Fallen Earth: QotW #7: How about ?

Question: How about [insert several questions here]?

We're hitting a few questions again this week. Lots of folks have been asking for hard numbers on things like Dodge and Evade against weapon skills. While we have current numbers for these, they are likely to change during testing as we find out what's fun and what isn't. So saying right now how much Dodge and Evade affect weapon damage is sort of pointless. What we can say is that Dodge and Evade will never make you completely miss, and will probably max out in the 20-40% reduction range, though most characters will see a much smaller reduction when dealing with characters of roughly the same skill level, probably in the 1-10% range. The larger reductions will occur between players of drastically different skill levels.

So we're sticking to questions for which we think the answers won't change.

1. How big will the world be and will exploration be rewarding?

Roughly 83 km by 83 km (the exact numbers would be 83.89 x 83.89), or roughly 7000+ square kilometers. Exploration offers rewards both in the form of exploration experience and in terms of finding content that other players will miss since they are not explicitly pointed towards it. Players who go off into remote areas will find something there, such as an encounter area or a particularly rich salvage area. We have populated the world to reward players who go looking into every nook and cranny, so they'll find content that less exploration-oriented players will miss. Initially, radiation zones and other threats will keep players out of some parts of the map, but they will be able to reach a lot of it.

2. How will we carry stuff? We've already heard that cars can't teleport, but what about items? Will we always have to carry 100 pounds of stuff on our backs, or are there other places to put it?

Players will have access to vaults or lockers in most towns that they can use to store their equipment. A character's Strength score limits how much equipment they can carry.

3. What percentage of the game is being built for those "lone wolf" (ala Road Warrior) types, as opposed to group centric content?

Most content in the game is soloable, though obviously doing things with a group is faster and easier. Going into raider hideouts or other areas where your enemies may be tightly packed is possible alone, but very difficult. Also the larger instances may have tasks that may only be completed my multiple players. This content is mainly found in levels, instances, and large creature hideouts.

4. Will gear degrade through use, thus necessitating its repair?

Yes. Everything that is not a consumable (food, first aid kits, etc.) suffers wear and tear through normal use and must eventually be repaired. If it is not repaired, it will eventually stop working. Repair kits can be made by crafters of the appropriate type.

5. To what extent can neutral characters interact with the factions? Can we help with quests our faction friends have (not getting credit for the quest, but fighting alongside them)?

Neutral players will be able to enter all the faction towns or conflict towns, but won't have as much to do there as a player of the appropriate faction. They can't take special faction missions or deal with special faction merchants. They can help their faction-committed friends on missions, but not complete the mission themselves, though if the mission involves actions that cause faction adjustments of their own (such as killing members of opposing factions), the neutral character may not remain so for long.

Neutral characters can interact with the villain factions just like any other character, and eventually can get missions from the neutral factions like Franklin's Riders or the Bankers.

There you go! The dev team decided to grab a few small bites and answer them this week.

As a reminder; the developers may have some fun with this as well. Please don't get upset if they want to answer a pie question every once in a while. It isn't a copout. It is them taking a break from their long days to have some fun.

Have fun with it everyone!

~Acropolis