The weekly Fallen Earth update is here with game lead Lee Hammock's development update and a reprisal of last week's Feature Complete announcement.

By now I figure y'all have seen the big news of the week with the second part of the content complete announcement and the new screenshots. We're going to be starting up a regular cycle of such updates in the near future, each focusing on a different part of the game in addition to the ongoing tradition of Question of the Week. Also, so people don't think we're done with the graphic appearance of the game, the Art Department is always working on improving existing models and making new ones. They've got a lot left to show off.

This week we're finishing up Embry and a bunch of other towns spread across the Plateau, the Upper Plateau, and Northfields. We're also getting the vehicles in for our weekly test so people can ride around the wasteland in style. We've also been getting a lot of infrastructure work done, such as working on loading screens, improving character creation UI, etc.

1. Is there any chance of an in-game audio player?

Not for release. Since players can run a media player in the background while playing the game it's not something we're going to be looking at investing time into in the near future. For now we're concentrating on the vital game elements.

2. How long till FE is content complete? What's the current content completeness percentage?

Several months. Right now I'd have a hard time judging the completeness percentage since a lot of what we're doing is polishing content that is already implemented.

3. Could you give us any examples of "covert" ways for fans to interact with Fallen Earth?

If I told you, they wouldn't be covert, would they?

4. Are the tables and chairs in the Haven Clinic cafeteria (or anywhere else for that matter) destructible/physical? What I'm asking is whether the chairs will fall over when I hit them, or will they be welded to the floor?

They are usable as chairs, but they aren't physics objects. Only certain objects in the world are flagged as physics objects because A) it's expensive for people's processors to have lots of physics objects and B) if everything was physics enabled, within an hour the whole world would be a mess of piles of chairs, tables jammed in doors, etc.

5. Why did the Throwback mobs go through such a drastic change?

The concept of the Throwbacks hasn't changed, but we thought they needed a different look to jive with the way the rest of the game looked. They were more a holdover from the earlier, more sci-fi stages of development, so we figured something a little grittier would be better. That, and they have the coolest death animation ever.

6. How will loot and items from NPCs be handled? Will it be a case of if the NPC is wearing it, using it, or has it on their person, it'll drop as loot (as in Ultima Online or the Elders Scrolls games, etc), meaning you can loot those stylish boots/sunglasses/knitting needles that caught your eye as you were emptying a clip into the guy? Or will it be similar to most mainstream MMOs where an NPC is wearing full body armour and wielding a huge axe, yet, once dead, they only 'drop' a tuft of hair and half a mushroom, leaving you wondering where the useful stuff magically disappeared to?

While you won't see animals dropping weapons, at the same time you won't get everything that you see on a person you kill. Instead you'll get components based on what they're wearing. So if you shoot up a guy wearing some advanced armor, you'll likely get some Kevlar or titanium off of him. Our thought is if you've put enough hurting on someone to kill them you've probably torn their clothes and armor up real good so you only get the left-over scraps. Sometimes you will get items from a person based on what they were using, but you more commonly get components.

7. So how many towns are there in total in FE now?

For release: Around 80
Laid out but not ready for release: 30
Partially laid out: 10
Written up but not laid out: 30
Bare bones writeup: 60