Due to the free VIP status that they gave as a reward for the chosen invasion, I've been able to confirm that VIP gives you +8 (to a total of 16) slots for market transactions. I'm not aware of any other way to raise the limit.

The only way that I know of is to buy things from the marketplace using the credits, and then salvage them. The exchange rate is horrible, though.

Well for mobility the first thing you are going to want for any frame you choose is a Run speed core. The archetypes have varying base run speeds as well, with Recon having the highest base speed. Some frames have additional mobility through skills, nearly all archetypes have a mobility skill (except engineer). Because of this, it doesn't matter which you go with, but Raptor's teleport beacon may be your best choice. Now that you have a core and frame built for speed, let's talk perks: There are a small handful of basic perks that increase mobility, and they are all cheap, but to get the most out of going fast, you will need to build a tigerclaw to level 20 to unlock its perk. Dreadnaught's level 10 perk can also be useful. There are no modules that increase movement speed currently.

Back in Open Beta, the army cap size was 20 people. But, between October to December 2013, the maximum number of players you could have in an army was raised to 100 people. It's still the same today.

There are multiple ways to get a new battleframe without paying any real money. Level any frame to 40 to receive 10 pilot tokens Get lucky at the slots Purchase one from the marketplace Most new players I've talked to said they were able to save up enough credits (marketplace) in a very short time, much quicker than leveling all the way to 40.

to form a platoon you have 2 options. Invite a 6th member to your squad, the game will ask you to upgrade it to a platoon. Click on your name (if you are the squad lead) and on the context menu will be the option to change the squad into a platoon. A couple things to note. Platoons work differently than squads. XP Rewards are not shared, thumpers are not shared, and jobs are not shared. You also can't enter instance missions with platoons. Platoons (currently) are meant for raids and Broken Peninsula(PvP) only.

ARES is short for Assault Reconnaissance Extraction Specialist. Source: Josh Willcox, Community Manager for Firefall

Credits are currently used for Multiple reasons: You can use them for self revive out in the field They can remove modules from sockets in items They are used in the Player Marketplace for equipment and other items. You can exchange them for RedBeans in a player driven economy (you set buying/selling prices) Arcporting (fast travel) between SIN towers in Accord control Converting all of your Crystite to credits is probably a bad idea as Crystite is still a main component in research/crafting, repairs, and purchasing goods from NPCs. Source and more information here

This answer is outdated by a year. Almost everything has changed since then, so it's probably not a good idea to follow anymore. Some 'frames carry wide area-of-effect abilities that are quite well-suited for onslaughts of enemies common in PvE, while others use hard-to-aim but powerful single-target attacks. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that there some are better in PvE than others, to various degrees. 'frames favouring PvE: Firecat, Nighthawk, Bastion. 'frames favouring PvP: Tigerclaw, Raptor, Electron. Dreadnought and Biotech 'frames don't seem to have such a pronounced difference. However, this only applies to stock equipment. Since you can use Accord components on Astrek and ODM 'frames. With this sort of mix-and-matching, it's entirely possible to turn a supposedly PvP 'frame into one that has no problem defending thumpers and fighting the Chosen. And of course, every 'frame can be played well in PvP. Player skill is the deciding factor here.

In short: yes. A T1 item made with high-quality materials should approximately match (if I'm not mistaken) a T2 one made with low-quality stuff. Somewhat longer: gear is made of subcomponents. Each of those subcomponents' quality increases a single attribute of the final piece from its base attributes. For example, a rifle barrel will probably affect damage per round, while a magazine will affect magazine size. Higher tier equipment will use more subcomponents and thus allow for greater overall customisability, and also have higher base attributes. Also keep in mind that using higher-quality materials will increase an item's power and mass requirements, so you may want to use more basic materials for subcomponents you consider less important.

After you complete the tutorial area and are taken to Cocacabana, you will receive a mission waypoint to "scan for minerals" nearby. Once you learn how to use the scan hammer, the objective will update to thump for minerals. You will be given a temporary thumper in this mission, and the reward for completing it is a small personal thumper. Apparently my friend thought I had done this mission in the tutorial area.

If you are trying to craft a blue crystite hybrid module, you don't need dna level 4. Even though that's what the recipe links to, you can also use varying amount of lesser materials to craft the same thing. 50 standard dna samples can be used in place of 1 level 4. The recipe is under crystite hybrid modules. You can usually find a good number of hisser pods in the rockpools, at around (922,687)

Not to my knowledge, no. However, it is free to make characters and accounts of Firefall, so it would not be a huge detriment to create a new account and character, playing through the tutorial, then scrapping it or donating it.

As it stands you can only create 1 character, but there is no need to create more than 1 anyhow. Each character can swap between any of the Battleframes (Firefall's version of a 'Class'), simply by unlocking it at the battleframe garage and then swapping between them by using the battleframe stations (these are located in most towns/outposts/watch towers) You start with 3 battleframe slots, and can purchase more with redbeans (the ingame currency), but even if you dont wish to spend anything on purchasing any extra slots, you can happily delete battleframes without losing any XP or unlocks you have earned on each frame. Meaning you can delete a frame, and later load that frame again and you still have everything you had originally... you will just have to re-equip certain gear items/unlocks.

After a few days of experimentation, this question should actually be split into two parts: How do I properly use the Scan Hammer? When you strike the ground with the Scan Hammer, it detects the mineral types directly under the point of impact. A box will pop up with the results of the scan, telling you what minerals a Thumper will extract from this point. The Scan Hammer also sends seismic waves through the ground ahead of you, color-coded to the type of resource, with a height equivalent to the concentration. There are certain regions which tend to hold one type of resource over another, but the best way to find out what's under your feet is to hop along, hammering as you go. Why won't the percentage go much higher than 50%? The maximum concentration of a resource deposit varies from vein to vein. Veins change at a regular interval, but it is very likely that the vein you're currently attempting to scan tops out at 50%. If you put down a Thumper on an "only traces" area, the only thing it will pull up is Sifted Earth (which can be refined at the molecular printer). If the Thumper is on top of a resource deposit, a percentage of the haul will consist of the given resource. For example, calling down a Stock Personal Thumper on a spot with 50% Aluminum will return 125 Sifted Earth and 125 Aluminum on a full load. A full load also grants you a double resource bonus, so that topped off Stock Personal Thumper would actually net you 250 Sifted Earth and 250 Aluminum. Since Thumpers attract a significant number of enemies, you can also collect lots of other resources, DNA, and parts as well.

Press C to open the calldowns menu, mouse down to the one you want, and left click to select it. Then press 4 to activate it, and left click to place the beacon.

There isn't much in the game at the moment beyond the first mission and endless PvP, for the simple reason that it's still in beta. The developers are slowly adding things to do, but at the moment it's fairly empty.