Ashes of Creation founder Steven Sharif has addressed the community in a Directors Letter. In it, he shares that the start of Alpha Phase 1 has been delayed. He also explains the background of the Standalone Apocalypse and discusses future plans.
When does Alpha 1 start? Alpha 1 was originally scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2019. It was supposed to be non-NDA, feature servers with space for 10,000 players, and cover about 25% of the entire world.
However, the start has been postponed indefinitely. Sharif emphasizes in his letter that it will be delayed by months, but not by years. When Alpha 1 is discussed next, the developers want to present a final date.
Is a release in 2019 still possible? The original roadmap for the game predicted a release before 2020. Even then, the plan seemed very ambitious:
- Alpha 1 – Q2 2019
- Alpha 2 – Q3 2019
- Closed Beta 1 – 2019
- Closed Beta 2 – 2019
- Open Beta – 2019
- Headstart/Release – 2019
With the delay of the first Alpha phase by several months, there is now often only one month left for three beta phases and the release itself in 2019.
Update April 2019: A release will not take place this year, as has now also been confirmed.
What is behind Apocalypse
Besides the MMORPG Ashes of Creation, Sharif also spoke about the Standalone Apocalypse and its background in his letter to the community.
This is why Apocalypse was developed: The goal of the standalone game was to gather data and test the servers and the hybrid combat system.
However, many players were confused by the fact that an Ashes of Creation was released as a Battle Royale version. That’s why they decided to name the game Apocalypse.
Development was a success: Although the game has not been released to this day, Steve Sharif describes Apocalypse as a success.
Many bugs and issues were identified that otherwise might not have been discovered until much later in the development of the MMORPG.
What’s next for Apocalypse? In the next steps, the game is expected to finally stay online permanently. Then it should be expanded and adapted to a new launcher.
With the release, the reward path that has already been sold in the game for real money will be reset to 0. This path grants bonus items for completed games over a period of 8 weeks.
For the upcoming months, the introductions of the Fortress Mode and the Horde Mode are also planned.
Developers present progress once a month
In the last part of the letter, Steven Sharif also discusses a content roadmap. It involves the presentation of new content.
What is planned? On the last Friday of every month, there will be a livestream with the developers, which will take place at 8:00 PM our time. During this, the latest developments of the game will be discussed.
Additionally, there is a plan for a Dev Diaries video series, which will present content such as housing, world and level design, and more.
Finally, there will be a monthly newsletter via email that summarizes all important announcements of the month.
What can we expect in March? March will revolve around the topic of Nodes. Nodes are the areas in the game that can be conquered and developed by players.
In the upcoming weeks, videos and articles that describe the node system in detail are planned.
