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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.
Left 4 Dead's Death Toll in beta, now playable in Left 4 Dead 2
Valve's unleashed the Death Toll campaign from the original Left 4 Dead on the PC-playing Left 4 Dead 2 crowd today, albeit with some minor tweaks which Valve is being mum about. They want us all to go in with "fresh eyes" they say, so we'll see how that goes. Any feedback you have, you can drop it in the Steam forums. (Or you could leave a comment in this very post!) Also, Valve's got an update on the launch window of the entire Cold Stream DLC release, of which Death Toll is a part of: It's coming around Halloween. Previously the goal was late summer, but with all of the testing and rigmarole that goes into tuning a game, Valve's gotten a little behind schedule. It's tough to complain, considering how very, very free all this stuff is.
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: 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: Faction control points
Faction control points are the newest PvP draw in Fallen Earth. They're still in their infancy, but I have already seen an increase in faction control point PvP. Factional warfare has always taken a backseat to clan warfare in Fallen Earth. At least for as long as I can remember. Right now, clan warfare vs. factional warfare is dividing the FE community. A rift between omni-clans and single-faction clans has resulted in more clan warfare, with factions completely disregarded. Faction control points were an effort to add some meaningful faction-based PvP to the game. In some ways it succeeds and in some ways it fails. I was able to get in there and test these faction control points this week. I died plenty, but I also slew more this week than I had in a long time. I was able to test them exhaustively alone and with a group. I was able to witness the dynamic of six different warring factions in one small town. If that wasn't confusing enough, there was also a layer of clan politics muddling things up even more. After the cut, I'll give you the low-down on faction control points (FCPs for short), detailing my personal experiences with them, and how they have changed the face of FE so far.
Fallen Earth's State of the Game: Upcoming additions and more
When it comes to transparency regarding patches, Fallen Earth might have just won that category in spades. The latest State of the Game article on their site is more than just an overview of the direction they want to take the game in, it's a patch by patch listing of the features that the development team will be bringing to the table. Patch 1.3 will be expanding the game with the introduction of Kaibab Forest and Deadfall Point, as players will run a brand new plotline to push back the radiation zone and find more secrets hidden in the wasteland. The new areas come with a brand new level added to the cap, so all of that experience gained from the new area won't go to waste.
