Earthrise:

General:

Gameplay Style:
Earthrise will be an over-the-shoulder third person shooter with RPG elements such as skills and upgradeable equipment. Earthrise will not have any hitboxes, so shooting a player in the head won't do any more damage than shooting them in the foot. There will be a dice-roll effect with each shot, and the targeting will be sticky in Earthrise. The devs decided to do this to eliminate the need for twitch based combat skills and focus more on a strategic feel to the game. Earthrise will also feature full PVP and full looting, meaning you can be attacked anywhere and if you don't have your items insured, the attacker can loot your corpse and take your items. However, there will be measures in place to protect players from being attacked in major cities, and from losing all of their gear.

System Requirements:
Only the minimum system requirements for the game have been released because the devs want to have the most accurate idea of recommended system requirements as they can, and it's simply too early in the development process to tell. There has been a lot of discussion within the community about possible recommended system requirements, but we haven't been able to come to anything conclusive. We now know that Earthrise is, in fact, multi-core optimized. Earthrise will support both DirectX 9, and DirectX 10, so Windows XP/2k/ME/98 and Windows Vista will all be supported.

The current minimum system requirements are: 2 GHz CPU, 1024 MB RAM and 256 MB VRAM video card supporting shader model v3.0

Sources: FAQ

Character/Item Customization:
This quote from the FAQ sums it up quite nicely: "Players will be able to customize their character’s gender, size, complexion, face and hair but primary statistics will be pre-assigned. For those wanting to tweak primary stats, there will an opportunity to do so during the new player experience, but is not required." We've found that armors will be colorable/customizable and the FAQ again says: "Item creation and customization will be unlike any other MMO to date, allowing items to be creative, unique and potentially ground breaking."

Sources: Character Uniqueness QotW, and FAQ

Beta:

We don't have an exact date, but we DO know that beta should be starting soon! I won't speculate as to exactly when, however. We're told that after the major kinks are worked out that people will be given the opportunity to apply for other rounds of closed beta. I've been told via e-mail that the only real way to increase your chances of getting into beta is to be active in the forums (though that still isn't guaranteed). As beta hits, a beta testers forum will be created to discuss bugs and other issues.

Sources: Stratics House of Commons chat, and Moll's comment

Release & Fees:
Release is scheduled for sometime in 2009. The FAQ says the game will set a monthly price comparable to other major online games. As of the moment Masthead plans to distribute the game themselves through download, but they're also looking for a publisher to distribute the games into stores if they can find a good enough deal.

Sources: FAQ, and Stratics House of Commons chat

Expansions, Localization, and Support:
Masthead has announced that they were thinking about future expansions after launch, as well as frequent content updates and bug fixes. They are also looking into translating the game into other languages for localization, but plan to try and keep all of the players on the same server.

Sources: MMO Gamer Interview, and Stratics HoC chat

Skills:

How they work:
Earthrise isn't your typical MMO game when it comes to skills. Earthrise has no levels, no experience, and no permanent passive benefits. We'll be gaining skill points through actually using the skills individually. As those skill points reach certain levels, abilities will be unlocked for for our use. The abilities we can use are determined by the equipment we're using. Changing the equipment we have on will effectively change the ability set we can use. Some of these abilities will give us passive effects like making it easier to skill and things of that type, while others have a more short term effect or attack. It's also worth noting that Skills will only be possible to raise through PVE, so players must fight mobs in order to advance their characters.

Sources: Ready, Aim, QoTW!, and MOG Interview thread

Types of Skills:
While we may not know any specific skills, we do have an idea of the types of skills we'll see in-game. Here's a list of what we know will be in-game: ranged, melee, psionics (magic), medical, smuggling, and crafting. We're told ER will have 270 different abilities divided into 27 skill trees.

Sources: Various places.

Crafting:

How crafting will work:
Crafting in Earthrise is different from crafting in many other games. In many games you farm the required skills and then go out and buy a blueprint so you can construct something. In Earthrise you raise your skills in crafting to learn different 'technologies' to be used in the crafting process, enabling you to craft more items over time. Players will have to discover their own designs and recipes for crafting. We were recently told that crafting would also have blueprints involved as well, but as I understand it they're only to help improve existing technologies.

Sources: Crafting QoTW, 2nd Stratics Chat

What can be crafted?
Everything. Weapons, armor, items, drugs, medical supplies, personal vehicles, mechs, and even guild bases will all be crafted. The best player equipment in the game will be craftable.

Sources: Crafting QoTW

Materials for Crafting:
Masthead has announced 3 categories of materials for crafting: common, uncommon, and 'special'. Common items will be purchasable in shops, but it's still unclear right now if it'll be possible to directly loot them off of monsters. We're told that junk loot from monsters can be broken down into commonly used items for crafting. Uncommon materials will be farmed by guild bases and in mines. As for the special category, it seems there's only a single resource qualified to be in this category, and that resource is only found in dangerous zones swarmed with mutants and other players who want to kill you. Mechs will have to be used to farm this special resource.

Sources: Resources and Transportation QoTW
 
The Market:
In Earthrise there will be a global auction house available that would be accessible from any civilized area. It's also confirmed that there will be some form of stock market available in the game. I wasn't sure which section to stick this under so I figured I'd stick it in crafting since crafting seems like it'll be the main driving force behind the market.

Sources: Shopping the Economy QoTW

Transportation:
There will be various modes of transportation available in Earthrise including running, personal vehicles, mechs, and teleportation. I figure running is self-explainatory so I'll only go over the other modes of transport.

Personal Vehicles:
Personal vehicles will be crafted, and as the name suggests they will be one-seated only.. The only vehicles in this category we know we'll have right now are hovercraft, hoverboards, and hoverbikes. Personal hovercraft will be considerably faster than running, and won't require fuel to run, meaning free transportation after the hovercraft has been purchased. They're also said to be customizable in the FAQ.

Sources: FAQ, HoC Dev Chat

Mechs:
Mechs will also be crafted. We know at this point that we'll be able to mount mechs, but we aren't sure at this point if they can be controlled remotely. Running mechs will be very costly because of the fuel they consume. Mechs cannot be modified after they've been constructed, and have to be constructed to perform one of two main tasks: combat, or harvesting. There is no limit to the number of mechs a single player can own.

Sources: Two Questions, Two Answers QoTW, HoC Dev Chat

Teleportation:
Teleportation is just as it sounds, instant transport from one point to another. Teleportation will require fees to be used though, so it's up to you if you'd like to run/drive there, or teleport. We aren't yet sure how many teleports there will be, or if we need to discover them before using them.

Sources: Resources and Transportation QoTW

Factions/Guilds:

Main Factions/story:
There are 4 main 'factions' in Earthrise, including Continoma, Noir, Neutral, and Criminal (though technically Continoma and Noir are the only real 'factions'). You can read about the History between the factions here: Here

Sources: Earthrise Website

Mini Factions:
Besides the 4 main factions, there are mini factions that associate themselves with the main factions. These mini factions spawned during the initial cloning of the pioneers when they began following their own ideals. There are a few too many than I care to list here, but you can read a little about each 'organization' as they're called here and here.

Sources: (listed in the description)

Guilds:
Guilds will be entirely open ended, allowing guild masters to recruit anyone into the guild (possibly even members of the opposing faction). Masthead seems focused on giving guild members a lot of control over how they can set up their guild, but we don't have any definite information on the ranking system. Guilds will be able to construct guild bases which may be upgraded over time. These guild bases can farm resources for the guild and make the guild money, but must be defended against other guilds.

Sources Personal Faction Affiliation QoTW, Territory Control QoTW, Territory Control Pt. 2 QotW, and Stratics House of Commons chat.

PVP/PVE:

Bounty System:
If a player is killed in pvp, a death report will spawn in the victim's inventory. The victim can take this death report to a bounty terminal and place a bounty on the killer's head with their insurance money. Multiple bounty hunters can then accept the hunt and they will be given the approximate location of the target. The first bounty hunter to kill the target claims the bounty and is able to loot the target. If a target isn't killed fast enough a bounty can expire, so the target needs to be killed fairly quickly. As of the moment it's still unclear as to what would happen if a target has multiple bounties placed upon them.

(Source Needed))

Insurance:
Insurance is said to be fairly expensive, and the premiums will be adjusted to fit the economy, keeping the economy safe and balanced. The cost of insurance will depend on what you're insuring and what the premium is. If you are killed in pvp and you had forgotten to insure an item, you can reclaim that item by proceeding to an insurance terminal and purchasing highly expensive emergency insurance. Not all items in the game will be insurable, such as rare sought after resources. It also appears that a user will have to renew their insurance after every death.

Sources: Insurance QoTW, and Looting QoTW

Territory Wars:
Guilds wanting their own guild base will have to claim a plot of land and build a base there. Plots of land aren't always open however, and guilds will be forced to go to war with each other to take over territories for their own bases. Guild bases can be upgraded over time, but upgrades are slow. Guild bases can also be expanded with other buildings like turrets, mining facilities, and things of that nature. The expansions are quick, but highly expensive. An attacking guild can attempt to save money on expansions by going straight for the guild HQ and destroying its various upgrades instead of destroying everything on the base. The defending guild also has the option to destroy buildings or even set the guild base to self-destruct, killing everyone nearby and preventing the attackers from being able to take the full base. Guild bases will farm resources for crafting which can be sold at a profit for the guild members (or used by them), so territory wars aren't just for land, but for money as well. We're told that territorial conflicts will be fast and explosive, with both sides losing massive amounts of resources in short periods of time. Guild bases may only be attacked during certain times, allowing the guild members to sleep without having to worry about the base being taken.

Sources Personal Faction Affiliation QoTW, Territory Control QoTW, Territory Control Pt. 2 QotW, 2nd Stratics Chat, and Stratics House of Commons chat.

Mobs, Bosses, & AI:
PvE will be interesting and dynamic in Earthrise. Each mob will have individual characteristics (self sacrificing/coward/etc) and it's own set of abilities. We're told there will be raid mobs in Earthrise that will be especially powerful but will have patterns in their behavior to prevent wipes.

Sources: Mobs & Behavior QoTW, and concept art/screenshots.

Pets:
According to the FAQ, there will be robotic pets that will assist with inventory management and even combat. "Robotic companions will be implemented in the game that aid the player in inventory management, combat support or personal assistance. Robot controllers who master the skill of controlling and programming their robots will be able to customize their robotic companion’s behavior to fit their adventuring style." As for cute n' fluffy pets, we aren't sure if we'll have those.

Sources: FAQ


If you're still looking for information, please first send me a PM with what I'm missing so I can update, then try taking a look at the Frequently Asked Questions, Question of the Week thread, or the Official Dev Tracker.



Questions!

Feel free to ask about anything either in a PM to me, or below in the comments!


Guild Bases:
Q: This thread points out that there are guild bases and they're placeable. Are they placeable anywhere? Can anybody have them?
A: From what I understand, guild bases are placeable only in spots that are pre-designated as guild base areas, so they won't be able to be put anywhere. Also, I'm just speculating here, but I'd think there actually has to be a guild to own a guild territory, though we don't know if single players may own a territory to themselves.

Q: How does territory work with guild bases? Do we just say "This land from that tree to that river is mine."?
A: I'm not entirely sure how territory will work around guild bases honestly. My guess is that since the lots that guild bases can be placed on are pre-designated, the territory around the plots will also be pre-designated, but that hasn't been officially confirmed.

Q: How long ago did they start working on Earthrise?
A: Earthrise has been in the works since 2005.




Have fun!