Hi everybody!

The description of the Earthrise Insurance system from last week's QOTW brought a lot of feedback to us, so this week we'd like to continue the topic and answer some of the interesting questions we got in a FAQ form. Thanks all for showing your enthusiasm and interest on the subject.

Will there be terminals where u can insure items or will it be an interface thing?
Masthead: Players must visit a civilized settlement and access a terminal to safely choose what items in their inventory to insure. This is intended to make insurance a logistic problem - as you cannot choose what items to insure in the wilderness (at death you can repeat the old insurance anywhere, but can't customize it - either all or nothing), you may fall in a surprise attack by other players who will loot anything you've collected. There will be ways around it and you won't have to travel long to find one, so the risk will be moderate at best.

Everything in your inventory will be allowed to be insured?
Masthead: As we mentioned before, certain items will not be insurable and depending on what designs are placed in a crafted item, it might not be insurable everywhere. For example, certain extremely sought-off resources will not be insurable as no insurance department would accept the risks associated with it. Also, some designs will be in the monopoly of certain factions. Using those designs to craft items will make them impossible to insure at the department of the opposing faction. This evens out situations when Continoma players sell Continoma tech to Noir players - sure, Noir players can grab that Conti-gun and shoot around with it; they just can't insure their property over it, so such property would be temporary at best.

What if you are killed by a guard and you do not insure it.  Will the guards take it away?
Masthead: Depending on your standing towards guard's Faction, he will either send your property to the insurance department and you get it back upon ressurection, or it gets confiscated. Therefore, yes, guards can loot you if they kill you; they won't touch your loot if another player or a monster kills you. You personally wouldn't want to get caught by guards when you're so hated by the state.

How is the insurance money split up when you are grouped?
Masthead: Evenly. Everyone in the groups who has dealt certain amount of damage to the player gets a split on the insurance money.  This is to make things simple and predictable for players and encourage them to contribute in the kill of an opponent. Why would you join the final killing moments of a powerful enemy if you know your chances of reward are next to slim?

Will there be partial insurance?
Masthead: Every single item can be separately insured via terminal. Upon death, players will get a quick option to repeat their last insurance by hot-lining with their insurance company, but to change their insurance from what it was in their last life they'd need to access such terminal. Every item can be insured separately and as armor gear is made of various armor parts, they can be insured piece by piece.

How will you prevent gangs of players simply rampaging across the map for the loot and insurance reward?
Masthead: The spirit of PvP is that players kill other players for a reason. In Earthrise, a lot of that reasoning comes from personal gain - loot and insurance rewards. But PvP is a double-edged sword - you can kill someone and reap the rewards, but you also can be killed in return. That is why we have a guard system that ensures that in many parts of the island, you will get an adequate protection and looting gangs will be discouraged. When more guards get killed in an area will result in more and stronger guards being spawned; at one time a squad of super-strong guards will charge in, and not just obliterate a reckless loot guild, but in fact they'd LOOT the loot guild. Now how's that for a vengeance! At other places however, it'll gonna be gang territory.

Increasing cost of insurance: does this mean...?
Masthead: Your item insurance cost is based on several factors. First, cost of the item, insurance is based on the nominal item price between a nominal minimum (to discourage insurance of cheap items) and nominal maximum (to encourage insurance of expensive items). Second, the legal status of the item. We've already mentioned illegal tech, but there will be designs that make an item a restricted tech, which isn't forbidden to sell but carries a hefty increase of the insurance cost percentage. Third, it's your own standing towards the faction at which you insure your items. If you are Continomian zealot, it's normal for them to give you a cut on the insurance. On the other side, if you have shown your disrespect to the authority, you can expect them to tax your insurance to the point where you either make it with them, or you change sides, forfeit your current insurance and make insurance with your new party. The system is made to discourage penalty-free change of Faction as well as to reward those players who stay true to the ideology of their government.

Now if you didn't see your question, don't worry! This isn't the last time we'll ever discuss the system, so please feel free to keep contributing your ideas, questions and feedback.

See you all next week!
~ m.

Is this on an individual basis or a group basis?  So like if some medic was sitting in the back treating a wounded guy while the rest of his group takes down some other group will the medic get a cut of the payoff?  Or is he S.O.L. because he didn't do any damage?

I've never known a thug/criminal sell insurance unless it was for fraud...
Illegal weaponry/armor have their risks, and the fact that you cant insure them is one of them...

The impression I get is that "illegal" items will only be "illegal" for one of the factions, in which case you might be able to insure it with the other faction albeit at a much larger cost (depending on your status with them)

Not likely, guards will probably be heavily armed in the first place, so it will take more than one or two to 'tank' them all, and most likely if one guard is attacked, more will rush the area, and if they die, stronger ones will replace them until the attackers are dead or retreat... so i dont really see any issue.

And about the healing, no other mmo has an issue with it, and like the devs said, there will never be a healer who 'just heals'. There isnt a class, so the healers can heal when its needed, and fight when it isnt. Besides, who's to say that the 'healer's' abilities wont have some offensive abilities as well.

lets say that you are in a pvp fight and some person come by and does some damage to the person you are trying to kill at the last couple seconds.  Does that player gets  some of the money that you earned or do they get none but you get less than you would of gotten if you did it by yourself? 

they did say there was a damage threshold to receive the payout.

And if somebody comes by and takes part of your payout, just make him next on the kill list

wow. thanks Molly and Masthead