I would say because most of us follow what's going on the community through discord. Our community is surprisingly large and tight-knit. But as of right now, there is no public testing whatsoever outside of the dev team.

Current progress, were currently still in pre-alpha. Alpha 1 is expected this year, or early next year. A variety of pledge packages are available to give different tiers of access to the Alpha/Beta/Launch. We are largely community driven as we hash out Kingdoms, Duchys, Counties and Settlements. These are real places that will populate the world. Getting familiar with the community (within your server region) that peaks your interest the most is the best way to prepare for Chronicles of Elyria when it launches.

Posted By molitara at

This is the most confusing site ever. Is this game even out yet? If not is it Alpha, Beta 1 or Beta 2? Anyone visiting this URL would give up because it is not clear if this game is even out yet.

Why is there no clear indication on the main page?

I agree with OP. I've been into this for a while and we often lose sight of what it's like to come in new and blind. For many of us, we came in during kickstarter. The website has changed a bit and there's been no reason to circle back and look at it through newbie eyes. I did a cursory look at the main page. She/he is right. It's not readily apparent anywhere that this game is still in development. It shouldn't take digging, any digging at all, to find this vital piece of information. No wonder there have been so many posts asking how to play.

The main page tells you about the game a bit and goes directly to 'pledge your support, but no mention of it being in development. Maybe that can be changed? And yes, I get that it's meant to draw people in first before they leave at "oh, not ready yet". It's difficult to find unless you spend a while looking. If I weren't already so obsessed, I'd leave. I have with other games when information isn't clear on their site. Lucky we have pretty good community spread the gospel by word of mouth :D

Status = awesome!

seriously though, I too agree that at a glance, the information is hard to find and even harder to sift through.

Hope this won't deter you or your friends as the community is more than willing to answer any questions you have.

Completely understandable. The issue I had when I first read about this schedule is that was used to thinking in terms of Concept - Development - Alpha - Beta - Release.

That is not how this game is being developed. Within the development cycle is an early alpha for testing basic game functionality, and a separate game fro testing kingdom functionality. Both of which help contribute to the history of the game. Hell, for that matter, the event going on right now with the plague will have a real impact in the game that is eventually released.

The game design/development can be tough to understand, but that's because they are taking a very out-of-the-box approach to it.

Posted By Tonic at 07:07 AM - Sun Sep 09 2018

This link has a development timeline of the game, but i don't know is it's updated : https://chroniclesofelyria.gamepedia.com/Development_Timeline

That timeline is not accurate. According to it, we would already be in Alpha 2, which is not the case. I can see how the OP would be even more confused by that wiki page.

In future it is probably best to direct new members to the new player questions forum, especially since you don't know what their access level may be. You probably don't want to risk having your account banned by sharing NDA information with a person without NDA access.

Posted By molitara at

This is the most confusing site ever. Is this game even out yet? If not is it Alpha, Beta 1 or Beta 2? Anyone visiting this URL would give up because it is not clear if this game is even out yet.

Why is there no clear indication on the main page?

The game is currently in “friends and family” so only the developers and friends and family have access to it. So it’s not even in pre-alpha yet.

Once the pre-alpha build (which is in 0.5.0 or something right now if the last news article is still up to date) is ready for a wider audience the accounts that have alpha 1 access will also get access to the pre-alpha in order to help test the alpha and provide feedback, as well as contribute to testing for bugs and stability. There won’t be much of a game yet in alpha.

After that, it will at some point transition to the real first wave of alpha, which means they will use the same assets and engine as they will use in the final game. And eventually they will open up to a larger group of players (those with alpha 2 access).

After that they will transition into beta (also in two waves). And then at some point the game will be ready for launch, but before launch there will also be Kingdoms of Elyria and Exposition, which are both opportunities for part of the community to build the history of Elyria before “launch”. Kingdoms of Elyria is where the nobility and royalty can develop their kingdoms, duchies and counties etc. and get used to the political systems and of course the political intrigue of having to deal with other powers. The event of KoE will carry over to CoE.
Exposition is somewhat similar, but it includes a larger group of players. And it serves to build the history of CoE, for example building the legacy of your own family, setting up the infrastructure for your guild, settlement or business.

Once all that is done, the launch can begin.

The actual launch of the game is probably going to be somewhere in 2020, by my own estimation. It’s important for an MMO to have a good release, because MMOs need to have enough players at launch and in the months after launch to keep a steady playerbase, because otherwise players will get bored or feel lonely and won’t continue playing it, so it’s very important that the game isn’t rushed out in an incomplete state like seems to be the trend nowadays.

Note that the estimations in the wiki are target dates for when development on it is supposed to start, and they are not target release dates.

All information in this post comes from publicly available sources.

I went to the main page and pretended to be a newbie and actually when you read everything it makes it sound like the game is already out. No indication that it's pre-alpha and still in development.

This is again, one of the many things that should have been fixed long ago. Something so simple as well. Every month or few months another one of these threads pop up. Which shows there is a real bloody problem.

There really should be something in plain sight that tells any new person of everything they need to know. Where we are, what has been happening. Simple short details.

I strongly second the suggestion that the current "status" of the game be more obvious.

This has been suggested numerous times. A simple banner on the front page would suffice...

"Chronicles of Elyria is currently in pre-alpha development" or something like that, right at the top of the screen - you could update it whenever it gets to testing.

It is VERY easy to think, just based off the CoE landing page, the game is live.

The bottom of the page literally says "Begin Your Legacy", which implies you can actually, you know, begin your legacy...

Don't give me that pedantic crap about beginning your legacy by getting to know the community. As an outsider looking in, you know darn well what that statement implies

I think OP has a point. A simple listing like

+Pre-Alpha+ --> Alpha 1 ---> Beta 1 ---> Beta 2 ---> Live

Graphic would be helpful right at the top.