Black Prophecy

[Erathaol]

So I woke up yesterday to see I had an e-mail from Gamingo saying I was accepted into closed beta for Black Prophecy.  Now, I had no idea what the hell Black Prophecy was, but hey I was in a beta.  So I read up on the game while downloading the client, and what do you know, it's stupidly fun!

It's a space dogfighting MMO, so like EVE but with third/first person spacefighter combat.  The missions are repetitive, the UI is horribly clunky, there is absolutely no incentive to PvP yet, but the combat gets me all tingly!

Best of all, it's free.  If anyone else wants to give it a go, I'd suggest signing up for beta as I believe they're just letting anyone and everyone in (closed beta what?).

http://blackprophecy.gamigo.com/

[Paitryn]

yeah Ive been looking at it for a while. (what I thought Space combat in SWTOR should have been) and just got my beta key today as well.

I heard the prologue was a nightmare and pvp is free teamkillable.

[Mharz]

Downloading the client now.  Looks pretty cool.  Looks like the beta is open.

[Erathaol]

The prologue is actually pretty darn long, and will take you a few hours to complete, though I actually enjoyed it.  

The PvP does have some teamfire issues, with the occasional griefer firing on allies just to be a dick.  But the only penalty for death in BP is a 5-min debuff that stacks for every death.
I for one enjoy having friendly fire.  Not that I like getting shot in the back by the trigger happy plasma flamer... but it promotes good teamplay where a coordinated team doesn't blow each other up and can absolutely wreck an uncoordinated one.

That being said, unless they decide to add some sort of reward for PvP it is literally just for fun.  Cool by me, but if I dedicate my time to PvP I'll quickly fall behind in levels and never be able to compete as weapon damage and ship durability increases exponentially with levels.  One level can literally double your weapon damage!  What this means is lower levels will NEVER be able to compete with higher levels, as they just can survive long enough or deal any significant amount of damage.

Whatever, I just want a fun space dogfight with a couple buddies as my wingmen, and this game delivers enough fun for me to play on occasion.

By the way, I chose Genide as my faction.  Genetics > Cybernetics.  Also, this way I get to gun down Tyi fighters (yes, pronounced "tie fighters").
Of course, I'll also have a Tyi alternate character to try out different weapons and for ship variety.

[Mharz]

So the prologue is like the training missions and such?

Are the PvP missions tight level group?  I could imagine the missions against other players + computer foes being pretty intense and fun unless you're getting smoked by people a few levels higher than you are.

I'll roll Genide and let you know when I'm finished up with the prologue.

[Erathaol]

The prologue consists of everything up to level 5-6.  Everything at the Spire is the prologue.

PvP missions require a team of the opposing faction to accept the mission, and then you'll duke it out.  So far I haven't had a single enemy group accept, so I don't know about level ranges or matching or any of that stuff.

I WISH they had battleground-esque PvP missions with a couple capital ships and flights of AI fighters on each team, but I don't think that sort of gameplay is available yet (or ever).  Like Star Wars Battlefront 2 space battles, except actually fun.

[Mharz]

Beta key give away for this game.
http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/266/Black-Prophecy-Closed-Beta-Key-Handout.html

Sign up for a free account and get a free beta key.  Over 700 left.  Check it out if you're interested.

[Paitryn]

Ill sign up as genide then. was thinking about tyi since i liked the ship looks better, but Im more interested in running as a unit.

[JP]

Picked it up and i'm chuggin thru the prologue, took a bit to get controls to a non-aids way, but now its def enjoyable.

[Duoi]

Yeah really enjoying this.  Went genide and now exploring whats next

[Mharz]

Okay so I'm slugging through the story missions.  Generally a good time.  The interface is a little non-intuitive in places and the lag in zones where there are many players causes a huge amount of rubberbanding even with low lag and a decent gaming rig.

Some observations:

Dock and upgrade a lot.  Ship (cockpit) first, weapons, then pick a few other areas.  Personally I went engines - speed kills.

Take station missions and knock those out for easy rewards in low lag zones.  Assassination and zone clears are sooo easy.

Loot everything always.  Sorta obvious but I got a few nice drops from crap level 1 kills.

Turn off the dialog sound when you get sick of hearing "FRAK!" and all the other crying from the enemy pilots after you dust them.

Someone form a FA clan over there and invite us so we can go group PvP and do group missions!

[JP]

so whos making the FA clan

[Erathaol]

I'm level 9 at the moment, so I think I'll form the clan when I can.  From what I've read, it costs 20,000c and the leader must be level 10 (some say 14).

We're definitely gonna need to pool our resources for this, as I only have around 2,000c currently.

[eeth]

hey Erathol, Paitryn, Mharz, and anyone else playing, look me up in-game. "Eeth"

great fun so far, nice combination of "mech"-like customization and dogfighting-based space shooter. can't wait to dig into more.

worst part so far is just server capacity/balancing issues which i think are leading to the dreaded "rubber-banding" lag in some places. went to other areas/other instances of same zone and seemed to clear up.

for anyone jumping in for the first time, first thing i'd do is play with the mouse sensitivity and the "mouse center zone" and adjust them so it's not quite so dizzying/whiplashy to start, and i'd highly recommend changing the default "T" to select target to something like "Tab"

now that i've been playing for a bit, i'm edging back to the original mouse settings.

[Mharz]

I think you can form a clan in the Genide station and I'm not sure it costs cash at all.  Gonna give it a try.

Apparently I can't because I'm "Missing Rights."  Whatevah that means.