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The gameworld of Fallen Earth
is 83.89 kilometers per side in size and those players who spend the time
to explore this vast land will be rewarded with additional content such
as experience, encounter areas, or particularly rich salvage areas. Initially
though players will not be able to get into some areas due to radiation
or other threats.
The gameworld has a full and varied ecosystem complete with seasons, ambient
weather related sounds, springtime vegetation growth and snow in appropriate
areas during winter. Pre-Fall experiments in terraforming and ecological
genetic engineering have created some rather unusual niche ecosystems within
the Province so certain areas will be quite different from how they are
currently. Weather will not impact game playability. The day/night cycle
is set at six times faster than real life, making game days and nights each
about 4 hours long. Night time in the desert is quite dark so various light-providing
items such as flashlights have been added to help players.
Only certain objects, within the game world, are flagged as physics objects. There are two main reasons behind this logic: 1) it’s expensive for people’s processors to have a lot of physics objects; and 2) if all objects were physics objects, the whole game world would soon be a real mess of piled up objects and debris.
Server events are planned; the most basic is retaking towns that have been overrun by raiders, infected, etc. The game world will react to the actions of players as towns are retaken. Players will get a lot by paying attention to NPC chatter. Some of this chatter will be helpful and provide needed game information; other parts will be very entertaining. An example of one of the more
humorous scenarios would be one described in a GDC '08 interview posted
by MMORPG.com: evidently, some clones have difficulty coping with their
new reality and wind up getting themselves killed, repeatedly - only to
be cloned again each time they die. This process is observed, and
amusingly commented on, by NPCs who are standing nearby.
Bosses, who will be encountered
later in the game, will be introduced early on - even in the Tutorial -
and show themselves to be very deserving of being killed in those later
encounters.
Background:
In all of the history of the Canyon Province, there is one name that stands
out: GlobalTech. The first records of this pre-Fall international mega-corporation
comes from their acquisition by Brenhauer Investments in 2033. Less than
two decades later GlobalTech moved its headquarters to the Lake Mead area
- land owned by its controlling company whose headquarters had been moved
to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in 2049. With militarily controlled
borders, they segregated themselves from the rest of the US. In 2050 GlobalTech
created a corporate-feudal state.
GlobalTech quickly established themselves in the area and by 2051 they had
become completely self-sufficient and had no need for supplies from the
outside world. So well were they doing, they became a producer of minerals
and finished goods.
They went unchallenged, as far as anyone knows, for about a year, until
the Vista Society moved into the area and set up communes. The Vista Society,
being environmentalists and eco-warriors, began sabotaging GlobalTech's
lumbering operations in the Kaibab Forest. What method of lumbering operations
or what sabotage was conducted is not known.
Two years later, when the Shiva virus made itself first known in the southern
countries of Asia and began to spread, the US government started construction
on the Hoover Dam Garrison. Within a year the situation had become highly
volatile, with countries accusing one another of releasing Shiva. Nuclear
attacks were launched from and to those countries within the south Asian
region. The Hoover Dam Garrison went active that same year under the command
of Col. Orson Masters.
It took awhile to reach the Province, but by 2056 the first cases of Shiva
appeared and all but 10% of the population expired in less than a year.
Shortly thereafter the Hoover Dam Garrison lost contact with the outside
world.
Survivors from the area around the Grand Canyon sought out the Garrison
for safety. Refugees from as far away as the city of Las Vegas straggled
in over the following year.
Many signs of GlobalTech can still be found, such as products, a few still
functioning businesses, advanced technology such as the LifeNet Pods, and
bunkers created before the Fall. Fragmented information suggests there may
be more corporate provinces of GlobalTech than just the Grand Canyon Province.
Resources:
6, 7, 36, 42, 50, 73, 74, 105, 109, Fallen Earth Official Site, 132, 134, 137
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