1. Fallen Earth is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2156. Can you give us some more background information about the game?
Sure; Fallen Earth takes place in Grand Canyon Province (a massive chunk of land surrounding the Grand Canyon owned by corporate-feudal state GlobalTech) roughly a hundred years after The Fall, a simultaneous epidemic and a subsequent fear-induced nuclear war that decimated most of humanity. As the game begins you play as a newly activated clone, though a clone of whom and for what purpose is unclear.
Outside of being one of the only MMOs in the post-apocalyptic genre, Fallen Earth gives far more choices to the player than most MMOs. There are no classes, so you’re free to decide how you want to play and how much focus you want to put on a particular skill set. What really makes the game is how the crafting system immerses you into the setting. Survival is heavily dependent on what you can scavenge and craft, so there’s literally thousands of things to create. On top of the usual medicine, food and armor, you can make your own vehicles, campsites, and create improvised weapons all from scrap found in the wasteland. You’re also not bound to a limited set of tradeskills, so one can be proficient in mutagenics but also master weaponry and medicine.
2. Fallen Earth was Pay to Play with a Free Trial option. Recently the announcement has been made that Fallen Earth will be going Free to Play. What prompted this decision and what does it mean for the future of Fallen Earth?
Free2Play is what GamersFirst does; it’s what we know, and given Fallen Earth’s amazing gameplay but unfortunate lack of market exposure, it was a game we knew we could do something with by taking it Free2Play. It was also a great opportunity for us, because even though Free2Play is only just now really gaining prominence in Western markets, it’s something we’ve been doing for a long time. Converting Fallen Earth is a way for us to lead by example, handling its transition in a way that makes paying compelling enough to support it as a business, not alienating players by making it like an elaborate trap to make you crack open your wallet.
3. How will the Free to Play model work for Fallen Earth and what options will it offer for your players?
GamersFirst’s Free2Play model isn’t quite the same as other companies, so I’ll cover some basics there. First off, we don’t believe in level caps or content gating for free players. A free player has the same access and ability to run all content as a paying player. What gamers get with our Premium services are quality-of-life improvements that make sense in the game. So for Fallen Earth, the only real restrictions on free players are a limit on how much in-game currency (chips) they can earn, and the ability to craft up to eight hours per day. The chips limit is really there to hamper gold-farming, so the limit is nullified forever with one single purchase. For Premium subscribers, we’ve created three subscriptions to choose from that provide improved harvesting/salvaging speeds, faster crafting, faster experience and factions gains, and more Reward Points, which are a type of currency that accrues naturally the longer you stay subscribed and can be used to purchase things from the marketplace without spending real money. The top subscription tier, the Commander rank, has a unique benefit called the Commander Aura. The Commander Aura is awesome because it not only provides all the Commander’s group members with some of the in-game benefits associated with the Commander rank, but it also stacks with other Commanders in the group. The full breakdown can be found here: http://www.gamersfirst.com/fallenearth/?q=premium-subscriptions.
4. How will this change affect loyal subscribers who have already been paying for the game? Will they be able to get benefits (special items and bonus experience) for their patronage?
You bet they will. Everyone with a current subscription at the time of the Free2Play transition automatically had their account upgraded to the Commander Premium subscription for the duration of their current billing cycle. Anyone that had ever bought the retail box and/or subscribed in the past is receiving the exclusive new Spiked Chopper, an item we created specifically for veteran players, plus a substantial permanent discount on the Commander Premium Subscription. Then there were the Subscriber Appreciation Gifts we gave out each month to everyone who had a subscription in the months of July, August, September, and October (prior to the Free2Play transition); these included three wearable items (duster, hat, and boots), three pets (chupacabras, creeper, and skindog), and a free unlock of the four “core” wardrobe slots, a new addition to the game that let you wear items for appearance only over the equipment you have equipped for stats.
5. What other benefits could pre-paid subscribers have as much as in-game items and bonuses?
On top of the increased resource gathering and crafting speeds, premium subscribers will have access to more character slots, a monthly supporter gift and discounts in the marketplace, to name a few.
6. Can you give us some details about this new supporter level system? How will it affect existing players and new people just coming into the game?
***the supporter level system is actually the tiered premium account*** Everything is pretty much answered above in that respect.
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Now for the newer crowd that will be coming into the game with it going free to play I would like to ask some questions about the game itself and features.
7. Weapons are important in the game, what kind of weapons does this game have and that players must try? What weapons do they have to watch out for in Fallen Earth?
That’s like asking me to pick my favorite child, if I had children! The beauty of Fallen Earth is just how diverse everything is, including the weapons. I myself am into melee; you start out with a fire axe, shivs, and hollow pipes, and you can quickly graduate to all manner of sports equipment, including golf clubs and a hockey stick with a saw blade on the end, and then eventually to really cool up-and-coming “junktech” (a phrase I just made up) like Jackhammer Axes and Propulsion Hammers. On the ranged side there’s a huge array of light, medium, and heavy rifles and crossbows that allow you to choose between heavy hits or consistent DPS, rocket launchers, grenades, and pistols and hand cannons. It’s a pretty diverse selection.
8. Mounts are seen in some form in most MMO games, cars are visible in Fallen Earth, aside from cars, are there any other “mounts” in the game?
There is a whole lot of variety in the mounts, and they all have unique benefits. There are cars (Interceptors), motorcycles, street choppers, dune buggies, ATV’s, and biological mounts (horses, mutated chickens and blight wolves) to name a few. Horses and wolves are slow on roads, but really shine in rough terrain, can jump obstacles, and allow players to wield a rifle while mounted. Motorcycles are great on highways and are very efficient but have limited storage and don’t do too well off-road, but you can use a pistol as you drive by. Interceptors are great for storage and go fast on-road, but truly suck in the open wasteland. You get the idea. Both Dune Buggies and Interceptors can have weapons mounted on their hoods as well.
6. What kind of mobs will players encounter in Fallen Earth?
Players will encounter all types of opposition, from wild animals, marauders, mutated plant and wildlife, opposing factions and other players. It’s a target-rich environment for certain.
7. Fallen Earth has a Clan System, what does this offer to players and how does it affect the gameplay especially when we are talking about the Clan Wars and other clan related events?
Similar to most games, clans are ways for players to associate and help one another leveling, acquiring loot and components, or running instances. Additionally, there are shared clan vaults, with permissions dictated by the clan leader. Clan Wars are battles between two clans that have mutually agreed upon terms and conditions, with wagers placed on the outcome. Clans are often the big drivers of endgame PvP, with clans of opposing ideals clashing all over the map.
8. Fallen Earth shows different aspects in concepts and designs. Can you give us some details regarding the world and its creation for Fallen Earth?
It’s a post-apocalypse in the American Southwest, so there’s a lot of destruction and scorched-earth chaos, but there’s also a lot of new life as people try to reclaim the wasteland. There are squatters reappropriating hollowed out buildings, gigantic fortresses made out of junk, miles of road waiting to be traversed, and even some forests. There are a lot of modern interpretations of dungeons as well, so players can explore old prisons, movie theaters, junkyards, power stations, factories, and Lifenet facilities – some of which are even built into the side of the Grand Canyon itself.
9. What are some of the main features that stand out in Fallen Earth?
In Fallen Earth you actually have to aim your weapons like you would in an FPS, and head shots matter! Besides that, it’s a large, open world as mentioned before, with room to roam and maps based on actual territories in and around the Grand Canyon. What really sets the game apart is its robust crafting system. Survival in the wasteland is dependent on the ability to scavenge, harvest and create items to either equip and consume or to barter and sell. About 95 percent of the items in game can be crafted using the ten tradeskills available.
10. What kinds of characters can players create in this game? What is the different role of each character in terms of abilities and skills? How do factions play into your character?
It really depends on what you want to do. Crafting gives experience and there are questlines that can be accomplished via crafting, so it’s feasible to level up without ever killing a single monster (though you’ll have to be a savvy trader to acquire resources). If you want to be an asset to a team, you’ll want to focus on group support tactics and first aid; if you’re more of the lone wolf PvE type, you may to spec entirely in rifles and kill mobs from a distance. Then of course there’s pistols, melee, and heavy weapons, all of which are meant to help you fulfill the role you want to play given your playstyle and the needs of your companions.
11. Is there anything else you want to tell us about the game?
If you’re tired of familiar elves-and-orcs-tab-to-target-loot-grind offerings that make up 90% of the MMO market right now, Fallen Earth is a breath of fresh post-apocalyptic air, and you owe it to yourself to give it a shot!
