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Fallen Earth: Balancing Weapons Part Two
In the next segment of a developer journal from Brandes Stoddard, a systems designer for the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO, Fallen Earth, fans learn about the niche-protection approach that governs weapons in the game and discusses some of the changes that have come about as a result of testing.
In the next segment of a developer journal from Brandes Stoddard, a systems designer for the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO, Fallen Earth, fans learn about the niche-protection approach that governs weapons in the game.
In my first journal entry, I mentioned that every weapon needs a niche, a situation in which that weapon is ideal. The broadest categories are pretty clear: melee weapons are excellent for close-quarters fighting, and ranged weapons are for killing the guy who's all the way over there. (By definition, even!) When we first started building our lists of weapons, we had only three niches: melee weapons, sniper rifles, and all other guns.
As Alpha and Closed Beta progressed, we saw that a few weapons proved superior to all others. I remember in particular the "Day With the Devs" PvP test in New Gallows when we realized shotguns were simply the best weapons in the game. They had superlative damage output and highly competitive range. Playtesting also revealed that the distinctions between the light, medium, and heavy versions of each rifle were essentially empty: a tenth of a second here, a half-second of reload time there, and none of it markedly improving gameplay. In addition, some of the ballistics crafting options were so eminently better than others, many of the latter guns were irrelevant. Strangely, no one wanted to craft the ridiculously expense, low-damage assault rifles. Go figure.
;)
The essence of a game is having interesting decisions to make, but the game's arsenal was quickly reduced to right and wrong answers. Things needed to change. We needed more conceptual niches for the guns to fill, and we needed each gun of a particular group to have some characteristic distinguishing it from others of its type.
Our first effort at niche protection went something like this: All rifles carried a hefty penalty to the wielder's Melee Defense, increasing the frequency of critical hits from melee attackers. Pistols didn't share this drawback, so if you simply had to gun down an axe-wielding survivalist, you were better off with pistols than rifles. Rifles were for times when you had some range to play with, as when fighting other gunners.
The problem we ran into is that Pistol and Rifle tend to be mutually exclusive skills, since each requires AP to improve. We needed these skills to support multiple situations independently. We also needed to consider how melee weapons, mutations, and thrown weapons would be integrated into our niche-protection theory.
Our plan now looks something like this.
Close-quarters Combat (starting at 15 meters or less)
- Melee weapons
- Rifle: Shotguns
- Pistol: Pistols, Sawn-off Shotguns
- Mutations
Medium-range Combat (starting between 15 and 30 meters)
- Some mutations
- Rifle: Assault rifles, Battle rifles
- Pistol: Pistols, Submachine guns
- Grenades
Long-range Combat (starting beyond 30 meters)
- Rifle: Sniper rifles, Battle rifles, Rocket launchers
Grouped Enemies
- Grenades
- Rocket launchers
- Some mutations
;)
As shown above, shotguns are now close-quarters weapons that utilize the Rifle skill. Their Melee Defense penalty is much less severe than that of other rifles, but their range is quite limited. Sniper rifles are still for... well, sniping. We also have assault rifles, rapid-fire guns ideal for killing fast-moving or strafing enemies. Additionally, we made room for a middle-ground style of rifle, slower than the assault rifle but much faster than the shotgun or the sniper rifle. Thus, the battle rifle: useful when you aren't prepared or able to adapt your armaments to your situation. Grenades are open to all players based solely on level requirements, providing Melee and Support characters with at least one ranged weapon option.
These niches support teams with specialized roles, just as the AP system demands specialization. Our internal PvP testing indicates that a coordinated team with varied armaments has tactical options that make a real difference over a team using only one type of weapon. Our revised niche protection plan also ensures multiple builds are still viable and interesting for solo play.
From the broader perspective of good gaming, our itemization has to support Fallen Earth's sandbox-style world. We give players a broad list of options, but we make sure that those decisions have meaning rather than being purely arbitrary. At the same time, our game has story progression and level progression, so we introduce new armament options that show the gradual rebuilding of the world's technology.
I wonder if there will be dual wielding of pistols.
This game sounds like a lot of fun. I've kind of given up on playing mmo's lately, but this game really makes me want to start playing again. I think if you exclude the Star Trek and Star Wars IP and just think about their game play and what the games have to offer, this one blows the other two out of the water. It sounds like with Fallen Earth they are designing an mmo, where as the other two the mmo feature seems tacked on. This is just my opinion, no offense to any fans of those games. I am a HUGE Star Trek and Star Wars fan and I'll be trying those games too.
Does this answer your question?
From what i can see, Fallen Earth seems to be my new SWG : )
A roleplayers dream!
Hope to see their tour come through my city
If it plays just as fast as Neocron, and look that good from the screenshots, I'm definately going to sub.
If you will come into FE with that sh*t Darkfall attitude you will be disappointed. I for one would be happy if DF players stay away from FE because they are going to bitch and moan about PVP and ruin it for rest of us who have been waiting for this game for years.
This game has best balance of PVE and PVP and i hope it stay that way.
You've played it? Was it fun?
Are there any videos of this game?
There are lots of them on youtube but they are all official. I don't recall seeing any leaked videos.
Does this answer your question?
Western Art-style MMOs is just so much more cooler than Eastern (everything looks like L2... well with the exception of Terra).
Can't wait to try FE!
I agree. The last thing we need is DF'ers coming to FE and bitching about the perceived lack of hardcore pvp. Having a resemblence of pve handicaps any game trying to be hardcore pvp according to the pvp lemmings. FE, akaik, does not have full body loot which is fine with me. So we have some pve and no full loot....hopefully that will be enough to protect the game against the uber, huge epeen hardcore pvp elite.
I like pvp but the boastful, carebare spewing attitude is tiresome, old and just annoying overall.
Fallen Earth seems really cool
Hmm this have bit more restricted pvp than ER? I'm thinking of going with this more and more, still that Q2 seems like old info...
I agree. The last thing we need is DF'ers coming to FE and bitching about the perceived lack of hardcore pvp. Having a resemblence of pve handicaps any game trying to be hardcore pvp according to the pvp lemmings. FE, akaik, does not have full body loot which is fine with me. So we have some pve and no full loot....hopefully that will be enough to protect the game against the uber, huge epeen hardcore pvp elite.
I like pvp but the boastful, carebare spewing attitude is tiresome, old and just annoying overall.
Where in the world did you get the idea of a Darkfall attitude from someone who called it his new SWG, and a roleplayers dream? I'm kind of confused as to how Darkfall ties into it at all, being 1: He never mentioned Darkfall. 2: he never mentioned PvP or PvE. and 3: He was comparing it to a better, more exciting sandbox game than Darkfall, that was SWG Pre-CU, which gave players massive amounts of roleplaying elements.
You know, it IS called an MMO*RPG* for a reason. Because it is, in every sense of the genre, a ROLEPLAYING GAME, and I would expect no less than to see players doing more than just grinding, but living the game, immersing themselves into the world, and creating stories to get themselves and other players involved in.
If you can't handle roleplayers playing in a roleplaying game, perhaps you are in the wrong genre? And....again...where the hell did you get Darkfall out of his simple exuberant statement of it being his SWG, and a roleplayer's dream?
Where in the world did you get the idea of a Darkfall attitude from someone who called it his new SWG, and a roleplayers dream? I'm kind of confused as to how Darkfall ties into it at all, being 1: He never mentioned Darkfall. 2: he never mentioned PvP or PvE. and 3: He was comparing it to a better, more exciting sandbox game than Darkfall, that was SWG Pre-CU, which gave players massive amounts of roleplaying elements.
You know, it IS called an MMO*RPG* for a reason. Because it is, in every sense of the genre, a ROLEPLAYING GAME, and I would expect no less than to see players doing more than just grinding, but living the game, immersing themselves into the world, and creating stories to get themselves and other players involved in.
If you can't handle roleplayers playing in a roleplaying game, perhaps you are in the wrong genre? And....again...where the hell did you get Darkfall out of his simple exuberant statement of it being his SWG, and a roleplayer's dream?
Daarco posts a lot in Darkfall forums, he is a fan of the game. I have no problem with personally, but in answer to your question, that's why the other poster made the DF refference.
Btw, I consider Daarco to be one of the nicer of the DF fans, and though he sometimes comes across harsh, it is more his style to be to the point.
Ah, either way, seemed sort of trolling and attempting to spark a heated response from him, when all the guy did was show his excitement for a game. A unique, and most awesome looking game, mind you. Just sort of seemed...rude to pull Darkfall, pvP, and PvE out of his ass and blast Daarco for making a simple comment of excitement.
I really hope this game does bring in the roleplayers. We need a good MMO. One that caters to us, gives us the tools and gameplay and world necessary to make our own stories, to immerse ourselves in the world. I'm tired of the endless grind, the farming of gold, the half-assed story lines, and hold-your-hand roller coaster ride.
FE is proving to look and sound awesome. FE and ER both, post-apocalyptic roleplaying MMO's. Both unique, and both looking to take a lot of my time.
Dont worry. Without full loot, DF player wont join FE. Trust me. They will jump on mortal online at release and let DF die.
Personally, i read a lil bit about FE and it dont seem like a sanbox for me. It just seem like a pve game with pvp on the way, but not the kind of pvp that you really care and need to learn how to kill other playes to stay safe.
I didnt like DF, but atleast, they tried to be harcore on pvp. PVP rules was not the problem. The whole gameplay was bad. it take 15-25 hits to kill someone and because of that, battle become boring very quick and mindless zerg guilds like aperion can rule the game.
I will play mortal online for sure. This is the genre im looking for. I will finally be able to rp in a realistic world and it take 3-11 hits to kill someone from naked to full plates.
So let me get this straight ...
The Devs went INTO the game... and looked at it WITH the players...
Then determined that their weapon balance was SNAFU and tried to fix it ???
Clearly these devs have no idea whet they are doing, if they realised how Development is meant to work in MMO's they would have simply not logged in, dissmissed the concerns of the players and gone to launch the next week with a 2x price collecters edition and a 3 month minimum subscription.
With noob devs like this... the game may actually have a chance
:D
I've been keeping a close eye on FE... Every annaouncement makes it seem better and better ^_^
I've stated this before, but will reiterate here; I think this game will be a fantastic chance to actually roleplay for 2 reasons;
1. Factions: 6 of em each with their own philosophy and agenda.
2. Human only. I can relate to RPing a human much easier than an orc or elf. After all, I am one.
I ask myself if there are any heavy weapons in this game, like rockes or flamethrower ?