Face of Mankind - Free MMOFPS

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C

Cuyval Dar

Face of Mankind


I've been playing this with a bunch of guys from my SWGEmu guild, the Vindicators.
It is remarkably well put together. Every item in game is crafted by players, and the combat is terrific, as there are no NPCs.

If you decide to play, choose Mercenaries of the Blood as your faction.
I recommend watching the video tutorial included with the game install before playing.
System Requirements

Also, whatever you do, do not pick your starting clothing colors to be green or blue. It will make you a target, as those are colors similar to enemy factions.

I'm on as Cuyval Dar




Q&A
Soliloquy said:
Ah, so you do lose all of the equipment you have on you, then? Can other people loot it, or do you have exclusive rights to your dead body?
Click to expand...
If you have items equipped, they are safe. But items in your inventory are fair game, except for money, unless you are"Most Wanted".
Soliloquy said:
So, how does this game handle death?
Click to expand...
Basically, you can buy clones (as many as you want, for 350 apiece). Each time you die, you use one clone. If you run out of clones (aka don't buy them) then you get permadeath and your character is deleted, and you start over.
 
S

Soliloquy

Wow... this looks like the kind of game that I wanted to exist years ago, when I was a young kid who had first heard about MMOs.

I'll look into it.
 
D

Deschain

I played this game from 2005 to the end of retail. During Open Beta, it was the greatest game in the world. What you see now is just a mere shade of its former glory.

You see, the key to this game is player-player interaction. There aren't any NPCs or enemies to fight persay, so the whole big deal is how you interact with other players of your organization or with other organizations. Back when this was completely free and sponsored, we had so many people that there were always talented individuals we could put into positions of power. There would constantly be people on and we would have battles between the LED (Law Enforcement) and usually the BoS/MotB spanning 40 combatants. There was actual structural organization with precincts and departments. However, when retail hit and people who couldn't afford to pay did not subscribe, the game quality began to drop rapidly. So far it's been on and off and it's quite difficult to get the game back to its former glory. There are several key problems with the game, stemming from the points I will illustrate below.

---------- Post added at 08:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 PM ----------

1. Lack of Players

- The game really is all about player interaction. There is no leveling, no monsters, just other people to shoot and kill. Lack of players mean that departments such as the LED/FDC do not have the manpower to enforce the laws, leading them to be entities more concerned with guarding their own territories, rather than galaxy wide agencies. Players often get bored and the boredom turns to either not logging on or finding new people to kill.
- Lack of players mean talent is hard to recruit. Often ranks have to be filled with people who are available, not necessarily those who are good. This also means people who have friends in upper echelons can be promoted quickly, leading to nepotism.

2. Manpower

Marko has for some reason refused to hire other people or even allow collaboration. This has led to bugs in the game, new content being somewhat slow in coming, and lack of integration of the player community. Not to say he hasn't been trying, but without the backing of a developer, this has to be a part-time job for him.

3. People are dicks and have long memories.

You see, FoM is an old game and people remember things for a long time. I remember the first commissioner I had in the LED, Andrew Scythe and the reign of the one after him Tydius Pyrdon. People still hold grudges over Tydius' actions when he was in office. They still hold grudges towards certain members in the game. Many of these do not play, but those that do can cause a lot of trouble. There are also a lot of deep-seated grudges towards factions, the LED/FDC in particular. Also, people are dicks. This cannot be expressed enough. Pretty much everyone who has the opportunity to be a dick will be a dick, especially if you're LED/FDC. Because unlike in RL, the other factions are armed just as well as they are. So they can grief and complain about police corruption when action is taken. It doesn't just stop there though, it goes both ways. What you end up getting is a clusterfuck that is loosely held together by shit and scum.

I played LED for 4 years and I don't regret it, but I miss the OB days.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

Oh, man, trust me. There are more than enough players. Tokyo is usually incredibly laggy from us Mercs raiding. The jail has tons of people in it due to the LED actually doing it's job.

And this isn't a single guy working on this anymore. This is a full-fledged attempt by a developer to restore FoM to it's former glory, and I'd say its working, judging by the number of players online.

---------- Post added at 06:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:56 PM ----------

http://www.duplex-systems.com/
http://nexeontech.com/
 
D

Deschain

I played a bit over the summer and while it seemed like progress was being made, it seemed like it would take too long to ever get off the ground. How many players are usually on at once? If I remember correctly the LED was at peak strength about 10-15 people with a similar number of FDC. This is during peak European hours. American side though usually it's about 5 of us. It becomes impossible to do our job defending DMC against EC/Merc zergs or even host a patrol without EC sneaking in and parading around the prison. People complained that we didn't patrol Earth when we didn't even have the manpower to guard the prison.

Also, when you say Nexeon Tech is a developer, I think they're just hosting the servers for FoM to run off of. I believe the programming team is just Marko, all the rest of the people are not involved in the coding.

Also, stop raiding Tokyo. Earth is ours goddamnit.

---------- Post added at 09:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------

Cool, Yendor and agentleo are temp mods. They were pretty cool LED.

---------- Post added at 09:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 PM ----------

Arthurius too. Also, I can't possibly keep track of all the cells that are or are not at war with the LED. Lists are often not updated properly and the only confirmation I get is when they begin to open fire. Also, CQC TAR for the win.

---------- Post added at 09:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 PM ----------

The MotB I really have respect for is Audie Murphy and maybe Cathmor Forscythe. Audie did a two week stint in the FDC and he was a pretty cool guy. He taught us how to fight properly and organize ourselves. It's a shame DL had to take him back, but I supposed it can't be helped. He's been with them since OB since I remember fighting him in DMC early 06.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

I was going to download this, but got distracted by the fact that I forgot I had a bunch of games on D2D that I haven't redownloaded since installing windows 7, so I will be reinstalling Beyond Good and Evil now.
 
D

Deschain

Death is nothing. There's something called 'clone-raiding' where fight with 20 HP, your shield implant, the clip of bullets left in your gun straight after coming back to life. Also, suicide grenading was a popular tactic.
 
S

Soliloquy

Ah, so you do lose all of the equipment you have on you, then? Can other people loot it, or do you have exclusive rights to your dead body?
 
C

Cuyval Dar

Duplex Systems

Barkey - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=28
Duplex - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=4
Grimmigbessier - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=5
NoFL - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=6

neXeon Technologies

Hsiang - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=4573
JesteR - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=2
Newklear - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=1343
neXeon - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=1
Rannose - http://forum.fomportal.com/member.php?u=3292


This is far from a complete list, not to mention all of the forum mods, and Game Masters, but I think you get the picture.

There have been enough people on to crash several worlds/servers for a considerable amount of time, including New York for an entire day. The devs have also been releasing a patch almost everyday since OB started. I'm not sure where you got the idea that there was only one guy actively developing this, that is far from the facts. Nexeon is providing hosting, (eventually) billing, and support.

---------- Post added at 08:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 PM ----------
Soliloquy said:
Ah, so you do lose all of the equipment you have on you, then? Can other people loot it, or do you have exclusive rights to your dead body?
Click to expand...
If you have items equipped, they are safe. But items in your inventory are fair game, except for money, unless you are"Most Wanted".

---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------
Soliloquy said:
So, how does this game handle death?
Click to expand...
Basically, you can buy clones (as many as you want, for 350 apiece). Each time you die, you use one clone. If you run out of clones (aka don't buy them) then you get permadeath and your character is deleted, and you start over.

---------- Post added at 08:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------

I forgot to mention that today's patch makes it so that anyone arrested and sent to DMC has their weapons temporarily removed. They only way to get a weapon is for someone giving it to you. Makes it so people in jail can't gank their jailors. Nice.


And I don't think that I mentioned it, but there are tons of LED on, all of the time. The asshole players are having fun with the increased difficulty of busting out of jail.
And as if there weren't enough cops, the FDC is completely allied with the LED.
 
D

Deschain

Ah, so you do lose all of the equipment you have on you, then? Can other people loot it, or do you have exclusive rights to your dead body?
Click to expand...
No fun if people can't loot you. Usually poorer people, like officers, carry two clips of ammunition and some medkits/biocells. The real loot is from corporation members and/or mercs. The stuff they dropped could supply us for several engagements.

There used to be clone insurance which was a monthly payment for unlimited clones, thus clone raiding, scouting, etc. Now that you actually have to pay for them, I assume it's died down somewhat.

---------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 PM ----------
I forgot to mention that today's patch makes it so that anyone arrested and sent to DMC has their weapons temporarily removed. They only way to get a weapon is for someone giving it to you. Makes it so people in jail can't gank their jailors. Nice.
Click to expand...
Like it used to be. Basically you couldn't enter the prison without other officers because prisoners would constantly try to shoot you. And then when you killed them for that, they could complain about prison ganking.


And I don't think that I mentioned it, but there are tons of LED on, all of the time. The asshole players are having fun with the increased difficulty of busting out of jail.And as if there weren't enough cops, the FDC is completely allied with the LED.
Click to expand...
LED and FDC have always been at odds. They're pretty much allied only because IG story says they're supposed to be. To be honest, FDC see LED as ineffective and inept at their job while LED view the FDC as far too arrogant in their jurisdiction and stuck-up about their position.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

I get the feeling that a lot has changed since you last played. You should get on sometime soon.
Also, personally, with how simple it is to craft, the lack of gear looting doesn't bother me. Gears degrade fast enough that it really doesn't matter.
 
D

Deschain

I certainly hope so. I've spent pretty much all my time in LED. I've seen its glory and falls. I've seen a lot of potential people turned away because of one misunderstanding or mistake after another. I'm probably one of the few LED who has never joined MotB or BoS after being reprimanded or fined. I think it's because I tend to follow a golden rule of shutting up and doing what you're supposed to.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

Well, there is a pretty good group of us Vindies playing every night, so you are more than welcome to hop on our Vent and play with us. Might be a good experience for you to try the other side of the law.

Plus, I think that the number of Mercs are leveling out as people switch to other factions. It got to a point where there were over 500 Mercs, and just about as many LED. We could use an old hand like you.
 
D

Deschain

I might give it a try for a few weeks during Winter Break (no decent computer at school). Are Audie or Jai still around? I haven't heard of the Vindi cell before though. 500 actives? That's a very good improvement. Back during the summer, LED had maybe 20-30 actives, and 10 constant players which mostly included middle level echelon. It's terribly frustrating having no HC (especially R7) or constables around to do things.
 
S

Soliloquy

Well, I tried it out, and all I can say is... eh.

Doesn't seem worth the time it would take to do anything.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

Deschain said:
I might give it a try for a few weeks during Winter Break (no decent computer at school). Are Audie or Jai still around? I haven't heard of the Vindi cell before though. 500 actives? That's a very good improvement. Back during the summer, LED had maybe 20-30 actives, and 10 constant players which mostly included middle level echelon. It's terribly frustrating having no HC (especially R7) or constables around to do things.
Click to expand...
There is enough people to shut down servers temporarily. You can't go 5 feet without running into someone. Since there is now "official" statistics, all I can give you is my impression of the player base. And it feels big.

The Vindies only have 2 or 3 people that played the games before. We. come from a lot of different other games, including Star Wars Galaxies, EVE, WoW, Planetside, WW2O, Age of Conan, Warhammer, Darkfall, Champions and Voyage Century.

The faction leaders are quite active. The current Merc leader is Trinity, and I'm not terribly sure about the others, but it's on the forums.
 
R

Rubicon

DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME

Back in like circa 2004/2005, I got into an open beta they had for FoM while I was still playing Neocron 2 (a cyberpunk MMO with fps combat).

Now, things have probably changed, but here is what it was like when I played it back then;



You started off as a new toon in your apartment in a city. Most people wanted to check out Neo Tokyo which at that time wasn't available so you were in a starter city.

It's death system was like in EVE, you had clones you could buy, so every time you died you would use up a clone. If you died with no clone, your character was perma dead. This..lead into HUGE problems;

- Originally you could only have 1 character, per account. If that character perma died, you had to create a new account, and there was a limit of 1 new acct per 24 hours, and with open beta there only X slots for accts..

- You started off with 3 clones insured, after that you had to purchase more clones from NPC vendors. Clones, cost a shit ton of money and you started off with almost no money..

- You started off with no weapon. The most basic weapon was a pistol, which you had to buy from a NPC vendor, which at the start you didn't have money for, so you had to run a couple missions/quests/whatever to even get that far.

- It was open world pvp, which was awesome, but lead to spawn point griefing beyond measure. As soon as you left your apartment, you were in an outdoor spawn point.. ALL new players leaving their apartment was at this spawn point. So campers would camp this spot, and kill you over and over as you kept leaving your apartment. And with just 3 clones until perma death.. You can see where I am going? You'd leave your apartment, die. Respawn, die, respawn, die, game over.


Now I know they've probably balanced that out and such in the many years since then but people left in droves at the time, no MMO developer has to be that stupid to implement such a system that offers perma death BUT leaves you totally exposed at level 1 with no way to defend yourself or fight back. I love open world pvp, I love perma death but if I can't at least fight back...

*shrug* Sadly cyberpunkish MMO's, especially with FPS combat, are a dying breed :(
 
C

Chibibar

heh... kinda like UO for a bit there huh? I remember eventually there was NPC guards (use to be invulnerable) that protect the cities so players DO have a safe haven.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
So I started out with nothing. Wanted to look around. No idea how the fucking controls worked. So I started hitting things at random. I even figured out a few things, too. But I got killed like 3 times just standing there.

Sorry, man. But the lack of anything even remotely resembling user friendly controls means I'm out.
 
S

Soliloquy

Dave said:
So I started out with nothing. Wanted to look around. No idea how the fucking controls worked. So I started hitting things at random. I even figured out a few things, too. But I got killed like 3 times just standing there.

Sorry, man. But the lack of anything even remotely resembling user friendly controls means I'm out.
Click to expand...
Well, it put a little video on your desktop that explains everything.

Which is good, if you've got like 45 minutes to watch it.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

Mav said:
DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME

Back in like circa 2004/2005, I got into an open beta they had for FoM while I was still playing Neocron 2 (a cyberpunk MMO with fps combat).

Now, things have probably changed, but here is what it was like when I played it back then;



You started off as a new toon in your apartment in a city. Most people wanted to check out Neo Tokyo which at that time wasn't available so you were in a starter city.

It's death system was like in EVE, you had clones you could buy, so every time you died you would use up a clone. If you died with no clone, your character was perma dead. This..lead into HUGE problems;

- Originally you could only have 1 character, per account. If that character perma died, you had to create a new account, and there was a limit of 1 new acct per 24 hours, and with open beta there only X slots for accts..

- You started off with 3 clones insured, after that you had to purchase more clones from NPC vendors. Clones, cost a shit ton of money and you started off with almost no money..

- You started off with no weapon. The most basic weapon was a pistol, which you had to buy from a NPC vendor, which at the start you didn't have money for, so you had to run a couple missions/quests/whatever to even get that far.

- It was open world pvp, which was awesome, but lead to spawn point griefing beyond measure. As soon as you left your apartment, you were in an outdoor spawn point.. ALL new players leaving their apartment was at this spawn point. So campers would camp this spot, and kill you over and over as you kept leaving your apartment. And with just 3 clones until perma death.. You can see where I am going? You'd leave your apartment, die. Respawn, die, respawn, die, game over.


Now I know they've probably balanced that out and such in the many years since then but people left in droves at the time, no MMO developer has to be that stupid to implement such a system that offers perma death BUT leaves you totally exposed at level 1 with no way to defend yourself or fight back. I love open world pvp, I love perma death but if I can't at least fight back...

*shrug* Sadly cyberpunkish MMO's, especially with FPS combat, are a dying breed :(
Click to expand...
So, you are judging it based on a single experience 5 years ago? Nice.

---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:00 PM ----------
Soliloquy;311583][quote=Dave said:
So I started out with nothing. Wanted to look around. No idea how the fucking controls worked. So I started hitting things at random. I even figured out a few things, too. But I got killed like 3 times just standing there.

Sorry, man. But the lack of anything even remotely resembling user friendly controls means I'm out.
Click to expand...
Well, it put a little video on your desktop that explains everything.

Which is good, if you've got like 45 minutes to watch it.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, basically this. It explains everything in the game.
 
D

Deschain

Dave I apologize for your loss but yea, that kind of what happens. The controls are a little weird and really we only get to help people who find the faction chat.

Basically you're divided into two modes: running the fuck away from people and screwing around with inventory/messages/etc. You switch using esc.

In running the fuck away mode, it's quite similar to your normal FPS. You start off with nothing but yea, that's kind of expected. You have money though, so if you find a market terminal you can buy weapons and armor and such. You can also chat using enter I believe. You have different channel, the most important are local and faction.

In screwing around mode, you can see your inventory, stats, write messages to people, chat etc.

As for dying, yes, this game has a ton of it. People kill each other for no reason because they can. The best thing for you to do is find your faction, depending on who they are, they'll be able to take care of you. Move your home to their base of operations, don't trust anyone not wearing your colors at first. You should also not trust new players in your own faction because sometimes they're spies and will backstab you.

---------- Post added at 08:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 PM ----------

This game is terrible on new people. They used to have a tutorial, but it basically thrusts you into a cruel unforgiving world. Basically, the rules for surivival are as follows:

1. always have clones because you will die
2. trust no one not wearing your colors (the police and army are supposed to trust each other, but heh)
3. trust no one who is only 1st rank wearing your colors until they've actually proven themselves
4. never talk in local unless there's no other way, otherwise you'll give your position away if you have enemies
5. if the guy looks like he's stalling for time, he's calling for backup
6. make sure you ask on faction chat, state that you are new, and that you need to know what factions you are at war with
7. find your own people, chances are there is a group that is supposed to help you. I am not familiar with the teaching structures of factions outside the army or police, but I know those two have departments that deal with such esp. although nowadays they've been kind of run-down.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

In my experience, the Mercs are good about teaching new players. There are always a few assholes who gank newbs, but what can you do about it? They will eventually get their comeuppance.


I can get any Mercs started off with free Linner PP7s - Whatever QL I have lying around.

Deschain hit it pretty well on the head, except for one thing: There is a comprehensive Tutorial video included with the install. I would also recommend hitting up the Wiki and Forums for World Maps and Resource Maps.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Cuyval Dar said:
In my experience, the Mercs are good about teaching new players. There are always a few assholes who gank newbs, but what can you do about it? They will eventually get their comeuppance.


I can get any Mercs started off with free Linner PP7s - Whatever QL I have lying around.

Deschain hit it pretty well on the head, except for one thing: There is a comprehensive Tutorial video included with the install. I would also recommend hitting up the Wiki and Forums for World Maps and Resource Maps.
Click to expand...
I love games with homework.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

That is a horrible comparison to make, considering that most of the people posting in this thread have not played the game, or did not watch the tutorial or read the wiki.
 
C

Chibibar

hmmm.... this doesn't sound like a game I would get into. I am not much into PvP especially ganking. ah well.
 
T

The Pumes

Color me intrigued in this game then, how does gun play work though because from the user trailer on their website it looks like a bunch of dudes in FFA with very loose teams going around with no purpose shooting each other up.
 
C

Cuyval Dar

The Pumes said:
Color me intrigued in this game then, how does gun play work though because from the user trailer on their website it looks like a bunch of dudes in FFA with very loose teams going around with no purpose shooting each other up.
Click to expand...
To an extent, yes. There are factional teams going around raiding enemy factions. But there are also Mercs who can be hired by any side to fight.Additionally, there are contracts put out by the various factions for Mercs to assassinate a specific player or guild.

---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------

There will be both free and premium accounts at retail, more details will follow later.
When OB is over, the devs say that a wipe is very unlikely.
 
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