced game...


i have huge hopes for it, it will be so sad if it will be crap like the rest of mmorpgs out recently: AOC,AOIN,WAR...

Eh no the game works perfectly fine as an instanced game. Its not an MMORPG its an MMOTPS (i hate pushing games into a typecaste but its vogue eh) with RPG elements to be accurate.
Agencies bid for the right to take a hex of territory, you can get AvA (agency v agency) vehicles and structures for use in the territory you are attacking or defending.

You dont have to sit in the instance permanently only when you need to be there will you. You will get a message your territory is under attack, you bring up a map see which hex of territory it is, go in and defend with a strikeforce.
Or you can get a strikeforce together and attack another agencies territory, not so sure how that works, ive only beein involved in one defence never an attack.

Unfortuntely the game is lacking in large european agencies at the moment, mine is huge but never any officers on to organise a strikeforce.
Then there is the standard pvp which is great fun, its 10v10 again with different objectives. The first available PVP style game is a little dull (as a robotics player, very defensive) its a control point type game ala bf2 with 3 capture points.
The next available type of pvp match is a huge cargo thingy on rail tracks which one team must return to their base and the other must defend, that is brilliant, much more of a flow to it. I havent checked out the other matches yet, theyre gated to levels. Although over level 15 the third mode becomes available (im level 18 or 19)

Mantel

BeansBeans wrote: »

Eh no the game works perfectly fine.....

I was concered about the "instance" word being used. It seems that it's not an instance as we know it Jim. The only major concern is when an agency becomes too big and controls too much territory, unless there is a game mechanic to stop that happening much Although if it works the way I hope it will we'll see some espionage. One case reported already said that as an agency prepered to attack a rivals property an ally of the rival attacked one of the agencies hex's, forcing them to decide between new ground or keeping their own.

BeansBeans

Ah i wouldnt think theyre anything new, Guild Wars players would be rather familiar with the setup with regards instancing.

Ya we will see how the Conquest works with regards territory, right now there are a few alliances (numerous agencies) controlling most of the map, but they have plans to expand on conquest mode continually after launch.
They need to make the method of joining the conquest matches easier as well.

The game is far from perfect but i think they have a brilliant concept and a great game to build on, they will need to expand though.

BeansBeans

A video of demolition pvp mode (which is more like capture the robot really, name is a little misleading) following a somewhat aimless medic. Good video though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIOqnaNEfbU

heres one of a low level melee recon in payload pvp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vBjzdiuyYw

Heres one in control point pvp, a robotics player using shotgun main weapon so leaving long range to his missile turret and using a medstation and drones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA0Dt8I_KAk

A high level assault player in control point map with a pet medic, its amazing how many people ignore the medic and go for the assault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auk8KOuX5G8

Anyway hopes these give some insight into the game for those interested.

wayne040576

Is Steam the only place you can buy this? I know it is available to US customers on amazon. I was hoping for a bit more choice.

Was thinking about getting it over the weekend to get access to the beta but then one of the ram modules in my pc died putting me down to 2GB and it looks like you need 3GB with windows 7.

wayne040576

I was playing this over the weekend. It's ok. Once you do the tutorial it becomes similar to the likes of TF2 etc except they put an mmo spin on it by getting you into games via missions\quests instead of browsing servers.

Is there is a PvE side to things thatt you can do co op as well. I'm not sure how much extra subscriptions will bring. They are calling that 'conquest'. I didn't see any of that all while playing. Not sure if it was available in the beta.

Goes live this week and I have 30 days to play the whole lot for free.

Tyrant^

Anywhere else to get this game other than STEAM ? Its fairly pricey :eek:

http://www.globalagendagame.com/TheGame_Conquest.html

Watching that makes me want to try it out

wayne040576

Tyrant^ wrote: »

Anywhere else to get this game other than STEAM ? Its fairly pricey :eek:

http://www.globalagendagame.com/TheGame_Conquest.html

Watching that makes me want to try it out

No. People in North America can get a boxed version through amazon but I think that's it.

I've have it for a few weeks now. I've yet to get in a conquest match. I joined an agency early on but none of its members were ever on when I logged in. So I left it to joind another one. Still waiting to get into it though.

From what I can see, there is no real incentive to play in the AvA matches other than to see you agency's name on a board.

jaggeh

does anyone else have to sit through the .net install every time you launch?

Tyrant^

Dont seem to be too much hype about this

Id prefer a Sci-Fi mmorpgfps, playing Darkfall atm... Think im getting sick of the wizards, trees, deer... and **** like that.

Ivan

Gotta admit, I'm playing it at the moment. It's kinda like someone took the best parts of Guild Wars, League of Legends and Team Fortress 2; blended them, added some awesome for taste and served with a slice of lemon. There are several UI issues that are just abyssmal for an MMO at this point, but the gameplay - both PvP and PvE - are both really enjoyable. Event after playing 3 characters for some time now, I'm still not bored enough to call the leveling a "grind". Instead it is an incidental thing that happens while you are having fun and that offers fun and exciting new upgrades along the way.

I'm very used to breaking down an MMO to "stuff to aim for". Once I complete those objectives (or not as is sometimes the case), I move on like the locust swarm I am. In Global Agenda's case, what I want to aim for is end-game RvR/AvA but for once, I'm in no rush to get there.

Mantel

Seems to be getting some good press

Is there a trial?

Ivan

There never is for launch MMOs. The beta period is the trial.

Honestly though, there are enough videos on youtube and reviews all over the place, for you to get an idea if it will be your cup of tea or not.

wayne040576

They're extending the freeplay on AvA until late March now as I think they've been getting some negative feedback on it and want to make improvements.
I've had a few crashes over the last week. Usually just as a pvp map loads. Other than that, it's quite good.

Ivan

How much is the AvA meant to cost? I've heard the words, "Subscription model" thrown around a bit now, which I'm assuming means it'll be like 13 quid per month or something. But I'd like some confirmation if there is any to be had.

wayne040576

Ivan wrote: »

How much is the AvA meant to cost? I've heard the words, "Subscription model" thrown around a bit now, which I'm assuming means it'll be like 13 quid per month or something. But I'd like some confirmation if there is any to be had.

These are the pricing options I am given when I go to the subscription section of my account:

Billing Cycle

€10.99 EUR Global Agenda Conquest 1-Month Subscription
€29.97 EUR Global Agenda Conquest 3-Month Subscription (€9.99 per month)
€53.94 EUR Global Agenda Conquest 6-Month Subscription (€8.99 per month)

jaggeh

anyone got a decent agency i can join? L20 recon and a L14 Assault so far.

wayne040576

jaggeh wrote: »

anyone got a decent agency i can join? L20 recon and a L14 Assault so far.

No but if you find one let me know. I've joined two already that didn't seem to go anywhere. It's the main reason I haven't considered subscribing yet.

Ivan

Yeah, a friend and I are looking for a decent Agency too. Maybe we should start a boards Agency and try to get into an AvA alliance?

wayne040576

Ivan wrote: »

Yeah, a friend and I are looking for a decent Agency too. Maybe we should start a boards Agency and try to get into an AvA alliance?

I set up one"Boardsie" . If anyone want to join. I've only got a level 12 medic at the moment.

jaggeh

ive gone through about 6 agencies so far that have folded or had their alliance disband. rage quitters mostly. i was in one for about 20 minutes and about 40 people left it to form their own.

Drakar

How did they suss you out so quickly? ;P

Wish it was cheaper, the description looked good.

Ivan

wayne040576 wrote: »

I set up one"Boardsie" . If anyone want to join. I've only got a level 12 medic at the moment.

Yeah, I'll send you a PM later. What's your account nick?

wayne040576

Ivan wrote: »

Yeah, I'll send you a PM later. What's your account nick?

waynen12.

So far there's no one else in it. May be hard to get a lot of members.

Ivan

Hey, I tried to add you to my friends list but the name doesn't exist or isn't valid. Can you double check the in-game name?

wayne040576

Ivan wrote: »

Hey, I tried to add you to my friends list but the name doesn't exist or isn't valid. Can you double check the in-game name?

Yeah sorry. I've so many nicknames across different games.
It's

waynenone

Still no other members in the agency though.

Overheal

Theres no trial and you can buy directly from the GA website if you prefer.

I was impressed at how efficient the Graphics Engine was. The game looks (or creates the illusion) of a game that runs comparably to Crysis etc. But on significantly less Performance Power. Runs quite well on the laptop (dual core 2ghz, 8400M GS, 4GB RAM)

I wouldn't call it an MMO. The only thing that makes it close to an MMO is the Hubs you sit in between missions, but thats like taking TF2 and putting everybody in a waiting room where you can buy new gear, queue for another battle, and send and receive mail. Basically, theres no successful Illusion that its an Environment; just a menu that involves a lot of walking. You have about a hundred square yards of enclosed space to run around in (with no jetpack) so you can forget about going cruisin'.

Havent lined up for PvP yet. Took donkey years to download the files so I only got a few baby runs in the PvEs. But I tell you what, if all it was is Blood Gultch and a bunch of people with jetpacks sniping and ripping eachother apart with miniguns, it will have been money well spent.

Mantel

I've been giving the trial a go and will keep at it for another while, I had the idea in my head that combat would be like Tribes, or at least Tribes 2. I found that you can't use the jetpack while you have a weapon out dissapointing. The rest seems fairly decent though even if I only have basic weapons and a level 6

At least it made me dig out my Tribes 2 cd and find there was still a small community going!

Ivan

You get used to the jetpack + weapon limitation and I think it suits the game better, you don't end up with the same problem from mad jumping about the place while trying to hit a tiny pixel with a pea-shooter from 100 virtual feet away, that you had with Tribes.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't come close to beating skiing - but I find that this limitation is actually a plus in most respects.

Dcully

Downloading the trial now.
I loved the idea behind Planetside and quite enjoyed the game, enjoyed Tribes,Guild Wars was always a cheap mans wow to me :P and still love TF2 so i guess this game could be a winner
It looks pretty decent tbh,looking forward to trying it later.

Theres certain MMO guys on boards whos opinions i tend to trust,Ivan being one of them so its on your head mate

Just ordered Dragon Age Origins and am hooked on Bad Company 2, God knows where im gonna get the time to play any of them.

Noxin

Got the trial, after much trouble launching the game (shader errors even though I knew my card supported it and had the latest drivers etc) I finally got to run through the training missions. So far I wasn't too impressed. Shabby graphics. Gameplay was a bit meh.. Maybe this is all just because I was only playing against bots during the initial training. I'll see how it goes later if I get a chance to continue on a bit in the "real world".
It's a shame things in the world don't blow up. Shoot a vehicle at the side of the road and poof, nothing happens. Bullet / laser just passes right through it like a late 90's game. Not great for today's standards.

Dcully

Tried this out lastnight, spent 95% of my time running around some Dome city with no way out of it that i could find.
Spent absolutely ages in queues for low level stuff.
At one point i was in a queue for 40 mins and only to enter some pve place that lasted like 5 minutes lol.
The game has potential but i just didnt feel part of a gaming world while playing.
Maybe im missing something? is there an actual gaming world for lowbies to explore?
Is it all just queue for an instanced encounter?
How else can i level up?

Ivan

It is all queuing/instanced content, you can level up in PvP or PvE. I would imagine the reason you spent so long queing is because you were connected to the EU servers while most players have mass-emigrated to the US servers. It adds about 100ms to your ping but doubles the amount of players available.

PvP is just as approachable at lower levels as you have just as much chance to compete with higher levels but you don't have nearly as many tools. The whole game is instanced though. It really is just like Team Fortress 2 but with a visual lobby to sit in while you find a server instead of sitting a Find server menu.

Nody

Ivan wrote: »

PvP is just as approachable at lower levels as you have just as much chance to compete with higher levels but you don't have nearly as many tools.

Sorry Ivan but I'll have to disagree with you on that one. Take an Assault for example. A fully speced level 30+ Tank minigun Assault would have ~1k more hp (40% health from skills on the top of my head), resists, bigger power pool (+40% pool, minigun takes 10% less) AND higher mingun damage (+10% damage, +50 range). Can you compete against that as a level 10 Assault? Yes, but it is not even close to an equal match (and this is before we start talking about the likely upgrades on the higher chars due to saved up cash/crafting).

It is not a WoW 30 vs. 80 match though, more like 30 vs. 39 game, harder but possible if you play well/get lucky.

Ivan

Nody wrote: »

Sorry Ivan but I'll have to disagree with you on that one. Take an Assault for example. A fully speced level 30+ Tank minigun Assault would have ~1k more hp (40% health from skills on the top of my head), resists, bigger power pool (+40% pool, minigun takes 10% less) AND higher mingun damage (+10% damage, +50 range). Can you compete against that as a level 10 Assault? Yes, but it is not even close to an equal match (and this is before we start talking about the likely upgrades on the higher chars due to saved up cash/crafting).

It is not a WoW 30 vs. 80 match though, more like 30 vs. 39 game, harder but possible if you play well/get lucky.

I don't know how much PUG PvP you've played, but I was the only Tank spec'd Assault I ever came across and yes, I totally dominated, raped all the lower levels (and those dps spec'd Assault) but if you compare all of the stat bonuses you have stated and translate it to Warcraft for example, there is significantly less the "lower character" can do short of die instantly and horribly. In GA you can duck behind a crate or a wall or some team-mates.

My friend played his Medic from level 6 to 30 purely in PvP. Because friendlies can pass through one another without issue, but an enemy cannot - he would just run right through me and the person chasing him stopped awkwardly, right in front of my mini-gun.

My point isn't so much that the higher level talents and skills are meaningless, that would be awful; it is more that they aren't as instantly defining as in other MMOs.

Obviously, there is a difference without that what would be the point in leveling - but alot of the talents and higher skills are completely overcome by a good tactic or good FPS skill.

In summary: you are completely correct and I withdraw my original point and restate it as,

"PvP is just as approachable at lower levels as you have quite a good chance to compete with higher levels, but you don't have nearly as many tools."