The first alpha for ambitious MMO Ashes of Creation, which has plans for huge cities and a player-led government, has been delayed past this summer, developer Intrepid Studios has announced.

The team has not decided a new date for Alpha One, but the delay will last "months", creative director Steven Sharif said. During that time, Intrepid will work on the game's performance and netcode, testing of 200-player castle sieges, new animations and improved art.

It follows a beta for Ashes of Creation Apocalypse, a battle royale add-on for the MMO designed to test the game's systems. "[The test] was a great success, but we are going bigger for the massive battles we want in Ashes...As a result of some of the needed changes from what we learned in testing Apocalypse, we will be pushing Alpha One back from the Q2 goal we had previously announced," Sharif said in a blog post.

Apocalypse isn't going anywhere: the aim is to have the battle royale mode running 24/7. "This requires us to finish the changes necessary from the testing done in December and January, but once it’s ready, it will allow us to gather a great deal more data, and to stress our back-end infrastructure in ways that will prepare us for the MMORPG."

Intrepid will also carry on testing both castle sieges and horde mode, which players will be able to jump into before the arrival of the main Alpha One.

You can read Sharif's full post, which contains details of new hires and plans for monthly developer streams, on Intrepid's website.