State of the Game 08/12/2018

[MattScott 15242]

Hi everyone,

I've started this update multiple times, and for various reasons I set it aside. But my communication with the FE community has honestly been piss poor. Sometimes managing GamersFirst is like drinking from a firehose.

As I stated in an earlier post, I'm frustrated with the game right now. The code is an ancient mess that barely compiles under current development environments. We have nearly constant problems with server lag and stability. We're missing all the source art to the game.

And we have problems with cheaters. Above and beyond everything else, this last one is the most problematic.

I would prefer to spend our money on fixing the game - not on expensive anti-cheat. But at this point I can't ignore the issue any longer. Since my options are limited on the front end, we have begun working on a custom server-side cheat detection system. This wont be an overnight solution, but at least we can largely introduce it without disrupting the game - or even patching. I do want to thank several members of the community who stepped forward and helped provide copies of various cheats. Those are helping us tune things, so we can properly detect cheaters.

Aside from anti-cheat, we are making progress in a number of other areas.

The core server code is being completely written from the ground up. I would estimate we are about 10% complete so far. There's a lot to do, as Fallen Earth is a big game that supports a lot of features. I don't want to get everyone's hopes up. This is slow and tedious, but I'll keep updating the community.

Another area we have been working on is the lack of source art. I'm happy to say that we have been able to successful export a sizable amount of static game geometry, materials, and textures so we can recreate them in another engine. Our strategy is to first bring everything over so we can make sure the maps and areas still fit together properly based on the server-side data and placed instances. From there, we'll make a PBR pass on the materials. For those that don't know, PBR stands for Physics Based Rendering, and in a game like Fallen Earth, we can vastly improve the look of the game by simply adopting better rendering methods. After that we'll make a pass to tessellate and upgrade world terrain based on the original height map data. And then we'll look at specific upgrades to characters, monsters, etc.

The initial progress bringing over buildings is far enough along, that despite my better judgment, I'm going to provide screenshots of a small area we mocked up in-game. This is just work in progress. Still so much to do, but it's is a good start.









Thanks,
Matt
 

[Diamond_Dee 2]

i like this much cleaner look great job matt 

[Lukaso 72]

Thank you for posting that info Matt. Render of buildings in screenshots looks really amazing, we all appreciate work of whole LO.

Edited August 12, 2018 by Lukasocz

[MoistMeterBtw 3]

Matt is the Goat.

[Jdred 8]

Cheaters as of current don't really seem to be much of an issue, you may have like 3-4 max, MAYBE. The abuse of lower resolutions that stretch characters and make for bigger crosshairs, lower resolutions do not scale properly when put into full screen. Making it easier to hit your opponents vs max resolution. Which honestly is probably what most of your reports for "cheaters" are, but I'm just guessing.

Good effort trying to reignite FE with some screenshots though after the "LO hype" has been dead for a few weeks now.

[Kishoot 36]

Simply remove the 2 or 3 lowest resolutions or at least the lowest.
Who is playing in 800x600 in 2018 if it's not to exploit?

[StubbyClaps 74]

Thanks for the update. the new screenshots look cool! Cheating will always be a problem for this game, and its always the same toxic people. The heavy focus on pvp at end game means alot of people get worked up and end up having to cheat to compete.  I believe you are referencing actual cheats like auto aim and such, not just resolution exploits?

[Anneliesse 27]

4 hours ago, Kishoot said:

Simply remove the 2 or 3 lowest resolutions or at least the lowest.
Who is playing in 800x600 in 2018 if it's not to exploit?

Not exactly possible and would easily be circumvented. What is possible is making crosshair scale with resolution.  I'd propose the size of the crosshair in 1920x1080 and the size of the reticle in 2560x1440.

[Nysek 4]

6 hours ago, Jdred said:

Cheaters as of current don't really seem to be much of an issue, you may have like 3-4 max, MAYBE. The abuse of lower resolutions that stretch characters and make for bigger crosshairs, lower resolutions do not scale properly when put into full screen. Making it easier to hit your opponents vs max resolution. Which honestly is probably what most of your reports for "cheaters" are, but I'm just guessing.

Good effort trying to reignite FE with some screenshots though after the "LO hype" has been dead for a few weeks now.

Eh people will still keep an eye on this and there's always room for new players as shity as the current game market is.

[llamatron66 4]

I stopped playing a while back.... but i'm still here watching... waiting... for someone (preferably LO) to fix the game. Even if it takes them a year to do it, its likely I'd still give the game another shot as long as they do it properly. Good to get an update thanks Matt, would appreciate more regular updates just so we know someone out there is still doing something and the game isn't abandoned.

[PraiseTheSun 48]

The update is very apperciated!

Cheaters aren't a big issue, or at least not the biggest. I think lag is the biggest issue since it disturbs all types of gameplay.

Honestly, but this can be my opinion, the people who used low reso for better aim don't even aim good. Let them just use it, but at the risk they won't be taken serious by the community. 

 

[Kinksta 23]

lag is defo the biggest issue, if their going to touch res, fix the warp first. anticheat would still be good tho, less people that dont want to fight cause they think everyone is hacking.

[PraiseTheSun 48]

At least not everyone will say after every fight "cheater" anymore. Note: only a few people actually cheated.

For sure lag is the top 1 issue. Hell.. Lag is even the top 1,2,3,4,5 issue. After that some of the many bugs and after that I would say some of the content. 

[Sharon Agathon 2]

Sweet Jesus

[Kishoot 36]

16 hours ago, Calais said:

20 hours ago, Kishoot said:

Simply remove the 2 or 3 lowest resolutions or at least the lowest.
Who is playing in 800x600 in 2018 if it's not to exploit?

Not exactly possible and would easily be circumvented. What is possible is making crosshair scale with resolution.  I'd propose the size of the crosshair in 1920x1080 and the size of the reticle in 2560x1440.

If you say so.

[Hollywood7098 38]

Baby this is wonderful, a true Ringa-ding, dig? well Ta-Ta baby
P.S we will be better than APB very soon!
 

[streaml1ne 7]

mmm. Sweet, sweet progress. Any details on what you're writing the new server side code in? Hopefully something portable and easier to dev on to keep things humming along in the future.

[Genobee 143]

I still can't believe how much effort you guys are putting into this game!

[Wildcat Strike 10]

keep at it!, seems like a ton of work.  I will jump into the game when it starts to near a final product!  

[forrower 7]

Looking good!

[Drake Dragoon 28]

So I am going to make this one important suggestion, because I feel like it should be brought up, but I'm not holding my breath that Matt will actually read this:

If FE needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, and new textures and assets need to be made anyways, why not start over on a new engine?
And if you need to use a new engine to rebuild the game and develop all new assets anyways, then why not just start developing FE2 instead?

It doesn't make sense to dump a lot of money into a dying game - FTP has changed and there are better ways to make money than this old system.
*You can revamp the system to a more up-to-date business model by starting over.

The Plan - Make FE2 on a new engine (recycling many assets where possible). Then when proceeds come in, players come back, and revisiting the old FE seems right, simply update/import FE1 to the new engine and call it FE Remastered. <-- still a huge task, but continuosly battling the old system might be harder

[streaml1ne 7]

Doubt there are many licensable engines that can do a seamless world this big.

[Fortune Runner 796]

3 hours ago, Drake Dragoon said:

So I am going to make this one important suggestion, because I feel like it should be brought up, but I'm not holding my breath that Matt will actually read this:

If FE needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, and new textures and assets need to be made anyways, why not start over on a new engine?
And if you need to use a new engine to rebuild the game and develop all new assets anyways, then why not just start developing FE2 instead?

It doesn't make sense to dump a lot of money into a dying game - FTP has changed and there are better ways to make money than this old system.
*You can revamp the system to a more up-to-date business model by starting over.

The Plan - Make FE2 on a new engine (recycling many assets where possible). Then when proceeds come in, players come back, and revisiting the old FE seems right, simply update/import FE1 to the new engine and call it FE Remastered. <-- still a huge task, but continuosly battling the old system might be harder

From MattScott's post it appears they are already doing that

[Kishoot 36]

If new engine, i will re-install.
Doesn't matter, FE2, FE Reloaded or what else.

[EllaC 53]

Hi Matt,

This is spectacular news. After watching LO take the reins so seemlessly straight after years of neglect and continued deterioration of the game, it brings relief not only to me but to the extended community of FE. I see more and more old players who are now looking back down the FE scope with all of the new work being done, and it greatly humbles me to know that the game is very slowly, but surely, seeing a new life.

As the owner of a clan, I am concerned about getting into the game. My laptop has gone 6 feet under but I'm looking to get a replacement system, although while I was gone, I've heard constant complaining over lag and other game related issues that have surfaced. Will this persist for much longer? I fear that something like this will kill the game before it sees new light, and as a long-time FE player and RPer, I'm not ready to see this game die.

Secondly, if and when FE sees a complete overhaul of it's systems, will the running specifications change? Right now I can just about run the game- it's a bit choppy but playable, although large events or PvP sessions does see to a large penalty on my FPS count.

Overall it's quite a relief to see you- Matt- interacting with the players of FE. The purpose of my clan has been to give players a chance to see FE for what it really is, to give them a community to be a part of and to give them a reason to stay in the game. I will continue to do this to the best of my ability, as FE has become such a big deal to me and I will continue to give back for as long as physically possible. 

Thank you Matt Scott and the LO team.

Ella Clinton.
Director of Survivor's Refuge.