ASHES DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

[Frogboy]

Ashes of the Singularity tentative schedule.

Note: Stardock is the oldest independent studio/publisher in the game industry. At 23 year old, its success and longevity are based on providing high quality games and software that it supports for years after.

The schedule below is subject to change based on player feedback.


== Part 1: Origins ==

Origins: September 2010
Stardock's Elemental project fails largely due to 3D engine not being able to handle original design, 2GB limit. Firaxis ships Civilization V with a new, custom 3D engine.

Oxide formed: January 2013
Stardock teams up with Civilization V leads to form new company, Oxide Games to create a new type of 3D engine that can handle massive scale strategy games.

Development Begins: 2013
Nitrious engine development. Groveling to Microsoft to create a DirectX 11 successor that implements multi-core GPU access.

Private Prototypes: 2014
Demonstrations of SWARM tech, Khronus group work to help design Vulkan to ensure multi-core access to GPUs. Object Space Lighting in a real-time engine validation. DirectX 11 engine completed. Mantle work.

== Part 2: Alpha Phase ==

Prototype: May 2015
Initial Founders build. First DirectX 12 game.

Alpha 1: July 2015
Added Post-Humans, First series of maps. No real opponents.

Alpha 2: August 2015
Multiplayer added, Benchmark added.

Alpha 3: September 215
AI added. Two-Tier economy added.

== Part 3: Early Access ==

Alpha 4: October 2015
Early access begins.

Alpha 4: November 2015
First balance pass, first polish pass, new maps based on feedback. Power amplifier added.

Alpha 5: December 2015 (0.70)
Ice worlds added. Orbital Fabricator building added. Incursion ability added. Engineering calldown added. Plasma storm ability added. First aid ability added.

== Part 4: Beta Phase ==

Beta 1: January 2016 (0.80)
New Race: The Substrate. Dreadnought veterancy added. More orbitals added. Oribital Strike added. Orbital Nullify added. Ranked games.

Beta 2: February 2016 (0.90)
Multi-GPU support Added.
Techs based on player feedback added.
Multiplayer: Season 0 begins.

Beta 3: March 2016 (0.94)
Balance
Tutorial Added


== Part 5 Post-Release Phase ==

Version 1.0: March 31, 2016
Ascendancy Wars made public
Scenarios released
Season 1 BEGINS

Version 1.1: April
Improved Modding Support (free)
New Orbital Ability (free)
End Screen Graph additions (free)
UI improvements (free)
AI personalities (free)
Overlord & Assault Scenarios for early adopters (free)
New unit (free)

DLC 1: Overlord
Free to those who have the game at this point, $3.99 otherwise.
Scenarios + Maps

Version 1.11/1.12: May
Game Launcher with MP info (so you can monitor activity from the launcher)
UI Improvements (selecting air units easily)
Modding improvements (select an AI personality in a scenario)
Steam overlay returns
PHC Refinery (free)
Mini-map improvements (size differences for resource production icons)
Release the book: Dawn of the Singularity!
Multiplayer friend organizating
Hall of Fame support for scenarios
Scoring update

DLC 2: Gauntlet
$3.99
New maps and scenario

Version 1.2 / 1.21 June
Deluxe Campaign (free)
New campaign missions (free)
New unit: PHC Athena (free)
New unit: Subsrate Eradicator (free)
New cut-scenes for campaign
Voice overs for campaign
Modeless dialog support
Terrain cosmetic pass
New Defense building: PHC Long-range Artillery
Narrative volume control
Substrate UI improvements
Clear-queue button
Global Chat
Auto-UI scaling for UHD displays (4K, 5K, 8K)
CPU Benchmark

Major Balance update

DLC 3: Turtle Wars
$3.99
New maps and scenarios
Centered around turtling

Version 1.24: July
Observer Mode
Terrain compression
Unit differentiation update
Full production queuing of all factories
Season 1 finale balance update
Dreadnought auto-leveling option
Memory optimization
Players can select AI personality in skirmish (and we can determine which AIs are most effective)

DLC 4: Large Map Pack
$3.99
Series of very large maps for larger games.

Version 1.3 / 1.31: August
Bunch of new maps (free)
New unit physics system (units more responsive)
Map PING support
New perf options
New Army algorithms to make armies behave better
UI updates

Version 1.4: series Fall
Balance pass based on player feedback
Performance Update for lower end systems


===========================================
Expansion 1: Escalation - Standalone expansion

Ashes of the Singularity gets its first expansion pack. Escalation, sold as an expand alone that includes everything in the base game. Focused on hard-core RTS players. See http://store.steampowered.com/app/507490 if you are interested in it.

New Unit: PHC Sapper, anti-building unit
New Unit: Substrate Harvester, flying unit that can go out and steal resources
New Unit: Substrate Sky Rampager. Hovering gun ship for mass destroying enemy swarms.
New Unit: PHC Marauder. Anti-large unit precision air unit.
New Unit: PHC Instigator. Flying unit that can capture undefended regions.
New Unit: Substrate Caregiver. Slow moving shield recharging unit.
New Unit: PHC Hera. A huge chunk of metal with a deadly cannon. Moves incredibly slowly. Don't let it get to your base.
New Unit: Substrate Saboteur. Fragile but very very fast moving unit that shoots a seemingly endless stream of ion bolts. Very good for hit and run attacks.
New Unit: Substrate Masochist. Mobile shield generator. Absorbs nearby damage because, let's face it, it really likes it that way.
New Building: PHC Artillery Post - fixed artillery unit
New Building: PHC Emergency Turret (call down). Spend quanta to defend against an air rush / incursion / avatar
New Building: Substrate Serpent (call down). Spend quanta to slow down an unexpected flank.
New Building: PHC Air Eliminator. One shot, one kill against air. Very expensive.
New Building: Substrate Disruptor. Expensive but can target many nearby units for death. Good against mass swarms of units but can't penetrate heavier armor.
New Building: Substrate Pulverizer . Very long range direct fire beam weapon that slowly kills most any unit. Very expensive. Late game defense.
New Building: Substrate Exterminator. Short range killer of strong units. Last line of defense in late game.
New Building: Substrate World Shredder: Late game super weapon that tends out very long range plasma bursts designed to destroy enemy buildings.
New Building: PHC Barrager. Upgrade from the Smarty. Much hardier than a Smarty. We plan to bring this unit back into the base game in the future.
New Building: Substrate Heavy Annihilator. Upgrade to the Annihilator cannon. Much deadlier. We plan to bring this unit back into the base game in the future.
New Building: PHC Oblivion. Upgrade to the Artillery post. Fires a single depleted uranium around that absolutely wrecks whatever it hits. Late game turtler weapon.
New Building: Substrate Aviary. Required to build advanced air units.
New Building: Advanced Sky Factory.
New Orbital Abilities
New Environment: Volcanic worlds
New Environment: Crystaline worlds
Strategic Zoom
Support for up to 16 players
Huge Map size
UI revamp
Additional game setup options

=======================================

Version 1.5: series Fall/Winter
Multiplayer team features (gift regions)
Major cosmetic pass across the game.
Lots of under the covers changes (performance)
New Multiplayer option: Quick Match (non-ranked MP)
Visual pass to improve graphics
UI scaling support to support lower resolutions
Season 3 maps
UI update
New defense: PHC Artillery Post (free DLC)
New defense: Substrate Harvester (free DLC)
New Unit: PHC Mobile Jammer - very late game unit that can protect units from enemy orbitals (free DLC)
New Unit: Substrate Blocker - Substrate equiv of Mobile Jammer (free DLC)
External Multiplayer Browser app

DLC 5: Volcanic Worlds $4.99
Set of maps and scenarios

Version 1.6 series: Winter 2017
Replays
In-Game notification system
Steam Workshop integration
Vulkan Support
HDR support
Season 4 maps

DLC 5: Crystal Worlds $4.99
Set of maps and scenarios

Version 1.7 series: Spring 2017
Integration with Escalation Multiplayer (if possible)
Auto-Map downloading for multiplayer syncing.
Steamworks Map sharing
Steamworks Scenario sharing
New Substrate T4 unit (free)
New PHC T4 unit (free)
Season 5 maps

Version 1.TBD

[facciola007]

mmm Love a nice looking roadmap!

[DmAnd]

question about The Substrate. Will they have there own types of units or will thy be the same as are current race?

[Frogboy]

The Substrate have compeltely different units and different technology basis. Their units are shielded (rather than armor).

[xl_zelestial]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Private Prototypes: 2014
Demonstrations of SWARM tech, Khronus group work to help design Vulkan to ensure multi-core access to GPUs. Object Space Lighting in a real-time engine validation. DirectX 11 engine completed. Mantle work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Does that mean I don't need to upgrade to Window 10 for direct X 12?

Since Mantle -> Vulkan is supported?

[Fireandsteel]

Sounds good. I am glad that you are supporting modders.

[magnetmannen WW3]

I just bought the game, i own most of your titles, so i trust your product. getting a top title for a lower amount by buying it early is great. please make a good singleplayer. coop is also something i want.

[Jetkar]

Interesting road map very promising :)

[Paha]

Regarding this:
"Escalation Expansion (not free)
Will include: New worlds, units, new terrain system, reclaiming of wrecks."

I'm fine with all of it except the reclaiming of wrecks. It would be nice for it to be included in the base game.

[Frogboy]

Sorry, sloppy wording.

So, Escalation will be v1.5 of the base game and that version will support reclaiming of wrecks in th engine. However, it is to be determined whether this will be done by Engineers or not since the Substrate doesn't have Engineers.

[Larry Potter]

Is Ascendancy Wars essentially the campaign?

[Zee]

Is there any chance of this being increased to an 8 player game (for 4 player vs 4 AI skirmish), or is there zero chance of that?

It's great that you have this new engine that is supposed to handle lots of things, multicore and such - but we still play Supreme commander (1 & 2) at lans, and it performs pretty well on our modern PC's with 8 players. All we are after is a more modern successor that performs decently, but still supports 8 players.

[Frogboy]

We very much want to increase the # of players to 8 before release. This early access program will help us determine how feasible this is based on the amount of average bandwidth players have.

In Ashes, every single projectile is modeled and simulated. So it's a pretty heavy bandwidth load per player. Especially when you consider how many units there are. But if enough players have good ocnnections, it's doable.

[REVENANT]

Substrate will have mobile bases?? Or will they be like the Goo in Grey Goo, but instead be angular blocky scary things like the Inhibitors in Revelation Space?

[facciola007]

Originally posted by $73v3:

.:sadelf: thanks for reply keep up the good work d00des

I think Jan? If that's asendency wars.

[ChildoftheKoRn]

Mod support. You motherf***ers. Expect to see my money when the expansions released.