Fallen Earth

Today, October 12, is the day that Fallen Earth goes free-to-play! The two-year-old post-apocalyptic MMO is making the transition under GamersFirst, the company that recently brought APB: Reloaded back to life as a free-to-play title. Players will be able to choose from four pricing tiers, ranging from the free Scavenger membership to the $29.99/month Commander membership that includes a ton of perks.

We had the opportunity to speak with GamersFirst Associate Game Director Joseph Willmon and Fallen Earth Lead Designer Marie Croall to get more information on the free-to-play launch. Keep reading after the jump for the full interview!

The Fallen Earth team just released a sneak preview video of the Spiked Chopper Loyalty Reward for subscribers. Want one? Then get a subscription before the game goes free-to-play on Wednesday, October 12. Your subscription time will be converted to Commander Premium (the highest level) once the free-to-play update is live.

According to the latest development blog entry, Fallen Earth is going free-to-play on October 12! The blog provides details on the four subscription tiers, which include a completely free option and three levels of premium subscriptions. "Your primary reasons to purchase a Premium subscription will be to maximize your rate of advancement, to get unlimited crafting time, more character slots and reward points, and because you want to show support for Fallen Earth's continued development," the team said.

Here are the basic details and prices for the four tiers:

• Scavenger (Free): You'll have access to 100% of the game's content from level 1 to max level. The efficiency at which you advance is not quite comparable to subscribed players, and there is a limit to how many hours per day you can spend crafting and how many chips you can have. You only get one character slot, but you'll receive 50 Reward Points each month.
• Survivalist ($9.99/month): It's directly analogous to the game current subscribers are playing in terms of Reward Points and rates of advancement. You'll get two character slots and 100 Reward Points each month.
• Wastelander ($14.99/month): It provides dramatic increases to your harvesting and crafting speed, as well as the rates of gain of EXP, AP, Death Toll, and faction. It also comes with a 15% discount in the Marketplace and 300 Reward Points each month, as well as four character slots. Existing subscriptions will transition to Wastelander without players having to do anything.
• Commander ($29.99/month): Mostly similar to Wastelander, but includes a Commander aura stackable buff that increases salvaging speed, EXP, Random AP, Death Toll, and Faction gain rates for all players in the Commander's group. It also includes 500 Reward Points each month and four character slots. The package is intended to be discounted for veteran players.

The dev blog entry mentions that veteran players will get free Marketplace items, a free subscription upgrade when the game transitions, and the soon-to-be-revealed Veteran Reward Item. It also hints at the upcoming World Event system and announces that there will be a live event to celebrate Fallen Earth's second anniversary this month.

Lead Game Designer Marie Croall has written her latest Fallen Earth State of the Game blog entry, and this one looks head to some content that's coming to the game in the near future. Here's her summary:

"Summing it all up: this week we’re adding Fast Travel, which supports the upcoming inclusion of World Events. Together these two features form the backbone for realigning resource rarity, and ALL of this becomes the foundation for Faction Territory Control, which helps accomplish our strategy of making faction and PvP 'matter' more."

Croall also mentions that the team will be hosting a live event for Fallen Earth's second anniversary in September. As for the free-to-play switch, she estimates they're a little more than halfway through the transition.

Fallen Earth patch 1.9.2 is scheduled to launch tomorrow, August 9 at 10 a.m. EDT. This update includes a revamped and upgraded fast travel system, combat tweaks, PvP improvements, and tons of bugfixes.

The new fast travel system allows players to move between certain LifeNet pods, as seen in the screenshot. Players need to turn in missions at each LifeNet pod to unlock the ability to use Fast Travel in those pods. The level requirements are 1 for Sector 1, 15 for Sector 2, 23 for Sector 3, 35 for Deadfall, 35 for Terminal Woods, and 45 for Sector 4. You can set any LifeNet pod as your Home position and transport there with a new item.

For more details, check out the patch notes. Just to be clear, this isn't the free-to-play patch. Fallen Earth will be adopting a free-to-play hybrid model later this year. You now need a free GamersFirst account to log into the game, which means Fallen Earth is well on its way to becoming F2P.