It’s been a few weeks since the Fallen Earth community had to deal with its latest round of layoffs. Former State of the Game pen Dave “Archangel” Haydysch was one of the three let go, leaving the job to Marie “Aro Sei” Croall, whom we spoke with at PAX. The first topic of her new face-of-the-company career involves Sector 4, and where the hell it is.
It turns out that the development of Sector 4 was put on the back burner for the much-discussed combat revamp and balance tweaks that have filled the last few patches. Those changes being completed – testing to commence this week – Sector 4 is again returning to the spotlight. The new sector will add another 5 levels to the level cap, and deliver new recipes, gear and consumables.
In the immediate future, players will see a laundry list of changes heading to the PTS, then the live servers:
- Physical combat changes. The devs are specifically looking for feedback on damage and the mitigation of it.
- Dodge mitigation being retuned, again.
- NPC range, reload and weapon damage tweaks.
- Faction skills and Mutations to be tested after combat is fine tuned.
- New lighting and terrain changes incoming. I love how the game gets prettier each six months or so.
- Further improvements to the tutorial, including tooltip changes, extended combat and a more streamlined delivery.
- Black Friday celebration – FREE AMMO for Blood Sports participants. To those that don’t play Fallen Earth, ammo consumption/creation is a huge drain on resources.
Should all of this go according to plans, December will be marked with just as many changes to completely different aspects of the MMOFPS. During the holiday season the developers are going to focus on “different high-end group content/world boss mechanics, improvements to the serendipity system, new recipes and encounter areas as well as continuing to work on balancing Progress Towns.”
Oh, and let’s not forget the wonderful community events. Fallen Earth will be home to “several in-game contests as well as introducing our Rally mission series and giving out presents” during the season of giving.