Frontlines: Fuel of War (Expected Release Feb 25)

I think everyone is aware that Frontlines: Fuel of War will be released within the next 2 weeks & according to most reviews & distribution sources we will actually have the ability to play live on the 25th of February.

UGC's Impression of Frontlines:

After spending hours of play time on Frontlines with fellow members like Big Target, Nick & Yosolo in the Open Beta we are very excited for the release & feel that it's going to be one of those Silent Sleeper's to hit the market in a frenzy. It's unfortunate that Kaos hasn't put much into marketing the product in the U.S. but we're finding that Word of Mouth marketing may be the main goal at Kaos with unmatched community interaction found all over the forums.

First Off, I would like to say that Community Relations & Developer Interaction at Kaos are unseen in other gaming titles. Kaos Mitch the Community Manager is constantly on top of the Forums and very clear when providing formal information or letting the community know where Kaos stands on an issue. I've also noticed throughout my time at Kaos playing the Open Beta that Matthew Harwood & Kaos-DanMatlack (Developers at Kaos) are constantly diving into the community action and asking members questions or giving the community feedback as well as jumping into Club Teamspeaks to get an opinion on various subjects. Definitely not a standard for other titles but we like it very much!

Frontlines Mechanic

Gaming, in Frontlines is unique as it has a control that Kaos calls the Frontline Mechanic & it creates what we would call a non-transferable priority. You see in most games of this type like EA's Battlefield Series you would have several control points on a map that can be taken in any order or area on the map. The problem with this format was that players would bypass areas to take a point or divert taking action. Both Frontlines & Battlefield use a ticketing system in which simulates men on the battlefield and the numbers range from 100 to around 300 tickets on average. The concept is incredible as it allows for an all out scaled war. The problem with the  Battlefield environment was that the ticketing system took a greater percentage of tickets from the team with less control points and an unfair advantage could be gained by avoiding confrontations & so we experience allot of races for the flag versus competitive play.

The Frontlines Mechanic solves this problem as well as enhances the game play with a simple approach:

Each map is composed of multiple series of objectives that are either neutral or owned by either the Western Coalition or the Red Star Alliance. Each of these series represents a frontline, and only objectives contained within the current frontline are active and can be captured. Capture all objectives within a frontline, in any order, and the front will advance deeper into hostile territory, revealing the next frontline. Push the front all the way back into the enemy's base and take the victory!

Balance:

This is my favorite topic over at the Kaos Forums because it catches the attention of everyone in the Forums. First and foremost, Kaos has alleviated the Commanders position and put the focus on Squad Play. Frontlines splits up the commanders role by creating 4 new roles called:

Drone Tech: The Drone Tech Specialist employs surveillance drones in which allows it's Technicians to deploy a small RC type flying devices that relay information regarding enemy player locations. Successive upgrades to this Role include track & wheeled solutions as well as explosive and artillery functions.

Air Support: The Air Support Specialist employs the ability to call in long range aerial assault weaponry to include Precision Strikes, Cluster & Carpet Bombs as well as an Osprey in which will spray an area with it's Vulcan Gun.

Countermeasures: The Countermeasures Specialist employs  EMP Grenades, Rockets and Turret Solutions to counteract or disable electronic devices as well as thwart off an Air Strike.

Ground Support: The Ground Support Specialist employs a Mini, Mortar & Rail Gun Solutions as well as a portable Sentry & repair kit.

* In my opinion this is the best possible solution. Commanders cannot always be counted on and in certain scenarios "The Good Ole Boy Network" was very apparent.

* I would say that in a real war, squads make the call and commanders develop strategy. I believe this puts the game in a more competitive position, allowing for a wider range of equipment at the competitive level, whereas they were disabled in previous games.

Weapons: M12 Alamo Pistol, Type 101 Mongoose Pistol,  ARC3 Assault Rifle, AK113 Mongol Assault Rifle, M1000 "Mik" Sniper Rifle, MKV "Kivik" Sniper Rifle, KL Heavy Machine Gun, MAG 021 Light Machine Gun, PKH Light Machine Gun,  M333 "Triplet" Heavy Machine Gun, Guardian Rocket Launcher, SAAT1 Stiletto Rocket Launcher, MP15S Sub-Machine Gun, PP2020 Sub-Machine Gun,  Sheckentry 100 Shotgun, Layats 15 Shotgun, M97 Frag Grenade, M117 Demolition Charge, Renkov Demolition Charge, ATM Anti-Tank Landmine, TM99 Anti-Tank Landmine, APM15 Anti-Personnel Landmine.

This is a lot of guns for us all to play with and they all feel and work as expected. One thing I would like to say is that Kaos has found a solution for the all mighty Grenade Launcher that works while other titles have made the decision to remove them completely. This is a bonus and hats off for the great work.

Vehicles: I am going to limit my presentation on vehicles to a video for now and come back to this at a later time.

Overall: UGC will be seeing a majority of it's players on the frontline. It's been an awesome experience in the Open Beta working with Kaos...

Here at the United Gamers Coalition we have a couple of concerns prior to release that have been posted up live on the  Kaos Forums concerning Server Files for administration & provider simplification. We hope to provide more information prior to release.

Enjoy