This week brought in a bunch of server changes to the Alpha Two testing of Ashes of Creation, as the earlier announced merging of US servers and opening of a fresh start server kicked off as scheduled. What might have taken fans by surprise, however, was the fact that this move also saw EU test servers taken offline.
This is, of course, a temporary measure as phase two moves along: Intrepid Studios creative director Steven Sharif did confirm on Reddit that an EU realm will return once phase three begins on August 4th, and he further confirmed in the latest developer livestream that EU players can connect to the US realm and explained that the decision was made to best accommodate the work schedule of a US West Coast development studio.
That same livestream also provided a look at The Anvils, an upcoming new starting zone that’s being developed. This mountainous region features what look like Dwarven-style structures and lots of mines and caverns that move through those mountains. Sharif pointed out that the devs need more time to put this region together in order to make it more fully featured, so players shouldn’t expect this to arrive until sometime in July.
The devs further discussed some of the steps being planned along the game’s course to its next phase, which include a move to UE 5.5, questing updates, tutorial updates, and server optimizations. As for phase three, that will introduce the Py’rai, Ren’Kai, and Niküan races as well as the Summoner character archetype. Finally, the stream showed off the jungle area known as Jundark that was part of the Turquoise Sea update and one of its pirate-filled pocket dungeons.
