Yesterday GamersFirst revealed the launch date for the free-to-play version of Fallen Earth will be October 12. Also revealed was the most “finalized” version of the new subscription plans were are split into 4 types, Scavenger, which is free, Survivalist, Wastlander and Commender, which have costs of $9.99, $14.99 and $29.99 per month respectively.

The biggest difference between the free plan and subscription plans is the rate at which you gain XP, and other rates of achievements such as AP and Faction points.  Free players are also limited to how many hours per day they can spend crafting, which is eight, so that should only really effect a tiny portion of players.

After the jump we have the full subscription plan details compassion chart for you to take a look at.  Keep in mind this is not the official final version, so things can still change.

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The newest expansion, Alpha County, for Fallen Earth is now live on servers.  The Alpha County expansion is available for free to all subscribers and most likely will be free to all once Fallen Earth makes the transition to a free to play title at the end of this year.

The new expansion will allow players to progress though five levels of new missions, introduce new crafted items and equipment, improved combat balance, six new Skill Lines, player-versus-player (PvP) objectives, improved mutation abilities and player-controlled Progress Towns.

For a full list of features, head over to the official Fallen Earth site.

The latest major update to Fallen Earth, the Alpha County patch, is ready to go live tomorrow at 11:00 AM EDT.  Alpha County was originally supposed to go live yesterday, however due to technical issues was pushed back to tomorrow.

Alpha County will open up the first county in the fourth sector of Fallen Earth, called The Grainway, which is made up of 11 towns, 2 town events and over 700 missions.  The Grainway also adds a new conflict down were PvPers can battle it out for resources and items.  The Alpha County update will also include new unique area bosses for larger groups looking for a bigger challenge.

Players wishing to enter The Grainway will have to reach a minimum level of 50 before entering. Aside from the new content a ton of changes have been made to combat which can be found on the official Fallen Earth site.

The acquisition of Fallen Earth by GamersFirst today was finalized and didn’t take long for GamersFirst to announce that it would be moving the MMORPG to the free to play model.  The 12 man Fallen Earth development team will stay intact and will help transition the game into the new business model and continue work on the Alpha County expansion.

Once transitioned to Free2Play, Fallen Earth will give free players completely unrestricted permanent access to every zone and instance in the game. Several types of services, items and conveniences will continue being sold in the Fallen Earth store. Subscriptions will be replaced by a tiered membership system that caters to players of all levels of engagement, and each membership will include reward points that can be used to obtain store items for free on a monthly basis.

Players with a current subscription will maintain them through the transition period and will receive significant rewards one the transition is completed later this year.

Current subscribers who maintain their subscriptions through the estimated five month transition period will collect significant rewards when the game completes the transition, projected for Q4 of this year. Those players who remain on their subscriptions during this time will receive lifetime upgrades to a premium tier membership for the price of an existing subscription, as well as unique veteran-only items, the value of which will be determined by the number of months the player subscribed between June 2011 and the completion of the transition.

Alpha County is on the horizon, but it ain’t here quite yet. No need to worry, though, since the wastelanders at Icarus Studios have been making timely and incremental advances towards the big release. Meanwhile, Fallen Earth is getting its shoes polished with regards to Progress Towns, the center of player-driven content in sectors 2, 3, and Deadfall.

The terrain and environmental effects are getting some love as the developers work to make the atmosphere of Alpha County fit the overarching lore therein. Not content with recycling the same artistic style that dominates the wasteland, Icarus is starting from the ground up with improved tools and and a close eye on how the environment interacts with players as they progress through the story.

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Yesterday, the fine folks over at Icarus Studios have shared the current state of Fallen Earth. Life looks good in the wasteland — as good as it gets, anyways; the devs have been efficient with their time, and have been able to move up some previously long-term projects to release in Q2. As a prelude to Alpha County (the newest sector in development), a mini-zone known as Terminal Woods will go live later this month, complete with additional achievements, a PvP zone , Scavenger bosses, and roaming World bosses for players to confront.

Jump past the cut to dig in on Alpha County content and other updates!

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Last December, Icarus Studios began tweaking the math behind the combat of Fallen Earth to make the game more balanced and hospitable for various spec builds.

Part two of those combat changes take effect this February as developers try to update the various skill and mutation lines to the post-apocalyptic MMO. The February patch also rolls out the monster-in-a-bottle Scavenger boss system and possible component drop increases that will keep us busy until we make the leap over the Grainway Wall by mid-2011.

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Icarus Studios is making a huge effort to improve Fallen Earth, its post-apocalyptic MMORPG, featuring a human post-nuclear civilization. This game is cool, it has one of the best crafting systems in the market and is far away from the conventional and average MMO. Simply different, you must try it if you’re looking to flee from orcs, elves and pixies.

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With all this buzz about a certain post-apocalyptic Obsidian game that came out late last month, we had almost forgotten about our friends over at Fallen Earth. As if our negligence had been predicted, a shiny State of the Game letter showed up on our virtual doorstep today – and what a state it is in.

…I mean that in a good way, of course! Icarus Studios is been positively electric with activity these days; from physical combat improvements to graphics fixes to Black Friday festivities, there is certainly no shortage of material for me to relay to you. Don’t believe me? Jump past the cut to find out exactly what has been going on behind the scenes of everyone’s favorite post-apocalyptic MMO.

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It’s nice when our game, whatever game that may be, hears us. It’s nice when they recognize their player base and throws us a bone. Call it what you will, but this is the norm for most massively multiplayer games. Now that you’ve met the norm, I’d like you to meet the exception. For over a year now, Fallen Earth has continued to deliver steady updates of both polish and content as well as keeping a constant line of communication open with its subscribers.

Ask any Wastelander, and you’ll find out quickly; Fallen Earth is not a well polished game. It has a lot of combat problems, graphics glitches, and even some animation issues, but you have to ask the right questions to get the real take-away.

Ask those same players how the game has matured. Ask them if the game is getting better. Ask them if the developer listens to their players. Ask them if the developer cares about the game they play. What you’ll find is a very loving community, dedicated to helping out new players and talking Fallen Earth up. Icarus Studios needs no PR Team. After all, they have their players.

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