Last night at ~0300 CEST, the Alpha 1 stress test for Ashes went live. The stress test will include a limited number of testers, which will increase each week. The first week only has about 450 testers (but this may be increased), the second will increase that to over 2000 testers, and finally 5000 testers for week 3. The point of this stress test is to test their server backend, login-system, matchmaking, etc. All those underlying mechanics that need to be working properly before they open the gates for all those with Alpha 1 access.
The participants are chosen from Kickstarter backers, then summer backers, and finally the pre-order pack backers. If you are not selected in these weeks, don't be alarmed: After about 3 weeks of stress testing, Alpha 1 will be open to all those with access to that phase.


NDA is still active folks, hold your...

Main headlines

• Over 100 people are working on the game right now in their developer team, and this is expected to grow to 200 people before the end of this year.
• New gameplay video showcasing the new action combat system
  • Castle siege mode is shown
  • Horde mode - city siege is shown
• Alpha 1 Phase 1 stress test phase begins this week! A selection of Alpha 1 backers will be drawn randomly.
• Alpha 1 backers will be testing each of the 3 battleground modes first for about a month, but then anyone with a registered account can also test the battlegrounds!
• Alpha 2 confirmed to begin in Q3 2019
• 40 000 signed up for alphas and betas

The team: Akil Hooper (lead technical designer), Jeff Bard (lead game designer), Steven Sharif (CEO, creative...

With the unveil of the Alpha 1 combat trailer, I decided to share my analysis of the trailer to highlight noteworthy elements and discuss them in detail. In case you missed it, you can view the full trailer here. The key points that I took away from the trailer are below, followed by my thoughts on each of them. Please let me know if you enjoyed reading this article, I'd love to do more of these in the future!

• Melee Telegraphs
• Potion Launcher Physics
• Headshot Hitboxes
• ADS (Aim Down the Sight)
• Weapon Swapping & Reloading
• Mobile Casting & Mobility
• Sonar & Stealth Counters
• Un-obstructed Teleport
• Weightless Actions
• Final Thoughts

Melee...

Today Volker at My.com posted an official statement on the Ashes of Creation Discord channel, in an attempt to calm the worries of the community in regards to customer service, pay-to-win, server stability and account security. I personally think that this is promising, as it shows that Intrepid and My.Com is taking this very seriously. Of course, only time will tell if this actually holds true, but I think EU fans of AoC should relax and have faith in Intrepid and their strategy. You can read the full statement from Volker bellow.

Pay-to-Win
"As previously communicated, we at My.com are, and remain, fully committed to supporting the creative vision that Steven and Intrepid Studios has for Ashes of Creation. Their vision appeals to the desires of western MMORPG fans, and we are fully committed to bringing this non-Pay-to-Win...

In preparation to the coming Alpha 1 start, and NDA lift, in mid-September, we are introducing:

Media of the month contest!

Every month, users can vote on their favorite media (image/video, anything in the media section). Was it a cool picture of a massive city sige? Rare cosmetics? Anyone can vote, and anyone can upload their own candidates. The first contest will start when Alpha 1 starts!

The winner will get a cool MOTM ribbon above their avatar.

As a bonus, the winner of the first contest will also get a free 3-month premium membership. Later winners may also get some cool free stuff, though this can vary from month to month.

The MOTM vote button, which can be found inside most of the categories in the media section.

Improved...

Special Announcements:

• Over 500,000 players are registered on the site with Alpha 1 beginning in September.
• Public Roadmap of the game's development to be unveiled at PAX west.

Player Choice playing a key role:
Steven and Jeffrey insisted on player choice, the goal being to offer various choices to the player (in regards to crafting, exploring, etc.). As such, they hope to steer away from standard progression paths by implementing the following methods:

• Diversified progression paths.
• Advancing the economy of the world.
• Contributing to a node as a citizen.
• Focusing on your interests within your freehold.

Everything contributes to the development of the world, resulting in each server being different.

Games that...

Good news today! Lately the community has been worrying that we may not be able to chose ourselves what region we want to play on. (as some from Europe might not want to play on EU servers..) Thankfully, today's update from Steven, on the official Discord, puts that to rest. There will be no region or IP blocking. He also confirmed that Intrepid will handle the game client packaging, so my.com won't be doing that either.

Yesterday he also dropped a small update, reassuring fans that the game will stay subscription based, with no box cost, and a cosmetic-only marketplace, the same as in NA.

After a long time of developing, I am pleased to announce our new guild list! This is in an effort to make it easier to find a new guild, or recruit to your guild. Of course, as it is brand new, there are not many guilds there yet, but I hope that very soon it will be packed with guilds! The AoC Dungeon strives to be the best website for your Ashes of Creation needs, and this is just one of more stuff to come. This is the first edition of the guild list, and it will be improved further as feedback comes in.

You can filter the search on the front page, to limit the search. Only a few filters are added now, but more coming as needed.

Promoting your guild in the top image slider
You may also promote your guild in the top image slider, for more...

Today the announcement was made that My.com would take over publishing duties for Ashes of Creation for Europe and Russia via my.com and mail.ru respectively. The duties will include billing, server infrastructure, community and customer service. Originally Intrepid Studios had made public that they themselves were planning to publish Ashes Of Creation in Europe.

The announcement was met with an uproar from the Ashes community. Many European players are already familiar with My.com from recent MMOs like Revelation Online, Warface, Skyforge and many more. From accounts of community members on this site and reports online, the publisher My.com does not have a quality track record. From leaks of customer credit information, to poor customer support and unfinished localization's of launched games.

Steven Sharif founder of...

Special Announcements:

• Intrepid Studios is coming to Europe at Gamescom in Germany (21st August 2018).
• Name Reservation will be available sometime during Alpha 1 Phase 2 (Hopefully).

Alpha 1 Testing Phase Breakdown:
The Ashes of Creation Alpha 1 is set to begin during the third week of September and will go on for almost 7 months. The Alpha 1 test will focus on three major tests:

1. Open world Battlegrounds
2. Castles and Sieges
3. City 'Horde' Mode

Open world Battlegrounds:
Offering variable combat modes with testing upto a 100 players. They'd like to provide consistent Battleground testing where players will be able to complete a match and instantly queue up for another to ensure heavy testing of the feature. Focused on Matchmaking...