Alpha-0

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Alpha-0 Launcher/login screen.[1]
Py'rai themed divine gateway.[2]

Alpha-0 is a NDA[3] pre-alpha[4] release of Ashes of Creation.[5] This is the first of many internal tests of the networking, backend and node system.[6]

  • Establishing core technical features for the back-end solution.[7]
  • Connecting many players into a single zone with 4,000 NPCs.[7]
  • Getting good server framerate performance.[7]
  • Making the connection through the launcher end.[7]
  • Establishing the core node system collection cultural experience.[7]

This release is also known as the "friends and family alpha".[8][9]

  • Alpha-0 is the invite-only "raffle" alpha that also grants access to some media and influencers.[10]
  • Alpha-0 is a part of Pre-alpha testing.[4]

Gameplay footage

Alpha-0 footage from livestream, 31 October 2017.[11]

Participation

1,200 to participate in Alpha-0 over a 3 day period starting Friday 15th of December 2017.[12] Participants will receive alpha keys by email in early December.[13] The email will contain a survey link where participants can choose their preferred time slots for testing.[6]

Guidelines on what is required from Alpha-0 testers will be provided via email. The developers may also come on server to provide specific instructions.[12]

End date

Alpha-0 may end eventually... or morph into something else.[14] – Jeffrey Bard

Nodes

Alpha-0 Empyrean village node.[15]

The alpha-0 map is divided into three Nodes, each with a ZOI.[5]

  • Only one node will be capable of reaching the Village stage.

World size

1,200 km2 (square kilometers) is the expected total world size of Verra at launch, including land (480 km2) and water/ocean (750 km2), but excluding the size of the Underrealm.[16]

  • The reason given for expanding the map size was to better accommodate Naval content and to reduce the overall content density in the world.[16]
The purpose of it becoming bigger is as I said to make sure that density isn't overwhelming: that it isn't everywhere I look there is immediately something. I have no opportunity to see areas of the world that are expansive and are just wanderlust adventure feeling. Everything was sitting on top of you, POIs and nodes and houses and everything. It was like an urban area everywhere. But we wanted to expand that because a large portion of the game is a sandbox element; it's coupled with a lot of curated content but it's that sandbox element.[16] – Steven Sharif
  • The shape of the continents has also changed and two new large islands have been introduced.[16]

Starting area

In Alpha-0, players started at an Empyrean divine gateway.[22]

Environments

Alpha-0 river that runs through the center of the map.[23]
Alpha-0 flood plains environment.[24]
Alpha-0 forest environment.[25]

There are four over-world environments (climates/biomes) in Alpha-0.[23]

Alpha-0 Underrealm preview by Trystan Snodgrass.[26]

Alpha-0 has a bio-luminescent Underrealm environment.[27]

One of the important aspects of color play is going to be the distinguishing factor between different Underrealms and the regions that exist in the world: Their color influences set them apart from different regions.[28] – Steven Sharif

Classes, races and genders

Alpha-0 civilian clothing by Keith Kovach.[29]
Alpha-0 civilian clothing by Keith Kovach.[29]

There was no active character creation screen in Alpha-0, but there were several options for players to choose from.[30]

Progression

Players will experience some degree of progression in Alpha-0.[5]

  • Leveling will be from level 1 to level 10.[34]
  • New equipment will drop.
  • There will be a tier-based skill progression where players can apply points into individual skills.

Artisan

gathering and crafting was originally intended to be in Alpha-0,[5] but due to time constraints these were not included in the initial testing phase.[35]

Combat

The weapon use ability (precision combo/quicktime event) system is in Alpha-0 but it is a different iteration to what was shown at PAX West 2017.[36] Due to time constraints leading up to Alpha 0, the success range of this system was widened and the UI component was disabled. The plan moving forward is to continue to evolve the system in a fun and more engaging direction based on community feedback.[37]

  • Many animations at the moment are first pass, and will be further fleshed out as development continues.[38]

We want combat to be engaging, fun. What you're seeing in our pre-alpha we honestly have not spent a lot of time on combat. Most of this pre-alpha has been spent on establishing core technical features for our proprietary back-end solutions for making a MMO in Unreal.[39] – Steven Sharif

Weapon use ability

Template:Weapon use ability status

Encounters

Alpha-0 Dünir (Dünheim) dungeon design by Michael Bacon.[40][41]
Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.[42]

Arenas

There may be a 5v5 or 6v6 arena (tentative).[44]

Release schedule

Alpha Two is coming in Q3 2024! We have not announced specific dates or testing schedules for Alpha Two, Beta One, or Beta Two yet.[45]

The Ashes of Creation release schedule is subject to change.[46]

Spot testing has begun, some limited NDA'd testers are participating in spot tests and December will see more, including some major headless client testing. Also those of you that still have the A1 launcher may see an update in the next couple weeks.[47] – Steven Sharif
The NDA spot testing that will be before Alpha-2: We will have first one with our PI members, then we'll have some with our Alpha-1 users, and then our Alpha-2 users; and of course Alpha-2 will not be NDA, but that spot testing will be NDA.[48] – Margaret Krohn
Phase Release Estimated/Actual date
Pre‑alpha Alpha-0.[4] December 15, 2017.[49]
APOC Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale stress test (NDA).[50] September 7, 2018.[51]
Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale stress test (NDA lifted).[52] October 19, 2018.[52]
Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale open beta.[53] December 18, 2018.[54]
Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale early access.[55] September 24, 2019.[56]
Ashes of Creation Apocalypse castle siege mode PI closed testing.[57] December 19, 2019.[57]
Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale testing ends.[58] March 10, 2020.[59]
Alpha Alpha-1 early preview livestream.[60] March 27, 2020.[61]
Alpha-1 limited QA testing (NDA).[62][63] May 28, 2020.[64][65]
Alpha-1 preview pre-test 1 (NDA).[66] Dec 18 - Dec 21 2020.[66]
Alpha-1 preview pre-test 2 (NDA).[66] Feb 19 - Feb 22 2021.[67][68]
Alpha-1 preview intermittent spot testing (NDA).[69][70] Mar 19 - Jul 9 2021.[69][70]
Alpha-1 preview weekend (no NDA).[69] July 9 - July 11 2021.[71][72][69]
Alpha-1 (no NDA).[69] July 14 - August 15 2021.[73][74]
Alpha-2 spot testing (NDA).[48][75][76][77] November 2023.[47]
Alpha-2 (No NDA).[48][76][78][79] Q3 2024.[45][48][80]
Beta Beta-1. To be announced.[74]
Beta-2. To be announced.[74]
Pre‑release Head start for crowdfunding backers at the Founder level and above.[81] 1-2 days before launch.[81][82]
Release Launch (live) release. To be announced.[74][83]
Post‑launch Major releases (DLC expansions). Quarterly or six-monthly.[84][85]
Minor releases. Monthly.[84][85]

NDA

Alpha-1, Alpha-2, Beta-1, Beta-2 releases are not covered by NDA (non-disclosure agreement).[86]

We may not always announce when the NDA testing is, because we're not definitive how that testing is going to influence the future testing schedule; and we don't want to set the wrong expectation from a broader audience perspective on what they should be expecting with regards to testing.[75] – Steven Sharif

Easter eggs

There may or may not be a pair of sandals; if found will grant you some major boon or benefit... You might need a utility skill to find them.[88][89]

Security systems

Security systems will be in place to combat cheating, exploiting, botting, gold selling/real money transactions (RMT), item duplication and other things that affect the economy starting from Alpha-0.[90][91][92][93][94][95][96]

  • A broad spectrum of approaches are going to be utilized in order to try to protect the integrity of the game once it launches. Testing of these systems will begin leading up towards Alpha-2.[91]
Security is always at the top of any concern when you have a closed system like an MMO is... We've seen a lot of MMO is launch without security in place and the economy gets ruined as a result thereafter. And every band-aid that's slapped on top of that wound is just making things worse. And so part of why you take the time in order to ensure that things are done correctly is also the security component of things; and that's where testing with a live audience is a bit different also than testing with a Q&A audience as well, because you're going to get those bad actors- and we call them bad actors because ultimately they're attempting to destroy the fun for others... So what we've done is we've hired some security experts who've worked on massive other MMOs like World of Warcraft and other games, and they bring with them lot of experience; and we're going to be testing that in leading up towards Alpha-2. It's a very important part of Alpha-2. It's not something that we really addressed with Alpha-1 because again, that was a much more barebones functional testing experience. We did see some issues during Alpha-1 and we made it important for Alpha-2 to test those systems. We have a broad spectrum of approaches that we're going to be utilizing in order to try to protect the integrity of the game once it launches.[91] – Steven Sharif
  • These systems collect user data and flag abnormal activities for investigation. This combined with player reporting functions generates a live "heat map" that draws attention to unusual behavior.[90][92][93][96]
We do have already built into the game on the outset is essentially behavioral metrics. So in the game, as a player does normal things and they acquire normal gold, that's all good and well, but if there starts to be item IDs that appear on the player account that are out of the norm, like either a large amount of gold, or significant legendary items, what it does in the back-end it flags the account for view so that we can take a look at where did this item come from. Is it coming from a known gold seller or a flagged bot, or whatever; and then we investigate. So we're going to be pretty hard on the ability for players to subvert the natural economy systems by RMT or botting.[93] – Steven Sharif
  • Botters, cheaters, gold sellers, and RMTers, will face severe penalties from the active GM/community team.[90][97][98][96]
It's important to note that there is a sanctity that must be protected within the game from RMTing; and let me just go into a little diatribe about this: But in games that I've played where the company or the publisher does not enforce rules, it becomes the standard that you buy gold if you want to be competitive. If you want to compete at the top tier levels in certain games, and everyone's buying gold, you almost either have to buy the gold or you're just not going to be able to compete with those people and that's a really shitty feeling to have. Excuse my French, I apologize. That is sucky; and in order for that not to be the case it is the responsibility of the publisher or the developers both to make sure that we have stringent practices from a CS- from a customer customer service perspective- to enforce our rules and to make sure that players are aware if they partake in this there is a huge risk in doing so. It's not going to be a slap on the hand. It's not going to be a "we told you once, we told you twice, we told you three, four, five six times okay. We're just taking some gold away", that thing. We have got to ensure that it is feared to do those things because that ashes has active GMS, it has active customer service, it has an active community team.[98] – Steven Sharif

Graphics system

Alpha-0 will utilize DirectX 11 or DirectX 12.[99]

UE4 allows us to do from a graphical fidelity standpoint is create a beautiful world on the front end.[100]

Screenshots

See also

Template:References

  1. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (3:48).
  2. ↑ Livestream, October 20, 2017 (50:20).
  3. ↑ alpha 0 NDA.png
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 alpha-0 pre-alpha.png
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Livestream, September 3, 2017 (30:31).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (4:52).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Livestream, 8 April 2018 (PM) (41:44).
  8. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (15:00).
  9. ↑ alpha-0 friends and family.png
  10. ↑ MMOGAMES Interview, 8 September 2017.
  11. ↑ Livestream, October 31, 2017 (24:19).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (30:34).
  13. ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (50:15).
  14. ↑ Livestream, May 4, 2018 (40:47).
  15. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:11:52).
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (46:52).
  17. ↑ Livestream, January 30, 2020 (1:18:12).
  18. ↑ world size.png
  19. ↑ waterlandsize.png
  20. ↑ Interview, August 17, 2018 (10:43).
  21. ↑ Livestream, April 7, 2023 (22:48).
  22. ↑ Livestream, September 3, 2017 (33:28).
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Livestream, October 16, 2017 (11:41).
  24. ↑ Livestream, October 16, 2017 (11:51).
  25. ↑ Livestream, October 16, 2017 (12:08).
  26. ↑ Video, January 22, 2018 (0:01).
  27. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:36:53).
  28. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (14:00).
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (14:57).
  30. ↑ Livestream, September 3, 2017 (30:31).
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Livestream, September 3, 2017 (37:10).
  32. ↑ Video, August 30, 2017 (3:36).
  33. ↑ Livestream, May 4, 2018 (47:57).
  34. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (58:48).
  35. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:02:22).
  36. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:02:50).
  37. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (22:50).
  38. ↑ Official Livestream - May 4th @ 3 PM PST - Q&A
  39. ↑ Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (41:44).
  40. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (16:34).
  41. ↑ Livestream, February 9, 2018 (4:42).
  42. ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (17:50).
  43. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:33:13).
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Livestream, October 16, 2017 (49:28).
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Intrepid Studios Support - What are the Alpha/Beta Release dates?
  46. ↑ kickstarter release schedule.png
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 steven-a2-spot-testing-started.png
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 48.3 48.4 Livestream, September 29, 2023 (55:34).
  49. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (2:48).
  50. ↑ Livestream, September 1, 2018 (54:06).
  51. ↑ alpha-1-stress-test-3.png
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 alpha1-phase-1-update.png
  53. ↑ Press release - Ashes of Creation Apocalypse Launches December 18.
  54. ↑ apoc-beta.png
  55. ↑ Blog: Ashes of Creation Apocalypse heads into early access.
  56. ↑ @AoCApocalypse on Twitter.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Livestream, December 17, 2019 (18:33).
  58. ↑ Blog: Early Access for Ashes of Creation Apocalypse Battle Royale Testing Ends.
  59. ↑ apoc-offline.png
  60. ↑ March 2020 newsletter.
  61. ↑ Video, March 23, 2020 (0:01).
  62. ↑ alpha-1-nda-2.png
  63. ↑ 63.0 63.1 alpha-1-nda-1.png
  64. ↑ steven-a1-testing-start.png
  65. ↑ Creative Director's Letter, 2020-04-1.
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 66.2 Blog: Creative Director's Letter, October 16 2020
  67. ↑ Livestream, February 26, 2021 (14:58).
  68. ↑ Blog: Creative Director's Letter, January 2021.
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 69.2 69.3 69.4 Alpha One Schedule Update, May 10 2021.
  70. ↑ 70.0 70.1 An Update on Alpha One Schedule, March 12 2021
  71. ↑ steven-a1preview-end.png
  72. ↑ Ashes of Creation Twitter - Alpha-1 Preview Weekend Begins
  73. ↑ alpha-1-end.png
  74. ↑ 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.3 release-dates.png
  75. ↑ 75.0 75.1 75.2 Interview, July 9, 2023 (26:35).
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Livestream, March 31, 2023 (5:57).
  77. ↑ Livestream, October 14, 2022 (17:05).
  78. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (25:22).
  79. ↑ alpha and beta phases.png
  80. ↑ vaknar-a2.png
  81. ↑ 81.0 81.1 founder.png
  82. ↑ braver of worlds.png
  83. ↑ Livestream, March 8, 2019 (57:26).
  84. ↑ 84.0 84.1 Interview, February 7, 2021 (21:57).
  85. ↑ 85.0 85.1 Livestream, May 8, 2017 (11:14).
  86. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (49:26).
  87. ↑ Livestream, May 29, 2020 (31:37).
  88. ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (17:34).
  89. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:34:41).
  90. ↑ 90.0 90.1 90.2 steven-anti-cheat.png
  91. ↑ 91.0 91.1 91.2 Interview, July 9, 2023 (1:47:04).
  92. ↑ 92.0 92.1 steven-rmt.png
  93. ↑ 93.0 93.1 93.2 Interview, July 19, 2020 (1:12:37).
  94. ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (38:35).
  95. ↑ Massively OP, 2017-06-1
  96. ↑ 96.0 96.1 96.2 Livestream, February 9, 2018 (20:40).
  97. ↑ steven-penalties.png
  98. ↑ 98.0 98.1 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:32:45).
  99. ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (28:06).
  100. ↑ Livestream, May 3, 2017 (27:21).
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