Ten Ton Hammer has taken a look at the post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth and came up with a positive article with some negative issues being mentioned.

The gameplay is a good mix of part shooter, part RPG. In some ways the game is similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadows of Chernobyl with how they've merged shooter with RPG mechanics. You can choose to play in first or third person view and combat can be with ranged or melee weapons. As you level up you can invest gained skill points in a number of areas to improve your character such as your use of rifles, pistols, melee weapons, or upgrade your crafting skills and mutations. You are pretty free to enhance your character any way you want, which leaves a number of possible builds.

Another neat little additive is the ability to go prone or crouch to try and be a sneaky little killer. Jumping is a bit awkward as when you land your character stops for a second before being able to move again. This can be a pain in combat and just plain aggravating while running and jumping an object.

MMORPG.com looked into Fallen Earth and came up with their first impressions on the game.

Onto the game; congratulations you’re level 40. You can stop playing here….or jump right into the game. This is actually quite a clever move; it allows the player to learn the game for most intent and purposes you’re virtually invulnerable. It gives you the chance to learn the controls and game mechanics without the pressure of dying. Players begin in a compound located in the Hoover Dam, one of the last bastions of humanity. Your first goal is to escape from this compound. The escape sequence doubles as a brief tutorial for the game. This tutorial will introduce essential skills such as interacting with your environment, equipping yourself, the basics of combat. (Both ranged and melee) and vehicle usage. My first ride on the in game ATV should really result in me having my driver’s license suspended. Additionally players will be exposed to their first usage of Advancement Points, more on that in a bit. By the end of the “tutorial”, I was equipped with an axe, two knives, two pistols and a rife. I looked pretty damn suave running around with all that gear in their six weapon slots. Not a bad little combination for battling the denizens of a post apocalyptic world. In spite of all your gear and best efforts, you will die. Don’t feel bad, it’s just part of the story. After the “tutorial” section of Fallen Earth you will be thrust into the true game play.

An interview with project manager Colin Dawn about the Fallen Earth launch can be found on MMORPG.com.

MMORPG.com: How has being a smaller, independent studio affected the launch of Fallen Earth?

Colin Dwan: We've always thought it was important to stay as connected to our community and pay attention to what they need. Being small, though it adds some difficulty in terms of managing resources and getting the word out, has benefited us in many ways. We have been able to be flexible and respond to things more quickly than we would if we were a larger company.

MMORPG.com: Are there any issues in the game that you feel wouldn't have been there if Fallen Earth had had a major publishing studio behind the project?

Colin Dwan: Having a large publisher would probably add convenience in terms of resources, but being independent helps us keep true to the vision we had for the game. It's nice in a way because there's more of a solid connection between the developers and the final product-there's less filtering.

Fallen Earth has been launched today and can be donwloaded now from the locations listed below. Retailers should have the game at September 30, although I expect this to be US retailers only.

 FALLEN EARTH, LLC announced the commercial launch of its self-titled massively multiplayer online (MMO) game today. The game is scheduled to reach retailers nationwide by September 30. Additionally, fans can download Fallen Earth digitally from Direct2Drive, Steam and the Fallen Earth store for instant access to live service today.

A development journal with Fallen Earth Art Director Chris Deavellar talking about the things that were done to give the game an apocalyptic feel is to be found at Curse.com.

The last major improvement was to look at the buildings as real-world structures, considering their degradation over the years. The artists are taking a lot of time to add in broken bricks and siding, busted walls and floors, and to make these buildings look run down. Adding this kind of detail can be a laborious process, but we can make improve speed and efficiency using a technique called “kit bashing.” In kit bashing, we use pieces of other models repeatedly. In the early stages of improving our structures, each detail is created from scratch, keeping in mind that many of those details will be repurposed later in other structures. Once a few buildings are complete, we repurpose pieces from them to drop into another building. Broken brick walls, destroyed roofs, and decayed siding are some of the different things we'll use between models to save time while creating a great looking building.

MMORPG.com has taken a look at Fallen Earth and came to a rather positive conclusion:

Fallen Earth is shaping up to be an impressive sleeper title of the year. As of writing this, most game’s bugs have been squished and are continue to be eradicated at a speedy pace. Lag seems to be the only outstanding issue and appears to only affect largely populated areas, like major towns and other hot spots. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, so that players can enjoy the game as originally intended.

The devs just sent out the word that Fallen Earth is available now as a pre-order and later on as a purchase through Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/40000/).

While at PAX the MMORPG.com team was given a tour through Fallen Earth, of which you can find the article here.

Fallen Earth is as "real" as a game can be. Horses have to be fed and stabled, vehicles have to be fueled and garaged. In keeping with this realism, player characters are clones and when they are killed in combat, unless their team mates have the ability to resurrect them in the field, they are re-cloned in the closes lab (LifeNet pod) from copies of their genetic material. The death mechanic is tuned specifically to discourage players from jumping into PvP and dying again and again. Players first start off with a small XP penalty - a slow-down on the earning of XP. If they die again within the first five minutes, that timer is extended, then a player can find that his stats begin to decrease and the length of time those stats remain depressed lengthens.

Ten Ton Hammer interviewed lead designer Lee Hammock about the recent open beta as well as what the studio has planned for the game after the official launch later this month.

Ten Ton Hammer: Faction choice can play a fairly large role in Fallen Earth. Have you been seeing any unexpected trends through the open beta in terms of certain factions being more popular than others?

Lee Hammock: So far it does seem to be leaning towards the Enforcers and the Techs which was surprising to us. If you took a poll a few months ago, the Travelers were always the top faction and now it’s changed to Techs and Enforcers which tend to be fairly equal, so we have been noticing that people have been skewing that way. They are kind of the easiest to get your head around.

The Enforcers are all about law and order, so that’s good, and they shoot guys – who doesn’t like that? Compared to the Chota, their arch nemesis who are the crazy guys with mohawks who hit people. So obviously one of them is really heroic, so you want to be that dude. The Chota do have some really heroic qualities in that they hate people being enslaved and they always hate people being pushed around, so you can play a ‘good guy’ Chota and it would be a really interesting character, it’s just not the character that’s evident when you look at the faction. You look at the faction and you see crazy barbarians, not the guy who champions the downtrodden because he doesn’t like people being pushed around.

By means of a gallery of 45 images with short bits of text Massively gives us some impressions of Fallen Earth.

While this is a classless game, there are three general types of characters - combat, crafting, and support.

Now before anyone gets freaked by my saying classless then giving "classes" per se, realize this is really more a question of the types of quests and items you initially load out with rather than forcing you onto any particular path. Combat generated characters are in areas where the quests are primarily combat, crafters get crafting quests and start with skill books, and support starts in areas where they're asked to heal or assist NPCs in fights. Mix and match your skill points as you level and make it fun for you.

To close the current open beta the guys from Fallen Earth are throwing a party this Saturday.

What would you do if you knew the end of the world was coming soon? What about the end of Open Beta? The Fallen Earth Team is throwing an Apocalypse Party. Join us on Saturday, August 29, from 3 to 6 p.m. ET (GMT-4), for in-game food, drinks and entertainment while you collect up to seven login prizes that are redeemable after launch.

The launchdate of Fallen Earth has been moved forward a bit.

The Fallen Earth team has decided to move the launch date for the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO to September 15, 2009, to continue work on server and client optimizations as well as graphic improvements.

Three new screenshots of Fallen Earth can be admired at MMORPG

At the 17th of August the open beta of Fallen Earth starts that you can enter by registering at Fileplanet from the 14th onwards (at which time I assume that link will lead to something where you can register as it doesn't at the moment).

Three new screens of Fallen Earth can be viewed at MMORPG.

The Fallen Earth dev journal at Massively covers this week character builds.

Although classless advancement in Fallen Earth gives players more freedom to build the characters they want and level with skills of their choice, learning how to navigate a wide-open system can be a bit daunting for even the most experienced players. With a little help from the dev team and some crib note suggestions, players can learn how to make the most of the classless advancement system.

In Fallen Earth, characters may advance in rank and abilities regardless of their class or faction, and they can do so steadily. For each rank a character gains, players earn 2 AP (20 AP per level). Some APs can also be gained by completing missions, and all APs are spent however the player desires. The resulting system allows players to raise the skills and stats they think are most important for the character they play.

IGN shows a Fallen Earth video focussing on the 3 B's of the apocalypse; Blood, beasts and babes. The latter one is rightfully announced with a questionmark in the video.

In a recent (short) announcement the release date for Fallen Earth was set for September 9th.

Grab your armor and get ready to fight for the future of mankind. FALLEN EARTH, LLC today announced that the post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online game (MMO) Fallen Earth will be available via digital distribution and through retailers nationwide beginning Wednesday, September 9.

A video featuring the sniper playing style in Fallen Earth is available at Warcry.

Warcry has a video up from Fallen Earth showing how different they are from the average fantasy MMO.

The Fallen Earth developer journal on MMORPG is about the names of bosses and NPCs in the game.

Boss/Creature Names

• Arbiter Reinhold Coleman: The leader of the villainous Judges in the Central Plains. He's a Judge and his first name is Reinhold. Inspired by actor Judge Reinhold.
• "Dr. Corman," the evil Tech boss that players have to fight in Watchtower, owes his name to horror director Roger Corman.
• "Dr. Eddings" is a mad scientist who leads the Shiva's Favored inside New Flagstaff University. His name is an homage to the late fantasy author, David Eddings.
• "Shifty Devlin" is a Traveler thug whose last name is an homage to "Independence Day"/"Stargate" writer Dean Devlin.
• "Dennis Conroy" is a Union leader in New Flagstaff whose last name was inspired by Pat Conroy, author of "The Lords of Discipline" and "The Great Santini."

In their last developer journal on Fallen Earth content designer Grace Hagood, leads us into the Needle Eye Research Facility, a warren full of Throwbacks and Sporekil to show us the various levels in Fallen Earth, their storylines and how they make the player experience richer.

When the citizens of war-torn Old Kingman fled Casta Gaunt's raiders, they expected to find refuge in the farming community of Needle Eye. Fearing reprisals from the raiders, the leaders of Needle Eye closed their doors to the refugees. Shut out from the safety of town, the exiles face a host of problems: mutated monsters, fungal blight, kidnappings, and waning food supplies. Can the solutions be found in the old GlobalTech lab near the wheat fields? Are you brave enough to find out?

Originally, the level was a sprawling complex that we referred to as the Throwback Warrens. Players entered a cave-like opening and traveled through dirt-walled tunnels that opened up into part of a research lab and then returned to more tunnels and finally a bit more lab. Because there were no doors that could conceivably lead to the surface, the level itself really made no sense. Given the name, unsurprisingly, it was filled with Throwbacks, mutant humanoids who vaguely resembled cavemen or "throwbacks to an earlier time."

The fourth edition of Massively's Fallen Earth developer journals takes us through New Flagstaff University, and was written by Wes Platt, Content Team Lead for Fallen Earth.

The campus was established by GlobalTech in the Northfields section of the Grand Canyon Province soon after the megacorp took over the national park from the federal government. A prominent and well-funded university, NFU provided top-notch scientific research and experimentation programs. In the century since the Fall, the school-like the great city that yielded its name-has crumbled into disrepair. However, it still contains equipment that's useful for scientific tinkering.
The Shiva's Favored, mutants who are bent on shaping the Province to their liking, have holed up here with a crazed scientist named Dr. Eddings, who has enlisted a small army of mutants to defend his lab. That lab includes a gas-powered centrifuge needed to create radioactive material needed for a bomb.

Players who visit the barter town of New Flagstaff in Northfields will start their journey to NFU by completing a mission sequence in a sewer system known as the Underworks, where friendly mutants known as Underfolk dwell. Eventually, you're informed that the Shiva's Favored are hard at work creating material they need for a dirty bomb to further wreck the climate for humankind, while making it more amenable to their own needs.

A video where Fallen Earth lead game designer Lee Hammock shows some of the elder gameplay around one of the last towns your character will visit, the novel faction wheel and high-level combat can be found in a video at Ten Ton Hammer.

An interview with Fallen Earth lead designer Lee Hammock including a video of the play session can be found on Massively.

What were your post-apocalyptic influences for this game?

Of course, there are the Mad Max movies, because you can't really do that these days without looking at those. But also stuff like The Postman, more the book than the movie. The movie, no good, but the book is awesome. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Alas, Babylon. We have a lot of big readers in our content department. Also, role-playing games like Twilight 2000 and old computer games like Wasteland, and of course, Fallout to some extent. But we try not to draw too many parallels to Fallout.

[laughs] Now why would you do that?

We get a lot of people who look at our game, see anything post-apocalyptic and go, "Ooh, look a Fallout MMO!" But no! It's not Fallout! Road Warrior existed before Fallout!

I take it this happens to you a lot.

When we went to Gen Con a few years ago, that's all we got. People would say, "Oh, it's a Fallout MMO!" And then they'd be like and be like, "Okay, it's not a Fallout MMO." We're a completely different area, and we're a completely different feel, different humor. We don't have the faux '50s thing going on at all. There's no Power Armor in our game. It's a very different game, but people have trouble seeing that on first glance basically.

In the third installment of Fallen Earth developer journals Sunset Cemetery, the lair of The Cult of the Dead is discussed.

The Cult of the Dead is a pseudo-religious group consisting of human cultists who revere grossly mutated humanoids called Pale Ones. The Pale Ones are Fallen Earth's post-apocalyptic version of vampires. But don't expect a sexy Edward Cullen or charismatic Dracula. Large creatures with sallow skin, long fangs and claws, and snake-like eyes, Pale Ones are closer to the Nosferatu of F.W. Murnau's iconic 1922 film.

Although players can encounter the Cult of the Dead in a few other locations earlier in the game, Sunset Cemetery provides the first large encounter area for the villains. The area was planned to be located outside of Devon Township, a large town in the western part of the sector. When we began writing missions, however, we discovered the area was so far from town that requiring players to return to Devon Township would be frustrating. This turned out to be a happy accident, as sometimes happens when designing a game, because we pulled the related missions out of Devon Township and created Sunset Hill, a small enclave of NPCs nearer to the level. Now the missions of Sunset Hill are directed to Sunset Cemetery, creating a clear, focused experience.

The second Fallen Earth developer Journal can now be read at Massively. It was written by  Wes Platt, Content Team Lead for Fallen Earth and it takes us through Hoffa Bunker.

In the rugged hills of Toro Bend, far north in the Plateau region of the Grand Canyon Province, slouches a fenced town called Trailer Park. It's comprised of big-rig trailers and cargo containers left over from before the Fall. The inhabitants are mostly castoffs who can't fit in anywhere else – and in a mad world after the apocalypse, that's saying a lot.

Billy Bob Swayhill, a shopkeeper in town, talks a great deal. However, not much of it makes much sense. Beyond preaching the glory of soup, Swayhill mostly rants about the treasures waiting to be found in the Hoffa Bunker. He claims that's the final resting place of the treasures owned by Jimmy Hoffa, an assassinated President of the United States, who managed to get his hands on Al Capone's cash, the gold from Fort Knox, and Andy Warhol's soup supply.
History gets lost in the translation of time for some people. The truth about the Hoffa Bunker is this: It's the GlobalTech equivalent of a giant panic room, where corporate executives fled to survive the end of the world as they knew it. Now, the sprawling subterranean complex is full of throwbacks, underdwellers, and other hostile mutants.

The first of a series of 5 Fallen Earth developer journals can be found on Massively. The journal explores the various levels in Fallen Earth.

From high on a hilltop, gray prison walls cast a bleak shadow over the town of Old Kingman. Designed to keep society safe, Old Kingman Prison's purpose has been perverted. The tyrannical Casta Gaunt has captured the stronghold, and now leads his raiders from the safety of its cell blocks and guard towers.

Old Kingman Prison is the first major instance available to players in Fallen Earth. The level offers a compelling end to one of the early overarching plotlines in the game, and provides interesting group gameplay through a structured series of encounters. When we created the prison instance, we agreed on a few rules for our design. We wanted players to contribute directly to furthering the plot. We wanted the instance to be easily accessible. And of course, it had to look great and have enjoyable fights.

Our design took some intensive planning. Kingman County consists of three towns under attack from Gaunt's Raiders, Casta's gang of thugs. Multiple strands of Casta's story intertwine and lead players to the prison, where they can further the plot with sideline missions as well as the main mission to kill Casta. In the sideline missions, the player solves some of the mysteries surrounding Casta and serves up some well-deserved strong-arm justice, ensuring that the player's actions are a driving force in the plot.

In the third part of developer Journals from Fallen Earth Grace Hagood writes about the Judges, a villain faction of major religious fanatics.

Let's face it: religion is a touchy subject. A lot of game designers would rather steer clear of including religion in their work. However, a game like Fallen Earth, set in a future based on extrapolations of current society, can't ignore the reality of religious extremism. What we can do, though, is use our particular (and sometimes peculiar) filters to present religious fanaticism in a post-apocalyptic framework.

Fallen Earth has several groups with religious or pseudo-religious elements. One of our print ads features a woman hiding from some dark strangers, and the tagline reads, "I'm low on bullets, out of gas, and some freaks are trying to steal my ride to worship as a god." Those freaks are the CoGs, a group that reveres technology and attempts to restore broken devices through worship. The Cult of the Dead is another zealot group, human worshipers of the vampiric Pale Ones. Even player factions like the Lightbearers have some hints of religion; Buddhist philosophy provides a strong tone for the group.

My favorite fanatics are the Judges. Players meet the Judges in Mumford, one of the starter towns. The Judges have been drawn there by what they believe is a sign -- a "falling star" -- to offer their own brand of salvation to the population. Players who miss Mumford will encounter the Judges in Coppermine, further into the Plateau. Here they begin showing their true colors. They have forcibly taken over a mine searching for some kind of relics. They've also murdered most of the citizens in the neighboring towns of Pinkston and Mowbray because they viewed the populace as sinful beyond redemption. From there, the Judges only get crueler and quicker to... well... judge.

The 10th interview with a Fallen Earth staff member can be found on their forums. This time lead animator Black Ice is interviewed.

What advice would you give to budding games / software developers?
“Don’t get to cocky my boy, no matter how good you are. Don’t ever let em see you coming, that’s the secret my friend.”

On an average day, what do you do at Fallen Earth?
I am the Lead Animator here at Icarus Studios. I handle the organization, planning and quality control of the animation department. On an average day for Fallen Earth, I would either animate characters or give critiques on animation of characters the team has worked on. I would also undertake the exciting task of file management and more.

In their list of interviews with their own staff members you can find the latest entry with content developer Shakti.

How did you get involved with your job position?

A long, long time ago in a state park far, far away I managed after a long and patient campaign to befriend a young Ewok in his native habitat. That Ewok grew up to be an enormously talented game designer. He recalled that I had once shared a food stick with him and agreed to give me a job. (This is much, much closer to the real story than you might expect.)

We missed reporting on some of the other interviews, but you can find them all here.

Stractics are hosting a dev chat; informs Blue's News web-site.

A chat is planned today with the Fallen Earth development team, hosted by Stratics, with the festivities getting underway at 9:00 pm EST. Register participants in the Fallen Earth alpha will have an additional chance to interact with the devs today, though, as there is an event slated to run in the alpha beginning at about 1:00 pm EST, where six teams lead by developers will struggle for control of one of the conflict towns in the post-apocalyptic MMORPG. Full details on each event can be found in the Fallen Earth Forums.

Product Manager Circatrix a.k.a. Marketing Chick, is the next in line of Fallen Earth interviews on the Fallen Earth site.

On an average day, what do you do at Fallen Earth?
One could best describe it as spinning plates in the circus. So many things are going at a time that you have to have a lot of concentration. I work with a PR team, a media planning group, a community team and all the guys in house that work on production and design. I provide oversight for our marketing projects, but also make sure that all of these teams have what they need to keep pushing forward. Lots of emails, Excel and reviewing assets and editorial.

The guys at Fallen Earth have interviewed themselves for the fourth time (I guess we missed reporting on the other 3). This time its lead scripter Funslayer.

On an average day, what do you do at Fallen Earth? Well, for the last several months I've been making the new tutorial work. As the largest and most tightly scripted series of events so far in the game it's taken quite a bit of my time. Along with that I triage bug reports, try to keep my team members organized and handle any scripting emergency that comes along. Oh, and I read far too much cracked.com.

Tiggs informs on the current development state of Fallen Earth which is looking set to up its PR shortly.

We recently released the tutorial and new character creation, and we plan to polish the new player experience even more. There are also new UI features in almost every patch to clean up the interface and give players more information. The graphics engine is also getting a lot of bug fixes and optimizations to improve frame rate. We continue to fix crash bugs and build the infrastructure necessary to maintain live service with GM commands and more robust system monitoring.

We’ve signed up roughly 4,000 testers in Alpha and are currently running the sign up process through our Web site. We will keep adding qualified new testers as they are needed. We’re still cranking out patches for the alpha testing environment and are looking to our next milestone of closed beta.

We are also working to beef up our marketing machine. We recently hired a PR agency to help with media relations and are looking forward to having more of a presence on the Web, dev journals and features in upcoming magazines and contests and free stuff for our fans. You’ll also hear more about Fallen Earth on the road in some fan events and public demos.

A new video teaser of Fallen Earth can be found on Warcry.

Fallen Earth to move into alpha testing shortly.

We are happy to announce that we’ve opened sign-ups for Alpha testing to all forum users who are not already registered. A new section, “Fallen Earth Testing,” was recently added to the “User CP” preferences for each forum user’s account.
To sign up, participants will first need to create an account for the Fallen Earth Forums at forums.fallenearth.com

Guilds and clans planning on establishing themselves in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallen Earth can now apply for guild/clan registration as part of the game's alpha testing. Click the link for full details concerning applying.

I'm not sure how newsworthy this is, but the Halloween costume contest for the post-apoc MMO Fallen Earth has finished and the winner has been selected. The honours go to CaptBob8789 for his photo of a gasoline dependant, post-apoc, militarist nomade.

See all the entries here.

The official forums of Fallen Earth hosts a weekly Q&A session, and this week the questions are centrered around the recent announcement of closed alpha testing. Something for Europeans:

2. When choosing people for Alpha and Beta, does it matter I am from Europe and not America?

At this stage we're primarily looking at North American testers due to connection speeds and such, but in later stages this may not be the case. Remember, a big part of what we're doing first is ironing out technical wrinkles.

3. What are your plans on releasing the game in Europe? Can we expect FE to arrive in our stores here about the same day they will hit the US stores?

We're not sure yet. This is one of those situations where business negotiations are underway, so I can't say much for fear of jinxing it or giving someone the wrong idea. Suffice to say we are working with some folks in Europe to get the game on European shelves as soon as we can. Believe me, we like Euros as much as dollars (if not more these days) so it's in our best interests to get the game out to Europe as soon as possible.

The official website of Fallen Earth brings news that they are seeking testers for alpha testing of Fallen Earth and that recruitment for this will happen at GameSpot (Rumored to be the 6. of August):

Starting Soon, Fallen Earth Fans will be able to apply at GameSpot.com to be a part of Fallen Earth's first round Alpha Test. Testers will be selected on basis of systems specs, times they are available to play, connection speed, etc. The testing process begins shortly thereafter. The initial pool will grow as time passes and more testers are selected from the applications so if you don't make into the first round you may make it into later rounds of the Alpha Test.

A step-by-step description of the recruitment process have been posted by MoonShadow, Community Manager, at the official forums:

1) Go to Gamespot and sign up for the FREE account http://www.gamespot.com/signup/index...tag=login;join

2) Wait for an announcement from me/us with a link to the Alpha sign up page. There is no link now, it is too soon. I will post it as soon as it is available to me.

3) Wait patiently for #2 to happen

 Offical update on Fallen Earth's progress.

Fallen Earth™, the post apocalyptic MMOG in development using the Icarus Studios Tools Suite platform has reached the Alpha milestone and is now “feature complete.”

Over the past six months, the Fallen Earth team has implemented new production processes which have allowed for improved product quality and a streamlined development schedule. Colin Dwan, who was promoted from Lead Engineer to Project Manager, said, “Fallen Earth has great technology and tons of content, but we needed to put a stake in the ground about all the features that were absolutely necessary to ship with. Now that we’ve finalized that long list, we’ve been able to spend all of our time making those features really fun.”

 Offical site announces "Feature Complete".

Fallen Earth, a post-apocalyptic MMOG in development using the Icarus Studios Tools Suite platform, today announced it has reached the Alpha milestone and is now “Feature Complete.”

The official forums bring us a fan Q&A with ten questions that have been answered by the developers of Fallen Earth:

4. Have you thought about providing a bot for clans/organizations/whatever - chat (like in Anarchy Online, as example, even if the bots there are provided by players)?

Currently, we don't have plans for something like that. We may look at adding something similar eventually, but it would be way down the road.

5. Will we be able to choose our own color for the clothing we make as crafters?

On some items, yes. Generally, clothes can be made in a number of colors, but most armor cannot. For example, most shirts, pants, and shoes have multiple color options while Marauder Plate or Safari Shin Guards only come in one model.

6. Aside from glasses and eye patches, what else can we put over the eyes - a cloth that goes over one eye or both?

All sorts of stuff: 3-D glasses, visors, gas masks, safety goggles, monocles. Currently, bandanas or other cloths cannot be worn over the eyes.

A lighthearted preview of Fallen Earth is up at Stratics.com. Apparently there are no classes in the game:

No class here!
Fallen Earth is designed as a classless system, where each player allocates advancement points in order to advance their character’s stats. You want to be average in all forms of combat and skill? Spread out the advancement points over several skills. You want to be kick ass with a rifle? Put your stats into dexterity and perception. By allowing the player to specialize in certain skills they will be able to shine in a particular area, but at the cost of limiting their abilities elsewhere.

Two posts containing an official story called "Through the Shadows" have been published on Fallen Earth's forums. Here's the opening bit:

When they closed the door, Desirée finally let herself cry.

Elder Isaac snuffed the candle before he went. "We leave you now, child," he said softly, as though he were the one suffering. "You have been granted this precious time alone to make your peace with God. Offer up the pain of your penance. He is the only light you need." And then he left Desirée alone in the dark, grinding her teeth as the agony in her leg shrieked and howled.

The Fallen Earth development team has released a progress report on their forums along side some new images to show the development of their graphics engine.

Keith Cross @ MMORPG has a short interview with Fallen Earth's Lead Designer Lee Hammock from the GDC.

Players will also be getting more information from NPCs in the background. The sparse unpopulated landscape of the future now has a few more residents, who will be playing out scenes in the background to inform and entertain. Lee described one scene where a newly cloned individual is unable to cope with the new reality which he’s been spawned into and winds up having a bit of a freak-out culminating in offing himself, only to be cloned again to play out the scene again to the bewilderment of by standing NPCs who just watch and make humorous comments.

MPOgD catches up with Lee Hammock, the Lead Game Designer for Fallen Earth.

Fallen Earth is a first-person-shooter, based on target resolution. If you actually want to hit somebody, you have to get him within in your targeting reticule. You can also play the game in 3^rd person mode, with the same targeting method. Hammock found first person better for ranged combat, and preferred 3^rd person for melee, due to the greater range of vision available.

 "Damage done to the target is based on more of an rpg model, taking into account your skills, weapon enhancements, their armor and the target's skill at not getting hit," says Lee, "However, you will never get a situation where you will have an enemy targeted, but are told that you "miss". Now, if they have great armor, you may not do damage, but you'll hit them!"

MMORPG.com catches up with Lee Hammock, the Lead Game Designer for Fallen Earth, to discuss what sets this title apart from other MMOs.

WarCry has an interview on the Icarus Platform technology behind Fallen Earth:

WarCry: There's been a bit of confusion surrounding the relationship between Icarus Studios and Fallen Earth. Who is the actual developer of Fallen Earth, and what are the reasons behind the separation?

David Gardner: It's really simple. Icarus is a platform licensor and project studio. Fallen Earth is a separate company and an Icarus customer. Fallen Earth was spun off from Icarus Studios. There were a lot of benefits of working with an MMO while polishing our tools and platform. We also believe that Fallen Earth will serve as a showcase for the Icarus platform in the MMO space.

Icarus Studios' Wes Platt has been interviewed at Ten Ton Hammer about his background in MUD development and his work on Fallen Earth:

Micajah: Tell us a little bit about the story you’re formulating for Fallen Earth. It’s a post apocalyptic world where people are trying to rebuild, obviously. Are there any “main” characters? What kind of civilization do these people currently have? What sort of world is this, besides “post-apocalyptic”?

Wes: We do tend to have main characters among the NPCs, from town leaders to prominent members of the six factions, which the players will get to know during the course of their adventures in the Grand Canyon Province.

The civilization is one you might expect to find in such circumstances: Different groups of people with competing agendas, settling in and rebuilding amidst the ruins of the world that fell, struggling just to get enough resources to survive. Times are grim; people are desperate. But the game wouldn't be much fun to play if it was just dark and gloomy all the time. It has moments of light-hearted fun and humor. It also offers a good bit of hope, here and there.

integration into working on Fallen Earth:

Stratics talks to Lee Hammock, the lead game designer of Fallen Earth.

Stratics: Fallen Earth is taking on a different aspect of the MOG genre and going after the First-Person Shooter style that many companies have decided not to touch.  What made you decide to tackle this genre and then mix it into a Post-Apocalypse style that really hasn't been done, or have I just answered my own question?

Lee: The obvious reason is that it's a genre that hasn't been dealt with in the MMO space in any significant manner. We also wanted to do a game that was edgier, darker, and grounded in our current world. Lastly, we didn't want to just rehash the same old MMO gameplay that has been done dozens of times before. We wanted to bring something new to the gaming experience, and we felt having a game that was a hybrid between FPS and RPG would offer the best of both worlds.

Icarus Studios' Lee Hammock has been interviewed at WarCry about Fallen Earth:

Swing by MMORPG.com and catch a glimpse of Icarus Studio's Fallen Earth in three exclusive screenshots .

MMORPG.com talks to Lee Hammock of the Fallen Earth development team.

MMORPG.com: It is great to talk to you guys again about Fallen Earth. We got a chance to see the game last year at E3 (and again brefily at GDC) and it looked very in depth; can you tell us how development has been going since May?

Lee Hammock: Development has basically changed focus from laying the groundwork for the game to filling it with content. We've got the technology, tools, world background, and art needed to make the game work and now it's primarily the task of filling Fallen Earth with fun things to do that lies before us. We've been going full steam ahead on that front for a good while now. 

Ten Ton Hammer has a look at the post-apoc title Fallen Earth based on a GDC viewing:

The storyline requires more than a modest mention, as it’s far from a lofty sidebar to your adventure; indeed, it seemed to have had bearing on every aspect of the demo. The tale of Fallen Earth, Hammock explained, is the really story of its factions, each with their own ideas of how to keep civilization safe in a post-apocalyptic world. The Chota ( or “Children of the Apocalypse”) believe that the only way to prevent the re-invention of nuclear weapons and other broadly destructive weapons is by chaotically frustrating society’s attempts to develop beyond covering the barest necessities. The Enforcers believe that authoritarian government and an emphasis on law and order is the way to go. The Vistas, like the operating system of the same name, seek to send everyone backwards in time, believing that repairing and fostering nature is the only way to restore balance.

The second part of RPG Vault's Fallen Earth interview with Lee Hammock is online and discusses "gameplay, missions, death penalties et al":

Jonric: How significant will quests or missions be in the game? Should we expect to see a lot of them, and will there be many different types?

Lee Hammock: Missions are a significant part of Fallen Earth, and we have a huge number of them to choose from. They can be found in most towns in some form or another, though some tasks will only be open to those of certain factions. Also, some may have multiple ways of completing them, such as a mission where you recover some Enforcer battle plans, then can choose if you return them to the Enforcers or hand them over to some other faction.

We are keeping the "collecting five widgets" missions to a minimum in favor of other types that involve the large-scale stories in the game. It may not always be apparent at first, but players who are attentive will see hints throughout the game of the bigger picture that is our story.

RPG Vault has caught up with Icarus Studios' Dead Designer Lee Hammock to discuss Fallen Earth.  The conversation starts with Icarus explaining their low profile and then moving on to the usual territory:

Jonric: How combat-oriented will Fallen Earth's gameplay be? What are your goals for the type of experience you want players to have? To what extent are you emphasizing PvP?

Lee Hammock: Fallen Earth will be very combat-oriented, though it will be possible to advance through the game without fighting if you so wish. Our overall goal with the combat system is to create a fast-paced type of experience that is a more active style of play than found in most MMORPGs.

A major factor in this is PvP combat, which will involve fighting over towns. Factions can take control of them, so people have something real to fight over, though if they don't want to be involved in PvP they'll have plenty else to do.

A rare bit of exposure for Fallen Earth - OGaming has put up their exclusive preview of the post-apocalyptic MMO title from Icarus Studios.

 So, during this year’s GDC, we jumped at the opportunity to be the first to sit down with Icarus Studios VP of Business Development Christophe Watkins for an actual one-on-one in-game preview of Fallen Earth.

This post-apocalyptic-based MMO takes players to one of the last enclaves of human existence, an area surrounding the Grand Canyon.

One of the most important aspects of Fallen Earth is its well crafted and very mysterious storyline. Watkins points out that the plot of any
doomed world must be believable.