Now Here’s A Surprise…

…a level 10 cap for trial players. I suspect this is relatively new, as I never encountered it when I played last time around.

I’m in Oilville at the moment, having gone through most of the missions in Boneclaw and South Burb. The last couple of days have been productive. I’ve been boosting up my stats, dumped the old nag and got myself a riding horse, and I’ve just generally been running missions and leveling up…until just a few minutes ago, when I hit level 10 with this new toon. Now every time I do pretty much anything in the game I get a pop-up message telling me that I’ve reached the level cap for trial accounts.

Wow, that was fast. I’ve still got another nine days left on my fourteen-day free trial. I realize that the point is to annoy people just enough that they’ll subscribe, but hey, there has to be a limit. There’s the pop-up ad you see when you originally log on, there’s all the other ads and limitations you deal with on a trial account, but the least Icarus could do is not impose a level cap so low that you hit it so early on in a free trial. Everything else is fair game, but when you start fucking with the gameplay you’re going to start losing players. No wonder this game is going free-to-play…can you imagine how many trial players hit that level cap as quickly as I did and then moved on? I can.

Currently, I’m debating with myself whether or not it’s worth pushing on now without any experience gain, or if I should put the game aside until I’m able to drop by the local GameStop and pick up one of those 60-day special offers. Once I have that, I’ll then have to decide once and for all if I want to reopen my old account or keep going with the new one.

I dunno. I’m going to have to give this some thought.

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First Days Back

It’s almost…not quite but almost…like I never left. Slowly but surely, it’s all coming back. It’s been a little over a year and half since I left FE but I already know that somehow before my 14-day trial is over, I’m going to try to figure out a way to stick around a bit longer.

It’s interesting, actually. Of all the MMO’s I’ve ever played, my two favorites have been Eve-Online and Fallen Earth, yet I left FE to go back to Eve. This, I’ve come to understand, was a mistake. Not because Eve isn’t a great game, mind you, but it just isn’t for me. It doesn’t fit my lifestyle well. I’ve often reached a point with certain MMO’s, Eve in particular, when playing the game becomes less like a love affair and more like a marriage. That’s not to say Eve stopped being fun, but it also became a commitment, one I all too often wasn’t able to do justice.

In the meantime, that is during the year and a half or so I’ve been gone from the game, I’ve kept busy, or at least, busy enough.

So, why now? Why bother coming back months before the game goes free-to-play if you don’t have any money Bekka? Why just pop up suddenly from out of nowhere and start writing this blog again if right now you don’t even know if you’re going to be able to play FE for months after the 23rd? I’ve asked myself all of these questions. I don’t have a good answer for any of them except that it just feels right.

And so, to the ostensible point of this blog, the game: I started in Boneclaw, pretty much finished everything there, then headed to South Burb. Getting this new toon a well-rounded crafting recipe base. That pretty much describes what I’ve been doing in FE the last couple of days. This toon’s name is Bekka Jae (not Jai like the one I was using in 2009). She’s already level 8.  And yet, I also know this toon may eventually end up being ignored and unused, probably mainly depending on whether or not I decide to reactivate my old account or just keep on building this new one. Probably I’ll end up reopening the old account (if I can) once the game goes free-to-play because the advantages in terms of skills, attributes, etc. are just too much not to want to recapture if possible. Still, I haven’t yet been able to log into my old account since I decided to come back. I’m not really sure why that is. I try every logical password combination without success.

When I went to try to reset my password, I was asked a verification question. I answered the question correctly, but it told me I had answered incorrectly.I have a feeling if I am to get my old account restored it will involve an email to Icarus (or whoever) customer service.

So yes, for whatever it’s worth, I’m back playing Fallen Earth, more or less, and as for the future, I guess we’ll just have to see.

Since at this point I don’t have the money to reactivate my old account yet (though that may change soon), assuming it still exists, I’ll keep working on this toon so I have a backup ready to go in case it turns out that my old toon is lost forever. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing anyway. I’m finding that I’m enjoying starting a new toon from scratch, and I’m a lot better at a lot of things in this game. Who knows if I’ll feel the same way in six months or a year, but hey, who cares? I’m here now, I’m gonna be here for at least a while, and if I go away I’ll be back when they open the free-to-play gates. Beyond those parameters, your guess as what happens next is about as good as mine.

And now, I think I’ll jump in-game for a few minutes before it’s time to call it a night.

We’re Baaaack!

Or, at least, I am anyway.

I know it’s been a while, but hey, I’ve been busy, y’know?

Last time I posted here, I was about to go back to Eve-Online. Well, I did that…for a while. Eventually it got to the point where I’d gone as far as I could in that game without having to deal with the US-UK time zone problem getting in the way of pretty much everything I wanted to do in the game. So, I left, again.

There’s been a long period of unemployment for me, and so re-subbing to Fallen Earth just hasn’t been an option. That’s still the case right now, so unless and until I find a job it’s going to probably be a while (read: until FE goes free-to-play) until you see regular posting by me here again.

That said, it is coming. I’m doing the 14-day free trial (what happened to the 30-day free trial I wonder?) just to get myself re-familiarized with the game. I haven’t yet re-activated my old account, but once I’m ready to get back to playing regularly I’ll have to decide if I want to go back to using that account (assuming it still exists once it goes F2P) or if I’m just going to continue with the new one I just started a couple of days ago for this free trial.

In the meantime, I’ll do some posts until my trial period ends, and perhaps I’ll throw something up now and then while we wait for FE to go F2P. Also, FEB was designed and is intended to be a group blog, so if you’re in FE and want to participate (devs, that means you too) drop me an email at bekkajai@gmail.com and I’ll get you set up as a contributor!

Ok that’s it for right now, but expect something actually game-relevant from me here in the next day or so!