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Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Fearless Leader on April 01, 2011, 03:52:14 pm

Title: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 01, 2011, 03:52:14 pm
I got in on a closed beta for Black Prophecy (http://www.blackprophecy.com/), for those of you that dont know, it is a space flight sim MMO

It is a beautiful looking game, and somewhat innovative in rearguards to visual effects, you can see your own shield flare and it varies in color based on the weapon you are hit with. I still vastly prefer FSO, mostly because there is an element to spaced based MMOs that I dont enjoy.... flying aimlessly through space, trying to collect items, and finding quests missions, and the lack of PVP and friendly fire against other players
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Nemesis6 on April 01, 2011, 03:59:49 pm
Wait so, this is already out in Europe? The site has two downloads available -- A game client, and a "U.S beta client".
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Hades on April 01, 2011, 04:22:55 pm
Open beta hit today, apparently.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 01, 2011, 09:24:58 pm
I thought it was still closed beta? I got the email last week that said I got in, but I didnt start playing til early this morning. It lacks the death black ships coming out of nowhere killing everybody, desperation, and compelling story of freespace, but it is pretty, and wont know if I disrespect it. Not to mention the graphics 75-99% of my computers resources. Also, there are a lot of uses of words like "newbies", "uber", and the ever generic "frac", apparently military space pilots in the future use game lingo and l33t speak to communicate. 
I was going to post some screen caps, but all my print screens show up black, anybody know of any solutions?
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Hades on April 02, 2011, 09:39:45 pm
I dunno, I just got my closed beta invite on March 31. Anyway I'm in-game now, still in prologue. I'm Sfyri in-game.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Jeryko on April 03, 2011, 07:54:35 am
Jeryko in game
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: SpardaSon21 on April 03, 2011, 12:01:32 pm
I have not yet been allowed into the closed beta. :(
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: QuantumDelta on April 03, 2011, 12:09:32 pm
If any of you buggers are actually european, I've been on there as QuantumDelta for a while, I so verrrrrrry rarely play, had to recreate my toon today after hades poked me about Jeryko :P
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: TrashMan on April 03, 2011, 01:16:33 pm
MMO?

Nah, thanks, I'll pass dispite enticing visuals.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Jeryko on April 03, 2011, 03:19:26 pm
It's Free to Play if that makes any difference. And as far as I know, the cash shop won't offer things that would severely affect balance.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: SpardaSon21 on April 03, 2011, 03:27:30 pm
From what I've heard, it will be more like Freelancer than Eve Online.  That means it will be worth a try for me.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 03, 2011, 05:44:01 pm
It is definitely worth a try, and it is nothing like EVE, you actually fly your fighter and fire your own guns.
Also, my call sign is Sammich, and before you ask, I'm not affiliated with sammich.com, I was just hungry when I started the game....

F11 does screen shots, but I dont know where they go. I also started having really bad lag after the prolog
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: NGTM-1R on April 03, 2011, 05:58:05 pm
It is definitely worth a try, and it is nothing like EVE, you actually fly your fighter and fire your own guns.

As I've repeatedly stated, that's because the ability to maneuver in EVE would bring no benefit within the established game mechanics. If you want to point out a difference, go for the mechanics that make the difference possible, rather than the superficial manifestations thereof. :P
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: QuantumDelta on April 04, 2011, 02:46:57 am
You made it sound worse.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 04, 2011, 02:52:41 am
It is definitely worth a try, and it is nothing like EVE, you actually fly your fighter and fire your own guns.

As I've repeatedly stated, that's because the ability to maneuver in EVE would bring no benefit within the established game mechanics. If you want to point out a difference, go for the mechanics that make the difference possible, rather than the superficial manifestations thereof. :P

I can fly, like woooosh!, and move on all axis ;7, shoot space guns, pew pew pew :mad2:. rock launcher wooooooshhhh BANG! :mad2: AHHH!!! :confused: what was I talking about?

That is the basic enjoyment factor I get out of it. I was never really good at eve, so I am biased by the fact that in all the years (3 on and off) I played I maybe had 10 PVP kills, and only popped one pod.

You made it sound worse.
I really (really really really really) should not be your only source of information on this subject, as I have eccentric tastes in games

EDIT: LOL
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: NGTM-1R on April 04, 2011, 02:57:20 am
You made it sound worse.

What? EVE? BlackP? I don't really care either way.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 04, 2011, 02:59:33 am
Jeryko in game
I dunno, I just got my closed beta invite on March 31. Anyway I'm in-game now, still in prologue. I'm Sfyri in-game.
You guys are both Tyi... :( 
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Liberator on April 04, 2011, 04:58:50 am
Yeah, so I couldn't do the first Tyi mission where you intercept the ships.  i rerolled genide and have had no problems.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on April 04, 2011, 05:05:04 am
I'm also flying on the English European release server (nick Gortef... duh). Well... I'm there time to times anyway.

So far my impression is so-so. Of course, there are not that much space-combat-online games around so I dunno. I used to play Jumpgate and I can't help but compare other games to that.

Anyway... I got the feeling that it tries to be both Freelancer and EVE at the same time, but does not really reach either and butt-lands in the middle.

The actual gameplay when flying is almost just like Freelancer, simple and more or less attractive. Controls respond quite well, but not perfectly IMHO.
Also it has a direct support for x52 for example but damn that thing was übersensitive. So Mouse-Keyboard for me... still @£$@£€

On the other hand the menus and other gidwids are more to EVEs direction where ya actually have to click around a lot in order to do someting -LIKE LOOT the wrecks for cryin' out loud (I miss the automatic tractor beams Freelancer had/has). After an hour or two the menus become more familiar, and ya can see how to operate them but I'm still not that impressed. Perhaps I need even more time, I can see the potential when in station but when in space operating the interface takes a bit too much time... especially when there are loads of buggers shooting at ya.

One thing that REALLY bothered me when I found about it. The space is actually divided into restricted sectors, the player can move to another sector only by jumping. Ya can't just take yer time and fly, if ya try to do that an invisible wall comes into the way and the system tells ya to go back (and it actually bumps you back to the direction ya came from). Then again I haven't actually tried to do this after I got finished the introduction campaing so it might just have been during the introduction. I need to confirm this.

Oh yea the Introduction. Otherwise nice but there's this Nimbus sector which lags enourmously.

The story is actually quite amusing (yea it has a story). There are quite a lot of noticeable shortcuts in it (I dunno if ya could claim them to be plot holes... more like unexplained things that could have been explained on that point), but amusing nevertheless.

Welp, that's my thoughts. I can recommend that people try it though. It's free!
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Hades on April 04, 2011, 07:07:26 am
You guys are both Tyi... :(
I got a Genide I mostly play with now by the name of Siopi, since I prefer the look of Genide ships.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 04, 2011, 10:41:53 am
I'm also flying on the English European release server (nick Gortef... duh). Well... I'm there time to times anyway.

So far my impression is so-so. Of course, there are not that much space-combat-online games around so I dunno. I used to play Jumpgate and I can't help but compare other games to that.

Anyway... I got the feeling that it tries to be both Freelancer and EVE at the same time, but does not really reach either and butt-lands in the middle.

The actual gameplay when flying is almost just like Freelancer, simple and more or less attractive. Controls respond quite well, but not perfectly IMHO.
Also it has a direct support for x52 for example but damn that thing was übersensitive. So Mouse-Keyboard for me... still @£$@£€

On the other hand the menus and other gidwids are more to EVEs direction where ya actually have to click around a lot in order to do someting -LIKE LOOT the wrecks for cryin' out loud (I miss the automatic tractor beams Freelancer had/has). After an hour or two the menus become more familiar, and ya can see how to operate them but I'm still not that impressed. Perhaps I need even more time, I can see the potential when in station but when in space operating the interface takes a bit too much time... especially when there are loads of buggers shooting at ya.

One thing that REALLY bothered me when I found about it. The space is actually divided into restricted sectors, the player can move to another sector only by jumping. Ya can't just take yer time and fly, if ya try to do that an invisible wall comes into the way and the system tells ya to go back (and it actually bumps you back to the direction ya came from). Then again I haven't actually tried to do this after I got finished the introduction campaing so it might just have been during the introduction. I need to confirm this.

Oh yea the Introduction. Otherwise nice but there's this Nimbus sector which lags enourmously.

The story is actually quite amusing (yea it has a story). There are quite a lot of noticeable shortcuts in it (I dunno if ya could claim them to be plot holes... more like unexplained things that could have been explained on that point), but amusing nevertheless.

Welp, that's my thoughts. I can recommend that people try it though. It's free!
You make good points, I also find similar areas lacking, I just thought it was the US version that had these problems, because the closed beta forums are full of people asking to change all the things you are talking about.
 I see why you have to jump places, it wouldn't be fun if somebody could just fly to your mission and start messing around all the time. Also, I kinda found a work around for the  loot thing, I just key mapped the loot and target buttons to buttons on my joystick
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on April 05, 2011, 04:24:03 am
Yea the restricted sectors work when doing an "instanced" mission, that's for sure. It's even explainable by having such missions faaar away from the normal sectors.
But I think the area restrictions apply even when flying in "open space", like Pan's Junkyard. I'd like to fly around the Pan and enjoy the view.

Mmm was there a target button for a nearest wreck? If so then that is a solution indeed.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 06, 2011, 02:00:52 am
Yeah, that is true, it is a scenic game, but all the people at pans trying to kill me limit the enjoyment of the view.. also the hideous lag I have there everywhere

There is a key bind for looting a wreck (I remapped it to my joystick and dont remember the original key), but you have to target it first, in my experience wrecks are usually at the end of the target list, so if you hit the 'previous target' key the wrecks are usually right there.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on April 06, 2011, 03:44:28 am
Yea I checked it out yesterday, the "next/previous-target" with "loot-all" key works quite ok to keep me more or less satisfied.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 06, 2011, 04:18:37 pm
[innuendo] I would rather have you more satisfied [/innuendo] :lol:
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on April 12, 2011, 05:31:06 am
:F
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Fearless Leader on April 12, 2011, 04:44:44 pm
 :lol:
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: rhraziel on May 23, 2011, 10:07:16 am
Can people inside of this beta send invites or do you basically have to just sign up and hope for the best (I'm in the US)?
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Patriot on May 26, 2011, 04:45:36 pm
New patches fixed the wreck selection to loot thing, no longer needed to select a wreck to loot stuff :3
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on May 30, 2011, 04:07:10 am
Oh cool. Perhaps I should log in to check out it again then. For a while... I doubt that lag problem is still fixed.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Patriot on May 30, 2011, 01:14:18 pm
what lag problem?

I just finished the Tyi mission, i was yelling GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!! when i blow'd them up :D
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on May 31, 2011, 04:33:27 am
Me and my gaming mates were having too much lag, or packet loss -or both at the same time. Especially in FFA areas. In Instances it was usually "situation ok", but not always.
At worst the game was completely unplayable. At best it was ok.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Patriot on May 31, 2011, 12:38:08 pm
Hmm, haven't had that issue. But i suppose this comes AFTER the prologue, where i still am right now.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on June 03, 2011, 02:24:55 am
Indeed the instanced story driven missions in the Prologue were quite ok and worked fine.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Patriot on June 03, 2011, 05:52:09 am
Yeah, i'm getting the lag issue bad now too. Becomes unplayable for me with an outdated system :(
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on June 05, 2011, 10:45:51 am
It's unplayable even with my system which should not be outdated, so don't blame yours yet.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Patriot on June 14, 2011, 07:08:36 am
Yeah, cause i only got like 20fps on average in the Prologue, and now it hangs every time i want to turn my craft :(
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: rhraziel on June 19, 2011, 03:14:25 pm
This is now open beta in the US! Going to check it out today.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Gortef on June 24, 2011, 11:27:43 am
God speed pilot!
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: redalbatross on June 27, 2011, 12:58:55 am
I just started playing this game today.

In a vacuum of space sim games (ahaha, see what I did there?), it's definitely not bad for a game that's in beta. It feels a lot like Freelancer/Freespace combined with some archetypal MMO elements like ship customization. Definitely has some promise.

My only gripe is that it's a bit unresponsive. My laptop is getting pretty dated but it usually doesn't have much trouble and runs comparable engines like the FSO engine or the DarkStar One engine without a problem, but Black Prophecy gets a little choppy. I don't want to blame the game entirely, but space is pretty empty.

To anyone who hasn't played it yes, check it out. The beta is free for now, it'll only cost you maybe 45 min or so to download.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Hades on June 27, 2011, 01:14:40 am
I've played it, and I have quite a few gripes. My biggest one definitely has to be the lack of any actual ship variation. Last I played it, there were literally only three different ships you could fly, and they were for the three 'races' you play. So effectively, one fighter at a time.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: redalbatross on June 27, 2011, 01:36:05 am
I've played it, and I have quite a few gripes. My biggest one definitely has to be the lack of any actual ship variation. Last I played it, there were literally only three different ships you could fly, and they were for the three 'races' you play. So effectively, one fighter at a time.

Yeah, it's missing a lot of stuff, but as long as you go into it remembering that it's a beta and tempering your expectations accordingly, it's not bad. It has potential that makes it worth keeping tabs on. If EVE goes down in flames, I might look into playing BP in something other than a "Hey, I've got time, why the heck not," kind of way.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Turey on July 17, 2011, 04:23:15 pm
Just started playing this a couple of hours ago, seems pretty fun so far. I'm Turey in-game, was wondering if anyone else played. I'm on the NA server.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Belisarius on July 19, 2011, 02:48:52 pm
I wonder a bit about Reakktor Media's release concept. Here in europe it already got released and from what I read here some major features from the release version aren't yet in the beta version that americans play. Or did I missunderstand Hades' comment about the ship variation?
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Hades on July 19, 2011, 03:03:05 pm
I wonder a bit about Reakktor Media's release concept. Here in europe it already got released and from what I read here some major features from the release version aren't yet in the beta version that americans play. Or did I missunderstand Hades' comment about the ship variation?
I'm not sure, my comment was about there being only a total of three flyable ships, one for each possible player race (the regular humans, the tyr, and genide all only have one ship the player can control each, totaling three player ships)
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: -Sara- on July 19, 2011, 07:22:42 pm
This isn't that hyped/AI controlled experimental space game is it? Long ago I know some people in the online world mused about a space game in the making where everything developed itself through random events and calculations and the server trying to patch A and B together to extrapolate event C etc. Supposedly the devs had to make the graphical content and code, while the script would write itself constantly: if you entered a zone no-one went to yet, the game'd generate something based on odds and what's already going on. It'd be heavily based on physics and exploration or such. No idea on that title but sci-fi buffs worshipped the concept, a few indie guys worked on it, also don't know if they still do: many in the Trek communities were on about it when the original Star Trek Online devs failed to deliver. Can't remember the name of the game either, something with Dark <something>. Planets and stuff supposedly would randomly spawn under certain cosmic conditions and content concerning civilizations would be placed according to Drake equations and what not. Sort of a very evolved and adult Spore, but you stayed in space and communicated with AI elements and players alike as a commander/pilot. Sounded very conceptual to me rather than something solid, perhaps only vaporware after all. But that isn't this is it?
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: Belisarius on July 19, 2011, 09:15:26 pm
I wonder a bit about Reakktor Media's release concept. Here in europe it already got released and from what I read here some major features from the release version aren't yet in the beta version that americans play. Or did I missunderstand Hades' comment about the ship variation?
I'm not sure, my comment was about there being only a total of three flyable ships, one for each possible player race (the regular humans, the tyr, and genide all only have one ship the player can control each, totaling three player ships)
Ah ok. Have to admit I don't need an own fleet. One ship for the player I think is enough and the way you can upgrade your ship also is a really nice feature. If I wanted a fleet I'd play X or something similar.
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: redsniper on July 21, 2011, 06:20:42 pm
This isn't that hyped/AI controlled experimental space game is it? Long ago I know some people in the online world mused about a space game in the making where everything developed itself through random events and calculations and the server trying to patch A and B together to extrapolate event C etc. Supposedly the devs had to make the graphical content and code, while the script would write itself constantly: if you entered a zone no-one went to yet, the game'd generate something based on odds and what's already going on. It'd be heavily based on physics and exploration or such. No idea on that title but sci-fi buffs worshipped the concept, a few indie guys worked on it, also don't know if they still do: many in the Trek communities were on about it when the original Star Trek Online devs failed to deliver. Can't remember the name of the game either, something with Dark <something>. Planets and stuff supposedly would randomly spawn under certain cosmic conditions and content concerning civilizations would be placed according to Drake equations and what not. Sort of a very evolved and adult Spore, but you stayed in space and communicated with AI elements and players alike as a commander/pilot. Sounded very conceptual to me rather than something solid, perhaps only vaporware after all. But that isn't this is it?

Was it Infinity (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/)?
Title: Re: Black Prophecy closed beta
Post by: -Sara- on July 22, 2011, 08:38:43 pm
Might be, if it's for years in the work already. I remember reading it and thinking "Wow, nice!". Then reading it again and thinking "They'll probably cut on most promises eventually". Mostly because it sounded far-fetched back then.