Greetings everyone!
So Free2Play happened, which was awesome.
Even while we sorted through the server issues, lots of fun things that get industry types in suits get excited about like "concurrent users" and "unique logins" and whatnot all decided to climb high enough to set some records. Then when we finished sorting through the server issues they went up (of course). But I'm sure you're not here to read about that! You're probably interested in what's next content-wise.
To that end, guest posters AFFA and Neverender have decided to drop some knowledge on y'all re: World Events and Faction Territory Control that should be coming soon (once we have a PTS up). From here on out divest yourself of all but your scrollin' finger and your sense of amazement, because they're all you'll need!
World Events
Hey, it's AFFA, and I'm here to talk about World Events.
Have you ever seen waves of rotters attack Kristo's Rest?
Have you ever protected Chemtown from a CoG invasion?
Have you ever seen El Cadejo escape from Brigg's Point
and go rampaging across the wastes?
Well, as Microsoft used to say: you will.
Types of World Events
The World Event system is Fallen Earth's answer to
dynamic content. The system itself is very robust. We can create an event
anywhere in the game and we have several types of events that can be combined
to do almost anything.
There are currently three basic kinds of World Events: Node,
Attack, and Effect. Node events spawn harvest nodes at a random location.
Attack events can spawn a creatures in a random area or creatures that attack a
specific point. They can spawn creatures in waves, as regular generators with a
respawn time, or all at once. Effect events can apply an effect to all players,
all NPCs, or just certain NPCs. This could be used to temporarily lower
merchant prices in a town (Social debuff on merchants), start a disease spreading,
or give all players in an area a buff.
We also have a more advanced World Event which we call
Goal events as each one can have five separate goals that players must
complete. The good news is that these Goal events can do almost anything. And
if they can't do something yet, it is very easy to add new features. They are
limited only to things available in the Scripting API, which is not much of a
limit. The bad news is these events are extremely complicated and
time-consuming to set up, and we don't have as many of these in the game yet as
we'd like. In addition to spawning nodes, spawning creatures, and applying
effects, these events can create objects, create buildings, change NPC
behaviors, add new mission givers, and much more.
World Map Icons
The ability to draw on the world map, called the
Objectives system internally, is something we've wanted for a long time but were only recently able to implement. World
Events require map icons since they can occur at random, but there are other
systems in the game that will benefit from the ability to draw on the world
map, such as Conflict Towns, Progress Towns, and Town Events. We have plans to
add more systems that make use of this feature, such as Territory Control (keep
reading!).
All players in the game receive the icon, name, and
position for every Objective on the map. All players should be able to see at a
glance which faction owns a Territory Control keep, where a random boss has
spawned, or where additional resource nodes are. You can see all the Objectives
in the game on the map, not just the ones for your current sector. If you
mouseover any Objective icon, a more detailed description will pop up.
Rewards
World Events track player participation. When a World
Event succeeds, all players who have participated get a mission that instantly
completes itself and offers rewards. The rewards can be anything a mission can
give you: experience, items, AP, faction, chips, defense tokens, etc. The
rewards are scaled based on your participation. Someone who killed 50 rotters
will get a larger reward than someone who killed just 1. If you stop
participating for too long or go offline, you may not get any reward. And of
course there is no reward for failure.
Future Possibilities
Any World Event can chain to another World Event on
creation, on success, or on failure. With this capability, we can eventually
build chains of events and make Fallen Earth a much more dynamic game.
Currently the event for Kristo's Rest above is just waves of rotters. But in
the future, if you kill all the rotters, perhaps that will chain to a World
Event to fix the LifeNet pod. And if you fail, perhaps that will chain to a
World Event that makes all the NPCs go indoors and rotters roam freely in the
town. There are a few examples of this working internally, but they are minor.
For instance, if you finish one of the Papermill World Events, it chains to a Node event that
spawns crates of paper as part of the reward.
The World Events we have written so far are very modest
and don't use the full capability of the system. We also have some additional
work to do before we can make mission givers, merchants, and other town NPCs
react to World Events. The first batch of World Events will be mostly random
harvest nodes and creatures attacking a single town, but we have big plans for
this system in the future.
Territory Control
Hey guys, Neverender here. I've been busy working on the
upcoming Territory Control system. Here in the office we've started to have some early play tests of some
of the mechanics, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I have to say, the
area looks amazing. Our artists have done some excellent work and I am pumped
for this stuff to go Live so I can run around and kick some ass in this war
zone they've created. You probably want to hear some more about the
mechanics of Territory Control, so I thought I'd share a few things.
 |
| Territory Control area, with large central keep (left) |
Territory Control Area
When Territory Control goes Live, we will introduce
a new area north of Blaine where everything--at least initially--will take place. We plan on expanding Territory Control after that, but to give you an idea of the
size I'd say the whole area is around the size of Terminal Woods. The area can
be reached by taking the road north from Blaine. Once there, you'll be able to
activate a Fast Travel point at your respective Faction camp along the
outskirts of the area.
Control Points
The Territory Control area has 13 control points that
Factions can hold. These control points work a lot like the existing Faction
Control system, but with some nice additions. Six of the points are out in the
open and will be harder to defend and maintain control of. The other seven points
are actually inside of keeps (including one bad-ass huge keep in the middle of
the area) that will provide much better defense, as well as some other nice
perks.
 |
| One of six smaller keeps |
Keeps
The keeps will feature destructible doors and walls with
defenses that can be upgraded and reinforced once your Faction has taken
control. The keeps also come equipped with some out-of-service LifeNet pods,
but don't worry-- you can fix those too! You may want to protect them though,
as they might make a nice target for any attackers that have their hearts set
on taking over your keep. There will also be Faction NPC guards and bosses that
help add some extra defense.
The barriers and LifeNet pods can be upgraded by spending
Death Toll. Some perks for holding a keep (on top of the much better
defensibility) will include vaults, a mailbox, a crafting facility, and more. Players from the faction that currently controls the keep will be able to use a re-purposed LifeNet Pod to teleport themselves inside.
 |
One of the doors to the main keep getting destroyed. As
an attacker, it's rewarding to see the keep's defenses literally crumble at
your feet!
|
Rewards
If your faction holds any of the 13 control points in the
area, you'll get a nice buff that will improve based on the number of points
you control. That improvement will max out at 4 control points. The buff will
increase death toll, faction, and experience earnings and will also give a nice
boost to the major offensive combat skills.
And then there's what you're all really fighting over:
resources. When you control a point, you'll have the ability to create and
place your own harvesters that will generate some nice resource nodes in the
area surrounding your control point. Be sure to defend your area though,
because if another faction moves in and takes over you'll lose your hard work!
Capture Mechanic
Currently the capture mechanic works a lot like Faction
Control Points. The control points each have a flag. If there are Faction NPC
guards or bosses defending the flag, you'll need to take them out before you
can attempt to take control. If the control point is inside of a keep, you'll
need to breach the keep's door(s) before you can even do that. Whenever you
take control of one of these points away from another Faction, your flag will
be immune to attacks for a short while. We also plan to add exciting new ways
to take control of an area in the near future.
Each control point will have an icon on the strategic map
representing the Faction that currently controls it, as well as what state it
is in. The 3 states that the icon will indicate are Controlled, Under Attack,
and Immune to Attack. Each faction has 3 icons that represent each of those
states, so players anywhere will be able to see how their Faction is doing at
all times.
Well, that covers most of the basics. I'm excited to see
all of this in action. Thanks for reading!
-Neverender
