Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation Releases this Fall!

from AshesoftheSingularity Forums

More Players, More Worlds, More Units, More Everything...
in the new Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
Standalone Expansion

Stardock has revealed the first expansion pack for its massive-scale RTS, Ashes of the Singularity. Escalation lets you take your war to the next strategic level on huge maps, destroy your enemy with devastating orbital abilities, bolster your armies with unique new units, and much more!

 

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation introduces some new and exciting content:

New Story-Driven Campaign
See Haalee's point of view and learn about the origin of the Substrate in the campaign "Memories." Experience the next chapter in the "Escalation" campaign as the PHC faces external and internal threats.

New Units
Add to the gameplay dynamic with new units for both the PHC and the Substrate! Destroy waves of enemies with the heavily armored Hera unit for the PHC or bolster the strength of your army and recharge their defenses with the Caregiver unit for the Substrate, and more.

New Worlds
Travel to new Crystal and Lava worlds for new and exciting scenery for truly epic battles. Wage war across landscapes of massive crystal formations or storm your enemy's base across spans of volcanic pits and burning terrain.

  

Bigger Maps and Global View
Experience truly massive wars with over a dozen players at once on maps even larger than before! Face the new challenges of multi-tiered terrain and use the new Global View to manage your armies more easily.

New Buildings
Bolster your defenses with new upgradeable buildings. Unleash devastating advanced aircraft units on your enemies by building an Aviary or Advanced Sky Factory. Lay traps for your enemies or surprise them from behind enemy lines with new offensive and defensive turrets. 

New Orbital Abilities
Surprise your enemy by using your quanta to call down turrets at critical moments in battle. Defend regions or deploy turrets strategically to trap incoming units or cut off a retreat.
...and more!
In Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation you will take your war to the next level and engage in massive battles. 

Escalation is $19.99 for existing Ashes of the Singularity players and will be $39.99 for new players.

The conflict is rising - are you ready to wage a massive war?
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation will be available for pre-order on August 25th.


For more information, check out www.ashesgame.com/escalation
266,714 views 74 replies
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Yea. Blech. Removed it.

Reply #4 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

more and more form what stardock promised and announced transfered form the normal game in the expansion and the normal game has still a lot of bugs and isn´t finsihed .... i paid about 40€ about 45$ for the game and i get less and less of your announcement... and the expansion get more and more expensive from 10 to 15 and  than to now 20 dollar...  dislike...

Reply #5 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

On that last note, I recall seeing this on steam:

 

The first expansion for Ashes of the Singularity will be coming out this Fall. It will be a stand-alone expansion (i.e. you won’t need to buy the base game). The base price for the expandalone will be $39.99. For a limited time, the upgrade price for existing players will be $9 and then later updated to $19.99 eventually (we want to thank our early adopters for their loyalty and support).


Link in the steam thread is:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/228880/discussions/1/360671727319317870/#c360671984101022376



Is the plan still to enable existing players to purchase for $9?

 

If so, is there a particular link that we should be clicking, or will steam just be smart about it? 

 

Thanks.

 

Looking forward to the expo.

Reply #6 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

frogboy wrote: "The base price for the expandalone will be $39.99. For a limited time, the upgrade price for existing players will be $14.99" not 9$ any more this at the 08.08.2016. 

At the Roadmap update today: Stardock increased the price for the expansion again to 20$:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/228880/discussions/1/490123938434377747/

 

as i told in an other thread... finish the development of the game and than start an expansion; it dont work that stardock develop the expansion before finshing the normal game 

 

I ask stardocks again: Why I should buy a expansion for 20 to 40 dollar if you didnt even finish the normal game, fix the bugs and solve the map and fraction balance? 


After all i payed about 45 $.

 

 

 

Reply #8 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

While I understand your point of view, I am going to be all over this expansion. More single-player is always a plus in my book.

+1 Loading…
Reply #9 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Sort of agree with Never. Sort of.

I can also see that, from SD perspective, they are also adding more investment and additional features.  

Quoting Never123, reply 6

I ask stardocks again: Why I should buy a expansion for 20 to 40 dollar if you didnt even finish the normal game, fix the bugs and solve the map and fraction balance? 

Bottom line is that development costs money.

At the end of the  day, they seem to be telling us that if we want them to continue working on the game, we need to fill up the coffers again.

So perhaps it just might be costing them a bit more than they expected to sand the corners for us.

 

This is part of the  reason I thought SaaS would be a decent idea.

Makes those expos a little less offensive (and perhaps sometimes not necessary). 

Thread here:

https://forums.ashesofthesingularity.com/479045/page/1/#3646230

 

 

Reply #10 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Here's another thought.

 

It seems like there is this repeating pattern, where they release the game, and then not enough people buy it, so it goes on sale within a relatively short period thereafter.

 

Then everyone who bought at retail price complains, because they feel like they have been somehow shortchanged ("early adoption tax").

 

This is obviously not intended by Stardock, and probably isn't the way things should turn out.

 

So what if pre-purchasers got some DLC for this "block" for free.

 

Then if it goes on sale, the folks who purchase at the sale price won't get the same value.

 

The folks who purchase during sale would have to but the DLC for the "block" separately.

 

SO no complaints from the folks who paid full price.

 

Sort of like a mini founders program for the loyalists.

 

 

Reply #13 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top
Schism Navigator:
Wait, did you just bump the price of the expansion for existing owners of Ashes again? It was $9.99 then $14.99 and now $19.99

I am not saying I would be against paying $20 for the expanalone, but the sneaky bump is a little insulting. I also noticed that you moved the upgrading buildings from base game update to expansion update. Again, I don't mind it since it's post-release development costs but the ninja edits are starting to make you look shady.

Frogboy:
Yea, sorry about that. When we tried to make it that price we ran into all kinds of price protections that had been put in place with partners. I didn't know about it until yesterday myself.

Reply #14 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

prices can will change in due time, as for the bugs they are not affecting the game to much, unless you exploite the heck out of them, (their main focus as been mostly on the expansion,)

also at the moment there is a bug in the game affecting the entire gameplay (the amplifier for the phc gives an income of 6 from 2 with one amp, also up to 8 with orbital amp, it is those type of bugs that shoulde have a high priority. (not sure if this effects the subs)

as for the price its content and its expensive to produce content. (think about world of warcraft in comparison that rips of the money in one swoop if you are willing to pay for it)

 also for frogboy/brad its best you dont give us promises they just make the crowd unreasonable if promises are made.

Humans are pretty dumb if they dont start thinking some thoughts. (in my experience)

But the list of content on the steam page seems promising and personally i think its worth the price in the end.

Reply #15 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

If I had my way, I would nearly give away the games.  I just want people to play our stuff.

But when you want other services to sell your games, you have to take their needs into account as well.  

 

Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top

I am curious what the benefit of the main game is now? What is unique about it that will make it worth it to buy both the base game and the expansion?

Reply #17 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Hmm, so, the Expansion pack is basically stand alone, which means that the people who play that, can't play with the original AoTS people fairly, correct?  (Since all the new additions.)

Does that mean, the original AoTS is basically finished, or are the improvements (game engine) from the Expansion coming to the original as well?

 

 

 

 

Reply #18 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Quoting BadVoltage, reply 17

Hmm, so, the Expansion pack is basically stand alone, which means that the people who play that, can't play with the original AoTS people fairly, correct?  (Since all the new additions.)

Does that mean, the original AoTS is basically finished, or are the improvements (game engine) from the Expansion coming to the original as well?

 
 

No.  We want to use the Escalation series to evolve into a bigger game and keep the Ashes game as the introductory game.  Both will continue to be updated simultaneously.

Reply #19 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Quoting SithDarkLord11, reply 16

I am curious what the benefit of the main game is now? What is unique about it that will make it worth it to buy both the base game and the expansion?

There is no expansion, AOTS Escalation is a Standalone game, you don't need the first one and by buying AOTS Escalation you get the base game with the expansion

they keep selling the first AOTS way cheaper than AOTS Escalation, that's the Benefit you get by buying only AOTS.

I guess they do that for new players who don't want to spend a lot for a game that want to try.

I may be wrong tho. sorry that's just my though about that.

Reply #20 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

As a person who's played a few stardock games and enjoyed them, upon hearing that this new game they've developed called Ashes of the singularity has finally had the bugs ironed out and the game improved on I was keen to buy it. Especially so when I signed into steam today and discovered a 75% off until August 30th. However imagine my surprise when I discovered that a stand alone expansion of Ashes of the singularity was due to come out in month or less, which by the way is being pitched better then the previous game in every way. 

I must admit I'm a little confused. Why should any prospecting buyers to the series buy the soon to be obsolete Ashes of the singularity and not buy the expansion? If this expansion : Escalation - comes out and proves indeed to be better then the previous game everyone will quite literally jump ship. So which do I buy? Do I hope for a less buggy release come the new game? Or buy the already good base game? 

Reply #21 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Quoting LeonJaguar, reply 20

As a person who's played a few stardock games and enjoyed them, upon hearing that this new game they've developed called Ashes of the singularity has finally had the bugs ironed out and the game improved on I was keen to buy it. Especially so when I signed into steam today and discovered a 75% off until August 30th. However imagine my surprise when I discovered that a stand alone expansion of Ashes of the singularity was due to come out in month or less, which by the way is being pitched better then the previous game in every way. 

I must admit I'm a little confused. Why should any prospecting buyers to the series buy the soon to be obsolete Ashes of the singularity and not buy the expansion? If this expansion : Escalation - comes out and proves indeed to be better then the previous game everyone will quite literally jump ship. So which do I buy? Do I hope for a less buggy release come the new game? Or buy the already good base game? 

Buying Escalation gets you the base game too.

Reply #23 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

My pleasure! Cheers!

Reply #24 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Paid over $60au for the original game, almost $10au for each dlc, can't see where to get founders upgrade for this new game, so another $30-40au?  When it's now $13us in steam? When I click upgrade on the stardock site it takes me to steam, where it's the same price as there sale price =/

 

If I buy Escalation can I gift the base game to a friend that doesn't have it? Seeing as a founder I'm paying teh same price as everyone else that might be the only way I would consider not just waiting for it to come on sale.