Dear Galactic Survivalists! This is not the usual announcement of a main version update. The upcoming release will be something special. Not only because we are looking forward to an anniversary release on 5th of August, but also because we will move forward and leave the ‘Alpha’ and 'Early Access' tags behind at this point. With a small, but dedicated team (currently 5 programmers and 2 modellers), we think we have created something fun to play in the past years. But without you, our community, we would never have come so far. This is something we absolutely value and acknowledge! But now it is time to move forward and take on the next level. What does this mean? First of all, the game development WILL NOT be stopped! We will continue to be working on refining features and fixing bugs. Subsequent releases will happen in the same frequency as before. No change here, except the version counter will not read ‘Alpha 13.x’ but simply ‘1.0’. The only thing that might slightly change in future releases, is the focus on what will be working on. The goal of the Alpha phase always was, to add in what we consider to be the base mechanics, the gamechangers and all the stuff that leads to major technical changes and an altered game experience - with the addition of the ‘galaxy’ being one of the final steps to achieve that milestone. For all subsequent releases, bugfixes and optimization as well as feature refinements and the big topic of effect and sound reworks might be more on the foreground. There are of course also a few larger features left and there is a long list of quality-of-life changes and additions that have piled up over the last years for Single- and Multiplayer. We are looking forward to all of you being with us on this new development stage, with the same engagement and dedication you have shown in the recent Alpha phase. Yours, Eleon Game Studios PS: More info on the contents of the Version 1 release will be following soon.
I hope this doesn't mean we are not going to see a proper factory system, economy/trade systems added? I would consider them major game features.
What does this mean? what do you mean when you say few larger features to be included, and what quality-of-life changes are still to be added? It can't be a beta test if you are still adding major new content, or can it?
Congratulations this is amazing news! I'm right now sitting here playing Alpha 12 Enjoying the handwork the team has put in over the years. You should all be proud of yourselves and once again Congratulations!
Now that you are leaving Alpha will you be sharing the features you still plan to add? Not a road-map but something like this? Alpha is such a wide beast to do this for but Beta is so much more narrow that you must have a clear definition of features that you plan to eventually add. Really hoping water mechanics is one of them!
Before you go out of the alpha you should finally manage to make the game PVP capable of going from alpha to alpha it gets worse and you just don't get it ... Either you don't care or you don't want to do a proper job, you'd better add new music or change the look of different things instead of working on the important things.
This sounds like they finally realized the limits of the engine they are using and are looking to advance to pay day in order to move on to the next thing. Given the state of Alpha 12, I'd be ashamed to call the game beta. It's nearly unplayable on HWS. Pvp with any more than 2 people = crash playfield/Lagfest slideshow Exploits exploits everywhere exploits Loss of ships into the void Players corrupted Buildings missing blocks Enemies that won't fire back .... It is in bad bad shape. This announcement makes me sad. Engine aside, this would have been such a promising game. The design is there, the implementation is not.
Wow I really hope you're planning on adding more than just bug fixes and quality of life improvements because this game is 100% does not have enough content to consider it a full game. While it is fun, it really only has a few hours of content before rinse and repeat.
Empyrion A12 is a solid Single Player game and there's lots of fun to be had for sure. Equally however it does need refinement. Sound is a good example, not just the quality of the individual samples, but audio positioning as well. Of course the Factory is something that's been a placeholder forever, with a more fleshed-out experience promised. There's also things like allowing the player to crouch and go prone which are needed ASAP in my view. How about the whole colliders thing and the ability to walk around on vessels in motion? These are all key things. I'm assuming 1.0 doesn't mean realise version, but just moving into the Beta phase where adding new features is less important than polish. For me, Sound, the Factory, crouching are certainly polish as they can build upon what exists now. Moving around on ships in motion though, I always understood that this was a big deal.... I don't do MP, but wathching videos of others it does seem a little flaky at times. No recent first hand experience though, so I'll no comment any more on that. I'm trying to think positively about this move, but it seems a little premature. That said, other games I play - the X Series from Egosoft for example -always go go strength to strength after their 1.0 full release. Perhaps Eleon will be the same. Scoob.
Agreed, it does seem premature. I’m not so concerned about whether development will continue and the game will still be fleshed out more, but I’m concerned about how potential buyers will perceive it. Normally 1.0 means a finished game, and that’s not the case here. I can foresee a lot of Steam users buying it after August 5th thinking it’s done, and then realising it’s not quite complete and refunding it and possibly leaving a bad review. Not good.
congrats on moving to 1.0! im still concerned just like many others in the thread already. obviously you have to get all the parts out of the box before you can put the thing together, so I'm hoping were going to see a lot more fine tuning and updating to whats already in place. however like others have asked already, what other large changes are going to be implemented? is there a new roadmap coming? whats the plan besides a version number change?
Early access, Alpha, Beta etc appear to be more marketing terms generally these days. So if EGS pulls in more revenue as a result of the label change, well I'm fine with that. However I do hope that the major feature updates are finished, not abandoned. @Hummel-o-War has posted many times that certain features are "on the list", so I am not over concerned about titles. It would be nice to see a updated "vision" of what key features the dev team would like to see implemented (new tech research mechanic? Character skills? Water vehicles/critters? Etc etc). Even if non binding or timed, it would be massive to understand the scale of aspiration from Eleon on what they would like to see in the game post Beta or v1.0 .... or what ever that means anyway!)
yeah no kidding. no mans sky all over again. It'd be a mistake to leave the early access tag behind with the games current state. a better marketing move would be to move to Beta 1.0. Don't do it Eleon, its not too late to change your mind!
Ok.... And... What it's the point? And Why do you ignore BETA? Bad move, i have seen this happening in a lot of early games , all of them ended badly. That it's not even my opinion, it's my experience with other early games. Use it as you want. The game , right now, has more future as early access than as "finished" product. Ou yes, and you can't leave Alpha without working in water somehow. All of us accept the current state of water because we are in Alpha, in release there wont be any excuse. Also, we still cant crouch.
