Fortnite

Alrighty then. Guess that's that for now.

We end up talking about it some anyway. I'm on the GWJ Twitch/Curse channel at the moment.

Fortnite is officially leaving closed alpha and moving into some form of paid early access July 21st!

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/e...

Also the new trailer is a really comprehensive look at the game:

If you were in the closed alpha thing at all you should receive an e-mail telling you that they're giving you the Deluxe Founder's Pack on 7/20. I'm not sure what that entails. Also if you bought any vbucks during alpha you'll get that back also.

Edit: Some people aren't getting the e-mail with the Deluxe Founder's Pack. Instead they're getting $20 off on packs.

You get the founder's pack comp'd in addition to the v-bucks refund if you put in money during the alpha. If you just played for free, then you get the discount offer.

Why have I never heard of this game before?

SpyNavy wrote:

Why have I never heard of this game before?

GET ON IT IT'S WONDERFUL. And they've seriously been pumping out neat updates and (some say finally) good balance tweaks. (This is stuff talked about in their YouTube dev streams so I think it's considered public knowledge.)

That said, I'm out of invites I think or I'd get you in there.

I had a bunch of invites, but I can't find where they are now.

This looks amazing. Wish I had the time!

mrtomaytohead wrote:

I had a bunch of invites, but I can't find where they are now.

Log into the Epic website (go through Fortnite.com; it'll redirect) and go to "Dashboard".

Do I need to make an account to get an invite?

muraii wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

I had a bunch of invites, but I can't find where they are now.

Log into the Epic website (go through Fortnite.com; it'll redirect) and go to "Dashboard".

Dashboard doesn't exist anymore, I don't think.

Yeah, that whole "Account" section is different. I wonder: if I put in my GitHub account name, will I get to fork and push? FORK AND PUSH?!

Alright. Suckered myself into the Deluxe Edition, primarily to see what it will feel like to have a couple heroes I like (ninja main here) at the very beginning. Plus some dope weapons, though certainly won't be able to use them at the start.

I'm on the fence - how is the gameplay? Is it fun solo?

SpyNavy wrote:

I'm on the fence - how is the gameplay? Is it fun solo?

I like the gameplay, can't say more, NDA is still in effect.

As for solo, in the livestream linked above, they talk about some AI companions they're adding in to make it possible to do a lot more on your own, so they are thinking about the solo experience. I'm not sure whether that AI stuff is in the game yet because I haven't been able to play recently.

I may have just preordered the most basic pack even though I have no computer still. I don't drink or smoke or gamble, so I'm allowed this one moment of weakness, right? (Don't ask about any potential pizza weakness or icecream weakness or...)

Mermaidpirate wrote:
SpyNavy wrote:

I'm on the fence - how is the gameplay? Is it fun solo?

I like the gameplay, can't say more, NDA is still in effect.

As for solo, in the livestream linked above, they talk about some AI companions they're adding in to make it possible to do a lot more on your own, so they are thinking about the solo experience. I'm not sure whether that AI stuff is in the game yet because I haven't been able to play recently.

I may have just preordered the most basic pack even though I have no computer still. I don't drink or smoke or gamble, so I'm allowed this one moment of weakness, right? (Don't ask about any potential pizza weakness or icecream weakness or...)

Mermaidpirate, you deserve to treat yourself, even if only hypothetically for now.

SpyNavy, I don't know anything, really, about your preferences, but there are times that I play it solo on purpose. Granted, that can be when I want to farm or when I'm doing a particular type of mission. The game is really built for cooperative play, though, so by and large that's where the magic happens for many players.

This is one of the few videos I've seen (for obvious reasons, of course) that show a little bit of the creatures that come in the second neighborhood, Plankerton. Also shows a mission type I haven't played yet but which looks cool (the complexity reminds me of Power the Reactor, which has been shown in previous videos from the team, and is my favorite mission).

I'm looking forward to the Early Access period that starts 7/25 (or 7/21 if you pre-order, which I did, at the Deluxe level).

Mermaidpirate wrote:

I like the gameplay, can't say more, NDA is still in effect.

Whereas I can say whatever the hell I like! What are they gonna do, ban me?

Bearing in mind everything I played was close to a year ago... I played it a fair bit solo, I enjoyed it, but it's definitely one of those games that's more fun in a group, or just two people, I played a lot of with Mermaidpirate. You can specialise a bit more with a group, have a constructor handle the base and a soldier for clearing out waves for instance. It's more playable solo than more other co-op games though, even something like Left 4 Dead.

The shooting was fairly solid, and seemed like a thing they were improving on as time went by, even back when I was playing. The guns felt very Borderlands like to me, lots of real life inspired guns and a few more wacky ones with a bunch of different tiers of stats. Because it's loot based, you'll also have different guns compared to other people, which naturally leads to interesting comparisons and trades and occasional envy. Some of the enemies can definitely be a bit bullet spongy, but there's usually enough easy to kill husks running around for fun, except maybe it some of the really late outpost defence missions where things got quite difficult.

The building is actually great, it's very easy to snap things together quite intuitively, and you can make some really impressive looking structures, especially in the long term outposts where you'll be feeding in resources over quite a long period of time.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

muraii wrote:

So is it released?

July 25th. This whole trend of putting out "Launch" trailers weeks before the game actually....you know....launches, is a little aggravating

That being said I am down to play with some GWJ'ers when it hits!

Early Access starts July 25, but if you pre-order you get in on July 21. It's still Early Access, though, so not fully released. I must say it's really polished for what I'd consider alpha or beta, but they are still changing/balancing things quite a bit.

I haven't played in over a year, but I just reinstalled and my alpha account is still active. So I think I will spend some time and see what's changed.

Be prepared that <NDA>things are moving targets at the moment</NDA> but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

deftly wrote:

I haven't played in over a year, but I just reinstalled and my alpha account is still active. So I think I will spend some time and see what's changed.

That is about where I stand. I may reinstall and take a peek again myself.

Apologies if I was unclear due to my being absolutely ignorant. The Fortnite alpha is ended, servers are down, and won't be back up until the 20th of July when the early Early Access starts for those who bought founders packs.

I managed to get into the stress test for a while, but yes, the servers are down now.

I splurged on a Founders Pack.

Huzzah!