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.

The Fallen Earth team is giving away gifts to players who subscribe to the game over the next few months. Of course, the longer you subscribe the more gifts you'll get. Here are the details:

• Having an active subscription or game time code at any point in July will get you some Fancy White Boots and a Skindog pet in August.
• Having an active subscription or game time code at any point in August nets you a Snazzy White Hat and a Chupacabras pet in September.
• Having an active subscription or game time code in September means you'll get the Sexy White Jacket and the Old Creeper pet in October.

If you want to grab those boots to complete the entire outfit, you'll need to subscribe by Sunday, July 31. Check after the jump for a visual guide to all of the subscriber appreciation gifts.

Last month, GamersFirst announced that it had acquired Fallen Earth and will be switching the game to a hybrid free-to-play model during the fourth quarter of this year. As you can imagine, there are all sorts of back-end changes being implemented. Once such change is that you'll need a free GamersFirst account to log into Fallen Earth beginning August 1. Here are the details from a new dev blog entry:

"In summary, on August 1st before you log in to the game you will be prompted to merge your Fallen Earth account with a GamersFirst account. Once you’ve completed the merge, from then on you will log in to Fallen Earth with your GamersFirst account. If you have a credit card subscription from then on you’re good to go; if you use PayPal or Click&Buy, you’ll need to resubscribe. Accounts that complete this transition by August 5th will receive some "thank-you" G1 Credits. New upgrades will only need to pay $14.99, and will receive a Buddy key, but no hat or ATV. The full Free2Play transition is currently still underway, and we’re making good time."

Do you want to earn some in-game 3D glasses in both APB: Reloaded and Fallen Earth? Then you might want to play Fallen Earth through Monday, July 25. To make up for some potential downtime that may occur in APB while the team implements version 1.5.2, GamersFirst has provided an incentive for APB players to try out Fallen Earth this weekend. Here are the details:

• Make a Fallen Earth trial account using the same e-mail as the G1 account you use for APB.
• Hit level 7 in Fallen Earth from July 20-25 to earn the 3D glasses in both games.
• All prizes will be given out during the first week of August.

GamersFirst recently acquired Fallen Earth and will be making the game free-to-play later this year.

It looks like the Fallen Earth team has managed to survive the IT errors to launch their latest expansion pack, Alpha County, today at 11:00 AM EDT. This expansion will not only be free to all current and future subscribers, but players should be quite happy with all of the changes coming, including the introduction of progress towns, improved combat balance and skill lines, new armor, weapons and tools, as well as new zones and new objectives. So if you've been waiting for an excuse to get into Fallen Earth (or to get back into it!), then now would be a great time to check it out!

You can read the full patch notes here!

It looks like we're going to have to wait just a bit longer for the launch of Alpha County. The major Fallen Earth update was originally scheduled to launch today, but it's been moved to tomorrow, July 7 at 11 a.m. EDT due to technical issues.

Alpha County raises the level cap to 55 and introduces new missions, new crafted items and equipment, improved combat balance, six new Skill Lines, PvP objectives, improved mutation abilities and player-controlled Progress Towns. For more details, check out the patch notes.