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Alpha-1 dates
Lex
Member, Phoenix Initiative, Avatar of the Phoenix, Kickstarter, Alpha One
The latest creative director's letter gave dates for Alpha-1 testing. Here is a graphical representation of that plan, including info given on Discord about NDA. More details and sources can be found on the wiki.
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Comments
Perhaps there is still too much bugs to show the whole thing public. At summer the features and mechanics are for sure at better shape and the whole package more polished and ready to show for everyone. I think that these pre-testing steps were created to calm down the community and followers who have been waiting so long the start of Alpha 1. May sounds about hundred times better than Fall regardless of what will be the content of Alpha 1 (limited QA with NDA).
Too many quarantinis imo.
I used the word haters to describe the people who will be "ashes is a scam, I told you so" if it's one day late. I think disappointed is how everyone will feel including Intrepid if they have to delay.
Margaret Krohn said in discord:
I'm glad to see the game advance to this stage of development, its really exciting!
Same thing happened to me. This post has instructions on how to get your kickstarter tag back. I just literally did it a hour ago lol
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/44091/kickstarter-tag-next-to-forum-name#latest
2022 has been the somewhat optimistic assumption from many players for well over a year now. Some of us assume full release some time in 2023.
You want the game released next year or would you like a good complete game released later?
In my opinion, a well tested, complete game is absolutely more important than getting a crappy one released quickly. Just look at a few releases lately.
Here is a realistic timeline if EVERYTHING goes as planned:
- May 2020 closed Alpha 1
- Fall 2020 "open" Alpha 1
- Summer 2021 Begin of internal Beta
- Summer/Fall 2021 Begin of NDA Beta
- Fall 2021 Open Beta
- Winter 2021 Release (Christmas time)
This isn't leaving time to actually make new content.
This timeline would assume everything is made for alpha, and from there on out it is all about testing, fixing and reiterating.
Take dungeons as an example. I would expect Intrepid to have one made for alpha - maybe two. They wouldn't want to put too much more work in to them just yet, they would want testing of all the systems, all the node types and stages to make sure they all work.
Then, after alpha testing, they will assess how the dungeons performed, and then start building all the dungeons they need for release.
This would apply to quite a few things, and I would expect at least a year from alpha testing until the first beta build is put together.
Other than this one aspect, your timeline is about as I have expected it to go for quite a while now. If you add in the additional six months after alpha and before beta, it is what I consider to be the most likely best case scenario, with any issues pushing launch out past that timeframe, potentialling in to 2023.
Edit to add; it's worth pointing out that we haven't seen any naval content as yet. That in itself would take a long time to develop, let alone testing, fixing and reiterating.
And?
This was never going to happen. 3 years for a brand new studio to make an mmorpg from scratch? Not a chance in hell that was ever going to happen.
True and I guess at least 5 years is closer the average and perhaps nowadays even more when examining current crowdfunding projects.
I would say even 5 years is pushing it for a new studio. That's the same amount of time it took Blizzard to first create WoW with 100+ people in an already established studio. Remember that Intrepid started development of Ashes with just 8 people on staff and even now only have around 50-60 employees. The only thing on Intrepid's side is that the infrastructure and technology available makes creating games much faster. Things like gigabit or even 10 gigabit networking really speed up production for a studio with a constant flow of data. Of course, this is counter-balanced by the fact the scope of Ashes far exceeds the scope of WoW when it first launched.
Yeah, this is something I've had debates about with others before.
You aren't really starting development of an MMO when you have 8 people - at least not a AAA one.
Realistically speaking, the MMO started development in 2018 when their first hiring spree post kickstarter was finished. There were bits and pieces of it before then, but honestly not much.
If you discount that small amount that would have been done then, that leaves the 5 years of development at a release in 2023.
If we speak in general of making MMORPG, the time of development base on few main factors. What is the starting point of the company (e.g. experience and available resources) and the wideness of the project. World of Warcraft is a great example how long the development can take from an experienced gaming studio which had the base already done via Warcraft series. Therefore, Blizzard did not start from a scratch they had a solid base already there where to build on.
If we speak of Ashes of Creation, I agree that 5 years may not be enough to finish the whole project. If we think of the starting point of IS and how much there is planned content, features and mechanics we can presume it can take 1 - 2 extra years. And now I was not even talking about this one side project which may delay the MMORPG even more, depending of course where the focus will be in the future.
The only mmorpg I know of that actually made it's own game engine from scratch was WoW. Most others use modified versions of existing engines, including Ashes. The base Unreal Engine isn't optimised for mmorpgs so Intrepid have had to modify it to suit their needs. Granted this is still a lot of work but not nearly as much as making your own engine from scratch like Blizzard did for WoW.
EQ Planetsideand EQ2 were developed with their own unique engine - and possibly EQOA as well, though I am not sure. After that, they created Forgelight engine and used it in EQN, Free Realms, Planetside 2, Just Survive and H1Z1.
Altering UE4 to work with an MMO is less work than creating an engine from scratch, but not by much.
Edit; an exception to the above about SoE may be Vanguard, which they purchased as a partially completed product and so couldn't make a decision about an engine. That game used UE2 iirc.