Wave 6 Development Build 1 Release

Hello Stable Dwellers! This is your Overmare speaking. The planets are aligned, and many radroaches have been thoroughly eradicated, so we can finally announce that Dev Build 1 is available today!

Wait, Dev Build 1? What happened to Wave 6? Our previous blog post goes over this in more detail, but the short version is that we decided we needed to change our release plans. Wave 5.5 came out almost exactly 6 years ago, and that’s too long between releases no matter how you slice it. Hence, the introduction of Development Builds: smaller, rougher builds of the game that you can play in between our bigger, more polished Wave releases. Wave 6 is still on its way – but here’s a snapshot to play in the meantime.

So after all that, what’s actually in our first development build release?

Wave 6 Development Build 1

For Development Build 1 you will find the following features:

An all-new Wave 6 Map with biomes to explore and secrets to find.
Foliage systems that bring the Wasteland to life.
New variety of village houses with interiors, made using an in-house (pun intended) house creation tool.
Our very first, very short quest that gives you something more than murder to accomplish.
Refactors of existing systems lay the groundwork for exciting future updates (try throwing a grenade at a raider!).
Numerous old bugs were fixed and new ones added.
Upgraded to Unity 2022.3 and FMOD 2.01.07.

Other smaller features and changes in this build include:

AP regeneration based on a curve.
A work-in-progress strain system that lets you push your magic beyond ordinary limits. Magic now uses AP. Hold down Z to keep casting spells when out of AP at the cost of maximum AP.
Hold TAB to activate your Pipbuck light.
Pressing G will throw an equipped grenade. You can hold G to cook the grenade. Be careful though, once the time runs out the held grenade will explode.
Magic effect colour now based on eye colour.
Improved Pipbuck lighting.
The character creator has a shiny new background.

For the full breakdown of features, known bugs and issues please check the readme file in the game client, which you can download in the link below.

Without further ado…

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Ashes of Equestria - Wave 6 Development Build 1 >>DOWNLOAD HERE<<

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Phew! That’s kind of a lot, right? Well, this is our first release since 2019, so this Dev Build inherits a lot of work intended for Wave 6. Much of this is very important backend work to lay the foundation for the full game. And a lot of it has been difficult to show off until now. There’s not much point in showing off a dialogue system without a quest system to make use of it, and you can’t have a quest system without functional NPCs, and so on.

There’s a lot of work that goes into the ability to put even a simple quest in the game, and issues can often arise during its development. Because of the new quest and dialogue system, part of our development included the creation of a new map for Wave 6 that you will see in this development build. Designed with these quests in mind, and also to show off the work that our Design team are capable of making for our upcoming planned main map rework that we mentioned in our previous blog posts. To be clear, this map will not be used for future waves, however many of its assets, created or otherwise will be repurposed and its quests will move over as well.

In large part, that’s why we’re a little late on this Dev Build release.

In preparation for the first Dev Build release, we wanted to tackle many long standing issues and performance problems, in addition to encountering new bugs that didn’t show up in Unity Editor such as duplicating quest items that we had to resolve as well. Dev Builds were never expected to be bug-free, but this is our first release in a while, and it needed to be playable.

The good news is Dev Builds are already doing their job – helping us find bugs we didn’t even know we had, and getting content to you faster. That said, we still expect to encounter and find new bugs and issues even after the first Dev Build release – which is where you come in!

Please use the feedback form, linked here and in the menu itself, to report back any bugs you find! You can also report bugs and provide feedback on our Community Discord.

Don’t expect future Dev Builds to have quite so many changes! Speaking of which…

Development Build 2 - What to Expect

Firstly, we’re still working on Wave 6. As we outlined before, our plan was to make a new detailed map to allow the player to enjoy a selection of quests to build upon in later waves, along other improvements in general to help improve the overall expereince of Ashes of Equestria.

So what’s the status of that? You might have noticed that Dev Build 1 already has this new Wave 6 map and a working quest. This means, as you might expect, that we’re pretty close to our goal – but we still have a little way to go. The map is in pretty good shape, but there are areas that still remain unfinished and additional detailing is still ongoing. Current enemy and item placement is temporary, and needs revising. We have a number of additional quests in the works, and ideally we’d like for these quests to have full voice acting (another backend system we’re in the middle of building). In addition there are a number of other minor quality of life features we would like to implement that will be revealed in due course.

Dev Build 2 should see progress in these highlighted areas. Which ones, and how much? We’ll probably find out at the same time you do! This is a new way of releasing content for us, and we’re still working out the details. Dev Build 2 will be out in around two months – but if we slip that date by a couple weeks, please don’t worry.

We also have several systems in the works that will gradually be integrated into the game over the coming months – including a long-overdue movement refactor our Lead Programmer, Ansis, showed off at the Littlepip's Little Party Presentation.

All this takes time, however. Which brings us onto our final topic:

Recruitment

Development of a game of our scope takes time and talent, and we are always on the lookout for new members to join our ranks at Overmare Studios. This increases the amount of time we can put into Ashes, and decreases the amount of time our community will have to wait for each Wave, and by extension, the game.

Who are we looking for? Right now, we’re looking to fill all roles. That includes:

Programmers
2D Concept Artists
3D Modellers
3D Animators
Environment Designers
Audio Engineers
Script Writers
Voice Actors
QA Testers

We have features to add! Bugs to squash! Factions to concept! A whole map to build! Quests to write! NPCs to bring to life! Pony toilets to texture! Follow the link below to…

Click here to Apply Now!

And if none of those disciplines quite fit you, but you still feel you have something to bring to the project, please reach out to us too. Maybe you’re not a concept artist, but you know your way around UI. Maybe you’re a video editor who’d like to make devlogs for our youtube channel. Maybe some other, third thing we haven’t thought of yet! Our departments are guidelines, and many of us work across several of them.

For more details feel free to message us via our Community Discord.. More information on specific roles can be found on the application form.

Final Notes

We hope you enjoy what we have made so far and look forward to the future builds to come. If you have feedback and thoughts on what's been discussed in this blog post, you can check out the following social media platforms:

Discord

If you still have questions in regards to applying to The Overmare Studios, about Wave 6, the project in general, or you just want to talk with like minded fans, come check out our Discord.

It has been our primary location for Ashes of Equestria. We post regular updates and announcements there, so if you want to stay informed or chat with fellow fans, please come join it!

Twitter/X

We’re also on Twitter/X. Follow us there to keep up to date on any new announcements, or sneak peaks of our development for Wave 6 and beyond.

BlueSky

Finally, we are also on BlueSky Account for those who prefer alternative social media sites. It’s still relatively new but we will keep it as updated as the rest of our social media platforms.