Auto Assault

TG: After a quick stroll through the official forums, I was surprised to notice that there is a �lot- of unhappy people regarding various issues with the game. What�s the biggest issue with the game currently?

GF: My views will definitely be biased towards my characters needs, so I’ll have to say a major issue is the endgame. I know as well that my frustration is shared by the others in the game that have hit 80 and are in the ‘drought’ of content. There are definitely PvE challenges provided by some big mean bosses, but at the moment their loot tables are a bit skimpy so most people don’t find the risk and time payable by the reward so they just don’t do it.

PvP is also somewhat of a moot point of enjoy ability. I definitely do enjoy kicking up dust and throwing down with the other factions, but it’s hard when you’re faced with rampant server desync’ing that results in ‘invisible’ enemies. It doesn’t do any good either that there’s no real incentive in game yet to even PvP. A ranking system will come along soon enough, but even at that , alot of people are accustomed to being rewarded for their time and effort and that’s not the case currently.

I could go on as there are many other issues, such as in any MMORPG. But to me the endgame is most important as it’s where the majority of dedicated players will end up in AA, and the ease of leveling amplifies this issue’s severity. Players need something to do after they hit level 80 so I think this will be very important to address soon. I think it should be interesting to see where the advancements are made in the future, it could very well define AA’s longevity.

TG: Since you have been playing quite a while, I am sure you�ve encountered a lot of bugs. What is the biggest issue you�d personally like to see taken care of?

GF: I would have to go back and say that the desync’ing during PvP is the biggest bug right now I’m concerned about. With it in existence it usually tends to ruin the PvP scene and alot of players that have experienced it are tending to not even want to PvP anymore until it’s fixed. It’s arguable that this game is strongly situated with solo play, however once you arrive in the final zone you soon realize a new aspect to the game and that is the larger scale of PvP on the contested layer of Ground Zero. You can definitely get to level 80 through the missions provided and a bit of grinding, but once you’re there you most likely will end up wanting to try your hand in some PvP. So getting this fixed would definitely be worth to stress as needed and quite quickly at that.

TG: One thing I was surprised to see, was that many people have already hit the max level of 80. Is this game really �that- easy to level up in?

GF: In my experience of online gaming, I would have to say that this is one of the easiest games to progressively level up and cap off. This is of course the appeal to some players of this game. But in the same stroke, with the endgame really lacking at the moment it can also be a negative attribute. As I noted earlier, some may like to stop and ‘smell the roses’ and do things at a slow pace to take in the rich storyline and generally drive around aimlessly wreaking havoc.(Which I have to admit is really fun at times when you have access to a monster truck!) Others however may see the leveling as something to do as quick as possible so that they can get into the endgame PvP, real action versus other players.

I think it can be best summed up with; If you want to level quick you can, if you don’t want to you have that option. The hitch with this games advancement is quite ingenious if I may say so. The missions offer the majority of the experience earned in game, so if you like to farm a particular mob, you can do so and not typically level for quite some time. This way you can stay more in tune with the missions and their challenges and not worry about missing out on content and challenge if you want to
venture off course for a bit.

TG: Though I am only level 20, I have noticed that a lot of missions are quite similar to each other, although there is the odd one that is far different. From low level to max level, are the missions all generally the same? Do they get boring after a while, especially due to the repetitiveness?

GF: I kind of felt that they were the same throughout the game so I never really paid much attention to the missions. Don’t get me wrong, the storyline of the game is great and it really works you up for wicked-cool settings, but then you’re sent off to scrape slime from rocks or go run over cockroaches [figuratively speaking] and the whole premise really loses it’s gripping hold on your attention.

They are generally all the same sort of “Kill x amount of y mob” or “Gather x amount of z from y mob”, there’s some patrolling missions, some missions that ask you to destroy bunches of structures, escorting and even some crafting ones earlier on I believe. But I couldn’t say that I was too terribly into any of them at all. When I first started playing AA I promised myself I’d try take it slow, but instinct took over and I blazed through everything rather quickly because the majority of the missions were so much alike. However there are some missions in the works for the endgame that sound like they can offer some challenge and variety, so I’m definitely looking forward to those. This games platform of cars and carnage has so much potential for things we’ve not seen before in MMORPG’s I feel almost like a kid waiting for Christmas day.

TG: The game has been out for a little over a month, but what do you see for the future of Auto Assault?

GF: This is a somewhat newer style of MMORPG and alot of people are hesitant to try it, so I never really expected it’s release to be all too large. If the publicity of this game starts to expand and the servers start to fatten I can easily see it becoming one of the better MMORPG’s out there. But this is
a big ‘if’ and it will definitely run down to how well the developers take the opinions of the community and how they manage to satisfy an almost split player base of challenge seekers and those that want it easy. If I were to make a prediction, I’d say that the game has the potential to run steadily and flourish gloriously, it just needs some polish and attention. Here’s to many years, this game is definitely a worthwhile investment!

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Thanks a lot to GFaust for agreeing to an interview. It was fun! GFaust currently plays on Carnage as a level 80 Terminator, and is a proud member of the 1st Mechanized Infantry. The clan currently has near 100 members, and welcomes more Biomeks! If you are interested in getting hooked up with a great clan, you can check out their site here.