Fellow Survivors, Over the last few months we've been teasing a new free game experience that we are working on which will be available to all I:SS players. The wait is over and we are ready to share more details! We are happy to announce that we've started development of a new spin-off game called Infestation: New Beginnings that will be available for FREE to all I:SS players this Fall. The new game will coexist alongside I:SS and will provide a different type of survival experience for our players. More information about the schedule of Alpha and Beta sessions is included at the end of this post. We started thinking about this game back in November 2013, about the same time that OP Productions, LLC decided to shift away from Hammerpoint Interactive. We assembled a new in-house development team and joined forces with another development team to continue work on the Infestation brand. While some members of the Hammerpoint development team have joined us, most of the team is new and eager to address many of the unrealized opportunities present in the original Infestation: Survivor Stories. It became very clear that most of the changes the team wants to make are impossible without a game-wide wipe and reset. This is something that OP Productions hasn't been ready to do – after all, many loyal, active players are still enjoying the game. Infestation: New Beginnings was born with a very clear goal: to create a truly free gaming experience for our players that will not require them to spend money in any way to advance or stay competitive and dominate! It must offer a fun, user-friendly experience for both new players and seasoned fans of the brand. Though this is no small task for an independent development team of our size to achieve, we owe it to our players to take on this challenge and we hope you will support us in this journey. The team has been laser-focused on rebuilding the world of Infestation to create a product that revolves around the game world by providing tools and systems to players that actually change the world and make it more suitable for players to live in. Here’s a look at some of the changes and additions we’ve been exploring for Infestation: New Beginnings: New “Wild West” Themed Map We’re introducing a completely new environment. We thought that it’d be cool to create a game with a Wild West vibe, so we designed the map to resemble the Southwestern US. Its initial size is 64 sq. km (square 8x8 km), comparable in size to the original Colorado map back in the I:SS Alpha. It has more open landscape for players to discover, and the area of the map that can be explored will be even bigger than the original Colorado map. New Character Creation and Customization All players will be able to create one customizable male or female character for free. There will be a variety of customization options for the face, clothing, hair style and color that can be unlocked by players. We will also be making unique, non-degrading cosmetic items available to allow for more customization. All character customizations will be permanent and will not disappear when your character will die. Instant Revive In New Beginnings, as soon as you die, you’ll be able to instantly jump back into the game. We wanted to remove the “instant-revive-for-GC” option that was present in Infestation: Survivor Stories as we felt it wasn’t fair to all players. Global Inventory Changes The only in-game locations where players can access their Global Inventory are VAULT buildings in safe zones. The size of the global inventory will be... [b]FOR FULL POST PLEASE VISIT THE OFFICIAL FORUM THREAD HERE: http://forums.infestationmmo.com/index.php?/topic/153344-presenting-infestation-new-beginnings/#entry1741616[/b]