Anthem Post-Launch Calendar
Wait, come back! It’s actually pretty interesting, I swear!
Not all the information in this image is new — a proper guild system, for example, has been discussed as something the developers wanted to do already and was reconfirmed in Part 2 of the ‘This is Anthem’ video series.
But here’s what we know now:
Act 1: Echoes of Reality
The first post-launch story-line is called ‘Echoes of Reality’ and will start in March. My assumption would be a late March launch to give people who cannot invest as much time as they might like to get through the launch story campaign.
It will come in three separate updates:
- Evolving World
- Stronger Together
- The Cataclysm
There is no indicated end date to this cycle, so we could be looking at a few months or a years worth of updates here. I’m leaning toward the shorter end of that spectrum though. My prediction is that Act 1 would last at most 6-months (i.e., we’d be looking at first update of Act 2 around September).
That feature bar though…
Honestly, this is the part I’m most excited about. It’s what got me hyped all over again despite a lack of detail. That these items have gone from ‘speculated’ or ‘requested’ to ‘right there on an official roadmap’ is highly exciting.
- New Events
- Ok, this one was a given really. Nothing new here and has been discussed before.
- Quality of Life
- Also discussed before. Some
specifics given already on UI and control enhancements. BioWare is investigating adding FoV controls, a stats overview screen, etc.
- Also discussed before. Some
- New Rewards
- This is new. Colour me intrigued. Tell us more!1 Not a lot to go on here, but rewards are always fun. My personal hope would be for achievement based cosmetics.
- Expanded Progression System
- A more cynical part of me is wondering whether the earlier discussed ‘Perk’ system (absent in the demos) is missing from launch, to be added in one of these updates. The more hype-prone side is awl:2 :o
- New Stronghold
- Now I’m wondering whether we (*cough* I) jumped the gun on assuming the Stronghold that I mentioned in yesterday’s post (only click this if you don’t mind an (I think, minor) spoiler!) was the previously undisclosed third launch Stronghold. It’s entirely possible that that Stronghold actually belongs to this story chain… But I think not, given the video also mentioned resolving that particular series of events in the main campaign. (Phewph! Discussing specifics without spoiling anything is hard!)
- Guilds & Leaderboards
- I mentioned guilds already been confirmed above, but ‘Leaderboards’ is new, and commonly requested feature. Unknown how these will show up, but I wonder if being mentioned in the same breath as guilds if they will be guild specific. I’m hoping for some community at large leaderboards for things like time attack on Strongholds at various difficulties though.
- New Missions
- Like new events, I took this as a given for post-launch story updates. But actually, it is really nice to have it specifically called out. :)
- The Cataclysm
- Cataclysms are the new broader term used to cover the concept of live-events, things that change the world of Anthem. They can be quite minor events (e.g., the end of demo spawning of additional titans) right up to and including the Shaper Storm concept.
You know – I actually thought these last days leading up to launch would be pretty quiet from a blogging front. No demo coming, next time we play will be live.
In retrospect, that was a stupid belief to hold! Of course the hype train is going to be running at full steam as we get closer and closer.
That’s not to say I’ve already given up on the adventures in ESO though. I had quite a time in it yesterday, and have a skeleton of a post drafted ready to go. I had intended on daily updates, but we’ll have to see how that goes. ;)
