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Alpha-3 Recap, Early Access, Pre-Orders And Alpha-4

Published 3 months ago News & Updates Artificial Core

The following is an official news post, originally available here.


Hello everyone!

Let’s get straight to the point for those who don’t like reading long texts 🙂 The next few lines contain 90% of the necessary information.

We will release the game in early access on November 26, 2024.

Pre-orders will start tomorrow, July 12, at 8 PM Amsterdam time.

The next Alpha 4 test will last a month and will run from August 6 to September 6. All participants of Alpha Test 1 and those who purchased a pre-order will be invited to this test.

Now for a lot of text - we’ll cover several important topics.

HOW THE TEST WENT:

As developers, Alpha-3 went very well for us. We hosted 50,000 players and successfully tested several key fixes to our infrastructure, significantly improving the game’s smoothness and stability. Although shards and other technical aspects still require our time and attention, we can now confidently say that we’ve eliminated the root causes of these errors and there are no more unknowns for us. We are aware of all existing bugs and vulnerabilities and are actively working on them. With each phase, you will feel more stability, smoothness, and tactile feedback.

The same goes for gameplay; everything went better than well for us. Your creative approaches to exploring and mastering the content are impressive. We’ve never seen such a variety of play styles before; it’s a great experience for us. Every aspect of the game - gathering, crafting, PvE, PvP, questing, and world exploration - has found its players. This is precisely how Corepunk was envisioned; game systems should allow you to dabble in everything or dive deeply into one direction.

Corepunk is a huge, lively, and rich open world, full of secrets and opportunities. The model is “entertain yourself” 🙂 while Corepunk is a theme park MMORPG with a sandbox atmosphere and a touch of survival.

We want to clarify - the game requires significant polishing in all directions. Most of what you see in the game today is a work in progress. Animations, effects, questing, mechanics, and everything presented in the game is not the final quality of the product, including visuals, which still have many prototype variations. We polish the game while simultaneously assembling content and producing features. The game is far from our vision of full polish, and this work will continue non-stop.

During the test, we will test several important systems, some of which will add logic to the entire gameplay, and we will refine and balance them together with you during the test. We are very much looking forward to this work. Our goal is to work in real-time with a constantly playing base of players and gain the most benefit through precise balance calibration. Learn and gain experience.

WHAT WILL BE IN THE TEST:

Two important systems that we have previously introduced - the synthesis machine and NPC traders. Both systems are aimed at depth and replayability.

You will be able to level up your character to level 20 (now officially). Accordingly, 3 branches of passive talents will be available. Builds and gameplay will become more diverse.

A new location with new game rules and a new environment will be added to the northern part of the world. In the past test, we tested the concept of a PvP/PvE battleground in the open world and were very pleased with how it played out. We hope that in the next test, the open world battleground will reveal its full potential due to a denser population of characters.

The new location will simulate a dungeon in the open world for players of level 20. The location will be inhabited by strong creatures, bosses, and their minions, and even a fight with the minions will feel like a good challenge, while bosses will require thorough preparation.

Alpha 4 test will have mounts.

Some of this content might not be fully prepared for the test release, but as you level up and strengthen your characters, we will continue to gather, add, and fix new content during the test.

No new weapon specializations will be presented in the test.

HOW WE SEE WORK DURING THE TEST:

We are constantly working on improving all aspects. When we launch the test, it will be an excellent platform for us to test everything we want, find and fix a large number of bugs and problematic areas in the gameplay.

Expect bugs and vulnerabilities in gameplay and other joys of alpha testing. Hopefully, there will be no critical bugs.

We do not plan to wipe progress during the test; we want to see late gameplay when most players have leveled up, are well-equipped, and can engage in end-game PvE and PvP activities. But if a situation arises where we realize that to make the test and feedback effective, we need to wipe the progress and restart the test, we will do so, as effective work during the test is our priority.

Therefore, we want to warn players about this in advance.

In the past test, we did not fully see the PvP component because when we invited more people to the test, high-level players dispersed across servers, and there weren’t enough players in high-level locations. In the next test, when more players level up, there will be significantly more interesting moments.

We will improve the early game experience for the test, but not by balance adjustments, rather by good polishing.

Quests will be fixed, and rewards will be refined and improved. Ideally, we want to make it so that a player who comes to the game for the story and wants to learn the plot, laugh at jokes, or ponder the meaning of life, can engage solely in questing without paying much attention to other activities. At the same time, questing will allow you to level up to the maximum level and gear up. That’s the plan, and we will polish it together with your feedback.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ON THE GAME:

We regret that some players did not like the game, and if you change your mind in the future, we will always be very happy to have you back.

We warmly welcome the many new players who enjoyed the game. Welcome to our community, thank you for your trust, and we will do our best not to let you down.

PLAYER TRADING:

We are still thinking about trading and considering our options. Obviously, it is impossible to completely avoid RMT (real money trading); this is the flip side of trading, and one cannot exist without the other. The problem arises when it goes beyond reasonable limits. We are looking for effective methods to reduce the negative impact of RMT, and we already have interesting ideas, including information from Alpha 3 test, but we do not harbor illusions that we can completely avoid it. We are still observing and collecting data. The next test will have more potential for data collection in this regard.

EARLY ACCESS:

The early access servers will launch on November 26, 2024 🙂

To ensure as many players as possible can play Corepunk, we are expanding the number of regions where game servers will be located.

Servers will be located in the following regions:

  • Western Europe
  • North America: US East, US West
  • South America: Brazil
  • Central Asia: Kazakhstan
  • Asia: Korea, Taiwan
  • Oceania: Australia

Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide full and high-quality localization in languages other than English at the start of early access. However, for those who want to play Corepunk, we will connect Eleven Labs to early access, and you will be able to play with text translation in your preferred language.

Regarding wipes during early access, here’s what we want to say - we do not want or plan to wipe after the start of early access, but if a critical bug or exploit (like item duplication) severely damages the gameplay experience, we will act sensibly and, of course, wipe progress and restart the servers.

Players should consider this when deciding to buy or not buy early access.

WHAT EARLY ACCESS WILL INCLUDE:

  • Two new biomes.
  • Two new settlements.
  • Two randomly generated dungeons.
  • Two instanced battlegrounds.
  • Two narrative storyline series, complete with NPCs and quests.
  • Itemization will expand to hundreds of items, fully covering the needs of game systems and complementing the entire game logic with new items and resources.
  • All game systems planned for early access will be presented in a finished basic logic.
  • Three new specializations will be added for early access - Defender, Commando, Grenadier.

The next in line are Dwarves and Demons, and if we do not manage to introduce them by early access, they will be the first on the priority list for release shortly after the start of early access.

We will continue to develop “extraction” mechanics in Corepunk, as the game’s open world concept allows us to create interesting game rules in different parts of the world, maintaining a delicate balance between PvE and PvP content.

After early access begins, we will continue to ramp up production. The game will be in an active stage of development until the full release.

PRE ORDERS:

Pre-orders will start tomorrow at 8 PM Amsterdam time.

Purchasing a pre-order grants access to Alpha 4 test.

You will be able to purchase preorder on our website.

Note: To obtain the pre-order bonus skin, the player will need to acquire the mount in the game using the same method as other players. The skins have unique markings 405 and 403 and a unique color. These aspects of the skins will be exclusive to pre-orders and will be available for purchase for a limited time. After the pre-order update, the skins in the pre-orders will be sold without the 405 and 403 markings.

These mounts will be available in the game in different colors and without the numbered markings, and they can be obtained through the standard gameplay method.

IMPORTANT:

At any time before the test, during the test, and after the test, until the start of early access, you can always request a refund. We want players to be able to try the game before it goes into early access. We believe that in a month of gameplay, you can understand whether you like the game or not.

If you are not sure the game can bring you joy - do not buy a pre-order.

If you doubt our ability to deliver a high-quality product - do not buy a pre-order.

If you bought the game, but after playing the test you did not like it, even if you played the whole month and decided that the game is not at the level of polish you expected or lacks content - request a refund.

A strong community is essential for a long-term business model, but it is important that people are satisfied with the money spent, understand what they are paying for and what they are getting, and do not have overly high expectations. This is crucial for the success of the game.

For those who are eagerly waiting for Corepunk, we want to say that financially we are capable of bringing the game to full release and even a bit beyond. But if you like the game and what we are doing and decide to buy it, we will be grateful for your support. This will expand our capabilities and allow us to stand more firmly on our feet, knowing that players are voting for us with their money.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM:

Tomorrow, along with the start of pre-orders, we are launching an affiliate program for everyone who wants to participate in promoting the game.

We want to share the revenue with everyone who spends their time on the game. And of course, this approach can positively affect sales. 

20% of the game’s sales will go to those who have signed up for the affiliate program. 

Now any player who wants to support their favorite streamer or creator of interesting and useful guides, perhaps you want to support your favorite Corepunk website creator or just support a friend who got you into our universe, can use the link from the person they want to support with their purchase, and 20% of the game sale will go into their wallet.

We have no restrictions in this program; anyone can register. The program will work for everyone who wishes to participate.

Tell your friends, acquaintances, or your subscribers about the game; perhaps they will be interested and enjoy the world of Corepunk. 

Note: An interesting fact is that the game has almost no middle ground, players have divided into those who loved the game and those who hated it.

P.S.: MMORPG is a rather complex genre. All this time, we have not just been showing the game, but we have been showing ourselves as a team. Who we are, what we are capable of, and how dedicated we are to our goal. Whether we can tackle complex tasks. Whether we can build trust as a studio. Our sales are directly proportional to the community’s trust in us. This is a simple and obvious fact.

Thank you all for these years of faith in us, for all your energy that fuels the universe of Corepunk!

See you soon!


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