Admirals,
We would like to share with you the plans on the Steam release for UA: Dreadnoughts. Game launch The game will launch in Steam Early Access after Steam Summer Sale. Valve does not recommend launching during the Summer sale and we had to move the date from mid-summer to end July August. Estimated date 10th of August, the date depends on the Valve’s final approval of the store. But we are trying to push for an earlier date.
Price for Early Access Edition – 35 USD (with Steam regional pricing differences). Steam keys for Limited and Standard edition buyers We are requesting keys from valve next week and will send them using the email you used to purchase the game through Xsolla. We will add an update to the forum, game launcher and Steam page when the keys will be sent out. The keys we are sending will allow you to play the game once it launches on Steam (on release date). We tried to get the keys with the ability to access the game earlier than launch date, but unfortunately Valve no longer allows developers to let access to the game before launch due to abuse by some developers.
Xsolla availability Once we start sending out Steam keys to all editions, the Xsolla store will close. Game will be available to buy again when it launches on Steam Early Access. Campaign We estimate that we need at least 5-6 months to create the first playable version of Campaign. This time might change. Despite the unexpected difficulties that the pandemic caused in the world, affecting the development of the project, we will follow through all the development goals. Timing could be affected by the world situation, but the development goals themselves will not change.
We will update the community on the progress by posting the internal campaign patch notes at least once every month.
The only development focus after Steam keys’ delivery will be the campaign. We will, of course, occasionally switch to critical bugs or minor features, but campaign is and will be the only main priority:
Stages of campaign development: - Two nations first - Crew and Officers progression - Technology development and connection to Crew & Officer progression - Event and battle systems - Campaign AI - Political systems, wars and alliances
Beta version of the campaign, as mentioned above, will be available 5-6 months (or more) after Steam Early Access launch, as a beta branch.
Full version of the campaign will be available on full release of the game (not the Early Access version).
Custom battles and saves We know saves in custom battles is one of the most requested features. Campaign saves systems, once implemented, will hopefully help to add saves to custom battles sooner, we will let you know more about this when we have more information.
Again thank you very much for the support, feedback and encouragement.
The Game-Labs Team
PS.
You can communicate with us about this subject here: https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/36437-ultimate-admiral-dreadnoughts-steam-release-plan-update/