Ashes Of Creation Alpha 2 Begins Today

I really didn't anticipate doing any coverage of Ashes of Creation. The game is still in an alpha state and probably 5 or more years away from a commercial release. But then a crazy thing happened. Tiny indie studio Intrepid Games stumbled into a tech war with the giant, 1000+ employee Cloud Imperium Games, developers of the upcoming Squadron 42 and Star Citizen. The technology? Dynamic server meshing. And since how Ashes of Creation performs can affect the finances of CIG due to the comparisons of each game's technology, I feel I need to at least do a little coverage.

The Alpha 2 testing of Ashes of Creation starts today for selected people. The full testing calendar describes a rollout lasting 7 months.

• 25 October 2024 - For players who attained Alpha Two access via a giveaway, or Kickstarter Pack, Kickstarter Addon, Pre-order Pack, and Pre-order Addon.
  
  
• 8 November 2024 - For those who purchased a First Wave Bundle.
  
  
• 20 December 2024 - For those who purchased a Second Wave Bundle.
  
  
• 1 May 2025 - For those who purchased a Third Wave Bundle.

The wave bundles are a bit controversial. Charging to test a video game? Yet, people are willing to pay for the privilege. The bundles are:

• First Wave - $120. Sales of the bundle end 1 November 2024.
• Second Wave - $110. Sales of the bundle end December 2024.
• Third Wave - $100. Sales of the bundle end 27 May 2025.

Each bundle comes with Alpha Two, Beta One, and Beta Two access, 1 Month of Subscription Time ($15 value), and $15 in Embers, the in-game currency. Remember when I mentioned 5 or more years until commercial release in the introduction? Intrepid is planning two rounds of open beta testing before launch.

The testing also feels more like the alpha testing I've seem from CCP Games in their player testing of EVE Vanguard and EVE Frontier. We are 7 months away from 24/7 testing of AoC. The schedule for how long servers are available for testing is below.

• On Friday, October 25, 2024 Alpha Two begins. Phase I of this testing phase will be weekend testing that starts on Fridays and ends on Sundays.
  
  
• On Friday, December 20, 2024 we will move to Phase II of this testing phase which will be periods of testing for 5+ days in a row.
  
  
• On Thursday, May 1, 2025 we will move to Phase III of this testing phase which will be testing that is up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with downtime for game updates.
  
  
• Note: Dates are subject to change due to development, but Intrepid will notify testers of schedule changes in advance.

One thing I think changed is that the Alpha 2 playtesting is not under an NDA. At least, a quick look at Twitch gives that impression. The NDA for the testing before Alpha 2 was lifted a few days ago. 

The allowance of streaming the Alpha 2 could lead to embarrassment for other developers, primarily Cloud Imperium Games. CIG's CitizenCon presented a vision of Star Citizen highly reliant on the ability to mesh servers together. If Intrepid shows the ability to have massive PvP fights with tech developed faster and with far less people than CIG, I can see a lot of sniping at Intrepid from Star Citizen white knights looking to defend their game by tearing another game down.

Which brings me back to the concept of the server meshing wars. People will defend their game on the claim that their favorite game studio is developing cutting edge technology. What that does to funding for the various games is something to watch for the future of crowdfunded gaming projects.