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Initial Thoughts on Fallen Earth
Tisiphone
Member Posts: 486
So I plan on sticking this game out. FE is not an easy game by any means, but its a long-awaited environment and I really want to love it.
I just wanted to throw out some initial thoughts after playing a couple days, and see what other people think after playing the betas. I'll post more in a couple weeks.
The Awesome
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- The soundtrack is incredible, and its very well timed during gameplay.
- The playerbase and GMs are also absolutely outstanding. I see no whiny kids, and GMs answer in a matter of seconds on the New Player channels.
- The tutorial is great, immerses you in the game early on, and gives you a real sense of urgency (it got my heart pumping!) FMVs are cinematic.
- The developers obviously spent years planning characters, lore, and city layouts. There is unbelievable depth in character and faction interaction.
- There is tons of content of all sorts, both combat and non-combat.
- Character skill versatility is huge. I'm glad they at least provide some example character templates to compare to.
- Contrary to some reviews I've seen, I think the environment is very well done for the engine used. Its not a new engine, but it is not ancient. Lighting is good (could use gamma increased), and textures are just fine.
- There are plenty of character creation options for everything but body shape.
- There is a team of volunteers on the newbie channel fielding questions.
The Neutral
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- The controls are tricky to me, coming from both a FPS and MMO background. Its like I have to do a little of both - keyboard move, mouse fire, and somehow set off skills on my skill bar at the same time. There is some trick to this; I haven't been able to figure it out in 20 hours of gameplay. I find myself letting go of the mouse to hit the number keys a lot, and then I can't aim.
- Crafting takes rather realistic times. Making a bandage takes a minute. Making food takes several minutes. I like the authenticity, but its going to kill my two or three hours of playtime a night.
- Quests are tricky to find. During the tutorial in small areas, the mission map indicators worked great. In the larger game world, I found it really difficult to figure out how to zoom in and out of the map and figure out where my quests were.
- Weapon switching is really awkward. It works great in theory (ctrl + scrollwheel) to switch weapons FPS style, but if you dual wield weapons or have something else in your inventory, you can end up with the wrong weapon in your main hand or no weapon at all.
- I don't drop into combat mode when I get attacked. Maybe other people like this. But I find myself scrambling to hit the middle mouse button, not realizing my crosshairs are off. I'm sure this is something you adapt to.
The Ugly
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- If you can't tell from my early posts, I got pretty horrendously lost after the tutorial. Now, this may be my inexperience, but if I felt that way, other new players must have been just as frustrated, and they might not be as patient. The tutorial does an excellent job teaching you the controls and keyboard shortcuts, as well as introducing you to factions. However, afterward, you really get dropped on your ass. They tell you to select a category of city, and you don't know what impact it will have on your character. Then, you're stuck trying to figure out the complex map systems in the real game world. I like being confused along with my character, but I need to be able to read the map and not run in circles for hours.
- The enemy AI is weird! I don't have lag issues in any other game, certainly not in FPSes. I'm not rubberbanding or anything. However, I find enemies that were in front of me suddenly behind me.
- A lot of bugs need to be worked out in items and animations, still. I know the devs are overworked right now, and I'm sure it will happen. But the animation whilst holding an axe is laughable. I don't know how the animation for the first weapon one gets in the game was missed.
Comments
You can queue items to craft while you are off-line. Some items later take 24 hours or more real time to make and this is pretty much expected.
Don't be afraid to change the key layout to something you are more used to. You can use f# keys to switch weapons. Pressing G will tell you what weapon is equipped where(you can carry 6) and which f key is needed to select it.
Thanks! That helps me a lot. I had no idea that items can actually take a real life day to make. That's a daring and new move by the developers that I kind of like. However, I'm very, very glad you can be logged out for it.
I like the idea for the F keys as weapon changes. I am going to give that a try.
Preordered.
Game has improved SO much from closed beta until open beta. And indeed, player base is very mature and friendly, GMs very helpful.
One thing that bugs me is the slightly outdated graphics, but they'll sort that out eventually.
Its the only MMO so far that lived up to its hype, as far as I`m conerned.
/R.
Better to be crazy, provided you know what sane is...
Actually the graphics have grown on me. My initial imperession was rather *meh*, but I eventually got sucked in to the atmosphere. My only real complain right now is the shadows, which are very low res, and the foliage could also need some work.
FE is sure one of a kind MMO, with several unique features. They have actually tried to create a world as opposed to a theme park or a 'game'. And that's VERY good in my book.
.............
When in doubt, troll.
Oh, I agree absolutely. Sorry for the lengthy post, but to sum it up, my issues are entirely mechanical.
While i wont be playing this particular game I did play a bit on close beta and saw some things I liked. One thing I liked is you have to choose to be a crafter over say pure adventurer. You can do some crafting up to a level but there comes a point where you have to choose points that will help you in crafting while not doing much for adventuring or choose points to go strictly for adventuring and be limited in your crafting.
Also you can que up as many items to craft as you have resources for and the minute you que an item to craft it starts crafting no matter what you are doing..online or offline. If you want to craft faster you stand next to a crafting station, however, so long as you have the crafting device in your bag you can craft anywhere.
While I chose to go a different route I would stil give this game a 7 out of 10. 7 for me is the minimum I need to score a game to play it and no game since EQ would get over an 8 for me. Not even sure I would rate any game an 8 at this point I am so frustated heh. I did not play the higher levels of this game so not sure how they work out.
For me the biggest letdown is the fact it is another quest based leveling game. I am so tired of quest based game for levels...but thats a personal pet peeve of mine.
I heard of this game a few months back and it sorta slipped off my Radar, but some guildies have been raving about it so I decided to got the D2D Version of pre-order and am hoping its all downloaded by tonight so I can spend the weekend playing
I love PAW scenarios and Fallout is one of my favorite games of all times so if this reminds me of that then you got a subscriber right here
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Norsefire-logo.png
Try remapping your weapon keys to your numpad. Back slots to 7/9, waist to 4/6, legs to 1/3. That helps a lot and it keeps you from having to try and fumble with pressing 2 keys at once. As far as combat skills, keep your combat skills you use often on the first line. I'm gonna use the second line (shift) for my mutations and then the third line (alt) for my healing skills. It seems to work pretty good, but I like that it's complicated to use all of your skills effectively, though people with those specialized keyboards will have an advantage. You can also hit 'm' and expand that map out to see better. When I'm in town, I keep that up, even if it does take up the whole lower right corner, just so I can see where the quests are and who the merchants are.
Just as an fyi, I'm Happyclam Macnuggets in game, so shoot me a tell if you need help.
Does anyone know if the devs have mentioned ever adding player cities, player housing, and things like that? HUGE immersive game worlds are nice and all... but even better when the players can really leave their mark on the land by placing cities.
Nothing about player cities, however, player housing is certainly on their radar. No eta on it but I'd suppose within the first year if no major issues crop up.
There's also been alot of talk by the players on the OF about adding additional Sectors in which groups of players could stake out a claim (and of course have to fight to keep it) kind of like EvE does with it's 0.0 space. Of course, you'd need to be in a guild to have a chance at holding ground, but, it's a thought.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Nothing about player cities, however, player housing is certainly on their radar. No eta on it but I'd suppose within the first year if no major issues crop up.
There's also been alot of talk by the players on the OF about adding additional Sectors in which groups of players could stake out a claim (and of course have to fight to keep it) kind of like EvE does with it's 0.0 space. Of course, you'd need to be in a guild to have a chance at holding ground, but, it's a thought.
Sounds like it would be a great way to expand/improve the game. I hope the developers are up to the task.
A few SWG pre-CU vets I know are now playing Fallen Earth and one of the most memorable things about playing SWG at launch was how empty, yet vast, the world(s) were but once people started placing homes and stores where players could purchase the best gear, or just socialize, the game started to come alive.
You initial thoughts pretty much mirror mine. The jumping mobs thing is something that has gotten worse since the pre-order launch. I expect this will get better as the developers have a quick response time.
As far as new developments, the only thing I've heard for sure is the in game radio. I expect that to come soon.
After a few nights, you'll have the controls down. That's when the immersion begins.
Shooting mobs from horseback is the pro level.
Trevor Goodchild - Traveler - Crafing/Pistols
Sapo Loco - Rifle/Melee
Indeed. First time I did mounted combat, I killed my own horse...
Ever since that day in alpha, I've avoided doing mounted combat. Clumsy fingers you see.
Sounds like a good game to me. I especially like the newbie help channel. I hate going to a website to get info. It should be possible to get all info you need while in-game.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I'm glad I got to beta test it before blowing good coin on it. I love the concept, but hate the implementation. Couple points:
1. Crafting is love it or hate it by most accounts. I pick hate it. I'm looking for instant gratification in my games, and I'll do my 9 to 5 for my work fix. When I do feel like crafting, I want to craft. You know do the whole session thing. Not click once and log out for 3 days. I see what they're going for, it's just not going in my direction.
2.The absence of loot makes it an automatic disqualification from my gaming choices. Grinding without neat things to loot now and then is just grinding, and that's no fun. I like shinies, and I like them to matter.
3. Combat is just dumb. You start out with a couple air pistols, a board, a crossbow and a couple other pieces of asorted junk. Eventually you can build your skill and level up enough to where you can shoot real pistols and rifles. As a modern human playing a modern human, I can't quite grasp what mental or physical block is keeping me from picking up a firearm straightaway. I'm not a sharpshooter in real life, but given a choice I'm gonna try to take you out with a firmarm first and a corkscrew somewhere around last. Not to mention it's about 13.6 times harder to hit your mark with a crossbow than it is to hit it with a 30.06. Anyway, the suspend logic requirement is way to high for me to enjoy the combat.
That's enough I guess. If you're not anything like me, you might like FE. Either way, have fun!
Other people feel that having to stare at a forge/spinning wheel/pottery kiln/etc. is too much of a chore as you just gather up the items and click 'combine' and hope for the best. While I would have liked to have seen a chance of failure and more variance in item quality, it doesn't kill me that it's not there.
Self-explanatory here. There's not really any grinding per se, as you are always doing quests. You are also always scavenging. The only reason to grind is to gain specific resources from specific mobs. It's about resource gathering vs. chance of uber drop.
Your third point is simply you being over-confident. You say you're no sharpshooter, but I would wager that your experience with firearms is minimal. You've shot a few and could hit a stationary target at 20m with a rifle, but that's about it. Actually using firearms while you and/or your target is moving is a much different proposal, especially if the target knows you are shooting at it. Claiming that you could do it is simply you speaking out your ass.
Yes, you know how to use a gun. No, you don't know how to use it effectively and so would use a gun whose ammo was cheap and plentiful.
FE, which will officially start the same day as Aion, is sort of an anti-Aion. The more I played Aion, the less impressed I was, until finally I deleted it from my computer. Just the opposite with FE. I wasn't that impressed at first, but after trying out Aion, I went back to FE to give it another go...and the more I play it, the more impressed I am with its depth and immersion. It's not like the other MMOs that have opened over the past year or so. This one is going to stay, I think. As has been stated before, it has the feel of early SWG, maybe even of early UO. Only up to date. It's a keeper.
I agree with this. However, I'm having a hard time deciding because I like them both in their unique and very separate ways. I hope that I can weigh the pros and cons before I get billed for two subscriptions.
This post actually makes me excited to try the game.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Yes, it is what the developers intended. There is immense realism. This just makes it very time consuming and complex to play.
the noob area is done very well content gets much more sparce the higher you level
crafting you have to think ahead when crafting especially when the NUMBER ONE requested change whs to be able to reorder the crafting que which hasnt been fixed yet, that means if you are half way through an item thats gonna take 2 hours and you need to make some ammo,, your screwed till the 2 hour item finishes or cancel the 2 hour item and LOOSE the materials
(alts are good to havefor crafting mules)
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
combat
first wear armor jump out of the tutorial spend points to 15 in armor and melee and possibly rifle
get a duster and chaps
get a ax handle and dump that crappy stick I select the ax handle because it hits prety hard but is also a reasonable speed the sledge handle is next in line
remap your weapons to some quick keys none of that ctrol +3 crap also your mode key and your reload key
arm your xbow gat back to near full range fire at body or aim for the head (crit) shoot 2-3 shots till near melee try for about 20ft away swap to your ax handle this delay is like 2-3 seconds
then you can wither hold down the mouse attack key and it will "fire" the handle about 1 per second or you can "click fire" I prefer the click fire because sometimes you will miss with the auto fire because your aimpoint wont be on target when the autofire triggers I prefer to sweep the aim point through the target clicking as i pass my point of aim
also if you goto first aid and pick up "extended care" about 45 skill? have this on you at all times its like a 1 hour regen buff skill (useable on others) later you can pick up recussatate (rez) rez is good for all charactors to have and there are several methods.
food and drink are buffs and reduce tyour down time
for example the level 2 rats south of south burb at the farm if you head shot them with the ax handle you can oneshot them most of the time
there is a quest to fight a guy in the south burb junkyard and he is hard if not nearly impossible to beat unless you gear up.
hope these pointers help you out.
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
And the PvP?
My gaming blog
PvP is.....complex,heh. In sector 1, you have your basic weapons, such as rifle/pistol/melee. In sector 2 and beyond, they add mutations. Combat is fairly quick paced and somewhat based on stuns. I say somewhat because it just depends on their weapon vs. your armor and such. I haven't had 2 equal people beating on each other yet, so can't tell you anything concretely, but it's probably 'he who gets the first stun will probably win'.
But combat has been generally this. I'm melee and have mostly fought ranged. Ranged guys will try to get you at range. Rifles do heavy dmg, but if you get close, they are pretty much dead, and they do have this in the game. You can crouch and sneak, which makes you invisible on their radar now and then ambush them as they look for you. In one combat, I was facing three rifleman. They were searching around for me, and I ambushed the first one. The other two started moving to my location and I ran a little bit, then doubled back with sneak and ambushed the second as he came around the corner. The third backed off and didn't come after me. Compared to me, they had very little hit points, but at the same time, if they caught me in the open and at range, they could hurt me pretty good.
Another time, I fought a group of six guys, mixed melee, pistol and rifle, and was jumping in the middle of them to get them to shoot each other as I was beating them down, then was also ambushing them a couple of times. As I said, combat is really quick and it's hard to heal or remember to use other abilities during combat, simply because you have a lot to use during combat. I use healing on my third hotbar, alt 1 - =, with my melee abilities on the first, 1 - =, then my mutations will be on the second, shift 1 - =. In the higher levels, I suspect stun will be used as a break to dump a bunch of mutations and other abilities on you before they start hitting you again.
Same here. I'm ashamed to say it, but I'll be playing Aion instead. At least for a little while. But I hope FE is successful enough to keep building on what they've got, so that it'll be worth a second look in a year or so.
I don't like the crafting, either. For a game that makes such a big deal of it, its strange that there aren't all different types of crafters, and even different types of resource gatherers (e.g. scavengers, farmers, miners) It's all just lumped together, and I find that makes for a boring simplistic sort of character environment dynamic.
Just adds insult to injury that there's not much point to making a crafting focused character, since they'd just be standing around doing nothing. Might as well quest-grind like everyone else.
Not a game-breaker for me, but I do think interesting, varied loot is an important gameplay dynamic. Just helps keep things fun, to see if anything good turns up, with every kill. Doesn't have to be shiny glowie uber swords, but putting a variety of things in the loot tables that are rare and valuable to players, in some way or another, can help a lot.
On a similar note, and back to crafting, I think it also helps if crafters can look forward to similarly rare and valuable results from their efforts. Rather than everything being so predictable and blah.
I think they could have gotten a little more creative with the combat, and its level-based limitations. Maybe through a variety of issues that are less cut and dry.
Make it hard to find good ammo for the good guns, so low level players end up using zip guns, and crossbows, because making ammo for them is cheap and easy. Make it so anyone can fire a machine gun, but it takes skill to keep the kickback under control, and reload quickly enough. Doing so as a newbie is possible, but overall, a bad idea. Things like that.
Also, I know this is personal preference, but I think the combat in FE is severely lacking in flashiness. I know it doesn't need anything like the over the top particle barrages we see in a lot Asian MMOs, but I think more blood spatter and more dramatic animations would go a long way.
I'd also like to see shorter skill timers on skills with unique animations (e.g. pistol whip) that make them a bigger part of combat, rather than just being a one time thing, that doesn't do much to break up the monotony of holding the mouse button down.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.