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[HawK-EyE]

I have so many questions about this new fonline server, and i don't really know where to begin, if it's too early to ask just delete this message.

How many factions are currently in the game ?
What is the factions' name/background ? Did you planned to add more ?

What kind of wildlife is there around Pheonix ? What kind of critters we will face ?

What about weapons and gear ? Can you give us insight about how equipment will be handled in game ? Full loot and full craft-able ?

How many people are involved in the project ?
What plans do you have for the next beta-test ?

[Shangalar]

Hello Hawk, welcome!

It's not too early to ask. We would like to discuss about the game with external people, that's why we prepared the blog. We'll give information we can provide. For the rest you'll have to wait proper announcements on the blog or on the forum's dedicated part.

Concerning the factions, we are currently working on 2 of them, which will be kinda ready for the first tests. We plan to have a maximum of 8 factions ingame. That will mostly depend on the number of players and on the required time to prepare them (creating a faction takes months). Faction backgrounds are based on important axis that are interesting to follow in post apocalyptic worlds : Order, Technology, Religion and Economics. For now we're working on Order factions. Details will be available on the blog later, as our factions don't have complex and rich backgrounds for now. They'll most probably never have deep ones, as it's not inevitably necessary on our game. Though, it's mostly depending on team members' motivation/time, as well as on community. For now, let's say that factions shouldn't be caricatures and that your choice will hopefully be a dilemma.

About wildlife, Phoenix is quite close to our beloved California. You will then mostly face usual critters from the old Fallouts. A lot have received modifications though, some variations as well, and a few new critters based on the existing ones will appear.

About weapons and gear, you'll be informed properly on the blog. What I can say for now it that there is full loot as usual, that all gear from Fallout 2 will be obtainable, that a lot of new gear will be available (both armors and weapons), and that most of it will be craftable. Not the best ones though.

We're 10 official members on the project, but not all of us are active. More information about that will be given when time will come. Team members recruitment is closed for now but that will change soon as we'll need new partners to help us. For now the game is in alpha, I doubt it will change to beta before some more months of work are behind us. Though, the fact that we revealed the game's existence is a serious signal meaning that trying it will be possible soon.

[Oliver]

 Sorry for my english , but i will try explain.
 If some groups of players, en axample factions from Requiem or 2238, will join in one from that 2 factions, must they have cease-fire in that case (programmed interdiction by game) ? I want say - if TTTLA and Amboys will start play in one main programmed faction, they will not be very glad see such neighbour. It mean that on encounters on global map they can shoot players from same faction.
 And what about some trolls that will have wish bomb or burst allies on faction's base ?

[John Porno]

Shooting players of your own faction will greatly impact your reputation with your own faction. This reputation is really important, it will give you access to better gear, more crafting possibillities and personal bases. It is virtually impossible to play this game as a loner because we have other fonline servers where you can do that. If people try to join this server in order to express personal grudges then I can only recommend these people to grow the fuck up.

This server wont have the kind of "freedom" that fonline servers usually offer. I personally know that griefing is always a problem and so we try to minimize it.

[Oliver]

Then people from second faction can create special characters for bothering, trolling and scouting in first faction. When this chars will get low reputation you can manage new. Or you will try build system "one player - one character" ?

[John Porno]

enforcing a one char per character rule would only be our last resort. As of now we are pretty confident that we have disabled duallog/fastrelog for pvp/tc but the scouting you speak of is indeed a good point that we have to consider.

About trolling, e.g. just making chars for the sole reason of going to a faction HQ and spamming the chat, well, if people are that bored then I don't really know. There's not much you can do about that, maybe devs and gm's just have to ban these people or if it's too much we can maybe think of soem ignore feature but I dont think it will be too much of a problem.

Also, if you have more questions, feel free to check out our irc channel at     irc://irc.forestnet.org/AshesOfPhoenix

[Oliver]

I think you server will have same problems in your HQs, that we have in NCR on 2238 server, but in twice more important. This is old difficulty of non-PvP zones. SMG pijama bursters, trash/shit throwers, door blockers, bombers, enemy spys that will kill you in backsidde on encounters, stealers will crush normal situation on head bases of factions; and they will not be intresting in good reputation. Its first thing for considering and solving.

P.S. I joined in IRC. Seems that i am first player in this chat. And similar, that all developers are from french mumble.
If you will need in any help for test you can call me.

[Lidae]

As John said on the IRC, several of these issues will be designed away. For example there is no steal skill, and the whole combat system has been given a major overhaul, one of the effects of which is that it should be more or less impossible to one hex kill somebody. We still don't have any explosives (dynamite etc) in the game, but if we add it we will surely also implement features like on 2238 where guards attack you if you try something. Blocking entrances can be handled in a similar way (you get attacked if you block). Shit throwers, I don't know. People will probably "decorate" the ground with useless items kinda like in 2238, but I never saw that as a big issue.

The only real issue is probably enemy dual log spies that try to gain information by just being present. It's worth putting some thought to that. But I think for the most part, players will organize themselves on IRC/Mumble, or deeper inside their HQ or even in private bases before discussing super secret plans and so on.

Also, we're not all french . Several team members, myself included, speak hardly a word of french, if you can believe it!

[Oliver]

Shit throwers - i mean insulting by words, spaming chat and writing by items something like "leMark is...", "Skycast is..". Total mess.
And you can be killed by 3 players with 3 bursts. I dont believe in humans.

What about turn-based traps of high-level players in the square of enemy's HQ ? I think it will be most frequent fun for players. Whats chance fall inside of encounter with players ?

[John Porno]

there is no TB on the whole server. And for the trolling, the reason 2238 has so much trolling is simply that there's nothing meaningful to do with your sparetime.

[Lidae]

Shit throwers - i mean insulting by words, spaming chat and writing by items something like "leMark is...", "Skycast is..". Total mess.
And you can be killed by 3 players with 3 bursts. I dont believe in humans.

Ah, ok. Well, I think there's a built in option to ignore players (but I haven't looked into it much). It might be worth enabling something like that if we have such problems. There's also the possibility of word-filters, but I never really liked that in games.

You're right that some coordinated attack is at least theoretically possible. It's not likely to be very easy though, and in any case the perpetrator(s) will probably be the one to lose the most gear. If it really becomes an issue there's always the option to disable PvP on specific maps. But again I'd say that's only a last resort solution, as we would like the option for factions to make organized attempts at attacking other head quarters (that will be incredibly difficult, mind you). Maybe if PvP can be toggled on and off dynamically, it could be a solution.

What about turn-based traps of high-level players in the square of enemy's HQ ? I think it will be most frequent fun for players. Whats chance fall inside of encounter with players ?

We won't have any kind of turn based combat, so that's not a problem. I don't think we have made any decisions about frequency of falling into encounters of other players.

[Shangalar]

Yes we have, falling in encounters of other players will happen much more often, but the whole system of encounters is different, and their frequency is reduced, so there will be no issue there. Oliver welcome, you'll get more info about that soon.

[Brujah]

Of course all these faction problems can be solved by joining Imperator Brujah's Safe Haven.


Everyone is welcome.

[Jenova]

I've read that the player will have ~100 action points. Sounds nuts, except if you will need more AP to use things, or shoot, etc. Maybe I've just didn't see that, but having 100 action points, and death at -100 HP... sounds nuts.

[John Porno]

I've read that the player will have ~100 action points. Sounds nuts, except if you will need more AP to use things, or shoot, etc. Maybe I've just didn't see that, but having 100 action points, and death at -100 HP... sounds nuts.

just wait until more information is available. This server is PvP oriented so it doesn't make sense if even the basis of its pvp system is "nuts", right?

[Shangalar]

Ah, that was a good one :p

Indeed, all action have different AP prices, it would be ridiculous if everyone could do anything at anytime. We'll explain how it goes when the combat system will be overviewed.

[Kink]

can't wait !!! :p

[greenthumb]

I would like to ask about role of vehicles? Are they any useful in fights? Also i would like to ask about bases for major factions. So there will be one "city" for each faction?

Also most important question is when i can try any version of this? For example i would like to try some minor fight (RL + pistolero verus machineguner+ sniper)?

Thanks in advance

[John Porno]

>vehicles
Cars are not ingame yet and getting them to be anything else than a big container or a travelling device requires a lot of scripting effort so it would be a while until they were introduced, anyway. As the FAQ states, cars for travelling will be made available at some point, when the main features are done.

>bases
you have to distinguish between factions and squads. The term faction refers to an npc faction, like enclave on 2238, while squad refers to the player made gangs which belong to the factions. Think of "dagger squad" in fallout tactics. Apart from that, each faction has one big HQ location, which consists of multiple maps. There are also smaller locations like mines for each faction and probably more could follow. The base that a squad can buy will be part of the HQ structure, not an extra location on WM. There will only be one base and room per player because you dont need any other bases. Tents are also disabled.

>first test
the server is already in playable condition so to speak, with the pvp system finished. We already have a set date for a closed alpha more than soon and we are confident that we are able to finish the last missing pve-features in time.

[Perteks]

I didn't see anything about flamers (or i missed it)
What do you guys plan about them ?