Massively Exclusive: Fallen Earth dev event transcript (and another party!)

This weekend we had the chance to hang out with a bunch of rough-and-tumble types in the wastelands of Fallen Earth. No, we weren't just doing our typical weekend gaming! We were lucky enough to get to spend some time in-game, hanging out with Marie "Arosei" Croall, Content Team Lead for Fallen Earth. During the evening, we asked her some of the great player submitted questions we solicited last week. She also tossed out a couple of interesting asides to the huge crowd that amassed to take part in the event - and to get some of the free goodies we were handing out!

For those of you who may not have been able to make it - or would just like to check it out without all the cross-chatter - we've transcribed the interview (and some interesting asides) behind the break. Also, remember that we have another Massively Fallen Earth event happening this Wednesday night at the Embry Satellite, starting at 9:00 PM Eastern. This time our very own Shawn Schuster will be dropping by to hold a Massively Reader Meet-up, with - you guessed it - more free stuff, and a special Halloween-themed show on Post Apoc Radio.

Massively: The global Help Channel. Did you guys not see that coming?

Marie "Arosei" Croall: Heh... There are some aspects of game play that are beneficial, even if they don't seem like it at the time. The help channel is one of those things I'm glad we have because the game does have a steep learning curve. I've been in the game enough to see all the channels get a little crazy.

What are your thoughts on the long-term viability of Fallen Earth's in-game economic model?

The game economy is something we always need to keep a close eye on. Player behavior will determine what, if any, changes we make to items to alter the economic structure.

Fast travel has been mentioned as a possibility. Will there be any reason to use this feature, given that the game keeps guiding the player towards higher-numbered sectors?

Fast Travel is one of those things we want to implement correctly. It will be a limited system and there will most likely be a cost. We have ways we already use fast travel, such as the LifeNet Transporters.

Ok here we go, question #4. What are your thoughts on riding horses into banks? Does the in-game benefit of easy transfers outweigh the loss of immersion and the inconvenience of crowded interiors?

As a crafter I understand that inventory control is a part of the game and having horse inventory near the vault can make thing easy. But we have come to realize that there are places that horses just shouldn't go, and we are looking at ways to cut down on the aggravation this causes.

[Comment from several in the crowd about killing horses and using them for glue]

More outside vaults is probably a more viable solution than horse slaughter.

[Crowd suggests having horses turn into mutant chickens, Dirge: I want a giant chicken to ride!]

I think we all want giant chickens to ride.

What are your thoughts on in-game housing? If implemented, will they be purely for decoration or will they serve an in-game purpose?

We love the idea of in-game housing. That's another thing we want to do right and should have multiple uses. We've started looking in that direction for upcoming patches. You guys [players] have a lot of ideas that we want to do.

Here we go, we're on fire! Question #6: Where will this game be, a year or two down the road? Will we be doing the same things in higher-numbered sectors (doing missions/pvp while crafting something in the background), or are there big plans in store for us?

The big plans that I'm involved in alter both the ongoing storyline and some aspects of game-play. A lot of the core mechanics will stay consistent, questing, crafting, etc, but motivations and rewards will likely change.

[Comment from Torey Scott: I was thinking you were going to change to the point-click combat.]

No plans to change to point-click combat that I know of.

I would like to know if the devs have any plan to make the characters in the game more unique. Right now its very easy for people to be perfect at armor use, weapon use, and several mutations that in all other games would be considered class defining, which makes grouping a shallow experience in Fallen Earth, and generally reduces the game's appeal as a role-playing game.

We are always talking about ways to add more variety in abilities in armor. While I can't give any direct answers there are some really exciting things in development.

Are you able to tell us some of your future, exciting plans? For example, you could elaborate on the next expansion, and maybe [give us some] more detail about Player Housing and when that will come into effect!

Well everyone's seen the wall, right? We're building to something very big and very cool, but before we get there players will have to hear a lot more about Global Tech, LifeNet and some good old villains. We've got some awesome new content planned - some additions to crafting and hopefully some surprises. And Tetrax is one of our favorites.

Do you plan to add real Item Decay to keep the crafting system viable ?

We are talking about ways to keep the crafting system viable. This is something that we won't rush into. There are certain systems that we want badly, but more than we want the systems, we don't want to break existing game play.

When is the fan site program launching?

The fan site kit is available now, and we will be updating it soon. We love the fan sites and try to visit them as fans ourselves. There is a lot of awesome stuff out there. It's really humbling to see all the work and love you guys put into this game.

[Large Marge: We'd like fan site support with links published officially on the site and in promos]

I'll ask about that Marge.

[Alwiran: Any plans for multi-person transport to transport friends/guildies?]

No plans I could talk about.

Thanks for the info Arosei - and the time!
[Crowd erupts into thanks]

You guys are awesome! Thanks for being here!