On October 22 the Fallen Earth development team will roll out a major patch, featuring new player experience areas. These new areas are an optional extension to the existing tutorial. Also included in the patch are upgrades for town events and eight pages of bug fixes, confirming that this team doesn't sleep.

"While we wanted players to have unlimited options in their game play experiences, so many options so early in the game can be overwhelming for even experienced players," said Colin Dwan, project manager for Fallen Earth. "This isn't hand-holding, because we don't want to remove the challenge of the game--we're just making some of the early game choices more understandable."

While the existing tutorial introduces players at Level 40 to whet appetites for high-end game play and introduces them to a variety of game maneuvers and tactics, the optional tutorial extension coming in patch 1.2.0 will offer players an additional 30 to 45 minutes of play time. The new tutorial content will provide deeper forays into crafting, scavenging, and mounts while reinforcing basic combat and harvesting. The additional content helps ease new players into introductory decisions they make in the game's starter towns.

Additionally, the development team took the opportunity to more closely examine town events. Town events are public events in which players can accept missions to affect and progress the series of events. The team focused specifically on areas such as Boneclaw, Clinton Farm and the Embry Crossroads Monster Hunt to streamline missions and make them more understandable.

"We had the chance to step outside the development box and evaluate what our players were really seeing," said Dwan. "Getting feedback from our testers in the testing phase and comments since launch have helped us hone in on necessary changes in these towns."

The patch in its entirety can be summarized in the eight pages of fixes, coming soon in version notes (to be posted on forums.fallenearth.com just prior to the patch). Look for them on October 21. Other upcoming events on the Fallen Earth agenda include a week-long Halloween extravaganza, Days of the Dead. Stay tuned to www.fallenearth.com for all upcoming news and events. Information can also be found on the Fallen Earth Facebook page and on Twitter @FallenEarth.