Where is FA?!

[Anonymous]

Ok so.... recently I've been having some interesting conversations with people, mostly around mara central, I wish i would have taken screenshots at the time but I wasn't planning on posting about it, until i had second thoughts this morning.

Last night in mara central it was the usual scene, 2soon and trevona among some other reds chillin and gankin in mara... so me, bloodthirsty to up my cq points, decides to start my usual hit and run routine... luckily i wasn't alone, some of you may have seen Hostyl3 around from time to time, he was there kickin ass with me.

Towards the end of our lil killing spree he sent me some tells that went something like this....

First, this guy has been in beta since stress test 1, he looked up to FA back in beta, we had respect, we had power, we had (list goes on)... but now he says he barely sees any of us around, aside from the usual guys who try to occupy the mara gankers from time to time. He said he's beginning to see less and less of us, and therefore figures we are dying out, becoming weak. I tried to explain to him, that due to recent issues with the community we've been trying to maintain a low profile and let things blow over, he seemed to understand... but then he said something that struck me.... he said something along the lines of.... "Man if FA would get back in the game, like they were in beta, if they were to get back in the open and really do something, I would be joining in a heartbeat... but right now, it looks to me as if yall are fallin off"

Now I know some of you are thinking, eh... who's this guy, he's nobody. Well, I've been pvping along side him for a while, and he's a good guy, a good and active player... he's factionless and he's level 50 which means something. It seems he's been holding out in trying to join because we have secluded ourselves, seeming "inactive" if you will.... so i'm wondering, is he the only one? Doubtful, I've had at least a handful of whispers come my way about "where is FA, i never see them anymore" or "damn i thought FA quit" or "wow FA is still alive?" stuff like that, it's really concerning.

I know we are doing what we think is best by trying to keep a low profile, but honestly, we were active in the last event and i still get these tells? That's even worse, even when we are active we go unnoticed? Why?

Just something to think about... I may have more to post later, but i gotta go change my oil peace!

[Anonymous]

once we all hit 50 again we will...come back to life...so to speak.

[Anonymous]

yea, i saw you in mara yesterday as i was sneaking around invisible disrupting connections, and just being a thorn in alot of machines sides while pvp'ing. but i miss the times where we showed up in force. however i think we do need to concentrate on helping everyone level up. more and more machines and mervs are getting higher levels. without the allies we had in beta, we need to get our own numbers up. but then again, when we do "come out of hiding" i have no doubt that we will be stronger than ever. this is the calm before the storm so to speak.

[Anonymous]

Besides, I think it fits us better to stay hidden in the shadows than be spotted everywhere you look.

[Anonymous]

getting everyone to 50 will take the cooperation of everyone tho. higher levels should bring others along while they run missions (no matter what difficulty setting) as well as low levels being willing to take the time and really grind. also, i think that if you cant find a mission team, dont be afraid to run missions solo. its good to have a tree as your solo mission running class, like MA, or arbalist hacker. ive heard members ask if there were any mission teams running, and when they dont find one, they go off and do something else (rather than do what they initially were going to set out to do. gain exp and info). its kind of hard to help someone if they wont help themselves you know? but i do realize everyone finds fun in different things. so thats cool. i know not everyone here wants to rush through and hit 50, and i respect that. but i know there are some that wouldn't mind being 50 and really get into PVP and not feel at a disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

that's what i keep telling myself too xorsyst....but our perspective is a bit clouded, seeing as we are part of the faction, on teamspeak and so forth....imagine it from the point of view of someone on the outside... we were strong before anyone hit 50... we were single handedly dealing with the jokerz and every other red faction during the first event.... but now? now we are lucky to be able to deal with a small group of hardline campers without calling to other factions for support.... it's almost may guys, the next major story event is on the week of may 16th, 5 days of storyline shit.... do what you gotta do, light that fire up under your ass and grind your hearts out if that's what you feel you need to do... but whatever we do, we gotta do it fast

[Anonymous]

hey I would, providing the devs feel like sloving the error that is stoping me from even opening the laucher :/

[Fuse]

My view, too many people rushed to 50. Actually, I guess the problem is that not enough did. There are too many lower lvls inthe faction while it seems other factions such as the jokers, have more high 40s and 50s. The lvl difference has created a split in our faction compared to how it used to be. We need numbers and lvls.

[Anonymous]

Besides, I think it fits us better to stay hidden in the shadows than be spotted everywhere you look.

I kinda agree with Tiz on this one.  It should be more about RP that being seen and noticed.  Its not a popularity contest or a power struggle. I thiink we should be more active, yes, but I also think we should pay more attention to the RP of the Furious Angels and stop worrying about who likes us and if we're currently cool with the "IN" crowd.  I think if we actually become the Furious Angels that our background describes, we'll get plenty of attention and we'll bring substance back to the name.  


.....but that's just my .02

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm kinda laying low until I can hang with the big boys.

[Anonymous]

Even back in beta probably the reason why people saw us so much is because we were level 50 and had nothing to do because the constructs went down for like...a month, so we did what every other level 50 did. We loaded up patcher and healed noobs dueling each other at Mara central.

[Anonymous]

im looking towards a date of after may 20th, by that time we'll be back in force and as destructive as ever.

[Tbone]

Yeah, this one is pretty simple. We didn't exploit to 50, so we don't have NEAR as many 50s as the other factions. Take a look at this poll I put up a few days ago:

What level are you currently?

1-9  5.00 % (2)
10-19  12.50 % (5)
20-29  25.00 % (10)
30-39  35.00 % (14)
40-49  10.00 % (4)
50  12.50 % (5)

This is out of 40 people, less than half of our faction. To the hardcore gamers, this is the FA member base:

40-49  10.00 % (4)
50  12.50 % (5)

So the other factions have 15 people all at level 50 and can get up to 8 of them online at their peak time. We have 9 level 50s or close to and can get around 6 on our peak time (numbers are actually higher since half the faction hasn't done the poll).

But we also have a huge part of the faction that goes unrecognized because they are buried in missions or in the constructs still trying to level up:

20-29  25.00 % (10)
30-39  35.00 % (14)

These people aren't PvPing because everyone else exploited to 50 in other factions. They feel there is no point until they get a higher level. We did prove that theory FALSE when everyone on Teamspeak joined in for a scrimage in Mara. Most were in their 20s, yes it still gave us the edge we needed and we dominated.

In terms of hardcore involvement, we're operating at about 20% efficiency. 20% of the faction is comfortable enough with their level to take time away from missions and leveling for events/socializing/pvp. In other words, we're still the strongest force around, it will just take some more time before other people will realize it. Even at 20% effeciency, we are able to hold are on against forces that have combined from several factions to try to take us on. But let's discuss some other issues as well.

The involvement in the community? The community is fractured due to the different servers. Enumerator has not had a single player run event that was not a protest. Events were big in Beta and helped get you seen, but now that they don't exist, there's isn't a central point to make an appearance at. It might be time to discuss a Zionist Mixer -as an FA event, someone will try to ruin it and some Zionists won't make an appearance. We have to find a way to make it safe. While experimenting with Recall Team Member, we found it has become much more powerful. If we could somehow find an area that can be temporarily locked out and have everyone join via recall team member, we could keep things under control. Otherwise it will be a big gank fest. Other than that, all we can do is keep an ear to the ground about events.

As for having a low profile, we are far from having a low profile, despite our attempts. We are at the TOP of the gossip train. You don't get there by dying out - you get there by being the best. Check any magazine claiming to have the "juicy gossip". It is not going to be about the loser next door who lost his job. It's going to be about the successful actor who everyone looks up to. We still get more publicity than any other group - it's just more bad than good publicity nowadays. People wouldn't be obsessed with us if we didn't exist.

I think the big thing to get out of this is that we need to operate as a faction. I think it is time to try to get a weekly in-game meeting started and a few other things. Be willing to take a break from leveling to make an appearance or take part in a battle. Brainstorm for new ideas! It's all good.

[Anonymous]

Tbone you are a genious, another mixer sound beautiful, can i help...i wanna help. i know you all know how much i love pvp but events i think are my calling. can grim and i bartend? ohh you just made my day

[Anonymous]

Well, I was going to try a new type of patcher idea before I got shut down. I was going to try to use the recall team member to teleport people in trouble to a "safe house" that is near the battlefield. In the safe house there will be a patcher/force enhancer that will re-heal and re-buff people, and then they could run back into battle. you need to be min level 24 to use this, so people at or above level 24 can also help in their own way during battles.

I think before we have battles we need to split into teams, and these teams will have at least 1 force enhancer who will wait in a safe house near the battle field and have macros for each member of the team to teleport them in.

We can also have 1 big "base" instead of several safe houses to perform inter-team operations.

Anyway, I just wanted to show a way that lower levels can help out. I also would like to see this Idea take place as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks tbone, you made some really good points and clarifications.... I suppose I may have overreacted a bit regarding all of this, perhaps it was because of the constant discussions with random people about how they rarely see FA, or how FA should get off the bench and get into the game and so on and so forth.... I agree with most of what you suggested, I love the idea for a new Zionist Mixer, but I think that perhaps that should wait a bit.... I understand everyone is trying to improve their character, hell i'm still trying to improve my character.... but I disagree with what you said phienyx... yes from an RP stand point we are supposed to be mysterious and such... but that doesn't mean we seclude oursevles from participation.... the way I see it is... shit goes down, Zionites getting slaughtered... out of no where FA comes in and wipes the reds clean without a trace, and as quickly as they came they were gone.... but that's not the case right now

Right now it's more like.... Red's take over mara... a few FA's show up in a hopeless attempt to stop them... only with the help of multiple zionist factions can the reds be overcome, but even then this is only temporary because the reds regroup and slaughter all once again.

Perhaps I'm starving for glory or something else cliche like that... But i can't help but remember, the last days of beta.... wherever we went we dominated, against man, against machine... you name it, we defeated it, together... I long for the past i suppose, i miss it... and yes, I am not patient