Fallen Earth Catch All (UPDATED!)

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Hi Everyone

As I was sitting for the 2 days it took to get the fileplanet demo of champions online I also downloaded the beta of Fallen Earth. I was expecting it to be something i would install, play for an hour or two, and delete but let me tell you its not bad at all.

Fallen Earth is a FPS/MMO hybrid that takes place in a post apocolypse earth. It feels quite a bit like fallout online. The thing i liked about it is that it feels very different than anything else I have played.

It is completely classless. You gain AP points as you gain exp that you can spend in all sorts of ways from skill improvment to attributes. The type of toon you develop into is completely dependent on the choices you make in development. You want to be a tank type, you build up your con and armor wearing skills. You want to be a healer then build your medicine and intelligence. Those are very very basic examples as there are many skills and many attributes to choose from.

There is a deep crafting system that is based around mat collecting and crating skills. The interesting thing about it is that its completely time based. They also allow you to queue up things you want to craft and logout. When you log back in after the crafting time has passed they are finished. Its pretty unique. I don't have a ton of info on it yet as I havent sunk my teeth too far into it.

There is also PVP based on factions. You also get special skills and abilities based on which faction you join. Again, havent played enough to know too much about it yet but it appears pretty deep.

The game is definately has an indie feel. It doesnt have the polish that the AAA MMOs have. But it was an intersting find and seems to have some potential.

If you want to know more thier website is www.fallenearth.com They do have an open beta going on but the only way i saw to get a key was on fileplanet. On the forums there is mention of being able to get in directly from the website but it doesnt appear to be up yet.

Some good videos about how the game works at this years e3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQctAn3Jjes Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Aa296wJiLs&feature=related Part 2

This deserves a cough, but i cant find the links. I posted the videos and the final feature list about 6 months ago if not longer.

The game is very clunky. I like the atmosphere, and vehicles, but where lot of sandbox games have plenty of stuff for you to do this one seems empty.

I've been in Beta for awhile now and its not really something i'd recommend.

Like i've said before this was a showcase for their world builder software that they're selling. On that score its an amazing tech demo. I'm more excited about what the people that buy it will use it for next.

I've been in beta for a while too now, and "clunky" describes it well I think. My major issue is that combat feels very weird, specially mellee. It feels disconnected and the animation is terrible, even though the character models are really nice in my opinion.

Ranged combat also feels a bit weird. The weapons all lack some punch and they are very weak overall, so a lot of people just take the clunky-mellee route.

I'll keep checking it out after release and see how it progresses, but so far, I would not recommend it much either.

I really tried to play it, and I'm almost ashamed to say that it made me want to play Fallout 3 instead. I love skill based games, but I think I can't get past the combat. I'm not a fan of the crosshairs. MMOs in general don't have smooth movements like a single-player game, and moreso with Fallen Earth. I dunno. I was really excited for the game 2 years ago, but now that it's coming out my excitement has waned. I really want this game to succeed at least because I don't want any MMO to fail.

ranalin wrote:

This deserves a cough, but i cant find the links. I posted the videos and the final feature list about 6 months ago if not longer.

The game is very clunky. I like the atmosphere, and vehicles, but where lot of sandbox games have plenty of stuff for you to do this one seems empty.

I've been in Beta for awhile now and its not really something i'd recommend.

Like i've said before this was a showcase for their world builder software that they're selling. On that score its an amazing tech demo. I'm more excited about what the people that buy it will use it for next.

I definately searched for any links before i posted.

Like a few others here, I'd been in the closed beta for several months. I like the idea of the game, and I like the setting, but the implementation just isn't there. This would be an acceptable (although not great) free to play title, but it lacks the polish and quality necessary to survive in the subscription MMO market.

Like misterglass said, I tried to play this many times. I actually take being in a closed beta somewhat seriously and attempt to do legitimate bug hunting etc. Despite this, anytime it came down to having time to either play Fallen Earth or wash my truck it inevitably resulted in a cleaner truck.

I played it a few more hours and I can definately see the clunkiness. I am not sure the game is something they should charge premium for. But on the flipside i think it definately shsows some potential. It does alot of things right and definiately feels fresh in a tired market.

I will just keep an eye on it.

OK newest update. Although it took me some time to get to this conclusion I have to say that this game is broken, frustrating and a huge pain in the arse. Stay away.

Cobble wrote:

OK newest update. Although it took me some time to get to this conclusion I have to say that this game is broken, frustrating and a huge pain in the arse. Stay away.

You should add this to the first post

Done

Tried both the FE and CO betas this weekend, and while FE isn't a polished AAA title, what really is on launch? Its better than CO, IMNSHO. I certainly didn't have Cobble's experience, but my one character is pretty low level.

Its a basic MMO package with a LOT of gathering and crafting, so if you don't like crafting, I can't recommend it. Combat system is stats-influenced real time, so there is a bit of twitch gaming there, too. Between those two points, I can see a lot of regular MMO players not liking it.

LtWarhound wrote:

Tried both the FE and CO betas this weekend, and while FE isn't a polished AAA title, what really is on launch? Its better than CO, IMNSHO. I certainly didn't have Cobble's experience, but my one character is pretty low level.

Its a basic MMO package with a LOT of gathering and crafting, so if you don't like crafting, I can't recommend it. Combat system is stats-influenced real time, so there is a bit of twitch gaming there, too. Between those two points, I can see a lot of regular MMO players not liking it.

The twitch is extremely minimal. The ui along with targeting and the skill system is just not clean at all. Very unintuitive.

I've been in the closed beta for about two months now and I just pre-ordered it the other day. The only complaint I have with the game is that the crafting menu seriously needs a filter and that the mounts are persistant- if you die out in the middle of nowhere it can be a pain arsing back to where you left your bike. Other than that I loves it. I've played pretty much every MMO currently on the market and this is really the only non-WoW one I'm willing to pony up cash for.

You don't need to 'arse it back' to your horse/ATV/bike. At least in the first half of S1, there was a stable/garage manager near the respawn points, just fork over a few chips, they tow your mount there.

Its a surprisingly stable MMO. I did run into a few CTDs, and once a glitch sent me soaring across the map (think starting on one side of a continent and suddenly, rapidly, floating across the map to the other side - which happened to be deathly radioactive). One persistant annoyance is lag induced, you can pull a stack of items out of the vault, drop them on another such stack in your pack (which normally merges them) and then the stack from the vault vanishes. Opening and closing your pack normally resolves that, some times it takes a few minutes to return to normal. On rare occasions, the stack would show up in the mail the next day, sent from the Lost&Found department.

Its not very group friendly, at least at first. I never made it out of S1 (which is normally levels 1 through 20), so I can't say how the second half plays.

I'll agree with you about the UI, its painful. You can still do what you want in it, but it could easily be improved. The combat is a bit awkward, but with a bit of practice and some shuffling of the keymapping, I was able to fight effectively. All solo stuff, really, so I can't say how it would play out in a group.

I'd pick the game up, but I have too many other things to do right now to jump into another MMO.

LtWarhound wrote:

You don't need to 'arse it back' to your horse/ATV/bike. At least in the first half of S1, there was a stable/garage manager near the respawn points, just fork over a few chips, they tow your mount there.

Yeah, but they get fewer and further between.

I haven't seen that many glitches, personally, mostly just weird physics with enemy ragdolls- one time I killed a traveler scavenger, it fell and hit the ground then bounced straight up and out of view. I waited several minutes but it never fell back down. I like to think that he's still up there, somewhere, heading past pluto and out towards the solar terminus.

Well- beta closed this week. There was a lot of improvement in gameplay/graphics/stability in the last month- it's still not perfect but the way the devs have handled the game and the community so far gives me a lot of hope.

As of the moment I write this, Fallen Earth is the #2 top selling game on Direct2Drive- second only to Champions Online. Impressive considering the dearth of marketing for the game compared to others on the list.

ruhk wrote:

Well- beta closed this week. There was a lot of improvement in gameplay/graphics/stability in the last month- it's still not perfect but the way the devs have handled the game and the community so far gives me a lot of hope.

As of the moment I write this, Fallen Earth is the #2 top selling game on Direct2Drive- second only to Champions Online. Impressive considering the dearth of marketing for the game compared to others on the list.

large number buying a new MMO isnt surprising especially one that's not in a fantasy setting. Trick is keepign them in the game, and thats where FE will have its problems.

Hmm. I'm glad I read through this. I've been considering the pre-order so I could start playing next Wednesday, but maybe I'll wait it out.

I've played pretty much every major MMO, and I'm a big fan of crafting and skill-based advancement. I was also excited to see a non-fantasy setting. Still, if the game is clunky, I'm not sure I want to drop $50.

Think it's smarter to wait for a price drop or a free trial?

This is the first MMO my brother has ever picked up and so far he loves it. It seems to be pretty fun from the demos we saw and played at PAX. He will be playing it mostly on my computer till I can build him a computer to play games. If he doesnt like it I am sure I will play it since it revolves around crafting which to me is something I look in a game.

Matokin wrote:

If he doesnt like it I am sure I will play it since it revolves around crafting which to me is something I look in a game.

Its funny hearing other people say that because that wasnt the intended focus of the game.

ranalin wrote:
Matokin wrote:

If he doesnt like it I am sure I will play it since it revolves around crafting which to me is something I look in a game.

Its funny hearing other people say that because that wasnt the intended focus of the game.

The way it was explained to us was that 90% of the weapons/armor and all your vehicles-minus horse-would all be crafted which I like. Makes me feel better making something than killing some random mob for a new axe-like a slime would carry a big 2h axe

Matokin wrote:

The way it was explained to us was that 90% of the weapons/armor and all your vehicles-minus horse-would all be crafted which I like.

But you can "craft" your horse too!

Crafting may not have been the *original* focus of the game, but it has been the primary selling point in most of the interviews I've heard and articles I've read preceding public beta. The post-apocalyptic setting is what got me interested in the game, but it was the crafting that won me over.

As a side note: servers open tomorrow for players who preordered. Anyone starting a guild or interested in starting one?

I finally managed to log in, after half an hour of trying. They've gotten a lot done in the last week or so since beta closed. It runs much smoother and there is a definate boost in framerate with almost no lag.

Unfortunately, it's pretty much unplayable right now because all of the starter zones are mobbed with new players. There are lines of people waiting at enemy spawn points for quests and forming gauntlets around the questgivers themselves. Mat nodes are grabbed almost as soon as they respawn. I tried playing for awhile but I just don't have the patience. Hopefully the starter towns will have thinned out a bit later this afternoon.

[edit]

Much later. The game was running buttery smooth earlier, despite the crowding. I've tried to play since then and I've been having severe problems with framerate, lag, and crashes. I didn't have any of these problems during beta. I don't think the servers were ready for the influx of all the new users.

I'm definitely interested in this game, although I get hives at the thought of jumping in on day 1, (or day -5 for the early starters). If a GWJ player organization of some sort gets together, I'd like to get involved after a week or two.

One question, though - with the factions arranged the way they are, am I right in assuming that all "guild" members would need to be in the same faction, or at least in one of a group of three friendly factions?

Anyone playing and enjoying it? I've read a couple kinda-positive blog reviews, but nothing glowing. The graphics are dated, the combat is a little lackluster, but the crafting has potential?

I'm a fan of crafting-driven economies too (SWG, Eve), so I keep thinking this might be something I could enjoy, but I'm waiting until I hear multiple mostly-positive opinions, or until the price drops.

if i had to choose between paying to play FE or SWG i'd pick SWG handedly.

Yeah I almost picked this up this afternoon as a counterpart to my current Champions addiction, but I was hoping to hear some more from the Goodjer crowd before I jumped in on this.

Been partaking of an onslaught of Fantasy MMORPGS over the last few months what with Lord of the Rings Online & the betas of Aion Online. So been feeling the itch for a sci-fi MMO as there is still no news of Jumpgate: Evolution. I've always been more of a crafting & exploring type of gamer & I like FPS so this sounds right up my alley and thus I picked it up off steam on a whim.

I'm liking it so far what with a certain unique charm even though it does feel unpolished somewhat. The skill based system & complicated crafting reminds me alot of the mmo Rysom which I kinda liked flawed as it is/was.

No idea how I'm going to handle playing both Fallen Earth & Aion Online. Just know that there will be alot of gaming in the upcoming month.

I've signed up to FE for a month to try it out. Aside from very glitchy melee combat, I'm thoroughly enjoying the lack of all things pointy-eared, and being able to actually make stuff I can use. I've run round cleaning out every town in Sector 1 so far, just spending enough time making sure I can create decent ATVs/Motorbikes.

I just hope sector 2 is significantly different enough to keep me interested.

It feels kinda wrong but...I'm really enjoying FE so far.

I re-rolled a new character in a different starting town, keeping in mind the lessons learned the first time around and having paid attention to some guides online and had a blast of a 4 hour long session.
I even forgot to log in to Aion.

Found a nice balance in the graphic settings to make it mostly smooth and it ran fine for me throughout the session. Didn't notice any lag or rubberbanding and combat via FPS mode had an acceptable feel.

There was a new patch for the launch day and I think it made a world of a difference.
I just can't quite put my finger on what's so engaging about it. Sure the graphics are unpolished and "gritty" looking but then the lip-syncing with the speech audio is spot on. The graphic engine could do with alot more optimization and the crafting can be quite obtuse. But the deep crafting is part of the draw and the storylines can be interesting given a chance.

It's like playing Fallout now, after having played it before all those many years ago. Some things you remember (many common MMO concepts) and somethings (like the UI) seem a little unwieldy now but if you get pass the graphics there is a certain...charm to it all.

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