Fallen Earth's weekly feature is here with a lengthy post-Alpha announcement report, and loads of new questions answered about crafter inventory space, gun types and naming, faction drinks, stuns and group sizes:
There's no coasting once you hit feature complete, at least for the Content Department. We're firing on all cylinders to get all the game content in and ready, and oh boy is there a lot of it. This week we're finishing up North Burb, Clinton F.A.R.M., Linewood, and Oilville, and looking ahead to Embry Crossroads (the barter town in the Plateau), polishing some Sector 2 towns, and working on the Upper Plateau. This week also involves lots of statting out of vehicles to try and figure out the balance point between an armored motorcycle, an ethanol-powered ATV, and a hybrid SUV.
To recap some recent discussions, in past QotW I promised two things I haven't delivered on (see, I do pay attention to what I say I will do). These were a) a play-by-play PvP report and b) something folks in the forums could do to help.
On the case of the PvP play-by-play, we had some issues for awhile that prevented that working out, but a lot of that has been dealt with now. We had some PvP in our weekly game tests two weeks back, and it worked out well except for crossbows being over-powered in the low-level game. There was lots of smack talking, several doomed charges towards the bridge near Terance, and Ian (who is our mutation systems specialist) showing folks that buffs are your friends.
As for what folks can do to help, I'm still working on that.
Now for the actual questions.
1. Crafters run into inventory problems much more so than others. I assume many things we make will require multiple components. On our body (backpack) and bank space is often not adequate for crafters. Once player housing comes out, most crafters will fill houses with crafting components etc. Will the current inventory system be adequate for dedicated crafters? Do you have any plans to possibly rent storage locker space for crafters?
Between their vaults, clan vaults, and vehicle storage, crafters should have enough storage, but crafters who try and do every craft skill at once (and thus hoard every possible type of component) will have a pretty rough time. Crafters will probably want to use one of the more storage-focused vehicles on their day-to-day travels rather than focusing on speed or sturdiness. While a motorcycle lets you carry four or so extra slots of inventory, a decked out Tornado Cargo Edition has thirty-two inventory slots.
2. Can you give us the models of some of the guns in FE?
The guns in FE are often based on real guns, but are not exact replicas because using a company's firearms requires all sorts of legal wrangling we'd rather not deal with and instead spend that time and money making the game better. We have guns that look like M-16s, AK-47s, XM8s, MP5s, etc, but they're not exactly those weapons and we don't use the actual names. GlobalTech bought up a bunch of weapon companies before the Fall or made cheap knock-offs of popular guns.
3. Could factions get special drinks? You know like the "tech special" could be vodka and motor oil, or the "CHOTAs delight" could be gin and tonic and human blood.
All factions have special gear, but only some factions have special drinks. More are likely to come as time goes by.
4. What's the status on thrown weapons?
Grenades are in. Knives and spears are not.
5. I was wondering in combat -- let's say I'm using a gun -- is there a way to knock a melee user to the ground, or at least stun them to go ahead guns ablazing?
There is a special attack you can learn through the Pistol skill called Pistol Whip that smacks your target for a small amount of damage and stuns them, while the Rifle skill has a similar ability called Rifle Smash.
6. Are instances, group quests, raids, etc being balanced for 8/32 players or are these large groups/raids more for pvp?
Group content is generally balanced around the 4-6 player range since getting 8 people together in any game is tough. There are a few large-scale raid encounters, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Raids are intended primarily for keeping track of your allies while taking a conflict town or some similar PvP activity.
7. Does this mean there will be raids/instances where 32/8 players are shooting one giant super soldier for 10 mins, or will these super soldiers just be a bit tougher, with FE maintaining the "more mobs" rather than "tougher mobs" mentality for group encounters?
Generally speaking, you'll never shoot the same creature for ten minutes. Hell, it's rare to shoot anything for more than thirty seconds, but earthwalkers and other big beasties may take a little while. Instead we tend to have raid encounters where players fight lots of smaller opponents. There will be exceptions, but they will be rare and make sense given the setting.
