Quick summary: we’re under 50 days till launch, every feature promised in the July roadmap, and more, will be deployed, but for the 1.0 Release in December, we can’t promise anything more.

Now that Ascendancy: A Minecraft Civilization Project has a published and public launch date, it is extremely important to me that we do everything we can to adhere explicitly to that date. That’s why we hired and entered into a contract with a dynamic programmer. That’s why we became a full-fledged, registered business entity. That’s why we haven’t stopped working since mid-June to design and develop a product which we believe will revitalize the stagnated Civilization-genre ecosystem.

As an important reminder, with Ascendancy, our ultimate goal is to host a feedback-driven and feature-full sociopolitical Minecraft server with custom topography that revolves around geopolitics and promotes a sense of wonder and adventure. From our game design to our development, even to our graphic design and merchandise, this goal has not been forgotten and has not been disregarded; it has always been critical to distinguishing Ascendancy as unique and original.

Now, with all that said, here’s a brief overview of the core features that will be available at launch:

The most impactful and, perhaps, important area of our game design for the 1.0 Release in December is the Nation Management System. On the surface, the Nation Management System is the way you, as a player, will not only become powerful but also enable your nation to be powerful as well. There’s a great deal of complicated metrics and backend development that exist to ensure this system’s success, but none of which the player will have to be directly concerned about. We’ve worked very hard to make this system feel organic for the player; your nation’s path to glory and power will not be arbitrary: it’ll take dedication, time, resources, diplomacy, and (maybe) warfare. You’ll always know where your nation, and others too, stand in relation to their quest for power. You’ll never need to guess or estimate; as the player, you will always have the data to make strategic decisions with geopolitical consequences.

A major game design concern we had, particularly in reflecting on Civilization-genre servers of the past, was ensuring we did not limit the ways players could compete creatively within the world. Too often, in the past, Civilization-genre servers lost their way, forgot their principles, and became Factions with complicated commands. Our Nation Management System invites and supports a diverse range of playstyles and aims at keeping the server active and lively while avoiding the stagnation other servers have faced.

The other major area of game development focus has been our Biome Management System. Guaranteeing a sense of wonder and adventure while not restricting how players interact with the world has been challenging. By splitting the Biome Management System into four different categories (resources, farming, mobs, and regions), however, we’ve come well prepared for the challenge!

We believe that biomes, and different pieces of land, need to be different to encourage competition over them and avoid arbitrary trading or transport systems. We want players to feel strongly encouraged, though not aimlessly forced, to interact with the custom-made map and the custom-made plugins which make it unique. Indeed, the world is not a theme park. It’s a sandbox that respects the highly-successful Minecraft design while adding additional functionalities that ensure that healthy competition can exist, hegemony can be avoided, and cooperation can be maintained.

The way both the Nation Management and Biome Management Systems will be deployed is still extremely similar to how they were initially presented in the July roadmap. Any changes we’ve made, usually to accommodate practical implementation, are not significant enough to impact the player experience in any tangible way.

Thank you for your interest. We look forward to your feedback.