Fallen Earth Project Manager/Producer Dave "Archangel" Haydysch has put out a new State of the Game letter addressing the community. As is usual with these types of letters, the focus is on recent additions to the game such as the launch of the Blood Sports (1.4) patch, as well as what players can look forward to in the future.

Looking ahead, Fallen Earth will see the introduction of a new weather system, which will begin with the inclusion of rain, thunder, and lightning.  Players can also look forward to a new system dubbed "Serendipity" which basically introduces world boss rare spawns to the world, offering players the chance to be rewarded handsomely should they come upon one of these spawns in their explorations and defeat them. Finally, and this may be controversial for some, the team will be adding a form of fast travel to the game, which should come as a relief to many players, but may be ruffle the feathers of a few sandbox purists out there.

Read the full letter here for additional details on the state of Fallen Earth.

[Thanks Darkholme for the tip!]

Not my feathers :( I like everything here except for fast travel, however even though I'm a sandbox purist, I can see how it would be useful.

Need to check how the performence of FE has improved. Maybe it would be worth trying to give another try :o but rest sounds nice.

Especcialy that you have to do quest line for fast travel and its limited (by level / areas).

The weather system is a big plus in this genre.  You could have nuke ashstorms and all kinds of fun stuff...

I was a bit disappointed when Fallout 3 didn't have a weather system.

I might retry once they get all this into place.  I hope they've fixed combat animations a bit since I last had a peek.

I'd love to try the game again. The combat animations killed it for me too. They don't have to be awesome. Just smooth.

I doubt fast travel is a good move for FE. Why changing the game when people like it the way it is NOW?

Fast travel was definitively needed.  However i dont know if the way they plan to do it is the best one... anyway.   At first i was against fast travel but once you start to level up and need to move to sector 2 and 3 a fast way of travel becomes a necessity.   How would you like to invite a friend to play the game while your character is in sector 3, would take you 1 hour to get down to Sector 1.... not fun at all.

I wrote LONG ago way back in beta that  they needed a stratigic travel system and that if they didnt do it right bask then that they would have to put in some halfassed  PODPORT system. 

my sugestion was  for a steam train   as it would allow for travel throughout the zones but not be instantanious  and also  as a major PLOT DEVICE   as you would do misson chains  at different locations to gain access,  there would also be requirements for  materials and  security.

I also  mentoned about a costume clothing tab  so that your stat clothing  and your "look" were two different things as FE has all that cool costume clothing but its almost obsolete as soon as you exit the pod   the costume clothing  can be disabled for PVP     so if you want to look like a sexy vixin in shorts and a toob top and sunglasses  you can,  right now for practical pourpouses  you have to wear your stat armor,  you spend all that time designing your charactors face only to hide it behind a helmit and gasmask?  oh yes  they need clothing toggles too!

lastly,, i have  a bucket list but only mentoning a few here   the environment isnt weird enough   sure there is the occasional beasty or zombie or mutant rat  but  other than that its too "normal"   need mote things to make you feel your not in kansas any more    I expected  players would use critters or devices like geiger counters to avoid hotspots  strange storms  tornados

the idea or radios and radio stations is a good one too   a great plot device  finding parts and tracking down  strange signals  especially for us geeks 

as for the factons  they are an awesome idea   they have a great identity  but you NEVER IMPLEMENTED IT! my quick example  vistas using vehicles  this SUCKS AND  BLOWS  to me vistas should be masters of animal travel and  bows  anything natural and organic  even pets    players that go this rout should  reject vehicles for the philosophy

my moto here is  equil but  destinct  not the wattered down crap they have now 

you made great factions with interesting identitys  now you need to make them WALK THE WALK.

FALLEN EARTH  i played in beta but follow it into live  FE is the game I ALMOST play.  it just has more negative issues than I could ignore.

fallen earth says they value  player feed back but it seems obvious to me that is a public relations lie.

If done properly fast travel could be cool. I liked the suggestion above that the game use steam engines and trains to shuttle people around. I'd like to see it so that the fast travel option is like the boat in FFXI, not instantanious, but much much faster than travelling on foot or by mount. So an hour trek from Sector 3 to Sector 1 would only take 5-10 minutes via the fast travel option.

I'm also still waiting for player housing. I think it would add a whole new dimension to the game.

Kinzoku, you are sandbox purist and you are playing FE? i am confused by that statement.

FE really needed fast travel and i am glad they are implementing it. it would be lot easier to do group based missions now.

They do need Fast Travel as S3 to S1 is a pain in the ass to get to.  That will smoothen the people who likes to help out newbies at starter game and the community will seem better while it is already awesome.

I do hope they implement something very different, as the previous post said, a steam train or something without actually zoning.  By the time maybe take 1 hour trip take the train will only get you probably 5-10 min that will be ideal and more realistic.

Also, FE isn't really sandbox game at all, so that why I really hope they shrug off the "sandbox" title, so they are not in the middle of between.  That will be bad coz the game won't appeal to both sections and the game will go down hard.

I hope FE can really work on more of the technical issue like AoC, which there is unplayable at all at some busy towns due to the lag spike.  Also, please animation, you can do better than that =p

Originally posted by Dolmong

They do need Fast Travel as S3 to S1 is a pain in the ass to get to.  That will smoothen the people who likes to help out newbies at starter game and the community will seem better while it is already awesome.

I do hope they implement something very different, as the previous post said, a steam train or something without actually zoning.  By the time maybe take 1 hour trip take the train will only get you probably 5-10 min that will be ideal and more realistic.

Also, FE isn't really sandbox game at all, so that why I really hope they shrug off the "sandbox" title, so they are not in the middle of between.  That will be bad coz the game won't appeal to both sections and the game will go down hard.

I hope FE can really work on more of the technical issue like AoC, which there is unplayable at all at some busy towns due to the lag spike.  Also, please animation, you can do better than that =p

They are implementing the bus-stop system to start with, after that is in they'll look at the wider system. A lot of players (myself included) are hoping that they might consider restoring the broken-down monorails you see everywhere, through a massive game event where players are responsible (through repeatable missions) for rebuilding the system and keeping it running.

Think it would add a great deal to the game.

Another vote here for fixing whatever it was in 1.4 that's causing lag spikes and system lock-ups. Gets old very fast.

The new animations are an imrpovement, but probably are not all the way there in terms of how they could be yet.

Agree that fast travel is needed when You wanna help beginners etc. I have already travelled some times from S3 far end to S1 and back. If there would some very rare things to find.. ok... but so 2 hrs spent is waste. To limit this by levels and quiet long quest-story-lines is normal. And even I would limit how many times in real 24 hrs one can use fast travel. Then plan ya actions and ya friends plan them too.

Add tickets which defly aren't cheap even for endgamers (depends of how far ya travel). And start building from more safer S1 moving forward til S4 (S5 etc). Make some collective quests, donates, resources etc. for all players helping and participating to build it. And maybe make later prices depend of ya efforts put into railway building, have some king of shares of Grand Canyon Fast Train Co., Inc. :) In LOTRO they use special collection quest so that whole server must fit some (and quiet big amount.. 100K quests done and items turned in) to open new zone.

And make this railroad live and moving event, like in westerns bad indians attacking and exploing railways and trains. Make them some real GM run "world events" where ya need joint forces of many raids to throw back bad NPC hordes and then repair and rebuild damaged parts.  Til that fast travel not works between two separated points and one must walk or drive til next working part. But that time area between is filled with very big amounts of bad-asses ready to kill and rob ya.

I knew it was only a matter of time before they added some kind of fast travel. getting from S3 to S1 was a time-wasting nightmare. Imagine what it would be like when they add S4 and above? I'm really glad they did this. Good luck to Icarus.

Originally posted by IAmMMO
Get the uber geat carrot grind, fun! NOT! Oh weather! I'm sub right now for that! Not!

A weather system can be really good and add an extra layer of immersion to an MMO. I can't imagine WoW without a weather system now for example.

i enjoy travel from one sector to another on my dune buggy or cycle...allows me to harvest things and note nodes along the way...this may reduce the need for those who produce vehicle parts or the fuel for them....if they do it ok then i might resub...someone mentioned vistas shouldnt use tech because they are natural..they everyone to it with care...and greener...they oppose those things that destroy nature outright tech or faction..i think thats how they are anyway..

peace.

"a papercut is a trees last act of revenge"