Farcry 3 online co-op

[Jim di Griz]

I know that most of you do not do MP that much, but I thought I'd let you know how the MP co-op is, just in case you feel tempted at some point.

As you're aware from the pre-launch trailers, the co-op, both local and online follows the story of four rather tasty ship's crew members and is set six months before the SP campaign. Each of them has a violent past and very special skill-sets.

You follow their story through six levels of several chapters each, including competitive elements similar to the Rakyat Trials, where you get a specific weapon and try to beat the scores of the other three players.

I have completed five of the six levels now and they're all pretty demanding - so much so that two players will not survive certain chapters within the levels. Also the number of enemies seem to increase with the more players you have onboard.

Local split-screen is the toughest, as the screen gets split and therefore distance shots can be quite hard to get as you can hardly see your target - plus there will generally only be two of you...

You have four loadout types available to you and the option to create your own too. These become handy as you level weapons up by using them. You also earn perks for these as well as your character, such as giving all your team mates a health top-up during combat, instead of waiting until they need reviving.

Co-op MP seems to be enjoying something of a revival and so far I've only encountered players who help when needed instead of play the match only thinking of themselves. Of course the XP reward system helps there, but they genuinely seem to want to be team players. There are the usual exceptions though of the ones who rush in - I suspect that those are new to the level as there are many nasty surprises lurking around quite a few corners.

It's been fun so far, and that's coming from someone who isn't much into MP as a rule.

[PZ]

Good read  :-X

At first I thought I might like online, and even did a bit of MP in FC2, and then tried it again in AC Brotherhood.  However, like mandru, I find myself a bit too slow on the reaction time to be effective in that environment.

[Jim di Griz]

Me too, which is why I don't bother - also I don't have the time to learn each map as thoroughly as the diehards seem to. This is why I like co-op though, as you have backup with you and so there is less need to be hyper-aware all of the time.

It occured to me after posting  that Art and Binn have both dabbled in online co-op for FC3 too - sorry, I'd forgotten about that ;)

[Art Blade]

Hehe, no problem, mate :)

Basically you said what I would have. There are a few additional points that I'd like to mention, though.

Usually after finishing a map in MP (any game type: team deathmatch, domination, firestorm, transmission) and after finishing a chapter in co-op, you're presented with a random item which needs decoding in order to unlock its unknown content. There are CD, DVD, Memory Card and Hard Disk. They take 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours and 8 hours to get decoded. During decoding you'll have to go through three (HD: four) steps during which you'll find out a bit more what it is you're about to get and the last decoding step shows the upcoming result. Like, after the first third you'll know whether or not it will be an XP reward or a weapon mod. If it is XP, then whether it is a small, medium or large XP reward, and at the end you'll get 250 or 500 or 1,500 XP. If it is a weapon mod, you'll find out which weapon it will be for, then what type it will be (something like hunter, warrior and the likes, which will alter one or more parts of your weapon stats) and then you'll see what it actually does. The weapon mods are  MK2, 3, 4 and 5, depending on CD, DVD, MemCard or HD. In other words, the longer the decoding, the bigger the reward. Now in case of a weapon mod you can either keep it (well, yes) or give it to a U-Play friend (or even discard it, if I'm not mistaken). Then there is one more thing, usually after decoding one of those data storages, you'll be presented with a "speed booster" which will last for two hours and will speed up decoding by 100% as in it will take only half the time. Only you can't use it. You either have to give it to a U-Play friend or discard it. Which makes you want to have friends who also decode stuff so you may get their speed boosts.

During co-op, everyone earns about the same amount of XP the entire group keeps gathering. "About" means, there is something, probably if you lose a contest Jim described above, that results in at least one player having a little less XP than the rest. The harder the difficulty level and the more players (4 max), the more XP. I've played with three (4 total) people on hard and I've seen nearly 10,000XP after just one chapter while with only two players on easy it may be as low as several hundred only. Those XP you get will level up your character and the weapons used during the co-op. Levelling up means you unlock perks and weapons and additional stuff for your weapons so it is worthwhile and you want to go on levelling up. Weapons can each be levelled up to 20 and a character to 75.

A tip for co-op in particular: hitting the tag key (tag your enemies) will make them VERY visible for everyone (white outline and an eye symbol above their heads) and the XP is higher for both the one who kills the tagged enemy and the one who tagged him. You don't even have to aim at an enemy, "seeing" one already is enough, tap the tag key and done, can be done in quick succession and with multiple enemies. VERY useful. :)

This is actually really nice, co-op, and I too found most players who play co-op to be helpful and supportive. As opposed to MP.. self-inflated egomaniac bastards, many of them. So I really like to play co-op a lot but I also like a couple of maps on MP.

:)

[Jim di Griz]

Yes, the decoding thing I meant to add to the post but couldn't get my head around how to word it - nice job therefore. The system is weird but it will run in the background whilst you play. I'm guessing this is valid for SP too and multiple decoding. So far I've only decoded one CD and a flash drive.

I think I'll test out today if you can start decoding an item, then exit the game before that is completed and see if it decodes cloud-style in my absence.

[Binnatics]

Good start on the subject :-X (this time I checked before starting a new topic and found yours instead of double-topic-starting which I did with "outpost-approaches" :-D)

I have similar experiences with coop. What I like about it is that the amount of linearity in this game-type is actually very well thought out and makes the coop campaign both interesting, challenging and entertaining. You can take it easy and plan your approach a bit in certain cased (communication with your partner is needed)(I do think all are doable with 2 people, makes the communication point a bit easier) and in other moments it demands just a burst of adrenaline draining actionplay when defending a bunker or stronghold against incoming troops. Something that gives you a nice change a pace.

About the regular MP madness; I do get tempted to join the rush and kill whatever I see and dominate. I'm not that good yet and it will take time before I can really dominate in most MP settings, but I'd like to try in the near future >:D

[Art Blade]

one thing about decoded weapon mods: you can keep them, give them to a friend, or SELL them for XP (not much, though, an MK5 was only worth 400XP).

[Jim di Griz]

I'm really liking playing as Callum - boy is he a foul mouthed little knee-jerk  :) Most of his observations are very entertaining.

Back to the decoders - you can only decode one item at a time, but you can unlock the second decoder by loging onto www.farcryoutpost.com with your Uplay account details and have twice as much fun. The third gets unlocked when you hit level 72 of 75.

[Jim di Griz]

The Farcryoutpost site also lets you decode the media and that will run merrily on by itself and make the items found available for you in-game when done; even when you close the browser it carries on until complete and will be there when you next log onto the game or site.

For straightforward mods it's fine, the only problem is when presented with speed boosts or donating a mod to anyone on your friends list - the site seems to be having problems. Well it is with PSN - it can't seem to log onto it to retreive the list. Maybe with PC it works better.

[Binnatics]

Thanx for that tip Jim, I just checked it out and it is SO simple. Now I decode with double the speed ^-^

Btw, the time to decode an item is way higher being only logged into that site (or not present at all) than when I am in-game. Will see how it works in-game.

[Jim di Griz]

Alsjeblieft Binn  ;)

I have noticed that the Ubi site is being very slow and unpredictable today and I've even lost a U100 Ranger mod that it decoded and didn't appear for me in the game - so be warned!

[Art Blade]

I keep getting the message that uplay service is unavailable. "We're sorry, the Uplay service is unavailable at this time. Please try again later. Your reward will still be here waiting for you. "

[PZ]

I just love online...  :-()

[Binnatics]

Ever since I went to that site I can decode twice as much in-game, which is very nice ^-^ Everything is unstable bit what the heck, it's still nice as long as you can do some online coop or MP. I like the settings, and it is really challenging in the hardest lvl. Btw, Art and I managed to do all the chapters with 2 players, even some on warrior, so it's doable. And nice as well ;) With 4 ppl on warrior lvl it gets so crowded in the game sometimes you wish you could just literally rain bullets on the enemies >:D :)

[Art Blade]

I just finished an entire co-op campaign from start to finish at "insane" (highest) difficulty level with 4 players total and now I've got my character level pimped to 75 (maximum). I'd never have thought that I'd play on hard let alone insane and if anyone had told me I'd have to play a coop like that, I'd have declared him insane  :-D

[PZ]

That's because you're a natural  ;)

[Art Blade]

It's nothing, really. Other players like Binnatics are far better than I am. It's just that FC3 is the first game that I haven't felt the dire urge to cheat (if I cheat then it's in SP only)  and I still wouldn't have, except for the reload trick that I discovered which is too tempting.  :-D And it is the first game ever that I've voluntarily played on a harder level than "easy" -- and now it's not just "medium" nor is it "hard" but hell, it had to be "insane."  They really did a great job regarding the balance of both SP and co-op.  :-X

[Art Blade]

I keep getting the message that uplay service is unavailable. "We're sorry, the Uplay service is unavailable at this time. Please try again later. Your reward will still be here waiting for you. "

I checked the page source code and found out they're creating a cookie from authentication-ui.ubi.com and I didn't know nor allow that. Now I do, and I do, too, and it finally works. How about a message "please enable coocies for authentication-ui.ubi.com"  >:((

[PZ]

Totally lame.  :D

[Art Blade]

heh, indeed. However, it works, and since I'm past level 72, I have the third decoder enabled, too. Now I can decode with three and one speed boost speeds up all three of them. The good news for my U-play friends, I now have three times as many speed boosts to give away  :-D

[Jim di Griz]

I only have a bunch of reformed GT5 plyers to pass mine onto and they never seem to be playing FC3 so I doubt they'll even notice  ::)

A shame I can't pass my speed boosts onto you gents - I'm guessing that Uplay isn't cross platform?

Anyway, got some healthy weapons mods going now and a fine twelve layer tatoo for my character. It looks like that only appears in MP as I haven't seen it on any of my characters in co-op yet - unless I'm missing something in the character selction options.

[Art Blade]

not sure about cross-platform regarding speed boosts. You're right about the tattoos, though -- only works in MP.

By the way, that FC3outpost link not only unlocks the 2nd decoder, it also allows for adding a clan tag to your name. I did that and in game I now show up as [OWG]ArtBlade :)

[PZ]

We do appear to be quite the clan; have been hanging around with one another for several years  ^-^

[Art Blade]

yes, indeed, chieftain  :-D

[Art Blade]

Just a note on those heavies:

I've seen quite a few high-level players that had a bow equipped as secondary weapon while I thought an RPG would do the trick. Turns out that one fire arrow takes out one heavy. Just like that. Guess what.. I changed all loadouts so the bow is my secondary now. I can take out heavies from far away and only need a single arrow..  :-D