Age of Ascent (AoA) is a great looking space-based sandbox MMO that we covered last month when they were planning on breaking EVE Online’s world record (4070 concurrent pilots fighting) by staging the largest PvP battle ever seen. Unfortunately they didn’t manage to break the record, but it wasn’t down to any issues with the framework (which was designed for 50,000+ players), it was just down to not enough people turning up.
The Devs are now doing open Alpha tests every Saturday at 8pm GMT, 9pm UK & 3pm US Central The Alpha. There’s no install, no download and no sign-up, thanks to the Azure based framework you just have to turn up for the Alpha test and play. Although the gameplay is fairly shallow at the moment, the Alpha tests are beautiful experiences, with hundreds of players fighting in the same area piloting X-Wing-style fighters, it resembles a fantastic fireworks show.
The tests are for the PvP component only at the moment, but the devs promise that the full game will include exploration (in a map of our real galaxy), a completely player-driven economy, PvE missions, modular ship designs, space station construction and management, and all the alliance organisational tools you’ll need.
Join in the Alpha every Saturday at 8pm GMT, 9pm UK & 3pm USA Central HERE