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.
