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Fallen Earth state of the game letter previews economic fixes, new content
Another year dawns fresh on the wasteland, and Icarus senior game designer Marie Croall checks in on the official forums for Fallen Earth's latest State of the Game update. 2011 looks to be an exciting year for fans of new stuff, as the game will see a combat revamp, new high-level group content, and of course the new Sector 4 portions of the map. Icarus plans to release Sector 4 across four counties with the first one, Alpha, raising the level cap by five and bringing new gear, mutations, recipes, and abilities to the game. Look for it to debut on the live server in the second quarter of 2011. Why the delay? Croall explains that the team needed to address balance issues prior to rolling out new content. "There were several areas of combat that we needed to adjust before we could properly design encounters and instances as we moved forward. Additionally, our art team has been taking these past few months to make huge improvements that are necessary for the gameplay, story and setting. As important as it is to us to get the new content out, it's more important to get it out right," she says. Croall's letter also clues us in to the next patch, currently scheduled for February. In addition to skill and mutation balancing, the update will feature the new scavenger boss system (with new bosses and encounter areas) as well as the team's first crack at a round of economic fixes. Icarus is taking some of the concerns raised about Fallen Earth's economy to heart and is going to be addressing everything from supply and demand to drop rates, trading concerns, and general crafting fixes. "A thriving player driven economy should be a central part of our game and we're working very hard on getting it there," Croall writes.
Second annual costume contest announced for Fallen Earth
Some people would say that the complete end of the world as we know it kind of precludes dressing up in costumes and going out for candy. And there's a word for those people -- quitters. Lucky for all of us, however, the end of the world as we know it has only come in video game form, and now the fans of Fallen Earth can earn some prizes in the second annual Halloween costume contest on the official site.Running until October 21st, the contest calls for players to send in their faction-themed costumes, with all of the entries being displayed on the site on October 23rd. In addition, the top five entries will receive a Fallen Earth prize pack, which includes a game t-shirt, a messenger bag, and a game poster autographed by the development team. The full rules are available at the official site.If you're a fan of the game, it's a nice chance to dovetail putting together a costume and winning some nice bonuses from the developers. And, on the off chance that the end of the world really does roll around, you'll have the added benefit of being dressed for the occasion.
Fallen Earth hosting Texas invasion in-game event
Come Saturday, July 25th, we hope those of you in the Fallen Earth beta (or looking to get in by then) have some spare time. The Fallen Earth team is planning to host an atypical stress test in the shape of an in-game event -- Texas Invasion: A Clan Challenge. Here's the hook: Players have been asked to help fortify the Grand Canyon Province and raise up arms against invading Texans. This can be done by seeking out Texan encampments, where players can scavenge for valuables, kill invaders or craft to earn points.Doing any and all of these things earn players points, and the player with the most points will earn the title Defender of the Province. Aside from sounding cool, this title also comes with a prize pack consisting of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 videocard, a Fallen Earth messenger bag and a Fallen Earth t-shirt. The prizes aren't solely individual, however, as clans will be tallying up points during the event. Clan points come from individual players and the most successful clan gets to claim in-game notoriety via a commemorative -- and we're assuming in-game -- monument, complete with the name and date of the event.Oh, and apparently this winning clan will also earn a week-long takeover of the Fallen Earth website. Talk about an ego boost! Check out the official announcement for further details -- such as the scheduled hours for the event and how clans not already in the beta can join up now and compete as well.
Get acquainted with Fallen Earth
Jessica Orr -- product manager on Fallen Earth -- was recently interviewed by Tracey John over at MTV Multiplayer. Brand new game information wasn't the focus, and instead the interview covers everything a new person should know about the upcoming post-apocalyptic third/first person MMORPG. Still it's a good interview for anyone interested in the game.One other thing the interview addresses is the increasing count of shooter MMOs and Jessica's thoughts on competing in a market where this genre is quickly becoming popular. Her answer is exactly our opinion on the game thus far, that it fills a specific niche currently not found elsewhere: post-apocalyptic, classless, FPS/RPG hybrid. We'd also mention its open sandbox design and non-futuristic focus, as in you won't find laser beams and plasma rifles at higher levels.What's even better is that, as she says, the Fallen Earth team looks to be doing everything they can to make the most of their position.
Further weapon balance blogging for Fallen Earth
Realtime guns, knives, grenades, pipes and all sorts of other weapons tend to make for an interesting challenge when it comes to balancing them, which is exactly what the most recent Fallen Earth developer diary discusses. It appears to have been a long road for the developers, but after much play testing and some clever re-categorizing they seem to have come upon a good method.Smart choices like allowing everyone to use grenades (thus giving melee-focused characters a little range) mark a very well thought-out system. Insuring that an sandbox style MMO still have a good sense of structure and meaning is imporatant, because without it everyone simply opts for the winning weapon. It's developer diaries like this that make us excited for upcoming games, which wasn't really necessary for Fallen Earth but helps nonetheless.
Fallen Earth dev interviews continue with "Funslayer"
As we reported on their first dev interview, the Fallen Earth team is doing a great job at keeping us excited and informed on the progression of the game and the team involved. In this fourth dev interview, we hear from "Funslayer", Lead Scripter on the Fallen Earth MMO project.As with the previous dev interviews, we hear about the basic essentials, like favorite color and underwear preference. These are certainly the types of questions every player needs to know about their game's developers. Yet the important part comes after the introduction, when forum-goers get to ask the real questions. We learn quite a bit about the game's tutorial, NPC AI, and where he got that awesome nickname. Check out the entire 3-page thread in the Fallen Earth forums for more on this Q&A, and be sure to check out the previous and upcoming dev interviews as well.
Fallen Earth gets a visual facelift
Fallen Earth is a massively game that's been in development for some time now, although that's not entirely unheard of for the massively genre. When a game has been in development for as long as Fallen Earth has, sometimes the graphics it started with just don't seem to cut it anymore. Well, this problem is something the FE team is in the process of fixing. Not only have we been given some examples of these new improvements, but we've also gotten a bit of an informational update as well.
