Fallen Earth: QotW #12: Clarification on Previous Topics

Question: More like a clarification.

We're debating on how to clarify some issues that have come up in response to recent questions of the week and discussions on the boards, but here are some things we can definitely clarify.

1. Story Arcs:

a) One way advancement: If you want to go back to a sector you've left, rock on. If you want to go drive your cool new car around the starter zone, sure, go ahead. There isn't much of a mechanical reason to go there since the content won't be much of a challenge and the loot from critters you kill wouldn't even cover the cost of your gas, but if you want to you can.

b) Limited choices: People seem to think we've made a railroad track with only one course you can take. It's more like we've made a vast network of railroad tracks, switching stations, roundabouts, and other forms of rail infrastructure. Sure the tracks start in one place and end up somewhere else, but how you get between the two has a huge amount of variation. The story of Fallen Earth leads somewhere, but you have many, many paths to tale to get there.

Alternately, you can jump the tracks and ignore the story completely. Feel free to run around grinding, crafting, and exploring to your heart's content. If you don't want to follow the story, we won't make you, but you'll be missing out on some things just like folks who don't craft or buy from crafters won't have the best gear and the folks who don't PvP won't get to see the content in conflict towns. Every play style means you'll be getting a slightly different experience out of Fallen Earth. In order for you to see absolutely everything, you will have to do absolutely everything. We would love to see you do that!

c) Repeating content: Folks seem to think that since we have some structure to our story progression, they'll be playing through the same things over and over again. Not so. An average player will play through roughly 1/4-1/3 of the available content while playing through Fallen Earth, and by that I mean visit that portion of the towns, see that much dialogue, etc. We have designed the game with roughly three to four times the content we strictly needed in order to avoid people having to repeat the same missions as alts and to encourage players to not feel like they have to do things they don't like. If you're not digging the town you're in, go to another; there are dozens more.

d) Map Versions: There won't be multiple versions of areas of the game save for a few instances that change based on your progression through the story. There won't be five versions of the Plateau depending on where you are in the story.

You can wear equipment that is built for lower level characters. It won't be as effective as appropriately leveled clothes, but sometimes fashion is more important.

2. Maximum Level:

While we have levels that we are aiming to end our first overall story arc at, there is no true maximum level in Fallen Earth. If I wanted I could go into the system right now and make a 1,000th level character and be able to spend his APs to balance out his skills, attributes, etc (though he would be completely naked since we don't have any equipment appropriate to that level). Because of this we don't have an end game where we expect players to remain for long periods of time. Fallen Earth is a game about enjoying the whole journey, not changing your entire play style once you get to a certain point.

3. Item Customization:

At no point in the game is there one piece of equipment that trumps all others. There are no weapons at any given level that completely rule all the other weapons at that level. They may have different strengths, such as some attacking faster while others have more range, but none so much that everyone will be carrying one weapon. The same is true with armor, so players will not see everyone dressed exactly the same. This will be doubly true since the people who max out their Armor Use will be using different gear from those who have concentrated on mutations or other skills (even though, as noted, they could wear the same gear, but it would be something of a waste).

4. Faction Knowledges:

If a character learns a knowledge from his faction and then changes faction, he can still use that knowledge. Due to the way the faction system works with switching factions getting harder and taking more time the longer you remain in a faction, it is not realistically feasible to try and learn everything from every faction by switching around. It is possible theoretically, but the time investment would be monumental.

We promise... The sky isn't falling.