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Fallen Earth's Global Territory Control creates a singular faction to rule them all
The GamersFirst crew is back with a closer look at one of the exciting PvP features that's being created for Fallen Earth: Global Territory Control. The idea behind GTC is that the devs wanted a comprehensive system that would track faction dominance in PvP across the entire game world. Global Territory Control takes in data from Conflict Towns, Faction Control Points, and open PvP areas, crunches the stats, and spits out a single point rating that shows how well (or forehead-slappingly bad) each of the game's six factions is doing. The new system will go into place for the entire game except for Sector 1, and you'll have to be level-appropriate for the zone to contribute to your faction's GTC score. If a faction earns enough points, then an insanely nice buff is handed out as a reward -- but only one faction can have it at any time. The buff increases the speed of crafting and harvesting and also improves the gain of random AP, Death Toll, faction points, and XP. This system is still being prepped for a future update.
Wasteland Diaries: Player-run economy
The economy in Fallen Earth has been stagnant for a while. The auction house has been just a place for trader clones (with maxed social skill) to post wares with a small markup from the NPC vendors prices. In some cases, these traders would post mats that could only be bought in PvP conflict towns or found in secret or dangerous scavenging spots. It was hard to be competitive in a market like that. Every resource had an unlimited supply thanks to the vendors. There were a few items that actually worked on the supply and demand principle, like vibrant and volatile chemicals and pre-fall tech. These items had prices that were dictated completely by the players. Through competition, the prices got pretty reasonable (and I even bought a few pre-fall techs to allieviate the Citadel grind). All that has changed now, and the Fallen Earth team has made some massive changes to the way the economy works. In this post, I'll take a look at what has changed. I'll try to give my best guess about what will happen to the economy in the coming weeks. A great many players are already freaking out about this concept on the forums and in global chat. While I admit it's too early to tell what will become of us in the near future, there's no need to panic. People were rage-quitting the game mere hours after the changes were made. If you ask me, it's a bit premature to make a decision like that. Nobody really knows what will happen, but click past the cut to see my best guesses.
Wasteland Diaries: Why do I PvP?
Lately I've been asking myself, "Why do I PvP in Fallen Earth?" The game isn't designed around PvP combat; it's more of a sideshow. The factional conflict was what made me decide to try it out in the first place. But after getting to max level, I realized that there wasn't a true faction conflict. There were just sporadic skirmishes arranged by the same core of players. So what is it that motivates me to do it? What is it that motivates other PvPers to do it? I can think of a few possibilities, but even if I look at my best reasons as objectively as possible, they aren't even remotely good reasons. Yet I keep doing it. In this post I will take a look at what drives one to PvP in Fallen Earth. What are the benefits? What are the risk vs. reward factors? Are there objectives or goals? When I look at the cold, hard facts, I'm still not quite sure what motivates me (or the others who still hang around). After the cut, I'll go over all the potential reasons to PvP in FE (that I can imagine) and possibly narrow it down.
Wasteland Diaries: Sector 4 lives!
To many players of Fallen Earth, the expression "when hell freezes over" has been supplanted by "when Sector 4 is released." At launch, the sector was supposedly largely completed, and it was expected to be released shortly thereafter. After a year had passed and we were still waiting to see it, many players started to believe that it didn't even exist. Well, I am here to tell you that not only does it exist, but I spent a few hours roaming around on the other side of the big wall. Aside from some nice pictures, I got a little bit of insight on what we might expect to see in Alpha County, which will be the first installment in the fourth sector. It's been quite some time since Fallen Earth's opening day, and we have been waiting quite some time for the new sector. But the team at Fallen Earth, LLC has given us a few things to tide us over: Deadfall and Terminal Woods, which combined have as much content as a full sector. So it's not like we've been stuck in Sector 3 for over a year and a half; the devs have given us some new stuff and made some fundamental changes to the game (some good and some bad, but mostly good). The first bit of S4 we will see was released on the public test server (PTS) earlier this week, so I took the opportunity to do some exploring for you (actually my motivations were entirely selfish). After the cut, I'll tell you a little bit about what I saw (slight spoiler alert!).
Wasteland Diaries: So you want to be a crafter?
Fallen Earth has a complex, robust crafting system. The vast majority of the items in the game can be crafted from things you find lying on the ground. I am not exaggerating when I say "vast majority" because it's well over 90%. You can literally level your way to the cap simply by scavenging and crafting. It used to be much easier, but it is still possible. Tradeskills are different from other skills in Fallen Earth in that you raise them through use rather than spending AP on them. The system itself can be quite daunting when you are first starting out, but once you have a basic grasp of how it works, the rest is pretty intuitive. In this post, I'll touch on the basics of crafting. I'm no expert, but I do have a completely maxed-out social/crafter that has most of the game's recipes in his repertoire. You may know what you are doing, but I think even the most learned of crafters might learn something from this piece. The novice crafter will learn a few simple tricks (tricks that I wished I had known when I was just starting out) that will make his life a little easier out there. It's tough when you just want to make something with your hands and there are legions of bloodthirsty miscreants trying to kill you. So grab your toolkits and click past the cut for more.
Wasteland Diaries: The Nerfpocalypse
I don't know about you, but when I think about a post-apocalyptic future, I think about bands of merciless raiders, anarchy and danger along every roadway. Does Fallen Earth have all of these things? Yes, but it is hardly the lawless, danger-ridden place (once you get acclimated to it) that you would expect to find when civilization has collapsed and there are mutants running amok. Fallen Earth is hardly the quintessential post-apocalyptic future. Games like Gamma World (a pen-and-paper RPG from days of yore) and Wasteland captured the bleakness of a destroyed world much more convincingly. But who knows. Maybe the folks at Icarus got it right. We'll never know until the earth is destroyed. And games won't be such a matter of import when almost everyone is gone. Anyway, what I am getting at is the setting. The setting looks fantastic; the art department has certainly captured a desolate wasteland. The writing is great, and the towns and encounters are well-designed. Fallen Earth has the ambiance nailed. But the wasteland just doesn't have that sense of danger about it. Not for me, at least. After the cut, I'll discuss what I thought FE was going to be like, what it is, and what I think it should be.
Wasteland Diaries: Hunting down AP
So there's an AP cap in Fallen Earth now. When there was a finite number of AP available, it was not very popular. But now that there is an unlimited number of AP available (in theory), it seems a bit easier to digest. The current AP cap at level 50 is 1250. This allows for a decent build while not allowing for a jack-of-all-trades build. With the new system currently on the PTS, most builds will have to be specialized. In other words, there will be no more healers or crafters that will be able to dish out maximum DPS anymore. Part of the purpose of the AP cap was to alleviate the need for a wheel-flip. In some ways, the de-factionalization of mutations has helped in that department. The entire Fallen Earth skill and mutation system is undergoing a revamp, but the AP mechanics aren't going to change much. The AP cap will still be in place and will increase by 25 every level. And there will still be random AP and repeatable missions for AP. But is a wheel-flip still necessary? The short answer is yes and no, but I'll delve into that a bit more after the cut.
Wasteland Diaries: The battle of Haietta
There are new PvP objectives in Fallen Earth. Well, the objectives are the same, but the means of achieving those objectives are now different. Conflict towns remain largely unchanged, but the taking and holding of one is now dramatically different because of a few subtle changes. No longer are the non-timed towns captured by doing repeatable missions. Timed conflict towns haven't changed at all. But the other towns had a silly mechanic: having the PvPers do PvE missions to control a town. The attackers and defenders would roam about doing missions and possibly run into one another and fight. More often than not, there was little fighting. The new system concentrates the action on a certain point -- actually, three points. The Faction Control Points (FCPs) are placed near or in the town. They are now the key to controlling the town. Of course you can still do it the old-fashioned way, but it's much quicker to control all three points at once. Controlling all three points will give the controlling faction a steady stream of faction points toward its cause. Each tower held contributes 2500 points to the controlling faction about every five minutes.If you've ever done the missions in a conflict town, you know this is a much faster method. PvP is rampant in Fallen Earth right now. Well, in Haietta, it is. After the cut, I'll give a first-hand account of what I've seen on the front lines.
Wasteland Diaries: Patch day mayhem
In Fallen Earth, patch day is always a happy day (for me, at least). But this most recent patch (1.7.4) brings in some sweeping changes. The changes that came with this patch were far-reaching enough to get us another full respec. I don't forsee myself using one yet, but they are nice to have. I actually still have my injectors that we got with the 1.4 patch. In fact, this patch changes so much that I spent the past couple of days preparing (in-game) for it. I haven't had time to even grab all of the new skills that all of my clones will now have available to them. An Enforcer rifleman with Fitness? Yes, among other things. Everyone in Fallen Earth now has more health, but it gets taken away much faster. Combat seems more intuitive with reliable damage from weapons. Without glances and extreme damage variance, combat feels crisper and less clunky. It's going to take some getting used to. The PvE combat has changed the most. There is actually an element of danger involved when fighting mobs, especially large groups. I find myself actually using contingencies and heals during combat with NPCs. I never really had to before, but now the mobs rarely miss (rather than rarely hit). While I didn't get to see everything we got with this patch, I did get some hands-on PvP action (and broke a tradition that had lasted some 292 days in-game) under the new system. I'll give up more about that after the cut.
Wasteland Diaries: A brief history
Fallen Earth has a relatively short history, as far as the power struggles on the server. Yes, in case you didn't know it, Fallen Earth is a single-server game. Everything I'll discuss in this post occurred on that single shard. The power struggles in the wastelands, be they between factions or clans, have been ever-changing. It seems that no one group retains power for very long. They say that history is written by the victors. And they could be right, but since we lack clear winners, I'll write it. There isn't really a way to assert dominance in Fallen Earth in any kind of overt way. But there are subtleties that player groups can control. In some cases, they can even hold a resource with which to extort the playerbase. In the future we may see a true struggle for resources in an apocalyptic wasteland, but for now we will have to be content with simply crushing our enemies. After the break I'll chronicle the past year or so and outline how the power struggle evolved through that time period. Not everyone will agree with my perception of the events, but I'll do the best I can to remain unbiased.
Wasteland Diaries: Flag up
Since the addition of the open world PvP flag to Fallen Earth, I haven't seen it being used often enough. There are only a handful of players, including me, who stay flagged for PvP 24/7. For a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Fallen Earth is a pretty safe and cozy place for most. The majority of the game takes place in relatively civilized areas where clones can't harm one another. PvP zones are optional, and many players simply avoid them. With the well-guarded towns, sporadic and weak mobs that are always right where you left them, and the resilience of player characters, there isn't a huge element of danger out there. I know a lot of these issues are being addressed with the combat changes, but today's wasteland isn't too frightening. I drive into PvP zones and almost breathe a sigh of relief, because everyone around me is on an even keel. When I roll into a crowded town, that is when I'm really on my guard. I appear to go about my business normally, but I'm looking over both shoulders. You never know who in the crowd might have it in for you or might just attack you on a whim. Truth be told, it's not so bad. Most people won't pay you any mind. After the cut, I'll take a look at the past month I've spent PvP-flagged and try to explain why I think it's the only way to play.
Wasteland Diaries: Loyalty
In Fallen Earth you start out as a confused clone. You don't have any idea who you are or what to do. The answers are there if you choose to seek them out. But you may also choose to ignore your greater purpose and carve out your own little niche in the wastes. You may form bonds with other players during your journeys, and you might join a clan at some point. But there is another factor that might divert your moral compass from that of your colleagues: Fallen Earth's six factions. The factions add a bit of flavor to the game, but they also complicate matters for players who have formed friendships in Sector 1, before the factions had any sway. Sure, you may learn a little bit about the various factions during your adventures in the Plateau Province, but you won't choose sides until you get to Sector 2. You can always remain neutral, but that would be akin to playing the game blindfolded. You would be severely gimping yourself for no good reason. After the cut I will take an in-depth look at loyalties in Fallen Earth and how they might be torn between three different entities: factions, friends, and clans.
Wasteland Diaries: Sector 2
In Fallen Earth the Grand Canyon Province is divided into sectors. Sector 1 is where you will learn the basics of the game, but there are a few important and new concepts you will be introduced to in sector 2. Those two concepts are mutations and factions. NPCs will try to introduce you to these concepts through a series of quests in Sunshine Corners. The quests will give you a basic rundown of each of Fallen Earth's faction's ideology, but there are a few other things you should know. The purpose of the post will be to make sure that you know what to expect when you arrive in sector 2. You will be making one of the most important choices in your character's development when you choose a faction to align with. Each faction has different perks, mutations, and capstones. These all play a major part in what your character will become and must not be taken lightly, unless you like dumping chips into respec injectors. After the cut, I will arm you with the knowledge to make a better-informed decision.
Fallen Earth dev chat answers barrage of player questions
We don't know about you, but we can feel the era of post-apocalyptic and sci-fi MMOs fast approaching. Definitely on our 'ones to watch' list is Fallen Earth, currently in development at Fallen Earth LLC (formerly known as Icarus Studios). We mentioned the other day that the Fallen Earth devs would participate in a live Stratics 'House of Commons' dev chat, and among the five Fallen Earth team members on-hand was lead game designer Lee Hammock. The Fallen Earth devs responded to a blitz of questions from the game's future players in the Stratics dev chat, ranging from the benefits of capturing 'conflict towns' in PvP to mounted combat on horses and vehicles. In addition, Lee Hammock stated that game play videos should be released at some point in the next few weeks, and more info about the game will be coming out in tandem with this month's Game Developers Conference.Be sure to check out the Stratics House of Commons chat transcript for more on the kind of game Fallen Earth is shaping up to be.
