Greetings Wastelanders,
Several players submitted questions for the dev team on the Fallen Earth forums and we’re rolling out our answers!
This week we have Lead Scripter, Doug "AFFA" Goodall's responses!
AFFA will be keeping an eye on the forum, responding to players throughout the week.
Developer Forum Q&A - Meet AFFA!
When the game was in beta, a lot of the members on the dev team were fairly new to their respective fields. As the game has evolved over the past several months, have you learned anything new or interesting about your job that you did not know before?
I'm an aberration. I've been in the game industry for almost ten years
One of the best things about making games is that you learn new things every week. Players are always surprising. You quickly learn that the players' collective intelligence will always defeat your most careful designs.
Technically I'm a scripter, which means I write easy code in Pawn and Lua (sometimes called "brains" locally) instead of trying to solve np-hard problems in C++. But in the game industry, your "job" can be different every day. In the last month I've answered bug emails, fixed bugs, tested the last patch, written SQL searches, designed and scripted boss fights, made a new mission brain, changed the aggro rules for a dozen creature brains, worked out some spreadsheet formulas, wrote design docs, started working on some more "sandbox" content...
If you're obsessed with games, you learn new things outside your job all the time. You're always thinking about how real life experiences could be made into a game or how a new game mechanic could be applied to your current project.
Out of these favorite vehicles what do you prefer to drive! Jeeps, Pickup Trucks, Humvees, Harley or Dirt bikes?
Pickups.
If you could respec in real life, what attributes would you change about yourself?
I could definitely use more Endurance or Constitution or Health or whatever they call it in your favorite system.
What's your favorite post-apocalyptic book/graphic novel?
Hm. One of those difficult questions. Probably A Canticle for Leibowitz.
What's your favorite band or musical group?
Oh, dear. A really difficult question. And a question you should never ask a music snob like me.
Favorite Song is a tie between Sonata for Harp by Tailleferre and Hymn by Toby Twining Music.
Favorite (modern, still existing in some form as far as I know) Band is three-way tie between King Crimson, Alamaailman Vasarat, and Lumsk.
Favorite Composer is a tie between Mingus and Agustin Barrios.
I change my mind all the time on the bands. The songs and composers are more stable.
Best concert ever seen?
A local band called Ozone Quartet used to do some awesome live shows.
What in your honest opinion is the greatest MMO ever made...You can't say FE...
The genre isn't old enough. World of Warcraft has the best group PvE content. Ultima Online, classic Star Wars Galaxies, and Eve all have good (and very different) player-driven content. Asheron's Call, Planetside, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and a dozen less well known games all made improvements to MMO combat. A Tale in the Dessert had an interesting crafting system. There's still room for improvement on crafting, combat, and PvP in most MMOs. I'm excited to see what the next decade's games will bring.
What question, besides this one, makes you CRINGE when you see it posted... again. And again. And again.
A misunderstanding of some developer comments led to a few people thinking that we somehow use a spreadsheet instead of a database. Spreadsheets are invaluable tools for coming up with the formulas to put in the code and the right numbers to put in the database, but the server uses several databases and has no direct contact with any spreadsheets.
What is your favorite post-apocalyptic film:
I haven't seen very many good ones. I'm open to suggestions. The genre seems to attract low-quality films. Maybe it seems like it would be easy to make a post-apocalyptic film until you start working on it. Road Warrior is the definitive classic. Of the others I've actually seen and can remember, I liked 28 Days Later, and Six String Samurai.
Which game do you find the most inspiring (other than FE, of course!)?
Well, it depends on the subject. There are some classic games that did a much better job in one area or another than their predecessors. These are worth studying to see what they did differently, why it was an improvement, and how you can build on it further. For instance, if you're trying to make a game with good writing and stealth mechanics, it's worth studying Planescape: Torment, and the Looking Glass/Ion Storm games. But if you wanted to find inspiration for PvP combat, you might get more out of Team Fortress 2.
If you had to cybernetically enhance one part of your body (*ahem* mind out of gutter!) which would it be and why?
Brains. Can't get enough brains.
What is your favorite spot in the world?
You can't beat the triangle area of North Carolina. This is the best place I've ever lived.
What's your favorite (non FE related) website?
I used to have some, but they all vanished or stopped updating or got too angry.
You worked really hard to finish the presentation for the meeting tomorrow, but you just can't make the deadline. What do you do?
Wing it.
What was the funniest report a GM ever wrote to you?
What was the oddest thing a GM reported to you?
I don't have much direct contact with the GMs. There have been some great bug reports, though. "How many times change they sound a horse?" I'm still trying to puzzle that one out.
Who drinks the most coffee?
I don't know. Not me, certainly.
Ramen Noodles or steak?
Steak.
Classic or remake version?
Classic, usually.
Funnelcakes or Flapjacks?
Flapjacks.
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