This is the first actual reroll I've done in over two years.
I've talked before about the bad habit I'd got into over the years of starting a new character when I returned to a game rather than picking up where I'd left of. Indeed, one of the reasons I started this blog - perhaps the main reason - was so that when I returned to a game after however long it had been I'd be able to look back at prior posts to refresh my memory of where I was and how I'd got there.
It's worked, more or less. I've broken my one-character-per-game rule twice so far - in City of Heroes and Star Wars The Old Republic - but CoH is the alt MMO, and SWTOR, with its eight distinct class storylines, also lends itself to a multi-character experience... at least it does up to the point where those eight stories merge into one.
But that's a long way off. At least it is for me.
This is a bit different. My new character in Fallen Earth isn't an alt as such, since I no longer have my old character, but rerolling on this new server raises a lot of the same questionss that an alt would - how much time will I spend redoing content that I did on my last character, and how much of that will be by necessity rather than by choice?
Fallen Earth is and isn't an alt-friendly MMO. There's a lot of content - especially in Sector One - and the zones are wide open. There's very little in the way of impassable terrain, so the player isn't herded from one location to the next along specific routes. Except for a few steep slopes and the radiation barriers around the edges of the zone there's nothing to stop a character from going anywhere, at any time. It's a truly open world, which isn't as common in the genre as it used to be.
There are a couple of questlines that do direct the player's progress. The main story leads from Embry to Rest Stop to Trumbull and then on to New Flagstaff in Sector Two, but for all that it's more an extended series of linked sidequests than anything else, and not nearly as integral to the narrative as, for instance, the MSQ in Final Fantasy XIV. In theory I could skip it altogether.
The other main questline is less skippable, at least for any character who wants to craft vehicles, since the ATV quest is the key to unlocking all future vehicle crafting. This, likewise, leads the player on a tour of several towns, again starting in Embry.
Strictly speaking then, I don't have to do either of these, but for the full experience I will. I didn't pass up on them last time either, so I will be retreading some familiar ground, albeit two years after I last did so.
It's the rest of the content where I'll be taking some different paths. Last time around there were areas I raced through or left unfinished or didn't even go to, because I was a lot more focused on efficient levelling than I otherwise ever am. If something was too tough to do quickly, or too time consuming to complete, or just to get to, I passed it by. This time I'll be much more inclined to let myself be sidetracked, because wandering off the beaten path and stumbling across interesting and obscure locations is a big part of the appeal of Fallen Earth.
That said, out of the nine available starter towns I did make the long run from Midway to Terance again, just as I did the last time. I suppose I should have went with one of the others - there's one or two that I've still never done, on any character - but I like Terance a lot. It's very focused, in terms of narrative and geography, with almost every quest directly relating to the local story, and all of the action taking place within a relatively small area in and around the town.
It's fast paced - at least by the standards of this game - and the heavy emphasis on action leads to some interesting (and challenging) encounters in the tight confines of the house on the hill and the Tetrax bunker.
Also Tetrax itself is one of the most memorable characters in the game, and very well written.
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