The Agency

[OniKiy]

First off a video Developer Interview (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-interview-the-agency/49458). Note the details they talk about, sounds very similar to Planetside. It may well be the unoffical sequal to it from SOE.

For those who don't know what The Agency (http://theagency.station.sony.com/) is, simply it's a new IP from Sony Online Entertainment. Delving into the world of Spys and espionage. Involving two different types of agencys with radically different styles. The high tech and sweave U.N.I.T.E and the brutal mercenary faction ParaGON.

[Ludicrouse]

Your rather late... (http://forums.renegade-legion.org/showthread.php?t=9841&highlight=Agency) :p

[OniKiy]

Yup why I couldn't find it as it wasn't in the MMO forum. Video is just out on May 22, 2009. So enjoy the lil clip in between when they talk about the combat side of it. :p

Sorry Volw for nicking your post. Just more updates point towards a more FPS focused MMO than it appeared to be, o I thought I'd post here. Didn't see one in this section so presumed there wasn't one.

[Daymare]

Yup why I couldn't find it as it wasn't in the MMO forum.

Hrrr You're just trying to build your post count, thats like third or fourth repeated post the last two days? :p

[Tapja]

Hrrr You're just trying to build your post count, thats like third or fourth repeated post the last two days? :p

He's still got a ways to go before reaching your levels of spam :D

[Stokvis]

Hrrr You're just trying to build your post count, thats like third or fourth repeated post the last two days? :p

It could happen to everyone. :rolleyes:

[Daymare]

He's still got a ways to go before reaching your levels of spam :D

My spam is golden, no mortal can ever hope to achieve my strength

[Hovis]

Who wants golden spam? Can't eat that.

Meanwhile The Agency has definitely got me interested. Simply by virtue of being a multiplayer shooter which naturally will have a strong co-op element really. It's an interesting setting and concept too though. Looks as though there's a dash of No One Lives Forever about it, even though it's modern, so could be win.

Having watched the vid I'm not even put off by it being consoletarded. Planetside could have been on a console too. The game will be better on PC by virtue of the controls, fast loading times and so on, and so it's all good.

[Tapja]

Who wants golden spam? Can't eat that.

Meanwhile The Agency has definitely got me interested. Simply by virtue of being a multiplayer shooter which naturally will have a strong co-op element really. It's an interesting setting and concept too though. Looks as though there's a dash of No One Lives Forever about it, even though it's modern, so could be win.

Having watched the vid I'm not even put off by it being consoletarded. Planetside could have been on a console too. The game will be better on PC by virtue of the controls, fast loading times and so on, and so it's all good.

When I first heard of it, I was a bit more interested than I am now. It seems that they have gone for the 3d person combat instead of first person as was promised a year or so ago.

[Ludicrouse]

My spam is golden, no mortal can ever hope to achieve my strength

Then a god... am... I!

[Rebel]

Then a god... am... I!

no

[OniKiy]

Awfully worrying how everyone went off into Golden Spam and delusions of godliness... But yeah I agree it's a very intresting idea and if they are going down the fun now with story being optional then it may well be a great FPS.

As for the third person issue, you're all NC scum you always 3rd person. :p

I'm dying to see how the game will actually play as opposed to just guessing from the videos. As so far the fps looks, it's a decent mix but the video(s) looks heavily pre-scripted than on the fly action. So me thinks thats more PvE than PvP footage if it is even footage. But I hope that it's a good representation of the fighting than just a tease.

[void]

if the thread aint going OT on the first page the thread aint worth reading

[Ludicrouse]

As for the third person issue, you're all NC scum you always 3rd person. :p

Yeah, its a damn shame that because our weaponry required more aiming than just waggling it in the general direction of a Door, Floor, Ceiling or Wall - promptly killing everyone as the Orbs went through such surfaces, we had to use some "Spatial Awareness" tricks. :shinner:

[OniKiy]

Yes we have a tendacy to be able to kill people with mass fire, even though we didn't have an AV mode and only enough ammo kill to 1-2 people without them humping one another to share the damage. Where my equivilent NC character barely if ever ran low on ammo. Not to mention the pulsar was the only medium assault rifle that had crap range and couldn't hit other medium assult rifle users who knew it's maximum range was less than the NC and TR equivilent.

But all is better now, we have an AV mode and more ammo. With no more lash effects other than the one between hitting someone and anyone enar by. :p

[Hovis]

You had the Punisher, just like everybody else. Also the Lasher had a built in anti-tank mode. And an effective range that extended further than you could chuck it, unlike the Jackhammer.

[OniKiy]

You had the Punisher, just like everybody else. Also the Lasher had a built in anti-tank mode. And an effective range that extended further than you could chuck it, unlike the Jackhammer.

It didn't have an anti-vehicle or AV mode as standard the single fire would take near 5-6 clips to kill a MAX. Only a pulsar had anti-vehicle or an AV mode until recently. We had to cert av to take out MAXES, where my NC and TR alts dual wielded with AP rounds to rip MAXES apart in bugger all time (Jackhamemrs rocked at Anti MAX work). As for range unless the person was a right mong, the orbs where very easily avoided with a simple change of direction and then the user had to reload allowing them to be shot or the gap closed. As for pulsar range, we could have used the Punisher but then it was a case of not having a unique Empire Medium assult, which was the whole point. It was ment to be a weapon we used to suit our empire and play style and utalise our tech.

[Hovis]

It didn't have an anti vehcile or AV mode as standard, only pulsar did until recently. We had to cert av to take out MAXES, where my NC alt dual weilded with AP to rip MAXES apart. As for range unless the person was a right mong, the orbs where very easily avoided with a simple change of direction and then the user had to reload allowing them to be shot or the gap closed.

Lies and pies. You point a lasher at something it melts. Be in MAX, man or Moose. Well maybe not Moose.

[OniKiy]

Lies and pies. You point a lasher at something it melts. Be in MAX, man or Moose. Well maybe not Moose.

6 clips to kill a max. Or a large number of friendlys spamming an entrance way. The equivelent JH with AP was just short of a full clip and ditto with MCG.

[Hovis]

6 clips to kill a max. Or a large number of friendlys spamming an entrance way. The equivelent JH with AP was just short of a full clip and ditto with MCG.

Highlighted Vanu standard tactics. If you get one Lashernoob alone, in a cupboard, with a HamsterMAX you could put the rape to him like a hillbilly prom queen, but by the normal run of things Planetside was like a lasherorb bukkake party.

[OniKiy]

Highlighted Vanu standard tactics. If you get one Lashernoob alone, in a cupboard, with a HamsterMAX you could put the rape to him like a hillbilly prom queen, but by the normal run of things Planetside was like a lasherorb bukkake party.

Yes in a game with tons of people the only really exceptionally good use of the weapon was to all fire in the same direction. Where my TR and NC spent most solo killing people with much ease. Or rather your group being able to shoot in many directions.

[Gunhead]

Dude, give in. You can't lash here, this is Smurf country! :shinner:

[Daymare]

Dude, give in. You can't lash here, this is Smurf country! :shinner:

[Rebel]

Yeh and the fact that you're all talking like you still play the game!

ps bring back the surgehammer

[Tapja]

Yeh and the fact that you're all talking like you still play the game!

ps bring back the surgehammer

I see your surgile quadshothammer and raise you a Lasher 2.0.

[OniKiy]

I do still play it, off and on. The Lashers is ace now, but Hovis is senile and only remembers when he played it as an NC. I played all three sides and altho I prefered VS, I did hate the lasher as it was lacking compaired to the JH and MCG. Ditto for the pulsar with the crappy range, making it's good points redundant.

ButI do have fond memories of a bunch of us sitting at a back door spamming lashers and killing a ton of NC who just couldn't get far enough down to dodge it. :p

[Tapja]

Guess its time to bump this thread now with some E3 videos:

PvP gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-the-agency/700231

LD interview: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-the-agency/700207

Does not really look that massive yet.

[Hovis]

Looks like APB might well have stolen it's thunder a tad. We'll see though.

By the way what is it with games giving people wall hacks as a special ability these days? APB has them to an extent, this has them and there's a few other games I've seen or read about lately that are multiplayer that feature the ability to see through walls. Seems like the new fad feature.

[OniKiy]

Can't call any thing APB wall hacks bar actual Wall Hacks used by some people. If you run around or drive a car you'll show up on radar due to making noise. But thats just a nice way to make it harder to just run and gun, or camp and snipe. If you flash on the radar chances be people will get ready for you or snipe you back. It reminds me a good chunk of Audio Amp in Planetside. It's nice but unless you learn how to read it properly it doesn't always prove useful. Markers indicating targets isn't a wall hack. It goes both ways so it makes it even and makes the combat a lot more intersting. The game won't display people in defensive modes like spray/capture/hold/raid/delivery missions outside of actual hunt the c**t missions VIP/Takout/Death Match

But yeah, thats BS to have a manouver like that in a FPS game. Mean unless there's a limit to it or at least a counter or negative it'll just be crap in live games.

[Hovis]

Can't call any thing APB wall hacks bar actual Wall Hacks used by some people. If you run around or drive a car you'll show up on radar due to making noise. But thats just a nice way to make it harder to just run and gun, or camp and snipe. If you flash on the radar chances be people will get ready for you or snipe you back. It reminds me a good chunk of Audio Amp in Planetside. It's nice but unless you learn how to read it properly it doesn't always prove useful. Markers indicating targets isn't a wall hack. It goes both ways so it makes it even and makes the combat a lot more intersting. The game won't display people in defensive modes like spray/capture/hold/raid/delivery missions outside of actual hunt the c**t missions VIP/Takout/Death Match

But yeah, thats BS to have a manouver like that in a FPS game. Mean unless there's a limit to it or at least a counter or negative it'll just be crap in live games.

Nah the missions in APB when a player is lit up on the screen, complete with range marker, regardless of intervening cover, are basically wall hacks. Enforcers get a lot of them, and they sometimes come up as the final part of some missions.

[OniKiy]

Nah the missions in APB when a player is lit up on the screen, complete with range marker, regardless of intervening cover, are basically wall hacks. Enforcers get a lot of them, and they sometimes come up as the final part of some missions.

Everyone gets marked on either side. The VIP mission will mark the VIP, he/she will always be marked as he is the objective. It's not side exclusive at all, only depends on who's attacking or defending. In the Death match one without a localised objective to fight over all players are marked.

The whole point of a VIP being marked is due to them being an objective. Making it harder on defenders but also attackers. As you don't see the enemy only the VIP. I've been the VIP plenty of times to know that I'm marked. Ditto chasing a VIP.

[Hovis]

Everyone gets marked on either side. The VIP mission will mark the VIP, he/she will always be marked as he is the objective. It's not side exclusive at all, only depends on who's attacking or defending. In the Death match one without a localised objective to fight over all players are marked.

The whole point of a VIP being marked is due to them being an objective. Making it harder on defenders but also attackers. As you don't see the enemy only the VIP. I've been the VIP plenty of times to know that I'm marked. Ditto chasing a VIP.

It does it for bounty missions too, but only the crims get marked. Considering you can play the game only in bounty missions, as either side, it's a factor. :)

[OniKiy]

Both get marked. Seen and hunted crims via markers ditto Enforcers. Also bounty missions your bounty is always marked like VIP done both and confirmed both in all clients.

[Hovis]

Both get marked. Seen and hunted crims via markers ditto Enforcers. Also bounty missions your bounty is always marked like VIP done both and confirmed both in all clients.

Denied. If you're on a bounty mission you do not get the Enforcers marked for you. Not unless they've changed it within the last couple of days. You will only get Enforcers marked for you on the final stage of some missions, if it's applicable.

[OniKiy]

Denied. If you're on a bounty mission you do not get the Enforcers marked for you. Not unless they've changed it within the last couple of days. You will only get Enforcers marked for you on the final stage of some missions, if it's applicable.

Can bury your head in the sand if you want. Gold name is a bounty. On the map it's the symbol for the bounty. It's been like that since the invited Furious Fighters. As I have seen and done on both sides a whole two months before you even got to play.

Also on a bounty everyone sees them as a gold name and can kill them. Thats been in since the UI update before FF. Need to ask a HH for the details before that.

Oh and if you aint on the bounty mission you don't get their location on screen. Thats cause you aint on the mission, it's always been the case. You see the icon and the gold name, thats all. So you can kill them without joining in, but won't get the mission bonus.

Edit: Furios APB video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFM9vZe5DSg&feature=related#t=0h0m15s) Just watch about 18 sec in. You'll note the Gold named Enforcer. Thats from beta, not KttC and not any other test. You'll also note the names get harder to see when not moving. It's always been the case since beta, unless they're the objective they won't be that easy to see.

[Hovis]

Can bury your head in the sand if you want. Gold name is a bounty. On the map it's the symbol for the bounty. It's been like that since the invited Furious Fighters. As I have seen and done on both sides a whole two months before you even got to play.

Also on a bounty everyone sees them as a gold name and can kill them. Thats been in since the UI update before FF. Need to ask a HH for the details before that.

Oh and if you aint on the bounty mission you don't get their location on screen. Thats cause you aint on the mission, it's always been the case. You see the icon and the gold name, thats all. So you can kill them without joining in, but won't get the mission bonus.

Ahhh, see now we're mixed up.

The term bounty in APB rather bizarrely refers to two things:

1. A person who is notoriety and prestige 5, they light up gold on the map and on the screen but you don't get to see them indicated through walls. They have a bounty on them.

2. Bounty missions. These pop up as an Enforcer are are two types, Very Important Perpetrator, and Escape missions. The VIP ones you get a marked VIP that you have to kill, only the VIP is marked and you need X amount of kills in 15 minutes. The second type however is where you have a shorter time and an escape bar that the criminals fill up by not committing crime for a period of two minutes, with penalties if they do. On these missions, which can also be won by either side getting X number of kills, the entire criminal team is fully lit up, range, altitude etc all there on the screen the whole time, but the Enforcers are not.

Think we've been talking about the opposite things. It's the Escape missions where the Enforcers basically gets to have wall hacks and the criminals don't.

[OniKiy]

Ahh that mission, thats because the Enforcers don't get a bounty on them for doing a good job. The Criminals are the target and get marked to kill. The whole point is they'll be coming to you. Same as VIP but team marked. Your only way of escaping is not breaking the law for a determined amount of time. IE: Run your arse off and keep out of trouble. Much like cop chases and that out of GTA. The alternative is ofc stand your ground, but they'll know where you are due to your activity.

If they're chasing you - you'll see the markers on radar. Otherwise it'll allo Enforcers to try and break larger seiges in defencable positions. One I had was on the City Office near the park. The roof is only accessable one way and was a bugger to clear.

It's a counter to Criminals killing civs or robbing places. Both none mission specific ways of gaining money. As you won't always be 'spotted' breaking the law.

[Hovis]

Generally I find you don't need a plan for escape missions as a cop, they are so easy it's silly. If they dig in you can coax them into giving away penalties without ever getting close to running out of lives, if they run, same deal.

As a crim traditionally I try to do a mix of the fight and flight plan get the crew into one car, guns out, targeting only enemy vehicles with a gunner. If they don't have a gunner, we can run, if they do, we shoot him, then run, and so on. The trick to it is whatever you want to do, do it fast, so for instance if I know I'm going to be doing a lot of escape missions I go driver and I take the machinegun for the instant OMG CAR IS NOW FIREBALL strategy. :)

[OniKiy]

Just had a really crap Bounty mission there. Got called to fight 4 players. Two lvl 10 and 2 lvl 6 ranked players. All v good weapons and me on my lvl 1 Enf with standard gear.

Needless to say I called for back-up. But had some right numpties as back up. Killed one guy - then went to get him outside as he tried to run back to their camp spot in the car park/spawn they have in Waterfront. The other ENF of the 2 that replied was fighting the only other route out and the only guy there. So I figured I'd be okay. He figures he'll join me but gets me killed by not actually seeing the one I was going for, nor the one he left. Considering you can see them all through the wall, I needlessly doubted his ability to see.

I wasn't a happy bunny in the end. Lost by one kill and that was only because they got the other ENF before I dropped in on a lone Crim after shooting his mate. Literally thought I got him and then realised it said lost. Must have been a ball hair off death.

[Hovis]

Trick with Enforcers is knowing to quit when you're low on lives and let the clock win the mission.

As for shitty backup, bring up the team page (on the friends and groups thing) and kick the bastards.

[Hovis]

The Agency is set for an early December release. I had to do some digging to find that out, so I suspect it's going to be another stealth launch with close to zero promotion until it's out and everybody is wondering why nobody bought it.

Might be worth a punt though. Looks in some ways like it's got the kind of game style of Global Agenda, in that it's an action MMO, but the production values for the gameplay itself look vastly better. Global Agenda had some good ideas but barely looked better than Planetside, without even getting close to the scale. From what I've seen of The Agency it looks better.

Going to give it a go anyway.

[Flufball]

Maybe. If there's a Legion presence. At the moment life is quite hard on the disability front, so I've not played a proper game for about two months now, have had to give up on everything just to keep sane, apart from the odd bit of Theme Hospital with that CorsixTH open project thingy.

I could do with something to play that doesn't require a world of commitment, and if it's as drop in as it says that'd be fun, but I can't be doing with the way APB went and piling into a different group. I don't have the energy for that.

[OniKiy]

I had hopes that The Agency was going to be worth playing. But it worrys me when a game is going to launch quietly. I'm hoping that's not the case, as there's very little chance someone is going to even buy it if they don't even know it's out.

I like the cheesy Spy style and would like at least to give it a shot. If people in Legion play I'll prolly follow them around. Otherwise I'll try it out at least solo and see how it plays.

[Khammar]

Just as a thought, is a quest launch and a slow build of players through word of mouth and increased advertising over time perhaps a viable launch strategy?

Kind of the opposite of the hype the shit out of the title and watch your subs drop 80% after 2 months and get called a failure while everyone else abandning ship as a result?

[Hovis]

Just as a thought, is a quest launch and a slow build of players through word of mouth and increased advertising over time perhaps a viable launch strategy?

Kind of the opposite of the hype the shit out of the title and watch your subs drop 80% after 2 months and get called a failure while everyone else abandning ship as a result?

It's a bold plan. I can think of a few games that have launched quietly, has to be said though most of them weren't up to much. I do worry that in the post WoW, and largely post WoW-clone era, people's measures for success are beyond realistic and are often fully crazy. Any mid to low profile MMO ought to be expecting to sell a few tens of thousand copies and maybe get a third of those on board as subscribers. If the guys did their maths right that ought to be enough.

I guess we'll see. Not sure what the score is with a beta though. These guys are either extremely confident or mad as brushes.

[Khammar]

Well, EVE launched small. I suspect that's the biggest success story of a small launch we have to point to. I don't think it's inherently bad that a launch is quiet, as MMOs are supposed to last years anyway.

[Hovis]

Well, EVE launched small. I suspect that's the biggest success story of a small launch we have to point to. I don't think it's inherently bad that a launch is quiet, as MMOs are supposed to last years anyway.

Yeah EVE would be the classic for that. I'm not a big fan of EVE in the sense of wanting to actually sit there and play it, but it's an extremely well managed game, particularly considered the issues it's had to deal with over the years. When you look at how many games, hugely expensive and hyped ones, have flared up and shrivelled away since EVE launched it's hard not to be impressed.

[OniKiy]

Planetside was an under advertised game. I think I seen one video of it the entire time it was out. It could work by allowing a dedicated fan base to enjoy the game and build up steam. But the risk is that people won't play it because they never heard of it before.

The biggest issue I found with trying to get mates and other people into Planetwise was that they had no real clue what it was and the lack of much hype put them off.

[Khammar]

So here's the rundown:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/12/07/soes-the-agency-delayed-until-late-2011/

Late 2011

[Hovis]

So here's the rundown:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/12/07/soes-the-agency-delayed-until-late-2011/

Late 2011

Holy shit. It must have been dreadful. I mean either SOE have completely changed their standards (which would be no bad thing at all) or this really was looking like the Christmas turkey. To eschew the usual month-by-month delay process and just sack the project off for a whole year smacks of a huge redevelopment. Probably for the best though, you get the launch wrong and the market will tear you apart these days. Cheers for the update Khammorama. :D

[Khammar]

I have heard that they are slowing down some of their dev cycles in an attempt to release more good less bad.

[Hovis]

Well just for the sake of a complete historical record:

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps/posts/list.m?topic_id=88000027438


As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.

This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.

So, that's The Agency in the bin then. Shame really as it was an interesting concept. I mean sure it probably would have been crap, but interesting concept nonetheless.