Guys, gals, hear me now.
I starting playing FOnline 4 days ago because I was curious to see what it was like. I had never heard of it before and though I would give it a try. Right now I am going to write up a brief summery of my game experiance after 4 days of play.
My goal is to inform more people of what this game is like, so if you already know exactly what its like you can stop reading now if you like, or if you a curious read on.
Also keep in mind, this is an open beta MMO at the moment. It is buggy in places and many things are not finish yet.
Another thing to note is somthing I didnt know at first: This is not Fallout. It is different, most noticeable is that you have a choice between "turn based" or "Real Time" combat. Real time is fixed on major locations to save from having very long tiresome battles. But there are many other things which are differnt as well...
Ok so, to begin.
I load up the game, run the built in updated and hit play. First thing I have to do on the main menu is "Register" my new character.
This button takes me to the character creation page just like in F2. You pick a name, a password age, SPECIAL etc... I had no idea what I was doing so I tried to make as close to my F1 / 2 favorite play through character as possible. A small guns sniper with good ST, PE and AG. Small guns, Lockpick and Energy weapons tagged.
I accept and into the game I go. The first thing that happened is I spawned in a random town. The Hub was my first one I think. This only happens the first time you make a char. When you die there are 20 or so random places all over the map, but for your first time you spawn in a city.
I was excited to beging looting and leveling so I ran into the town. The first thing I noticed is that the town is not split into as many peices as in F1. Its almost 1 big map.
I could find no one who wanted to talk to me about giving me work (later I found out 1CH doesnt help). So I decided to head out into the wastes and try to loot a random city / place. This is the world map:
http://www.fonline2238.net/wiki/images/5/5c/Worldmap.jpg
I was exstatic! F1 and F2 world map combined! Think of the possibliites I though. So off I went exploring on my own.
I did explore a few places, the millitary base for one, and NCR (which is 1 big level now). I talked to the Cabbot on the gate of BOS trying to sign up. He told me to sign up I would need to bring 15 AP rockets to him. This was new and cool. Perhaps the rockets are in the glow like before? I thought. Off I went to the glow, running away from every encounter as I had no weapons or armour.
I get to the glow. "You have recived a large dose of radiation." Somone has already been here, the girder has a rope on it already. So I run over and climb down the rope. I think I got about as far as the room where usually the dead power armour guy is. Then I melted. Yes melted. The radiation in the glow is MUCH more lethal now.
A few more attempts trying to loot places for items failed, I always found placed empty and deserted, no items in them. There were many other players in NCR trading all sorts of goods but I had nothing to my name to trade with.
Finally I reached Modoc, in search of quests I think. Upon entering Modoc in my vault suit I was greeted by 8 or so super mutants standing just inside the entrace grid. They all had rocket launchers - it didnt end well for me. In a few seconds I was blown to peices.
I was pissed at the game this time. I was getting no where and had been playing for an hour or so without picked up a single item or doing 1 point of damage. I was close to uninstalling the game thinking it was broken or rubbish when somone linked me to this;
"A begginners guide to FOnline"
http://fonline2238.net/forum/index.php?topic=1422.0
The first thing I noticed in the article was "crafting" All over the place you can find Flint and junk. This lets you make basic tools, with these you can chop wood and make more tools to mine metal and minerals etc. I loved the idea and read onwards...
... Searching the Wiki and chatting on the IRC channel I found out that (nearly) all items in the game can be created! And you can pick a profession: Small guns crafter, Armour crafter, Explosives expert etc.
This was brilliant! Straight away I researched Small guns crafting and made a new player - one who was more suited to building things with less PE and EN and more IN. Around about this point I got hooked up with a guy who took me under his wing. His name is Marko and he took me from being a dribbling noob to friednly with one of the biggest clans in the game. I learned so much from him that I couldnt possibly write it all here. Now I have a high level (nearly max) sniper character and this is what I know of the game world so far:
There are 2 main factions in FOnline.
NA - Northern Alliance, the good guys. They are many small clans which work together for the greater good. They include gppd guys who kill slavers and raiders.
DMC: Dead Masters Crew: These are considered the 'bad guys' They are a very powerful faction, the most powerful so far. Many of their members are slavers or raiders. These are the guys I got friendly with. (So friendly we even went of a slaving spree capturing little girls from random encounters! but thats another story).
These two factions are at a state of total war. Shoot on sight. Currently DMC controls most of the big towns in the north of the map. Many of the southern towns have NPC guards and cannot be captured, but some towns (modoc, Broken hills, the den) can be captured with a timer. Holding a town gives your team an income of Caps.
DMC are infamous for their brutal use of barbarian tactics and their ample supply of Super Mutant Mercinaries which they maintain a strong force of. Most famously they crushed a strong NA defense of Klamouth with an assult force including around 50+ Super mutants (epid battle).
The big clans have whole networks of bases and outposts - locations bought and deployed anywhere you like on the world map, invisible to any who are not lead to the base by an existing member.
NA have their bases and industry, scores of craftsmen making weapons for the fighters, outposts hidden near the major points of conflict, DMC have their own bases and industry. Its carnage.
Having fought in only 1 major battle I dont have much experiance but I can tell you this: I had a sniper rifle and VERY good aim and range. All I knew when the battle was over is that many of my comrades were dead, including my master and the Clan leader. I was alive, almost unscrated and in disbelife of how bloody and chaotic the battle had been. I knew only one thing about how well I had fought: 5 of my 6 shot magazing had been used. So I had fired my weapon, I dont know if I killed anyone (thinking back I should have checked my XP before and after) or even if I hit anyone (its 99% certain, with my skill, I did hit every time).
Amazing fun. Totally amazing fun. But there is just 1 thing wrong with FOnline IMO:
30% of the player base is either Russian or Polish! We need more UK and USA players! I can't beging to tell you how cool it is, but more importantly, very soon the whole sever will be wiped (all character gone, all clans factions etc.) and 3D van buren models will be added.
Its all to play at the moment. There are (estimated) about 3 days left before the wipe and all the new content gets added in.
On a last note, I would like to link you to an AMAZING video made by one of the members of NA (Northern Alliance), he is a very skilled artist and the video is awesome. This should give you some idea of how rough and tough the game world is. There is only 1 thing you will get for free in the wasteland: Being Shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S8j8djfEh0
I starting playing FOnline 4 days ago because I was curious to see what it was like. I had never heard of it before and though I would give it a try. Right now I am going to write up a brief summery of my game experiance after 4 days of play.
My goal is to inform more people of what this game is like, so if you already know exactly what its like you can stop reading now if you like, or if you a curious read on.
Also keep in mind, this is an open beta MMO at the moment. It is buggy in places and many things are not finish yet.Another thing to note is somthing I didnt know at first: This is not Fallout. It is different, most noticeable is that you have a choice between "turn based" or "Real Time" combat. Real time is fixed on major locations to save from having very long tiresome battles. But there are many other things which are differnt as well...
Ok so, to begin.
I load up the game, run the built in updated and hit play. First thing I have to do on the main menu is "Register" my new character.
This button takes me to the character creation page just like in F2. You pick a name, a password age, SPECIAL etc... I had no idea what I was doing so I tried to make as close to my F1 / 2 favorite play through character as possible. A small guns sniper with good ST, PE and AG. Small guns, Lockpick and Energy weapons tagged.
I accept and into the game I go. The first thing that happened is I spawned in a random town. The Hub was my first one I think. This only happens the first time you make a char. When you die there are 20 or so random places all over the map, but for your first time you spawn in a city.
I was excited to beging looting and leveling so I ran into the town. The first thing I noticed is that the town is not split into as many peices as in F1. Its almost 1 big map.
I could find no one who wanted to talk to me about giving me work (later I found out 1CH doesnt help). So I decided to head out into the wastes and try to loot a random city / place. This is the world map:
http://www.fonline2238.net/wiki/images/5/5c/Worldmap.jpg
I was exstatic! F1 and F2 world map combined! Think of the possibliites I though. So off I went exploring on my own.
I did explore a few places, the millitary base for one, and NCR (which is 1 big level now). I talked to the Cabbot on the gate of BOS trying to sign up. He told me to sign up I would need to bring 15 AP rockets to him. This was new and cool. Perhaps the rockets are in the glow like before? I thought. Off I went to the glow, running away from every encounter as I had no weapons or armour.
I get to the glow. "You have recived a large dose of radiation." Somone has already been here, the girder has a rope on it already. So I run over and climb down the rope. I think I got about as far as the room where usually the dead power armour guy is. Then I melted. Yes melted. The radiation in the glow is MUCH more lethal now.
A few more attempts trying to loot places for items failed, I always found placed empty and deserted, no items in them. There were many other players in NCR trading all sorts of goods but I had nothing to my name to trade with.
Finally I reached Modoc, in search of quests I think. Upon entering Modoc in my vault suit I was greeted by 8 or so super mutants standing just inside the entrace grid. They all had rocket launchers - it didnt end well for me. In a few seconds I was blown to peices.
I was pissed at the game this time. I was getting no where and had been playing for an hour or so without picked up a single item or doing 1 point of damage. I was close to uninstalling the game thinking it was broken or rubbish when somone linked me to this;
"A begginners guide to FOnline"
http://fonline2238.net/forum/index.php?topic=1422.0
The first thing I noticed in the article was "crafting" All over the place you can find Flint and junk. This lets you make basic tools, with these you can chop wood and make more tools to mine metal and minerals etc. I loved the idea and read onwards...
... Searching the Wiki and chatting on the IRC channel I found out that (nearly) all items in the game can be created! And you can pick a profession: Small guns crafter, Armour crafter, Explosives expert etc.
This was brilliant! Straight away I researched Small guns crafting and made a new player - one who was more suited to building things with less PE and EN and more IN. Around about this point I got hooked up with a guy who took me under his wing. His name is Marko and he took me from being a dribbling noob to friednly with one of the biggest clans in the game. I learned so much from him that I couldnt possibly write it all here. Now I have a high level (nearly max) sniper character and this is what I know of the game world so far:
There are 2 main factions in FOnline.
NA - Northern Alliance, the good guys. They are many small clans which work together for the greater good. They include gppd guys who kill slavers and raiders.
DMC: Dead Masters Crew: These are considered the 'bad guys' They are a very powerful faction, the most powerful so far. Many of their members are slavers or raiders. These are the guys I got friendly with. (So friendly we even went of a slaving spree capturing little girls from random encounters! but thats another story).
These two factions are at a state of total war. Shoot on sight. Currently DMC controls most of the big towns in the north of the map. Many of the southern towns have NPC guards and cannot be captured, but some towns (modoc, Broken hills, the den) can be captured with a timer. Holding a town gives your team an income of Caps.
DMC are infamous for their brutal use of barbarian tactics and their ample supply of Super Mutant Mercinaries which they maintain a strong force of. Most famously they crushed a strong NA defense of Klamouth with an assult force including around 50+ Super mutants (epid battle).
The big clans have whole networks of bases and outposts - locations bought and deployed anywhere you like on the world map, invisible to any who are not lead to the base by an existing member.
NA have their bases and industry, scores of craftsmen making weapons for the fighters, outposts hidden near the major points of conflict, DMC have their own bases and industry. Its carnage.
Having fought in only 1 major battle I dont have much experiance but I can tell you this: I had a sniper rifle and VERY good aim and range. All I knew when the battle was over is that many of my comrades were dead, including my master and the Clan leader. I was alive, almost unscrated and in disbelife of how bloody and chaotic the battle had been. I knew only one thing about how well I had fought: 5 of my 6 shot magazing had been used. So I had fired my weapon, I dont know if I killed anyone (thinking back I should have checked my XP before and after) or even if I hit anyone (its 99% certain, with my skill, I did hit every time).
Amazing fun. Totally amazing fun. But there is just 1 thing wrong with FOnline IMO:
30% of the player base is either Russian or Polish! We need more UK and USA players! I can't beging to tell you how cool it is, but more importantly, very soon the whole sever will be wiped (all character gone, all clans factions etc.) and 3D van buren models will be added.
Its all to play at the moment. There are (estimated) about 3 days left before the wipe and all the new content gets added in.
On a last note, I would like to link you to an AMAZING video made by one of the members of NA (Northern Alliance), he is a very skilled artist and the video is awesome. This should give you some idea of how rough and tough the game world is. There is only 1 thing you will get for free in the wasteland: Being Shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S8j8djfEh0
