We have finally entered the last stretch of the 1.1 development cycle for Ascendancy and begun the beta process! As we clean up the last bits of work, like finishing some icons and one or two art assets, we will be opening up the mod builds to everyone for testing purposes. Our primary goals with this are to find any major bugs which still remain, but just as importantly, to start getting more information on balance in the mod before the full release. We will be hosting several games ourselves, and encourage everyone else in the beta to do the same, and let us know what you find.
In order to access the beta, you will need an account on the
Thrawn's Revenge forums. This is the method by which we are organizing the beta itself the feedback threads and game schedules are all being run through there. There are full download instructions within the beta subforum, but I have also made a video on how to set up the Github repository, which will be at the end of this post.
The first multiplayer game we're organizing is being livestreamed as a community match on Corey Loses at 1pm EST, Sunday July 16th, the page for which can be found
here. As a community event for the channel, the game will first be open to
patrons of Corey Loses, and then opened to anyone who wants to join. If you can't come this time, there will be plenty of matches coming up, both streamed and unstreamed. Ideally, the beta process will be going 2-3 weeks before the full release.
This release does not, of course, mean the end of the mod- we've already started some plans (and actual work) for the next version. As we've said in the past, we plan to do some smaller updates between the larger content-oriented ones, like faction releases.
Whether you decide to join the beta or wait for the final release, we hope you enjoy it.