Face of Mankind and how it relates to NC.

[Heavyporker]

When Forsie mentioned FoM in his leaving thread, I thought that FoM had to be something if it's pulling people off to it, so I took it upon myself to look through most of the available info. And then I thought I'd compare it to Neocron. Admittedly it was somewhat cursory - looked over the screenshots, read the stuff on the game's homepage, but didn't read through the forums.

FoM seems to have a pretty deep background story - centuries of small snippets of detailed notable events. This in comparison to Neocron's introductory story which takes it from a small stretch in time before the apocalypse, then skips right ahead to Ceres and the resultant rise of Neocron City.

Then there's the scale of coverage - FoM reports it will come out with several large cities on Earth AND several colonies, not just in the solar system, but in other systems. This to Neocron, which CURRENTLY just has Neocron with the statellite colonies (TH, MB, TG). DoY's in a faroff separate release. I don't even want to think about Tokyo II and the Moon and Mars Colony and Irata III.

Tradeskilling in FoM, if I read it rightly, consists of mining and construction (right now, anyway). Complexity seems *comparable* to what it is in Neocron right now. So far. Actually, there's not much real detail about FoM's tradeskilling base.

I don't think FoM even involves vecs or hacking or whatever atm... could change, but I didn't see anything about that.

What passes for factions in FoM seems rather... bland... atm. Basically, it goes like this - government, business, gangs. Three each. Relations seem uncomplicated there. Neocron's factional complexity definitely gives it some more flavor than FoM's, it seems to me.

I saw nothing about how PvP would work, but it sounds like PvP will figure heavily into the game.

Now, for gfx... well... from the screenshots I see, FoM character avatars just look sucky to me atm... I'm spoilt by NC :D

Bad news, though... FoM's architecture blew me away, actually. I think they got a much better general cyberpunkiness to it.

I think its because of much more liberal use of metal in architecture, and in the way the buildings are in FoM... narrow and tall... that definitely creates that critical looming feeling in the "megacity" theme... Neocron City's architecture's just too blocky, thick and short. Plus some areas just are too open to the air. Even the tallest in NC only gets about like 4 stories max (yes, some areas rival 4 stories, but seriously!). This is NOT conductive to the "megacity" feel. The screenshots of DoY seems to rectify this lack of true cyberpunky architecture... but, still...


Dammit, Neocron City *NEEDS* many many many 10+ story tall buildings. I mean, look at CityAdmin HQ... on the outside, it only looks, what, three or four stories tall, right? It's at least 6 stories on the inside!

Idea - tighten up some footpaths in the city, and tighten up some areas open to the sky - you want to make it feel like the city's so huge it squeezes out the sky.

Hey, another idea - break apt lifts into several more components... like skywalk 1a, 1b, 1c and suchlike.. extend the buildings upwards, put apt lifts on different levels... a snakattack or a yo's here and there, some benches and so on... more gravlifts, and definitely more ramps and stairs... then we'd be going somewhere with the cyberpunkishness.

Oh, and another thing... darken or off-color the concrete in plaza and via rosso... not much, but so it's more "realistic". Right now, Plaza's too clean-looking, and ViaRosso's too white and spic'n'span. I know they're the safer and richer areas, but they're out of proportion, in my opinion. Oh, and add more signs to Pepper Park... different color combos from red and purple, jeez... like in Blade Runner where he gets his ass kicked by that femme replicant in the stores - you got all those glass-window shops with the multicolor signs and such.

You can RP it off with "construction" signs and all that jazz... no area would be really "cut-off" since you usually have multiple access points to some areas in the zones.


I don't seriously think that FoM threatens Neocron at all... right now, it looks like a very different feel and way of playing. I think Neocron will be fine.

[Judge]

Well its not even in beta yet so things are subject to change. However, what is most drawing people over is that there is no leveling and it is almost pure FPS combat.

Oh yeah, there are no vehicles atm (which is a downer :( ) but there will be hacking. People are talking about a command line style hacking interface but are unsure.

[Richard Slade]

I go vote for that idea about higher buildings if a poll comes up
IMO we shouldn't even touch the street in NC, just for the cyberpunkiness
And that I would be so damn kewl to building jump
*sexy li'l climbah!*

[Dribble Joy]

The draw of FoMK is centred in RP. There is no lvling as such, you gain creditability with your faction and gain ranks.
It is still being debated whether or not to include perma death.
There is only one server and only one char.
It's not 'adult', as in language/content isn't censored, but discoraged.
PKing has serious consequences and PvP seems to be seen a a 'last resort', RP and P2P interaction is key.

Personally, although I've signed up for BETA, atm I think NC is a better game.

[QuantumDelta]

Perma death is one of the hinge points for me, it's conditions at the least...

[Dribble Joy]

Wouldn't be so bad if there weren't people who think it would be funny to kill 20 people a night.

[QuantumDelta]

That would be the whole reason why............. :P

[msdong]

im interested in FOMK to but its too early to to say something about it. if i get beta ill give it a try but like a lot of ppl told here NC ruined my gaming style :) and i see it as a chance to catch some impressions to make NC better.

i will look what the game have to offer for a supporter like me and then think about if its worth replacing planetside as a secondary fun game :)

[Opiate]

Not trying to sound like a FoMk expert here, but:

PvP is very much an aspect of FoMk, you just can't kill anybody without serious consequences. It seems a bit like how PS works, promoting fair battles, discouraging lame fighting (in PS you can get banned for killing allies).

Since there's no levelling (and afaik, no rares), death doesn't really mean much, so perma-death would be an option ("re-creating char", not "getting new account" :p)

[SilentGravity]

There IS hacking in FoM, but almost no details have been released. I may also note there are NO PLANS AT ALL for vehicle for it is most (if not all) a urban setting.

Also Face of Mankind is a very HEAVY Role Playing, I hear mods talking about enforcing roleplaying, and how breaking character is breaking rules (but there is also talk of a OOC channel such as the one in Neocron).

[Judge]

I'm very interested in FoMK, but I won't be able to play Drikie over there.... due obviously to there being no bikes to be a biker chick on. :(

Though i do have a few other ideas....

[Dribble Joy]

@ SG, yes the RP does seem to be VERY forced, to the point that it may be a bit oppresive. We will see.

[LTA]

@HP

A large amount of stuff still isn't detailed on the main site i don' t think weather it be time etc, but i'd avise your trawl the forums a-lot of things are/been discussed in deep detail half with Duplex himself confirming truth or not in it.

It's heavily RP, the devs have stressed it a-lot, hacking etc is all planned to be in.


"What passes for factions in FoM seems rather... bland... atm. Basically, it goes like this - government, business, gangs. Three each. Relations seem uncomplicated there. Neocron's factional complexity definitely gives it some more flavor than FoM's, it seems to me."

Gouvenment :

A police force :
a complete player run police force, the people arrest criminals not a Idle bot who shoots someone whos mass murdered the nation.
G.I.S : A Secret Service
FDC : The military

Them alone aren't bland, they offer a-lot
Business Factions compared to joining the companies of NC, without sound fanboi-ish but when i join Proto Pharma What can I do to change Proto, to move it above say NEXT... nothing....run the epic or kill some of its members.... now say i work for the Asian Coalition in FoMk what could i do ... i can manufacture large amounts of goods and distribute it, i can help my company set ties to supply the govenment with weapons etc, i can help make my company economically stronger.... not a strong/large group of pvpers, but a Strong economic power.
I can use my economic position to link with clans... becuase we dont have a DECIDED Ally/Enemy/Neutrality the players themselves will set it and in turn break it etc.

People can compete for high standing positions, use there money to buy RP items (yes there's a very large amount of rp items uner plan).
If you want to be a serial killer then you can be one... but you have to actually be clever about doing it.... not avoiding copbots but playing against other players who's job it is to seek you out and they will because they get paid to do it.

I could go on for a long time but i won't

Like i said i advise people who aren't clear to read the forums for now untill the site gets full updated.... there's a whole load of information there.

[Dribble Joy]

Actual server profits of each company in NC would be cool. Based on number of missions/player kills and deaths/live runs.
RP and some healthy competition.

[Judge]

The thing is that this game isn't in beta even yet. Think about all the cool stuff that was promised for Neocron, also think about all the cool stuff that dissappeared during the various beta's which we still get screenies of being posted from time to time.

I'm not saying that FoMK is gonna be shit, I'm just saying to take everything with a pinch of salt.

[Det0x]

did they rip off brainport from NC?

http://www.faceofmankind.com/index.php?page=brainport.php&lang=en

[msdong]

Originally posted by Dribble Joy
Actual server profits of each company in NC would be cool. Based on number of missions/player kills and deaths/live runs.
RP and some healthy competition.

neocon got that BoP engine but nobody knows really what that is. as long as faction symp is only a number that that counts if u can do a mission or make a clan its useless.
neocron needs to add more content on the economic side without make making PvP more complicatet.

FOMK maybe hardcore but we have to wait how it FEELS

edit:
its like NICE2 and WorldRacing. Worldracing have much better GFX, Real Cars, cool Landscape ...
but NICE2 is much more fun .....

[Heavyporker]

I will read their forums when I have time. College classes tight atm so I can't really spend much time reading sheer volumes of info atm.