Fallen Earth: August State of the Game Letter

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Fallen Earth News

In the August edition of the Fallen Earth State of the Game letter, producer Dave "Archangel" Haydysch begins by talking about the changes brought in the 1.6 patch. He then continues with a listing of the items that will be receiving attention in the patches set to roll out this fall.

Read the whole article here: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/news/gameId/126/showArticle/17911

[FN]

Greetings Wastelanders,

I hope that everyone’s summer has been going well. The team here at Fallen Earth has been hard at work on some very exciting additions and improvements and I wanted to take a little time to let you know what we have on our plates for the upcoming patches in this month’s State of the Game.

Before I do that, however, I would like to share a little about our recent trip to QuakeCon and our upcoming trip to PAX Prime in Seattle, WA. We recently had the opportunity to head to Dallas and demo FE to the fans of QuakeCon. The show was an absolute blast and we appreciate all the support from everyone who was able to make it out and come by the booth! If you weren’t able to make it out, we hope you enjoyed following our new mascot, Devil Duck, and his experience at the show. We’re looking forward to seeing more of you at this year’s PAX Prime, September 3–5. If you are in the Seattle area during that time and are attending PAX, be sure to stop by our booth and say hi. We would love to see you! As usual, we will be tweeting and posting our adventures, so be sure to keep an eye out for that here: @fallenearth, @davehaydysch, and on Facebook and the forums!

Now, on to the content! Recently, we launched patch v1.6 and it’s been very well received. Many clones have taken advantage of the new vehicle color customization option and/or have voluntarily flagged themselves for death with the new PvP flagging feature. We’re not stopping there. Currently, we are working on our next major patch, due to be released 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.

Combat
We’ve been taking a very in-depth look at two core systems of Fallen Earth—Combat and Factions. Over the next several months we will be making changes as we continually adjust and improve these two systems.

Specifically for combat, we will be changing some of the formulas to create a more fast-paced, exciting combat experience. Major changes coming soon involve adjusting high levels of mitigation, tweaking the random damage spread and making armor require statistics (like Faction or Strength) and character level (rather than Armor Use skill). However, Armor Use skill will still determine how well armor performs. After these changes are in place, we will be making adjustments to Faction skills, Mutations and regular skills, and a balance pass for Items.

Progress Towns
Progress Towns, a PvE feature, will add all-new content to the Wasteland.

Within certain areas, factions are attempting to build new towns…while the remnants of Alec Master's forces are trying to tear them down. In Progress Towns, players can run all new missions in an effort to build a town, from the ground up, for their Faction. While special defenses may be crafted to help protect and defend your newly formed faction town, beware, it won’t be an easy task to maintain control.

Faction Control Points
Every Faction has planted flags throughout the Wasteland to claim parts of the Grand Canyon as their own. Players who are in a PvP area or World PvP flagged can claim one of these flags for their own Faction. Claiming such a flag, or multiple flags in an area, may grant benefits such as Faction-specific guards, buffs, or harvest nodes, but you’ll have to battle it out to keep your flag flying.

Color Customization Options for Clothing
We are hard at work on introducing the next step of customization options in Fallen Earth in the form of customizable social clothing. We will do a special dev journal on this feature and are very excited to bring this to all of you!

Camp Improvements
We are also taking a look at the camps system and will be improving certain elements. With the improvements, players will have the ability to place camps on a wider selection of terrain. Additionally, camps will no longer disappear when their creator logs out or moves out of range. We hope to see this system continue to evolve and improve as we move forward.

Mobile App
We realize a lot of players are anxious for the premium mobile companion app features to be released, and you can expect to see the update available within the next few weeks on the Fallen Earth website. With the update, you will have the ability to fully craft items, send/receive in-game mail and attachments and buy/sell at the Auction House!

We’ve got lots more in store in addition to these awesome new features in the September patch, so be sure to keep an eye on the FE website! And to give a glimpse at what you can expect to see hit the server in December, we’re working on some major systems—Factions and Clan Strongholds. Stay tuned for more details!

Lastly, we are also planning our next live event, so keep a lookout for more info coming soon!

Regards,

Dave “Archangel” Haydysch
Producer
Fallen Earth

[Fero Max]

Combat
We’ve been taking a very in-depth look at two core systems of Fallen Earth—Combat and Factions. Over the next several months we will be making changes as we continually adjust and improve these two systems.
Specifically for combat, we will be changing some of the formulas to create a more fast-paced, exciting combat experience. Major changes coming soon involve adjusting high levels of mitigation, tweaking the random damage spread and making armor require statistics (like Faction or Strength) and character level (rather than Armor Use skill). However, Armor Use skill will still determine how well armor performs. After these changes are in place, we will be making adjustments to Faction skills, Mutations and regular skills, and a balance pass for Items.
Now this is by far the best news,
Progress Towns - Moar faction towns
Faction Control Points - CTF
Color Customization Options for Clothing - expensive shiet
Camp Improvements - Sounds sexy as a vault drop point is the best thingy evar

[Vaeyn]

Yeah, I think they are doing GREAT stuff with the game (now to just get time to f'n play). Archangel (whom I just HAVE to like since the online handle I also use (actually about 1000 times more than Vaeyn which was a TR thing I had to do since some jackhole took my usual handle) is Arkangyl) I think has a good grasp of what people need and want out of FE. Sure, he cannot satisfy ALL people over night, but I think he tries to mix in a variety of fixes and changes each patch to try and make as many happy as possible. Plus, some of the stuff they are doing takes a TON of research time and experimentation as well as a lot of work to implement. The folks still working on FE appear to have their stuff together and are staying pretty focused on the little things as well as the big picture. If folks can be patient and they can hang on to the game and Co., I think FE is gonna be in a really good place come late this year to mid next year.