What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access? “Early Access gives players a chance to participate in the development of the game when we are still in a state where active changes are being made regularly. It provides the players with a chance to give their feedback and for us to take that feedback into account as we continue to refine features. Early Access also includes lifetime Membership post-launch and is similar to a one time box price.



That having been said, we want to make it perfectly clear that this is an Alpha test. You will undoubtedly encounter bugs and annoyances that may affect your gameplay experience. You may crash a lot and may be stuck with technical issues for a while. Some features of the game are still being implemented or refined, some graphics, animations, sounds, and much of the interface are placeholders and slated for revision prior to launch. Some parts of the world are still a work a progress.While our support team and community actively assists players in resolving these type of issues, If you are easily frustrated by these types of things, then Early Access is probably not for you and we would recommend waiting until the game launches or hits Open Beta.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “It’s difficult to give firm dates when developing an MMORPG because many of the delays are reactionary. Players, through the community, will be a part of the decision on when the game moves into Beta and when it launches.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “We think it is best to talk about additions, features, and overall scope we would like to achieve, but not to make specific promises about future events (e.g. when the game will be finished, exactly what the finished state of the game would be, or that planned future additions will definitely happen).



We have a break down of existing features vs upcoming features available in the main section below. Many features are currently implemented, but a few key features are still remaining including the Hardcore Ruleset and some Sieging and Nation functionality.” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “The game is currently in a new Early Alpha with a new development team, Idea Fabrik Studios (IFS). Patching has been put on hold until the core of the old code has been overhauled, optimized and fixed.



There will be a complete server wipe, including player data, at release and another one is planned for when we need to check the economy, most likely midway during Beta. Other wipes between now and then are not planned, but that is subject to change if necessary.



A lot of the main functionalities are already in, the servers are up full time and GMs are already at hand helping the player base. You are able to access housing, combat, pvp, entertainment and many other variations of play.



While the world is almost all available for exploration, there are some locations which have little to no content currently. The hardcore ruleset is not yet available, and sieges are currently disabled. There are also many areas of gameplay which are not yet optimized. You will encounter bugs, crashes, and many models do not yet have LOD (Level of Detail) which negatively affects performance. Some graphics or sounds are also placeholders. For example, you will notice that your ability icons are currently split between placeholders and the final versions. This will continue to improve throughout the course of testing.



A lot of the main functionality is already in, the servers are up full time and GM’s are already at hand helping the player base. You are able to access housing, combat, pvp, entertainment and many other variations of play.” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “The business model has not been finalized yet, but there will be no "pay-to-win" (P2W) cash shop; there is more about this at the bottom of the page.



There will be at least three different one time membership options at launch: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. We are currently only offering Silver memberships in Early Access; in the future we will also be opening up Gold and Platinum memberships again. They are currently unavailable as we want to get a lot of our primary fixes in and improve the stability of the game beforehand.



You will also be able to upgrade from Silver to the other membership options at any time once the membership upgrades are opened up again.



Some of the extra perks that are included as part of the Early Access packages will not be available for purchase after release.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “Currently we communicate with the community primarily through both, the game site forums and the Steam forums as well as Discord. We have GMs already on staff assisting new players even at this stage of development and we plan to further expand our community in the future. At this point in development we are taking feedback, but primarily working on fixing up a lot of the issues within the game to improve performance and stability. When we are past these stages you will see a lot more of the feedback coming in to play, along with more in-depth system analysis.”