Exteel: In Which Men in Robots Fight Like Men. In Robots.

Bitstream

Exteel is (besides a ridiculous word) a free online third-person shooter full of mechs. That's really all you need to know, right? No? Fine.


Be! A Mech-Pilot
Exteel is a pretty standard lobby-based multiplayer setup, but your pilot is a persistent character; as you compete in battles you'll gain experience and cash RPG-style. You can spend your character points on various skills (Marksmanship, Speed, etc) and your monies on new robot upgrades and weapons.

Build! A Giant Robot
If you've played Armored Core, you know the drill: different mech parts have different stats, and you can customize your ride to fit your playstyle. Want to fly across the battlefield in a speed machine? Make something like this:


Rather stomp around in something that can actually take a few hits? There's this:


Blow! Shit Up
Exteel's gameplay is pretty damned fast and furious, and again pretty similar to Armored Core. You can get up-close and personal with a sword (or two), pound the everloving shit out of some poor schmuck with a cannon, make a strafing run with submachineguns, or pepper the area with long-range missiles. Pretty much any playstyle is available to you.

Things to Know:
Exteel is one of those "free-to-play" games. You know, the kind that ask you for real money for the really good stuff. Also the kind that has real-life ads inserted into its maps. The "NcCoin"-purchasable items don't really seem much better stat-wise than the regular ones, and the ads are fairly unobtrusive (and almost entirely for NCsoft products, including several for Exteel itself. It's kind of meta.), so it's still enjoyable.

Do all of the training missions when you start out. Not only will they teach you the basics (which, being a seasoned gamer, you probably don't need, but whatever), they provide you with much-needed weapons and some extra scratch. Between the cash and the sellable parts (click "Scrap" on the item entry in your Hangar menu), you'll have enough to get some decent weapons and/or pimp your ride.

Joining the PA Crew:
The Clan system seems to be a bit... not there yet, but there is a working friends system and private channels for organizing battles. We'll figure something out. Sign into the game, post your callsign here, and we'll hook you up.

Bitstream

Reserved for future use.

Glal

Screenshots. Screeeeeeeeeeeeenshots! Pander to my short attention span!

Last Son

Pilot name is LastSon. Here are some pretty pretty screens for those who want in-game shots.

Ready? Ready.

This is my boomstick.

It makes things explode.

I don't even know what is going on in this shot.

Glal

Sold.

TNTrooper

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Right when I thought I was done with my MMO addictions you go and show me this.

<3<3

Kagnaros

This game is totally badass. Me and three of my other friends played it when it first got out of beta and we spent a week or so having a blast (realize that my friends spend 2 days on a game, then move on...taking one week on a game means it's good).

But yeah. Mechs + PVP + Explosions = Great fun time. Hopefully a lot more stuff gets added in the upcoming months.

reVerse

I'm not quite getting the combat in this game. Sometimes it takes forever to try and kill someone but I seem to go down like a cheap prostitute all the time.

It's pretty fun, but aggravating at the same time.

turtleant

Alright I downloaded the game and ran through the tutorial, and every thing worked fine. But when i go to access the store or the hanger the game crashes.D:
Help?

reVerse

I had a bit of a crashing problem when I started. Updating graphics card drivers did the trick for me.

Also, dual swords for the win.

The Dude With Herpes

ooookey.

So they get you by letting level 1's buy NCoin and have insane gear in the 1-4 rooms, totally destroying anyone without the "good" stuff.

Fun concept, though the clear advantage to those willing to pay real money is a bit excessive.

Reminds me of Virtual On which is never a bad thing.

Since it's free I'll give it some time, make some cred's etc. I can't see myself willing to spend actual money on anything though, regardless of the fact that 75% of the weapons, at least, seem to be NCoin only.

EDIT: Oh, dur, the weapon list is ordered by NCoin/Credits. There are a ton of credit weapons.

turtleant

reVerse wrote: »

I had a bit of a crashing problem when I started. Updating graphics card drivers did the trick for me.

Also, dual swords for the win.

I'm pretty computer illiterate, how do I do that?:oops:

The Dude With Herpes

Protip: Don't join a 1-24 game as a 1

reVerse

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

ooookey.

So they get you by letting level 1's buy NCoin and have insane gear in the 1-4 rooms, totally destroying anyone without the "good" stuff.

I bought some stuff but I don't really see the difference between what I got and the starter weapons. Don't seem to hit any harder. I look cooler, though.

Victor15b

Shut up. Just shut up.

You had me at giant robots.

You had me at giant...robots...

Kajusta

I remember this in beta. It was fun, but it really gets ruined once you realize how much grinding you actually have to do.

Bitstream

Kajusta wrote: »

I remember this in beta. It was fun, but it really gets ruined once you realize how much grinding you actually have to do.

But it's not really grinding when you're playing against other people, no? I mean, yeah, you have to fight through many rounds to get credits, but it's not like you're killing 300 identical Red Zombie Whelplings for rep or anything.

Way too fun to be a grind.

reVerse

I'm not sure what this thread is doing here at the MMO subforum. Calling this game an MMO is like calling Unreal Tournament an MMO.

Last Son

reVerse wrote: »

I'm not quite getting the combat in this game. Sometimes it takes forever to try and kill someone but I seem to go down like a cheap prostitute all the time.

It's pretty fun, but aggravating at the same time.

The newbie mechnaught has armor the approximate thickness of wet tissue paper, but is very very fast as a result. If you upgrade to standard/heavy armor your survivability goes up quite dramatically.

reVerse wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

ooookey.

So they get you by letting level 1's buy NCoin and have insane gear in the 1-4 rooms, totally destroying anyone without the "good" stuff.

I bought some stuff but I don't really see the difference between what I got and the starter weapons. Don't seem to hit any harder. I look cooler, though.

What did you upgrade to? Most of the weapons are balanced by RoF/overheating/damage/Accuracy, so your weapon may not be hitting much harder but you'll be able to fire it for much longer without overheating, or have a larger lock-on zone.

Also it could simply be your targets were using better armor when you got your new weapons. An easy way to test damage out "for real" is join a Last Stand game set to level 1-2 and see how many shots it takes to destroy a bot.

Accualt

I said I was going to make a thread, Bit.
Didn't I?
I did.

I didn't think to check here first. Mine is in G&T.

Accualt

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

ooookey.

So they get you by letting level 1's buy NCoin and have insane gear in the 1-4 rooms, totally destroying anyone without the "good" stuff.

The gear you can buy really isn't that good. It certainly helps but I was #1 in multiple matches against a few guys who had fully store bought stuff.

Bitstream

Yeah, I made this thing at three in the morning. Bad decision-making all around.

Acc's thread is better, and it's where I meant to put this one last night.

Accualt

I rather fancy your thread, Bit.

Kajusta

Blrallglglglg.

Does getting credits get easier as you progress? Also, I just bought another blade and holy fuck, I think I found out what I want to make my mech.

Motherfucking Speedy Gonzales with dual blades.

reVerse

Melee combat in this game is so hard because your stupid ass mech stops every time you take a swing. It's impossible to catch up a good player and they can just pepper you up with their guns from afar and there's jack shit you can do about it.

Kajusta

I don't know, if the person doesn't have good reflexes and can't booster back a bit to fire at you they are pretty fucked.

Plus the lower levels look like they have energy problems, so it's not like they can boost forever.

Accualt

reVerse wrote: »

Melee combat in this game is so hard because your stupid ass mech stops every time you take a swing. It's impossible to catch up a good player and they can just pepper you up with their guns from afar and there's jack shit you can do about it.

There are some Sword+ skills you can buy that will make you dash forward with the sword or fire a shot from your gun that causes a short stun. Early on, no, but early on most players aren't good enough to actually avoid all of your melee attacks.

Arthil

Been playing this most of the morning, and oh god I'm addicted. Over everything what I prefer to run around in is a normal type of mech, I got my points spread into speed mostly but also some in health. I am one fast motherfucker, especially with my new booster. What I'm doing is running around with a sword/shield combo which is working out quite nicely. Get in, hack a person to bits then boost the hell out of there while holding the shield up to deflect the likely huge volley of fire.

Then theres my second weapon, I chose a cannon. I'll sneak my way up to a high spot and just wreck people until they figure out where I am, then I'm off like the roadrunner. I've gotten a couple of maps memorized to the point where I can lose someone, or even a whole mob of people easily. And after a few matches they all come after me cause of my antics so thats a good thing.

reVerse

I hate that stupid white arena map. You know the one, where there aren't any walls, just this big white blob of land. I hate that map. Seriously.

Scooter

I think I'll give this a download, between school and Squadron tomorrow I dunno when I'll get around to getting in through.


I think my goal will be to make the fastest mech possible

Arthil

reVerse, the best way to deal with that map is to travel on the edges. You wont have to worry about falling off so you can just move around along the edge of the arena instead of rushing through the middle and getting turned into swiss cheese. I should definitely mention, always try to stick with your teammates, going at it along will usually just get you killed.

reVerse

I only play deathmatch. Team games don't interest me terribly much.

But yes, even if you just stick to the edges it's still a stupid, boring map.

CmdPrompt

I was in the closed beta for this. My only real warning is that the gameplay is extremely repetitive. It is fun in the beginning, but you can only stand it for so long.
My biggest gripe with the game is that there isn't any hit detection. If you're locked onto someone when you fire, it hits. If you're not, it misses. Doesn't matter if they're sitting right in front of you or not.

YMMV of course, and it is quite fun in the beginning, but I wouldn't drop any money on it.

The Dude With Herpes

It's just repetitive in the way that all DM/CTF/capture, etc games are repetitive.

Which is to say your fun depends 99.9% on who you're playing with.

Granted, I don't play FPS's much these days, and haven't since TRIBES (one, not the other bastard games), the fact there's so many upgrade and customization options for your mech, and apparently you can have multiple mechs for variety, adds a lot.

Though, man, they need to add some more maps. In an hour I think I had seen every single map four times.

I suppose I should go visit the G&T thread, but we need to get a roster going. Is there like an in-game buddy list or clan system?

Ringo

The setup here reminds me so much of Silent Death Online.


Which is awesome because SDO was awesome. Way to go NCSoft.

Bitstream

Yeah, Acc's thread has a roster going, and I'm not sure if we've worked out the dark magicks involved in getting a clan going or not.

Lep

Dual pistols pew pew pew.

Ash-Housewares

Consider me intrigued.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

How long does it take to download/install this? I'd like to give it a shot, but my connection is not the fastest and I'd rather not have this clogging the pipe for a period of days.

Lep

Installer is only 438 mb, and then the patches take up about 82 mb more.
Also, I can't for the life of me figure out how to use the paint.

The Dude With Herpes

You can only use it on body parts, not weapons; but when you select a part in the hangar, below it is a lot of little boxes. you click the box to change the paint color.

You only start out with Light-Blue/Red/Green/ (and another), and at least on my PC I can't really make out the colors of the first four "boxes", but they are these colors. If you buy a new paint, you'll see the color more clearly to select. You can choose different colors for different parts.

Commence clown-bots.