Fallen Earth launches today

[Harkonis]

I think it's worth it, but I tend to go for complicated games that require a lot of research.  I always figure that the more I put into a char the better it is in an mmo.

[Huw the Poo]

How on Earth did this one pass me by?  I just resubbed to WoW a few days ago and it's already boring me to tears.  Downloading the 10-day FE trial now.

[Huw the Poo]

Well, I did the initial tutorial and I believe I'm on the last part of the extended tutorial.  As with all MMORPGs there's a lot to take in; I need to read up on skills and attributes before I start assigning my APs.

First impressions are pretty positive.  It isn't the prettiest game in the world but so far that would really have to be my only complaint.  Besides that I've really been having a blast, and I love that the game is basically classless.  The world seems well-realised and the NPCs, while generic, are amusing in what they say.  Combat is nowhere near as bad as some people complain it to be.  I hate the idea of twitch-based MMORPGs but the combat in FE didn't faze me in the slightest.  All you really need to do is point and click, and the rest of the combat is handled in a comfortingly MMORPG manner.

The playerbase was helpful and welcoming too, and I didn't see a bit of this "smack talk" of which people speak.  In fact, my only concern here is the size of the playerbase, but then, I'm still in a newbie zone so hopefully I'll meet more people later.

Random annoyance - one of the first extended tutorial missions had me zapping a chicken.  After doing so, I looted its corpse and got a free and apparently compulsory hairstyle change.  I no longer like my hair.

[drifter]

right click on your head and you can choose a new hairstyle at will.

[Harkonis]

right click on your head and you can choose a new hairstyle at will.

I only know this because of the dozens of times I click on myself on accident.  stupid design

[Zarkon]

I'm enjoying the trial....other than the fact that it goes to 100% CPU every 4-5 minutes for 3-4 minutes and drops me to 3-4 FPS.  Not fun.  Not playable.

[drifter]

Runs fine on my system no slowdowns at all; then again I have a quad core and 8 GB of ram but hey I am not compensating for anything.

[Harkonis]

smooth as butter here as well, but I also have a quad core.

[Destructor]

Same.

And on that note - I gave the game a whirl as well today. I love it. It's so different verses what's out there, and the level of freedom the game gives you to do whatever you want...

Plus, I think this best sums up the game:

"What can you do that won't give you experience?"

You level by doing quests, by hunting, by harvesting, and by crafting. You can even craft while offline. Yeah, it's not original anymore, but it works and works great in the context of this game. Also, the feeling of running around (or riding) in an outfit/weapon/car/horse of your creation is such a great feeling.

I do think I'll have to spend some time with FE.

[Destructor]

Question - is there any sort of map that shows what nodes can spawn where? I'm in dire need of Scrap Iron, and I'll be damned if I can find any. Copper and Lead, I have tons of. Iron, nadda. I'm also in South Burb if that helps any.

[Harkonis]

kill some junkyard hermit crabs for some scrap. 

[Zarkon]

My computer is by no means crap.

C2D E6600, 4 GB ram, GTX 275, Windows 7 Ultimate.

[Harkonis]

definitely seems something might be up with your system.

I'd tell you to check this out, http://forums.fallenearth.com/fallenearth/showthread.php?p=489996 but I have the feeling it's your thread.

I do have disk indexing off so it's possible that is a key.  I'm running Vista 32 bit though, not 7 like you.

[Huw the Poo]

right click on your head and you can choose a new hairstyle at will.

Haha!  I must have done that when I thought I was looting the chicken.  Thanks.

[CeeKay]

behold, Blood Sports, but without van Damme.

[Huw the Poo]

I'm in dire need of Scrap Iron, and I'll be damned if I can find any. Copper and Lead, I have tons of. Iron, nadda.

We might have to get some regular trades going via the mail system; I can find lead but can't find any damn copper to make ammo for my peashooter.  Until I can get a regular supply of copper I daren't use my gun at all so I've been twatting things with a plank of wood.

In other news, I'm still really enjoying the game and will almost certainly purchase a subscription.  There's so much to do and so much stuff to find and make use of.  It's nice to see a game focus on tradeskills so much and I'm looking forward to getting a deeper understanding of the system.

Last night I asked in the help channel whether I should pick the ATV or the hat when buying a sub.  Opinions were pretty mixed.  Right now I can see a use for the hat; it's loaded with all sorts of great bonuses.  But apparently the ATV is much better than the ones you will craft later in the game and I'd hate to lose out when I've outgrown the hat.  The dilemma!

[Destructor]

As far as the ATV goes - I think somebody linked the actual item at one point and the stats were comparable to the horse I'm currently using.

That I 'crafted' at level 2.

Every time I've seen that question asked (ATV or Hat) I see overwhelming Hat, personally.

[Huw the Poo]

Hmmm, really?  If that's so, it'll have to be the hat.

[Huw the Poo]

By the way, in-game I'm Huw Llewellyn if anyone wants to add me to their contacts list.

[LoneStarSpur]

I'm back in the game as Randall Zed. Currently tooling around Depot 66.

I'll be lucky to get in 4 hours a week, though.

Such a cool game.

[Huw the Poo]

Bought my sub last night.  Great game.  The more I play, the more I enjoy it.  Currently I'm just taking my time around the newbie areas, trying stuff out, learning to be self-sufficient (finally found some copper!) and hoarding APs until I know what I want to do with them.

[depward]

Interesting in this. Will be giving the trial a go to see if I can actually run it 

[Barrakketh]

I'm really enjoying the crafting. I'm a total packrat too, so my vault is stuffed with scap iron, steel, rubber, tin foil, gears, etc. The only thing I never seem to have enough of is scrap fasteners, since those are used for both weaponry and armour. I'm working on pistols now. My craft skill is 54 so I can just now make a hunting pistol that uses medium ammo. If you need low level melee weapons/guns/armour, let me know. My character is Alaina. I'm up around Kingman these days.

[Zarkon]

*sigh*  I think I need to email support.  Frustrating as hell.

[Huw the Poo]

Damn.

[Jaddison]

yeah not good....nice game but their marketing left a lot to be desired

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aikatears View Post
what does all that mean?
For the game? Not sure.

For the developers? Well, I know about a half-dozen people at Icarus. They've been working 60-hour weeks, plus weekends, the last couple weeks. Every one of them I've heard from was laid off today. The estimate I was given was '80%'.

And their paychecks didn't clear this morning.

[Huw the Poo]

I don't know whether to continue playing or not now.  I'm really loving it, but if the plug may be pulled some time soon I don't want to be wasting my time.

Well, I see there should finally be a demo of STO soon.  I suppose I'll try that. 

[LoneStarSpur]

Damn.

Wow. That came out of left field.  

Admin post for what it's worth:

Hi all. Thanks for your questions and for your interest in what's going on with the company. Some of you who know staff understand that this was a difficult step for us. As of today, there are 28 core staff members plus customer support staff and GMs. We believe in our product--we know we have a great game, and we have an amazing community. None of this will change. We are on time for Blood Sports Patch 1.4 next Friday, and we are on schedule for subsequent content updates. The decisions made today regarding staff are for the general health of the company and the game as a whole, and we don't anticipate any changes on the player side of things. Servers are up, customer support and GM guidance are still in place, and our production schedule is still on target. We appreciate your support and dedication to us personally, to our team, and to Fallen Earth.

[Barrakketh]

In the immortal words of Dr. Horrible... "thaaaat's not good."

[Huw the Poo]

I don't know why the admin posts were followed by so many "oh good, thanks for the update" posts.  I mean, what else would the admins say?  The fact is, the writing would appear to be on the wall for Fallen Earth.  I don't want to believe it's headed for oblivion, but what do they expect us to believe?  I mean, if the rumour of staff not being paid is true for example, that's obviously indicative of massive financial problems at the company.

[Reemul]

Yeah, sounds liek they have kept the minimum number on to keep it at least ticking over for the short term. Question will be if they can get anymore investment to improve it and keep it going or shut it down.

[Arclight]

Man that is too bad. Its a game that should have full backing from a dedicated source. Its MILES ahead of any of the other new MMO's out there in my opinion. You hold FE up against STO and you just have to laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and laugh,,,,,well, you get my meaning.

FE, for me, has been a refreshing return to old school MMO'ing with a great Fallout type atmosphere. Its deep. Its fun. Its immersive.
Everything all the other new crop of MMO's aren't.

I hope they can hang on till someone with a gaming brain and money start the cash flow again.

[Jaddison]

They aren't going to draw an interest from investment capital if they don't find a way to increase subscriber numbers.

if i had the investment $s why would I give it to them if there is little to no chance of decent profit?  Maybe Curt Schilling would dig it but my understanding is he jumped into the deep end of game development and is learning to tread water.

[Huw the Poo]

Arclight, I couldn't agree more with everything you said there.  Fallen Earth is the first MMORPG to really excite me in a long time.  Hell, I don't even like post-apocalyptic settings, but FE works so well that it doesn't bother me.  So sad about this right now.

[Arclight]

One thing I think is hurting it entering "mass" appeal is its high maturity rating..+17
This is keeping Ma and Pa from buying it for the young'uns I think.

[Razgon]

One thing I think is hurting it entering "mass" appeal is its high maturity rating..+17
This is keeping Ma and Pa from buying it for the young'uns I think.

nah, they happily buy Call of Duty and Battlefield games for them, and they are rated mature and 18 as well

[Destructor]

One thing I think is hurting it entering "mass" appeal is its high maturity rating..+17
This is keeping Ma and Pa from buying it for the young'uns I think.

nah, they happily buy Call of Duty and Battlefield games for them, and they are rated mature and 18 as well

Agreed.

And I love the M rating. Personally, I think they got it more for the fact that you can gamble in-game with your in-game money (yes, seriously). They have Blackjack and Slots. A great way to earn a few chips, or to lose everything you have on you (including your shirt, as they have a vendor you can sell your clothes to if you're so inclined).

However, your character will occasionally curse when critted ("Oh shit!"), and the game world is very...disturbing in places. But it also starts with the curse filter turned on. So, who knows.

That said - I love it. And I'm very dismayed that a game that I JUST purchased is in such trouble.

On the flip side, I only paid $5 for it more or less ($20 to buy the game via their website - $15 usual monthy fee = $5 to buy the game), so if it tanks, it won't be too much lost. Still annoying though if it does.

[Arclight]

One thing I think is hurting it entering "mass" appeal is its high maturity rating..+17
This is keeping Ma and Pa from buying it for the young'uns I think.

nah, they happily buy Call of Duty and Battlefield games for them, and they are rated mature and 18 as well

The thing you're not recognizing is the "mass" appeal already with those games. And not mainly with little johnny and suzie. MMO's are not mainline in the same way the two games are you used. And they also have other ports going for them. Lots of x-boxers and such.

FE has no predecessor. No hype. Both the other games are on everyone's radar. imo.

[ericb]

I'm in the trial now and really like it.  It's rough around the edges but really good in most places.  Still don't know hardly anything and can easily get killed if caught by surprise but I might give this one a month after the trial is up.  Sucks they're having such serious problems now.

[DOSHIGH]

I have to believe that if developers keep MMO's like Vanguard and PoTBS alive then Fallen Earth should make it a while longer.  I doubt it will ever have any mass appeal, but there really isn't anything like it so it should always have a core following that keeps the lights on.  I haven't played since the month after launch but will definitely check it out again when 1.4 is released.