Ages of the Federation - Milestone Reached! news

Greetings all,

As many of you will already know, we just reached a major milestone in the development of the mod. But what the heck - we're excited about it, so we're going to announce it again!

That's right - all the in-game features for the Federation faction are in place and functioning. There are still tweaks and some small additions to be made, of course - icons, particle effects, that sort of thing, as well as balancing - but in terms of functionality the Federation faction is now officially complete.

Next, of course, will be the Klingons. We've already got a bit of a head start on the Klingon faction - their ship list is complete, Max and Neph are updating and Substance Painting their models, and we've already made a solid start on their research tree. From here on out progress should (hopefully) move somewhat faster as many of the foundations for the upcoming factions can be transplanted directly from the Federation. We're up and flying now!

Expect a lot more Klingon-centric updates from this point on.

Many people, myself included, will naturally be holding out for more Romulan progress. That'll take a little while longer, I'm afraid. Compared to the state of the Federation or even the Klingons, the Romulans are still fairly bare-bones. That said, we've got a number of really great ideas for the Romulan faction. They're going to play a lot differently than the other two. Have no fear - once we've reached a certain level of progress on the Klingons, we'll be devoting more time to those pointy-eared hobgoblins.

So what have you been working on lately?
Over the last couple of weeks both Max and especially Hobbs have been working like a couple of Trojans - the recent completion of the Federation faction is due in no small part to their hard work. Hobbs in particular (having some time off from work) has been putting a lot of hours into the mod lately, completing a number of research tree functions, icons, and menu screens. There are still a few gaps here and there but as it stands right now the Federation's research trees look like this:

Each and every one of those research options now works, where only a few short days ago many of them were not functional. As you can imagine, a great deal of work has been done in the last few days. We're very proud of our whole team.

So when will the mod be released?
Ah yes, the million dollar question - one that seems to be popping up more often as we get closer to the end of the year. That's understandable - since AotF was announced we've held that we were aiming for at least a beta release by the end of 2018. Sadly, this is looking increasingly unlikely. Considering how much work there is still to do and how little time there is left in the year, a more realistic ballpark estimate puts a beta release early in the new year. Just where did 2018 go, anyway?

We get that many of you may have been looking forward to playing Ages of the Federation during your Christmas breaks (if you're lucky enough to get one), so we're sorry to disappoint you on that front. Have no fear, though - AotF is coming. Maybe a bit late, but she'll be with you soon. Soon-ish, anyway.

We'll certainly let you know when we have a firm release date.

Alas, that's all for now. We'll be trying to post updates more often in the future - time permitting, of course. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube and Twitch channels to catch our weekly livestreams and watch us develop the mod in real time. Most of the time we just end up laughing at memes, but it's your best chance of being able to chat with us and ask us questions directly. Join in the shenanigans!

'Til next time, stay classy. Or don't.
- OrionSlaver