GA went live over the weekend. Starting tommorrow we'll be able to play the Conquest AVA for free, would like to get together with a few of you (need 10 for a strikeforce) to test the AVA and see what ya'll think of it now while it can be tested without a subscription. Presently we have around 7 people.

I'll be online all night monday, hit me up if you'd like to join us.

Also, if you just like to try out the game first without buying it pm me and I'll respond with my steam credentials so you can signin and give it a whirl.

I'm not sure if I'll be there tomorrow night since I have an appointment to get my car at 6 PM then they need to explain everything blah blah and I have some shopping to do after. We'll see.

My recon and medic are both level 10 so I'm ready to go

I've got happy hour till around 7:30, but after that I should be on.

edit, AVA comes up Tuesday.

Can you post a link to the deatils for the free test?

thanks

Conquest gameplay begins on Tuesday, February 2.

All players will be able to enjoy the Global Agenda: Conquest features free until MARCH 3, 2010. At that point, you must pay to play the Conquest portions of the game (regardless of when you purchase the game). Remember that the non-Conquest features are free-to-play after your initial purchase. A description of what features are in Conquest is available here.

Conquest play guide is here: http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/151

New in Conquest: Taxes will now be assessed on each player in your Alliance and each hex that your territory owns. (Note: You can Conquest as an Agency not in an Alliance, but you must be in an Alliance to own a Base).

For the Alliance tax, the owning agency will be charged a fee daily (at midnight GMT) for each player in the alliance. The fee is equal 2 x (# of Players in Alliance) x (# of Players in Alliance).

Note that this means that the Alliance tax per person escalates substantially as your alliance size grows.

If you can't pay, your alliance is disbanded or your hex is forfeited so keep those coffers full and ready for tax day!

More information will be provided in the Conquest Guide next week. In the meantime, beware that if your agency groups into an alliance, taxes will apply.

Thanks J.

Sounds a lot like Eve... With taxes and alliances...

got the following email today. seems like they're listening, a lot of asked for changes. also they're extending the Conquest\AVA free trial until the end of March, instead of end of Feb. Awesome!

A SPECIAL POST-LAUNCH THANK YOU!

Greetings to everyone who joined us in launching Global Agenda over the past couple weeks, and many thanks to the thousands of people that helped us alpha and beta test the game ahead of launch.

Because of your involvement and positive word of mouth, we've had a great launch, and seen much stronger than expected initial Global Agenda sales.

In fact, last week we were the #2 best selling game on Steam and the only game in the Steam Weekly Top Ten based on original/non-sequel IP. Thanks for supporting independent game development and battling sequel-itis! Thanks also for your patience with initial server tuning and Conquest adjustments.

MARCHING FORWARD

We view the release of Global Agenda as the start of the journey and we are already working hard to continue delivering improvements, new features, and new content based on your feedback.

To prove it to you, we are going to extend the free-play period for Global Agenda Conquest while continuing to deliver features and content enhancements.

We feel this is the best way to prove to you the value of a Global Agenda Conquest subscription, while also ensuring that as many people as possible are exposed to our unique and innovative Conquest gameplay.

Play Conquest Free until March

All players will continue to be able to play the Conquest features for the rest of February and March without a monthly subscription fee.

In the very near future, here are some additional enhancements and improvements you can expect:

BY THE END OF FEBRUARY -

We will deliver a set of enhancements ASAP based on fairly unanimous community input. We currently plan to have the following items in production by the end of February:

* Friend List/Ignore List - Steam has a Friends List, and we offer Agency Management as an alternate way to find your friends, but an in-game Friends List (and Ignore List) was a high requested feature that is being added.
* Player Choice on PvP Queues - For initial release we consolidated gametypes within a single PvP queue. With no guarantee around number of players we would have, our top priority was to ensure the players got into matches quickly and to make sure our matchmaking system had a sufficiently large population to balance out sides. That said, we've heard how much players want to specify, or eliminate, certain match types. And we do have the population to support this request. So, we will be implementing player selections per PvP gametype so you can exclude or include each type as you wish.
* Repair Kits - Non-visual Upgrades (of the Armor or Weapon variety) do increase stats for your character. And by the time you collect 16 of them they make a big difference. They also take time to craft and/or buy and, after all that time invested, having them wear away without any recourse was frustrating. Repair Kits are a new item type that will be available in-game and restore your Upgrades to full durability.
* Additional AvA zones and AvA Reporting - We are introducing new AvA zones to support play during hours more convenient for those in other locales. We are adding:
*
o Zone 6 - Oceania/Australia - 19:00 to 21:30 in Sydney, 16:00 to 18:30p in Singapore (3a to 5:30a US Eastern, Midnight to 2:30 US Pacific) [NOTE: Initially, will run on servers hosted in the US but be geared toward an Oceanic audience, or for night owls on the US West Coast].

o Zone 8 - Europe - 14:00 to 16:30 GMT (9a to 11:30a Eastern)

Dome City Screenshots

We are also adding a few new Conquest screens to give Agencies reporting of historical combat events. And, we will continue to publish our game stats externally via web APIs so community sites can access the data and develop custom reports. And deliver a variety of bug fixes and other improvements.

BEYOND FEBRUARY -

Generally speaking, we intend to earn your subscription. Our entire Studio is focused on continued feature and content development for Conquest gameplay, including:

* More PvP Content - New maps around a 4v4 arena gamestyle as well as a 10v10 pre-made queue.
* More PvE Content - We've been pleased by the positive reception to our 'dungeon-crawl' style Infiltration PvE missions. That said, we want to offer additional variety both in setting and mission type. Imagine being able to step outside of the doors of Dome City and assist Bancroft by doing missions within a large open area, with additional loot available in that location. We are working toward delivering this content.
* More AvA Content - New facility types and new game-styles for Conquest. Specifically we are developing a new 'No Facility' map based on Control style, a new Defensive Facility that grants protection to adjacent territories, and Resource Raid Missions based on Payload style. We also recognize that some of the game-board rules need to be looked at; we will continue to monitor those to ensure that AvA maintains the right balance between accessibility and significance.
* Improved Crafting, Loot and Prestige Items

We thank you for support and look forward to building the Global Agenda world together.

Todd Harris
Global Agenda, Executive Producer

content patch goes live tommorrow