It’s probably easier to just check your hardware results here:
There’s tens of thousands of configurations in there.
Is there a deal for those of us who already have the original? I saw on steam that Escalation prepurchase gets new buyers the original for free.
Thanks!
How long will the upgrade discount be available?
I’m checking to be sure, but the owner upgrade discount I believe is permanent.
Is the “old” Ashes going to be receiving any additional content? Or is support / dlc being focused on Escalation only now?
Ashes will continue to be updated and supported.
Brad posted the September dev journal for Ashes: http://steamcommunity.com/app/228880/discussions/1/350540780276858218/
[quote]
It’s being released as a stand-alone expansion. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we would have made this a DLC instead of stand-alone given some of the anger that we’ve seen regarding releasing the expansion as a stand-alone.
Somewhere between our release of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes and now expandalones have gone out of favor.
We prefer explandalones for a variety of reasons. Mainly, it lets us have a new install directory. I wish I had a better reason than that but it didn’t occur to us that anyone would care one way or the other since all the other RTS games do their expansions that way (StarCraft: Legacy of the Void, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, The various Dawn of War 2 expansions, the various CoH expansions, etc.
Anyway, lesson learned, people prefer their expansions released as DLC. We’ll keep that in mind in the future.[/quote]
I don’t understand the objection to expandalone expansions. What reasons were given by players that dislike them?
If I had to guess, expansions are $30 and DLC is $5 ;)
But who am I to try to understand the minds of foaming-at-the-mouth Steam forum warriors?
While I am not angry about it (and I already pre-purchased Escalation) I actually find the Expandalone choice a bit confusing; especially so soon after the release proper of the of the core game.
Island Dog mentioned that Ashes (core) will still be updated and supported–and I believe that–but which executable should I be firing up to play in the future? Seems like Escalation is the obvious choice now. Not sure how much more time I will spend with Ashes core at this point.
During the recent Stardock Weekend Steam sale I had the Ashes of the Singularity complete edition in my cart to get the nice discount on all of the DLC I don’t own. I eventually hesitated and removed it from my cart since Escalation is coming out so soon. Not sure if I would get any mileage out of the DLC maps and scenarios and I was confused if any of that content will be part of the newer Escalation. So the Escalation announcement got a pre-order purcahse from me but translated to lost DLC sales (not out of anger, but more confusion).
I am a gamer that prefers a long tail of support and long life for a title (and I back that wish financially). Ashes only came out in March this year and while I know Stardock will continue to support it it kind of seems like Escalation is now the way to go, the community will move over, and most of the focus/DLC/content will be targeted towards Escalation (though I might be wrong).
So I am not an angry Steam forum dweller but I do have some confusion regarding the expandalone. Just wanted to jot down my thoughts in case it helps Stardock in any way despite it being anecdotal and one tiny point of data.
Edit: On another note I should go leave a positive review for Ashes on Steam. I haven’t bothered with submitting any Steam reviews yet but I really loved my time with Ashes and want to do my part to improve the perception of the title. Especially since we don’t get many quality RTS games anymore.
Ah, that’s a good point. Does your purchase of DLC/addons for the base game “carry over” to the expandalone, or is that content only available on the “old” original game?
I think you guys are overthinking things… which makes the point of why this isn’t a good way to sell expansions these days. :)
This is just an expansion. The expansion includes the base game for those who are jumping in now. This would insure that if the game were still being supported and expanded five years down the line, the new customer would just have to make the one purchase. It’s the opposite of what people complain about with Paradox games on the Steam store “But I don’t know what DLC to buy, I’m so confused!”. This approach just means that you buy the most recent version of the game and you have the base game and the expansions. For those who already own the game, they’re just like buying expansions, at expansion-level cost.
Given that this is just an expansion pack like we’ve seen hundreds of times before, I’d be shocked if the DLC didn’t carry over.
Brad put up an explanation of stand-alones, it’s a good read.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/507490/discussions/0/352792037315878569/
DLC that you own from the base game will carry over to Escalation.
Neato, and thanks for the linkage, ID!
That is good to know.
I may have missed a mention of that earlier, but I wish I had known that during the Stardock Weekend Sale.
So If I have an Ashes DLC pack and I fire up the Escalation executable I can play with the maps and scenarios within Escalation?
I wished I knew that during the sale. That and other confusion about which product is doing what from here on out caused me to just stay away.
The issue is not that the market hates standalone so much I think, but rather that it adds confusion along with worry when so close to the original release.
Brad will be streaming Ashes at 4pm ET today, and Sorcerer King: Rivals at 2pm ET. :)
So I’m going to complain about something that’s minor and probably sounds nit-picky, but it’s bothered me a bit from the initial EA release. Like I said, it’s minor.
When I got the first early access build of Ashes, I wasn’t expecting polish, I was expecting something that was raw and in development (which it was). One of the things that I assumed was merely a quick and dirty placeholder was the UI. I don’t mean the controls, I mean the actual look and feel of the interface. It was this dull gray-blue, a lot of numbers were small and hard to read (relatively speaking, at 1440p). It was pretty ugly overall and was completely lacking in polish or character, but I figured this was something that was tossed together quickly by a developer so that the UI could do its main task in allowing the user to perform actions and maybe see some information.
The UI since then, though, has remained largely unchanged. It’s functional, but it’s ugly. It’s in stark contrast with the actual action taking place in the game, which has bright colors and blazing lasers and missile volleys, all surrounded by an incredibly drab UI that looks like it was designed by the IRS.
Nothing pops or is aesthetically pleasing in the UI. While I’m not saying it should be BEDAZZLING or be obnoxious and obtrusive, to my eye it’s very drab and it contributes to giving the game a lifeless feel.
I’m oftentimes finding myself fishing around for information or buttons I need, because everything looks similarly drab.
Anyway, gameplay clearly comes first and is by far the most important part. I just had to get that off my chest because it’s bugged me since day one. :)