JonnyG
06-27-2008, 04:38 PM
So I'm going to be at Fan Faire in August, and I've ordered my operatives to uncover cool intel. In order to do that they need some help. First off, we need a plan to overcome Bustenhause. Secondly, we need questions to ask. So, who's up to it?
Most of what we know so far can be found at Game Intel (http://theagency.massivehq.com/intel-briefing/), Part 1 (http://theagency.massivehq.com/special-features/qa1_part1), and Part 2 (http://theagency.massivehq.com/special-features/qa1_part2).
Consolidated List:
Game When is beta? Will their be a PS3 beta? What kind of hardware is required?
Besides the cool theme, what makes The Agency stand out? Why should we pick this over other MMO's?
You've mentioned playing the same account on a PS3 & PC, will we need to purchase both?
Where is the game information? When will the website be out? When will people that signed up on the teaser site get notified? Will they get anything for signing up?
When will the game be released?
How will the economy work? Will there be an auction house? What kinds of commodities will there be? We've discussed operatives as commodities, weapons, intel, blueprints, what other items will make up the economy?
How many character slots?
How will the Alias actions work? Will we be able to pick and choose from getting a drink at the bar, reading a book/newspaper, etc?
Will gambling be in the game. It's been mentioned several times as mini games. How will you handle potential gambling laws?
What about gold farming and the effect that it might have on gambling and the economy.
Can you explain more about the RMT? Will you be selling progress in the game?
Characters
Agent attributes - I have read in another article that attributes are in play, (Strength, Dexterity, Perception etc.) but are transparent to the player, but how much? Would like to understand this in detail. Making FPS/RPG hybrids IMO is really difficult because you have to find an even balance between actual player skill, and player attributes on scoring a hit or miss. It can make the difference in whether or not The Agency will turn out to be a true FPS with RPG elements, or just another shooter, albiet with lots of things to do though.
Hiding helmets! - So far I haven't really seen helmets in the game, (or even with NPC's.) but thats how I like to play my characters. I have read somewhere along the lines: "players like to know WHO their shooting, so helmets is really important" or something like that, not too sure if I'm interpeting it correctly, but it sounds self contradicting. But for some it's a bit of a downer to spend an hour designing what your face is going to look like, and then find a helmet 5 minutes into the game that will only be swapped with other helemets, never to see your face again, for the sake of +5 defense.
"You Are What Everybody Else Wears" - I like the "You Are What You Wear" concept, but would also like to know a little more about the outfits you unlock. We already know that operatives can craft weapons for you, and this can be used for yourself, or sold to others. But what about armor? Because we can unlock new outfits, does this mean that armor provides extra defense? Or is it just looks? Would like it to be just looks, similar to City of Heroes. If unlocking outfits is the only means of obtaining new clothes, that means everybody would be looking the same. Would be better if clothing would come as "pieces" and you can mix for instance a particular shirt with a different pants. (But for the sake of not looking ridiculious, make each piece in different categories, like alias, soldier, sneaking, etc. and you can only wear one "set" of clothes at the same time.
Will there be trench coats?
Factions - Are there differences between to the two factions other than the ones we know about? Completely different mission lists and items and operatives, what about stats? Do mercs naturally have a bit more health due to their "rougher" life, etc? Do spies have a bit more alias bar health given their familiarity with secrecy and stealth?
We haven't heard much about the Psy Ops functions and skills, can you go into more detail?
We've heard that influence will be used to control access to areas. How does this work?
Operatives / Crafting Operative Stats - What do the letters in the upper mean? Symbols at the bottom? Can an operative have mixed functionality? ie support and combat? What about multiple roles, can they provide both services and goods?
Quote: "They also mentioned that if you’ve crafted a neat weapon but end up needing to drop it during a mission to pick something else up, that you’ll still have it when you go back to your headquarters."
Does each Agent have a sort of armory then that they keep an unlimited supply of their weapons that they craft, or do they have to recraft after a certain amount of time or uses? i.e - Operative Skinny Jive made the Super Bazooka Pea Shooter of Doom for me, I drop it, go back to headquarters and it's waiting for me every time? Or did he craft a certain amount of them that run out eventually?
How does the morale/conflict play a role? When getting an operative do you know the chance that they might need to take 2 weeks off for vacation? or hook up with your best agent and cause you to lose 2 agents for a while?
What about using a website to assign and manage operatives, how will that work?
Missions
What types of missions will there be?
How many of the missions are instanced?
Can you explain more about how the "seamless instancing" works? Will they just disappear for the others?A player is in a public space, let's say a bar. There are dozens of players and NPCs dancing up a storm, but in the corner is a quest NPC. He talks to that NPC and is told of a big bad guy hanging out backstage and warned that if anyone sees them talking, trouble could follow. At this point, the quest NPC's indicator turns red and the players know that if they talk to them again, they're going to go into an encounter. That gives them time to load their weapons and get their friends together. Once ready, they bug the guy again and boom, they're in an instance. The real players in the club fade away and the bad guy comes crashing through the back door. Without loading screens, a social situation turned deadly, just like they do in the movies.
How about the driving portions? How is it going to work? Is it multiplayer? Will there be chases? Will I be able to chase? How do the crafted vehicles fit into the driving missions? In one of the E3 interviews it was implied that driving wouldn't make the first version, is this true?
Rewards - we've heard that there will be 3 levels of reward based upon completing certain objectives. What kind of rewards are given? Since their are rare operatives, does this mean that mission rewards will have some random rewards? Or will you always get the same operative for completing a mission.
Bosses - we've seen an awesome mini boss in the District 42 walk through, Vytautas, a Bones lieutenant who feels no pain. How tough will bosses be? Will they be killable with a head shot? Can you please explain how a boss battle will work.
You've briefly talked about cross over missions where players from the other agency are part of your mission. With both sides having different objectives. Will you need to work together? Against each other? Can you give more details on how the cross over missions will work.
How interactive are the environments? Are they destructible?
How will the driving missions work? Are they like rail based shooters? Will they be multiplayer, ie one player driving, one shooting, multiple vehicles?
We've seen 3 agency moments, one scaled from 1 - 4 (merry go round), one was vehicle based (jeep flying into helicopter), and the other was single player (embassy). What are the requirements for most agency moments? Will they be just based upon number of players? Or will they require certain character types? Equipment?
Can you give an example of an interactive agency moment?
Melee / Combat
Will their be friendly fire in the game?
How hard will it be to find ammo? Will the enemies drop what they are using?
Quote: "There will be melee moves for when they get close to you, we’ve seen headbutt and a move where Cassie kneed them then hit them over the head with her gun."
Will there be different melee moves and fighting styles that agents can learn? Will we see epic showdowns of Tiger Wan Fu vs. Grapple Master Pow Pow? Grabs, throws, flying kicks, etc? PVP rooms dedicated to "No Guns, just MELEE!" and "I brake for Punches in the face?" Melee weapons other than the shooter standard knife?
Will we get an emote for "My kung fu is better than your kung fu" or other types of taunting?
PvP Anytime - The game seems to have a strong focus of PvP. Given the game's storyline, it makes sense. But please let us have more than 3 or 4 maps to play in at launch. Look at WoW. They have been around for years and only 4 or 5 battleground maps are in the game, and each map can only be played one way. (game mode.) Here's looking forward to basic deatmatch, TDM, CTF and other similar variants of FPS game modes, but with maybe at least 10 maps to play in at launch for variety.
We've seen that people go back to the closest field office med center when they die. We've also heard that the support class can create a field check point that you'd go back to instead. Can you go into more details on the death penalty.
Joint Agencies / World Domination / PvP
Possibility of being a double agent to steal resources from one agency for another? Agency vs. Agency PVP matches?
Will the agency get it's own set of operatives, or will it just be the combined set of each current member?
Will there be an Agency HQ?
Will there be some kind of agency storage?
You've mentioned that players will affect the world, how will this work?
Will players be able to make things like logo's and such for their agency. Will custom agency outfits be available.
What is the point to the Unite/Paragon divide? They seem to be like factions in WoW, ie you can't group with people in other other agencies, you get different missions, etc. Is it just aesthetics and skill choices? How much interaction between them.? How is it reflected in the gameworld? Is there any “RvR” equivalent to this divide? Is it linked to Matt’s promise that the world will change as a result of Joint Agency competition?
We've heard about a trophy room or something like that for players within their agency. Will joint agencies have a place of their own?
Will joint agencies be able to declare war on other joint agencies?
Will joint agencies have an identifier, so people know what they are? Something like the guild tabard in WoW.
Can I CoH/CoV or Shadowbane style attack other Joint Agency’s housing?
What are the rewards for PVP? Is their different advancement, ie. does it affect PvE advancment? Leaderboards?
What is "World Domination"? How will the meta game work?The last third of our game is the high game. This is what we call world domination ... that's the loose term for it. This is basically being able to vie against players or against other agencies for missions and even PvP arenas. We really want to have a fun high game where people can continue, whether it's cooperative with their own agency or against other agencies.
Is there a metagame/reward point to PvP? Or is the point in the fragging itself?
Similar question, is the metagame liked to competing PvE objectives, PvP objectives, a combination of both, or something else?
How do the joint agencies affect the meta game?
We've heard that player or agency actions will affect the world. Can you go into more details? Does this mean that the different servers will have different story line arcs? Or will the servers all be the same.
Headquarters
Will we be seeing more classic arcade games besides Qbert?
Will the fighting ring in the Paragon HQ be a mini game?
Will players be able to play the mini games for the other faction?
UI
You've shown a UI designed for consoles, will the PC UI be the same?
Will PC players have the capability to set up and use hot keys for skills rather than using the controller UI?
Will PS3 players have the capability to use a mouse and keyboard?
Development
From a development standpoint, what is the most difficult thing you come across.
Are you using Maya? Besides Unreal what other tools are you using?
Company Staff Interaction/Roleplaying:
This one is a little hard to explain. Being a big Matrix fan, I was in The Matrix Online's beta, and saw through it's development. It was littered with bugs, and many gameplay flaws, (IMO) but because of that it also had the BEST damn attack animations I have EVER seen in an MMO. However, down the line when gameplay became more important than eye candy, I quit soon after 5 months after release. I had a pretty nice guild active guild too....good times.
Besides the animations for characters, one thing this game did new (or at least focused more on) than any other MMO was staff interaction. Basically, the game's "updates" consisted of episodes, which is more story missions, and then weekly planned "events." More importantly, they weren't just scripted events run by NPC's. While there were NPC's, they also had their actual staff coming into the game roleplaying as certain character's like Naiomi and Morpheus. You could talk to them, /whisper them, and even fight alongside with them. It was really awesome, like being part of the storyline....then I quit when the story got haywire and they started killing of main characters from the movie. Ugh.
Sony has mentioned "episodic content" i believe, in their interviews and such. Are we going to see the same thing again here? Would be awesome. I know that it was SEGA and someone else that started MxO, but Sony took over it later.
Most of what we know so far can be found at Game Intel (http://theagency.massivehq.com/intel-briefing/), Part 1 (http://theagency.massivehq.com/special-features/qa1_part1), and Part 2 (http://theagency.massivehq.com/special-features/qa1_part2).
Consolidated List:
Game When is beta? Will their be a PS3 beta? What kind of hardware is required?
Besides the cool theme, what makes The Agency stand out? Why should we pick this over other MMO's?
You've mentioned playing the same account on a PS3 & PC, will we need to purchase both?
Where is the game information? When will the website be out? When will people that signed up on the teaser site get notified? Will they get anything for signing up?
When will the game be released?
How will the economy work? Will there be an auction house? What kinds of commodities will there be? We've discussed operatives as commodities, weapons, intel, blueprints, what other items will make up the economy?
How many character slots?
How will the Alias actions work? Will we be able to pick and choose from getting a drink at the bar, reading a book/newspaper, etc?
Will gambling be in the game. It's been mentioned several times as mini games. How will you handle potential gambling laws?
What about gold farming and the effect that it might have on gambling and the economy.
Can you explain more about the RMT? Will you be selling progress in the game?
Characters
Agent attributes - I have read in another article that attributes are in play, (Strength, Dexterity, Perception etc.) but are transparent to the player, but how much? Would like to understand this in detail. Making FPS/RPG hybrids IMO is really difficult because you have to find an even balance between actual player skill, and player attributes on scoring a hit or miss. It can make the difference in whether or not The Agency will turn out to be a true FPS with RPG elements, or just another shooter, albiet with lots of things to do though.
Hiding helmets! - So far I haven't really seen helmets in the game, (or even with NPC's.) but thats how I like to play my characters. I have read somewhere along the lines: "players like to know WHO their shooting, so helmets is really important" or something like that, not too sure if I'm interpeting it correctly, but it sounds self contradicting. But for some it's a bit of a downer to spend an hour designing what your face is going to look like, and then find a helmet 5 minutes into the game that will only be swapped with other helemets, never to see your face again, for the sake of +5 defense.
"You Are What Everybody Else Wears" - I like the "You Are What You Wear" concept, but would also like to know a little more about the outfits you unlock. We already know that operatives can craft weapons for you, and this can be used for yourself, or sold to others. But what about armor? Because we can unlock new outfits, does this mean that armor provides extra defense? Or is it just looks? Would like it to be just looks, similar to City of Heroes. If unlocking outfits is the only means of obtaining new clothes, that means everybody would be looking the same. Would be better if clothing would come as "pieces" and you can mix for instance a particular shirt with a different pants. (But for the sake of not looking ridiculious, make each piece in different categories, like alias, soldier, sneaking, etc. and you can only wear one "set" of clothes at the same time.
Will there be trench coats?
Factions - Are there differences between to the two factions other than the ones we know about? Completely different mission lists and items and operatives, what about stats? Do mercs naturally have a bit more health due to their "rougher" life, etc? Do spies have a bit more alias bar health given their familiarity with secrecy and stealth?
We haven't heard much about the Psy Ops functions and skills, can you go into more detail?
We've heard that influence will be used to control access to areas. How does this work?
Operatives / Crafting Operative Stats - What do the letters in the upper mean? Symbols at the bottom? Can an operative have mixed functionality? ie support and combat? What about multiple roles, can they provide both services and goods?
Quote: "They also mentioned that if you’ve crafted a neat weapon but end up needing to drop it during a mission to pick something else up, that you’ll still have it when you go back to your headquarters."
Does each Agent have a sort of armory then that they keep an unlimited supply of their weapons that they craft, or do they have to recraft after a certain amount of time or uses? i.e - Operative Skinny Jive made the Super Bazooka Pea Shooter of Doom for me, I drop it, go back to headquarters and it's waiting for me every time? Or did he craft a certain amount of them that run out eventually?
How does the morale/conflict play a role? When getting an operative do you know the chance that they might need to take 2 weeks off for vacation? or hook up with your best agent and cause you to lose 2 agents for a while?
What about using a website to assign and manage operatives, how will that work?
Missions
What types of missions will there be?
How many of the missions are instanced?
Can you explain more about how the "seamless instancing" works? Will they just disappear for the others?A player is in a public space, let's say a bar. There are dozens of players and NPCs dancing up a storm, but in the corner is a quest NPC. He talks to that NPC and is told of a big bad guy hanging out backstage and warned that if anyone sees them talking, trouble could follow. At this point, the quest NPC's indicator turns red and the players know that if they talk to them again, they're going to go into an encounter. That gives them time to load their weapons and get their friends together. Once ready, they bug the guy again and boom, they're in an instance. The real players in the club fade away and the bad guy comes crashing through the back door. Without loading screens, a social situation turned deadly, just like they do in the movies.
How about the driving portions? How is it going to work? Is it multiplayer? Will there be chases? Will I be able to chase? How do the crafted vehicles fit into the driving missions? In one of the E3 interviews it was implied that driving wouldn't make the first version, is this true?
Rewards - we've heard that there will be 3 levels of reward based upon completing certain objectives. What kind of rewards are given? Since their are rare operatives, does this mean that mission rewards will have some random rewards? Or will you always get the same operative for completing a mission.
Bosses - we've seen an awesome mini boss in the District 42 walk through, Vytautas, a Bones lieutenant who feels no pain. How tough will bosses be? Will they be killable with a head shot? Can you please explain how a boss battle will work.
You've briefly talked about cross over missions where players from the other agency are part of your mission. With both sides having different objectives. Will you need to work together? Against each other? Can you give more details on how the cross over missions will work.
How interactive are the environments? Are they destructible?
How will the driving missions work? Are they like rail based shooters? Will they be multiplayer, ie one player driving, one shooting, multiple vehicles?
We've seen 3 agency moments, one scaled from 1 - 4 (merry go round), one was vehicle based (jeep flying into helicopter), and the other was single player (embassy). What are the requirements for most agency moments? Will they be just based upon number of players? Or will they require certain character types? Equipment?
Can you give an example of an interactive agency moment?
Melee / Combat
Will their be friendly fire in the game?
How hard will it be to find ammo? Will the enemies drop what they are using?
Quote: "There will be melee moves for when they get close to you, we’ve seen headbutt and a move where Cassie kneed them then hit them over the head with her gun."
Will there be different melee moves and fighting styles that agents can learn? Will we see epic showdowns of Tiger Wan Fu vs. Grapple Master Pow Pow? Grabs, throws, flying kicks, etc? PVP rooms dedicated to "No Guns, just MELEE!" and "I brake for Punches in the face?" Melee weapons other than the shooter standard knife?
Will we get an emote for "My kung fu is better than your kung fu" or other types of taunting?
PvP Anytime - The game seems to have a strong focus of PvP. Given the game's storyline, it makes sense. But please let us have more than 3 or 4 maps to play in at launch. Look at WoW. They have been around for years and only 4 or 5 battleground maps are in the game, and each map can only be played one way. (game mode.) Here's looking forward to basic deatmatch, TDM, CTF and other similar variants of FPS game modes, but with maybe at least 10 maps to play in at launch for variety.
We've seen that people go back to the closest field office med center when they die. We've also heard that the support class can create a field check point that you'd go back to instead. Can you go into more details on the death penalty.
Joint Agencies / World Domination / PvP
Possibility of being a double agent to steal resources from one agency for another? Agency vs. Agency PVP matches?
Will the agency get it's own set of operatives, or will it just be the combined set of each current member?
Will there be an Agency HQ?
Will there be some kind of agency storage?
You've mentioned that players will affect the world, how will this work?
Will players be able to make things like logo's and such for their agency. Will custom agency outfits be available.
What is the point to the Unite/Paragon divide? They seem to be like factions in WoW, ie you can't group with people in other other agencies, you get different missions, etc. Is it just aesthetics and skill choices? How much interaction between them.? How is it reflected in the gameworld? Is there any “RvR” equivalent to this divide? Is it linked to Matt’s promise that the world will change as a result of Joint Agency competition?
We've heard about a trophy room or something like that for players within their agency. Will joint agencies have a place of their own?
Will joint agencies be able to declare war on other joint agencies?
Will joint agencies have an identifier, so people know what they are? Something like the guild tabard in WoW.
Can I CoH/CoV or Shadowbane style attack other Joint Agency’s housing?
What are the rewards for PVP? Is their different advancement, ie. does it affect PvE advancment? Leaderboards?
What is "World Domination"? How will the meta game work?The last third of our game is the high game. This is what we call world domination ... that's the loose term for it. This is basically being able to vie against players or against other agencies for missions and even PvP arenas. We really want to have a fun high game where people can continue, whether it's cooperative with their own agency or against other agencies.
Is there a metagame/reward point to PvP? Or is the point in the fragging itself?
Similar question, is the metagame liked to competing PvE objectives, PvP objectives, a combination of both, or something else?
How do the joint agencies affect the meta game?
We've heard that player or agency actions will affect the world. Can you go into more details? Does this mean that the different servers will have different story line arcs? Or will the servers all be the same.
Headquarters
Will we be seeing more classic arcade games besides Qbert?
Will the fighting ring in the Paragon HQ be a mini game?
Will players be able to play the mini games for the other faction?
UI
You've shown a UI designed for consoles, will the PC UI be the same?
Will PC players have the capability to set up and use hot keys for skills rather than using the controller UI?
Will PS3 players have the capability to use a mouse and keyboard?
Development
From a development standpoint, what is the most difficult thing you come across.
Are you using Maya? Besides Unreal what other tools are you using?
Company Staff Interaction/Roleplaying:
This one is a little hard to explain. Being a big Matrix fan, I was in The Matrix Online's beta, and saw through it's development. It was littered with bugs, and many gameplay flaws, (IMO) but because of that it also had the BEST damn attack animations I have EVER seen in an MMO. However, down the line when gameplay became more important than eye candy, I quit soon after 5 months after release. I had a pretty nice guild active guild too....good times.
Besides the animations for characters, one thing this game did new (or at least focused more on) than any other MMO was staff interaction. Basically, the game's "updates" consisted of episodes, which is more story missions, and then weekly planned "events." More importantly, they weren't just scripted events run by NPC's. While there were NPC's, they also had their actual staff coming into the game roleplaying as certain character's like Naiomi and Morpheus. You could talk to them, /whisper them, and even fight alongside with them. It was really awesome, like being part of the storyline....then I quit when the story got haywire and they started killing of main characters from the movie. Ugh.
Sony has mentioned "episodic content" i believe, in their interviews and such. Are we going to see the same thing again here? Would be awesome. I know that it was SEGA and someone else that started MxO, but Sony took over it later.