One of the most discussed topics about Albion Online is if and when a wipe will take place. In this thread, we want to give some background information. There will be a wipe at the end of closed beta. Closed beta will last at least until 1st August 2016.
We are still not able to announce when exactly the wipe during closed beta will take place. However, what we can share is the criteria that would need to be satisfied for a wipe to make sense.
The game needs to be sufficiently different than the game version we started the closed beta with almost 3 months ago.
In particular, the issues of the game relating to progression, mob and resource distribution and availability of content need to be properly fixed. This goes beyond just changing fame values for the destiny board. While we have come along way here since the start of closed beta, not all changes we have planned to this area of the game are done yet. Check our state of the game post for further info.
On top of that, we have announced the creation of a brand new, immersive game world. This will include a much improved resource distribution, more variation, more unique player cities and different biomes and climate zones. This is more than just cosmetic, as it will also have our new red zones with a crime and reputation alongside a large new continent consisting entirely of black zones. These changes will make red zone the go to zones for smaller scale PvP fights while the new black zones will be perfect for guilds duking it out on a large scale.
In order for a wipe to be meaningful, the above changes would have to be made to the game, at least in early stages. Why?
We are well aware that a lot of players are currently on break as they are waiting for a wipe. On top of that, while we are making the above improvements, we are not doing any aggressive marketing of the game, either. If and when we announce a wipe, it is extremely likely that we will see a huge inflow of players – new players trying the game for the first time, but also a lot of players coming back from their break.
In paritcular when it comes to existing players coming back, and course all players active right now waiting for a wipe, we absolutely do not want to disappoint them – and this means that a significant amount of the announced improvements need to be in the game first. After all, there is only so many times that players will go on a break before losing interest in the game, and if we wipe the game too often, without showing enough improvements between wipes, than patience could run out quite fast.
Finally, as some people are concerned with population numbers: those have been pretty constant during the past 4 weeks and are absolutely sufficient for having an active game world for a meaningful beta test. It’s also not a concern to us as there are at lot of things we could do at a moments notice to push up population – but we do not really want to do it before the above stated improvements are in the game.
As stated many times, we are developing Albion Online for the long term. This does require a degree of patience for all parties involved. There are enough games out there doing a hype, crash and burn due to short-termism, and we certainly do not want to be one of them.
We will be doing a developer video blog soon with some background information on the planned changes, and we will also keep you on in the loop regarding timelines for a wipe.