It's the most wonderful time of the year! Time to celebrate the holidays and enjoy some festive winter bashes with all your friends, even in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Fallen Earth is doing just that by hosting a December Holiday Social at the Depot 66 amphitheatre (waypoint 4407765, 3493471) on Saturday, December 18 at 2 p.m. EST .

Players will be able to enjoy holiday treats including eggnog and candy canes, as well as receieving a free Yuletide hat (also known as the holiday beanie). So dress your best and leave your wepaons in your pack/vault/vehicle because all party crashers will be immediately escorted out.

As a bonus, there will also be a Secret Santa event on the same day. You can participate by mailing a gift in-game to Carlin with the subject "Secret Santa" and your character name. All gifts will be passed along at random at 2:45 p.m. EST with the gift and donor's name annouced in chat.

Fallen Earth has just announced that Patch 1.7.4 is set to go live on the PTS tomorrow. Players can look forward to terrain enhancements, combat improvements, a revamped tutorial and a ravaged Boneclaw. The team has also made adjustments to Faction Control Points, World PvP, the AP Spent Cap and more.

For a full list of patch notes, check out the Fallen Earth official website. Also, don’t forget that the dev team will be joining you on the PTS this Saturday, December 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST. Join the team and earn some Reward Points!

Fallen Earth has just announced that due to an overwhelming response, the Blood Sport Free Ammo Weekend will be extended indefinitely. Players can continue to enjoy unlimted free ammo reloads which was slated to be an event only from Nov 24-28. Since the players have spoken, Fallen Earth has responded with the indefinite extension.

Also, as a reminder, weapons and armor no longer decay in Blood Sport arenas. For a full walkthrough on how to join a Blood Sport arena, check out the official Fallen Earth site.

The Fallen Earth team has been busy implementing some of the features that were discussed in last week's State of the Game Address. Here are the details:

• Jump into any Blood Sports arena from Nov. 24-28 and enjoy free ammo.
• Take advantage of price cuts in the Fallen Earth Store through Nov. 29. Also, additional character slots are now available for purchase.
• New content will hit the Public Test Server next week, including terrain enhancements, improvements to the combat system, and more.
• Join the dev team on the PTS on Dec. 4 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST to ask questions and earn Reward Points.

Will you be grabbing free ammo, buying items in the store, or checking out the updates on the test server?

Fallen Earth has just released their November State of the Game Address. This month's overview focuses on several items including Sector 4 and the preparations that are being made for its full release. Alpha County will be the first new area of Sector 4 and will increase the current level cap by 5 more levels. Players will also see new gear, recipes, and consumables. As the release date gets closer, there will be new art posted regularly to the Fallen Earth Facebook page.

This month, players will also see the physical combat changes come to the PTS. Once there has been enough feedback on these changes, the next phase of combat balance will begin, which is focusing on faction skills and mutations.

Fallen Earth also announced:

To celebrate Black Friday (the last Friday in November) FE-style, we will be having an Free Ammo Blood Sports weekend where players can jump into any arena without having to worry about expending hard-earned ammo. We will also be having a Dev weekend on the PTS so we can experience the new combat changes along with all of you. We’d also like to answer questions and serve as PVP target practice. Lastly, as we’re continuously adding new items to the FE online store, starting with making new character slots available as soon as next week.

Read the full November State of the Game after the jump for more details on what's to come in December.

Massively is reporting that Fallen Earth has laid off three well-known staff members. Producer Dave "Archangel" Haydysch, Marketing Director Jessica "Circatrix" Orr, and Director of Content Development Wes "Canticle" Platt are no longer with Fallen Earth.

Not much has been said as to why the layoffs have occured, especially after a round of layoffs took place at the company already this past April. Massively has posted a reply from Fallen Earth that doesn't shed much light on the reason these three were let go:

"In order to maintain ongoing production and expansion of Fallen Earth, we have reshuffled some of our management team. As a result of these recent events, Canticle, Archangel and Circatrix are no longer with us. As a small indie developer, Fallen Earth stands by our fans and we assure you that your game play experience will not be compromised by the recent events."

Platt was scheduled to participate in this year's National Novel Writing Month in which he was working on a novel about the post-apocalyptic world of Fallen Earth. We'll have to wait and see if he will still reach his 50,000-word goal.

It's not too often that you'll hear of an MMO development team actively seeking out members of the U.S. military in order to collaborate on in-game events, but then again, Fallen Earth is definitely not your average MMORPG. That's right, the team over at Fallen Earth have decided to celebrate Veteran's Day with a few special activities, and it seems like they really want to do things right by consulting with anyone who is currently active int he U.S. military or was a veteran of the U.S. armed forces.

In addition to this, if you are in the military with an active .mil email address, the team over at Fallen Earth want to show their appreciation by adding a 20% discount on all purchases of the Fallen Earth game with a proper .mil registration. There's military appreciation for you!

November is National Novel Writing Month, which means authors throughout the world will be attempting to write a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days. Fallen Earth Director of Content Development Wes "Canticle" Platt plans to write a novel set in the post-apocalytic MMO, and he needs your help!

Wes wants to focus his tale on a lonesome Traveler and he'd like suggestions from players on what the character will encounter during his adventure. Wes will be posting installments of his novel as he finishes them in this thread on the official forum, so you can read along throughout the month and post your ideas. You can also keep track of his word count on his NaNoWriMo profile page. Wes has reached his NaNoWriMo goal twice in the past, but we'll just have to wait and see if he can squeeze out 50,000 words this year.

Good luck, Wes! Have any of you ever participated in NaNoWriMo?

Fallen Earth Producer Dave Haydysch just released his October State of the Game Address. Fallen Earth has been seeing a lot of changes to the combat system on the PTS and he is reminding players that their input on this first round of changes is very valuble. Haydysch beckons players to take their time testing out all levels, not just high-end, to really help developers provide the best gaming experience possible.

The faction control points feature is also up and running. Haydysch points out that there are numerous NPCs in place to help players get adjusted to this new system.

The future of the game will see a new patch with even more improvements to the combat system and changes to enhance the entire look and feel of the game.

Read the full State of the Game Address after the jump.

Fallen Earth has announced that the first iteration of combat enhancements will be hitting the public test server tomorrow. Wastelanders will also see upgrades to faction control points. Be sure to look for flags that can be claimed by your faction to recieve exclusive buffs, harvest nodes, and backup!

So jump on over to the public test server and let your voice be heard on all the changes. Are you looking forward to the combat revamp?