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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: 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: Tester-day
I spent an entire day on the Fallen Earth Public Test Server (PTS). I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with what I saw. The development team over at Fallen Earth, LLC is making some sweeping changes to the game. I wasn't just impressed by the new artwork and the smoother game mechanics; I was also impressed with the amount of communication the Fallen Earth dev team is giving to its testers. And why not? We pay the devs to test their product. While there is a lot of new stuff to check out, I spent the majority of a day trying to digest as much of this new content as I possibly could, and I didn't really even scratch the surface. I spent a good eight hours on the server, though about four of those hours were devoted to testing the combat system. I did a few bug reports, but aside from grenades being totally broken, most everything seemed to be in order. After the break I'll give you some first-hand accounts of what I've discovered. You could just read the patch notes, but it just isn't the same.
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.
Wasteland Diaries: What's next?
There isn't yet a known release date for the next Fallen Earth patch. The 1.7.1 patch will make some fundamental changes to the combat system. These changes will be far-reaching, but they will not alter gameplay drastically. Mainly, we will see an increase in damage dealt across the board. This will make combat in Fallen Earth seem a bit more dangerous than it is now. PvE just doesn't quicken my pulse like it did when I was a new player in Sector 1. The patch will also address this. It will also add the faction control points. The main focus of the patch is the combat re-vamp and the control points. The Armor Use skill and the Dodge skill have been redesigned, and the way that damage mitigation works is a bit different in version 1.7.1. The faction control points will give the clones a reason to fight, and the victorious faction will reap far-reaching rewards. I'll go into more detail about these tidbits and more after the break, so without any further ado, let's move on.
Form and function in Fallen Earth's latest state of the game
There's been a lot of excitement in the Fallen Earth community over the upcoming combat changes, and in producer Dave "Archangel" Haydysch's latest state of the game address, he assures everyone that the anticipation is worth it. "As I mentioned," Haydysch writes, "this is the FIRST iteration... we will use your feedback to make further adjustments and improvements to the system until we feel the system is ready to go live." He urges players to participate on the public test server, where numerous systems are being tested, including these combat upgrades and the upcoming Faction Control Points, which should add spice to the PvP play in the game. Looking at future patches, Haydysch reports that the team will be revamping combat skills and mutations relating to each of Fallen Earth's six factions. The team is also working hard on bringing additional visual improvements to the wasteland, which "will improve the look and feel of the world as a whole." These improvements are scheduled to hit the game at the same time as the next live event, which is so far a mysterious mystery shrouded in mysteriousness. Finally, Haydysch acknowledges additional selections will become available in the Rewards Store, including (drum roll please) more space for inventory-starved adventurers. You can read the full state of the game report over at Fallen Earth.
Fallen Earth's producer details upcoming patch
Fallen Earth producer Dave "Archangel" Haydysch popped up on the game's official forums yesterday to share his latest State of the Game post. In addition to touching on the Icarus team's experience at the recently concluded Pax Prime event in Seattle, Haydysch drops a few nuggets of exciting news regarding the 1.7 patch. Faction control points will add another PvP option to the wasteland, and will feature flags that players may capture throughout the world. Once in the player's possession, members of the conquering faction will have access to guards, buffs, and new harvesting nodes for as long as they maintain control and fight off would-be challengers. Speaking of fighting, combat is being rebalanced, and 1.7 will kick things off with mitigation and damage adjustments (as well as a free respec to help players cope with the changes). New encounter areas are also coming, and will be found near Old Kingman, Blaine, Gaia, and Deadfall. Following on from vehicle color customization in an earlier patch, social clothing updates are also included in 1.7, in the form of paint and dye kits that can be applied to jackets, pants, hats, and shirts. As if all that wasn't enough, Icarus is also phasing in a customer rewards program that will accrue Veteran Reward Points with each subscribed month. Points may be spent at in-game vendors for unique items and will also be retroactively added to current subscriber accounts.
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.
Fallen Earth producer talks major combat changes
Things have been pretty quiet on the Fallen Earth news-front lately. Aside from this week's patch and the announcement of an upcoming customer rewards program, the team at Icarus Studios has been rather scarce for much of the summer. Happily, a new State of the Game letter from producer Dave "Archangel" Haydysch outlines everything the dev team has been toiling away on behind the scenes. Haydysch kicks things off by mentioning Fallen Earth's fall update schedule, currently slated to begin with a major patch in late September. "This will be the beginning of several major patches in which we will roll out combat and faction improvements as well as many other new features," he says. What sort of features, you're probably wondering? For starters, the team will be adjusting combat formulas with the goal of creating a faster, more visceral overall experience. Significant tweaks will occur with regard to high-level mitigation, random damage spread, and statistical requirements on armor. Faction skills, mutations, and regular skills will also receive additional balancing after the major combat changes are in place. In addition to combat, Icarus will be adding content in the form of Progress Towns, as well as Faction Control Points, clothing color customization, camp improvements, and more. Check out all of the details in the State of the Game letter on the official forums.
