Dawntide

Dawntide's beta server is officially closed for business. As we told you earlier this month, indie studio Working as Intended has decided to suspend the fantasy sandbox's open beta phase in order to focus on a large-scale gameworld revamp.

WAI says that the servers will be offline "for a period of one to two months," and the company intends to keep players posted via weekly news updates and screenshots of the work in progress.

Dawntide is a non-linear open-world title featuring skill-based advancement and a deep crafting system. You can check out our first impressions of the beta client via Some Assembly Required.

The curious saga of Dawntide continues, and the next chapter includes a wipe, a world revamp, and two weeks of sheer unadulterated mayhem.

The fantasy sandbox has had a rough go of it in 2011, first with funding issues and then with all of the trials and gameplay tribulations that come with bringing an indie MMO project to fruition. Due to the large-scale world re-design, the title will be going dark for a couple of months beginning on December 19th. The game's open beta server will be wiped, and the devs at Working as Intended will be constructing and populating "a new, more interesting, detailed and visually appealing world."

Prior to the wipe, players will enjoy skill gains at five times the normal rate as well as no-holds barred PvP in every corner of the game world save for the starting towns. WAI is also allowing players to keep their equipment upon death until wipe day, but the official website notes that these changes are only temporary and will not be returning when the server reopens in January or February.

Hey folks, and welcome back to Some Assembly Required. The column's been around for a little bit now, and we've done everything from developer interviews to opinionated rants to sandbox and player-generated content feature spotlights. One thing we haven't done is an impressions piece on new sandbox titles, and I aim to fill that void today with an early look at Dawntide.

The title is an open-world fantasy sandbox under development by Working as Intended, an indie outfit that calls Copenhagen, Denmark home. Dawntide has been under construction for quite a while now (we first spoke with the devs way back in the summer of 2009), and after a series of funding and development challenges, the end of the long beta journey is in sight.

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Hey kids, it's a Dawntide update! Yes, really. The fantasy sandbox from Working As Intended has been quiet since delaying its planned October 1st release date, but today the devs have issued a brief blurb on the game's official website that suggests a bit of hope for the future.

As it turns out, the delayed release was the result of a funding shortage, but now WAI has secured a new source and the team has "reassembled to resume development." A new patch is due October 17th, and a new release date announcement should roll in before the end of the month. WAI also takes a moment to tip its collective cap to Dawntide's hearty faithful. "Thanks for sticking with us through the rough times, and we still intend to release the best sandbox MMO out there," the site says.

[Thanks to Halldorr for the tip!]

Sandbox fans hoping to explore the world of Dawntide on October 1st are going to have to wait a little bit longer. Working as Intended has announced its plan to delay the game's official release "to a later date."

No time table is forthcoming as of yet, but we suspect the delay is likely for the best, given the consensus among the game's devoted community that the fantasy title was not ready for launch. There is a silver lining, though, as you can help test Dawntide and get a preview of the game for free by signing up for the ongoing open beta.

WAI also released a new trailer for the game a few weeks back, and we've got it for you after the break in case you missed it.

[Thanks to Bartillo for the tip.]

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Let's face it, folks, 2011 has been a fairly bad year for sandbox MMORPGs. Whether we're talking about the premature (and, ahem, forced) demise of Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online's public relations disasters and its capitulation to the cash-shop-in-a-sub-based game fad, or Earthrise's rough launch, there hasn't been a lot to celebrate for fans of non-linear MMO gameplay in quite a while.

I've even had several friends ask me point blank: Is the sandbox dead? The short answer is not just no, but hell no. Join me after the cut for a few bright spots as we look to the future, take stock of the present, and try to forget about the past.

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While some games seem to be on us before we realize it, others are more of the slow-cooking rotisserie type. Dawntide is much like the latter, having been in open beta for almost a year now and marinating to sweet perfection before it announces dinnertime.

Fortunately, Working as Intended's fantasy sandbox title is nearing the end of its beta period, as the studio announced that it will release Dawntide on October 1st. You'll be able to get the client for free at that point, but after a 10-day trial period, you'll need to subscribe to continue your way in this MMO.

Dawntide's world encompasses over 500 square kilometers of ocean and land to explore and shape. The game is centered around several major systems: Crafting, World, Combat, Sorcery, Factions and Settling, and is rife with open PvP and skill-based leveling. We recently spoke with Working As Intended's CEO, Martin "Wiz" Anward, which you should most definitely check out, and there's a launch trailer for the title after the jump that's the cat's meow!

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"Internally we have a pretty good idea of what we want Conquest to look like. However, I've been able to convince the powers [that] be that we should let the community get involved with the design/discussion before we write one piece of code. So here is the community's chance to sculpt how Conquest will work. There are no guarantees that the end product will contain all of the ideas, but we'll give it a chance," writes Ronin on the game's official forums.

Check out the post, and be sure to pipe up with your ideas.

The hype-machine for Working as Intended's incoming MMO, Dawntide, resumed at the end of May with the announcement of the start of open beta. Dawntide promises to be a skill-based, open-PvP sandbox a la Shadowbane or Darkfall, with territory to claim, castles to build, sieges to undertake, and boats to navigate waterways usually neglected in other games. And though the game isn't quite finished structurally, we have to agree that what's done is beautiful, and what's planned is ambitious. Might this be the ultra-realistic, survival-of-the-fittest sandbox you're looking for?

We were fortunate to score an interview with Working as Intended's CEO, Martin Anward, who gave us an inside look at Dawntide's development and his team's plans for the future. Join us past the break as we ask him about boats, crafting, boats, death penalties, boats, ganking, boats, FOTM builds, boats, and boats!

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Dawntide's open beta phase continues to move forward, and the developers at Working as Intended have posted two updates on the official website this week to keep fans of the sandbox title apprised of the situation. First up is a general status report from Ronin that summarizes where the current beta build is and where it's likely to go.

"The numbers continue to stay solid and the activity levels compared to closed beta are absolutely impressive. Internally we're moving back to our task management system which was a bit neglected in the haste to get to Open Beta so we should have a better idea of who is assigned what and where to apply pressure. That also means I can get more relevant information out in these updates," he writes.

Additionally, WAI's Wiz checks in with the patch notes for 3.07, calling it "a small patch, mainly addressing an urgent crash bug. Another patch is planned for later in the week."

Dawntide, the ambitious sandbox title from Working as Intended, has released the patch notes for version 3.0.5, which also happens to be the very latest build of the world of Cieve. The title is currently in extended beta testing, and the client is being updated fairly frequently, as evidenced by a mere six days elapsing between the last two patches.

This week's changes include a major reworking of resource locations throughout the game world, various boat bug fixes including physics and dropped passenger issues, and changes to hit points, mana, and endurance. "[We've] rebalanced hit points, mana, and endurance. All attributes now contribute towards at least one of the these, and you will always have a minimum of 20 of each, even if your attributes are reduced to zero," writes WAI's Wiz on the game's official website.

Check out the full patch notes here.

Dawntide's open beta period is in full swing, and Working as Intended has a lengthy list of bug fixes, updates, and general tweaks scheduled to go under the development microscope over the next few weeks.

Ronin, internal systems engineer for WAI, has updated the official forums with a look at what the team plans to focus on next. Many of the changes are run-of-the-mill and about what you'd expect from a beta client, but some are fairly interesting and bear watching, including the creation of boat routes between continents, the addition of new mining areas and crafting yield tweaks, and changes regarding food and drink effects.

You can check out the full post on the official Dawntide site, and while you're at it, you can view a trailer of open beta gameplay footage as well.

Fans of the forthcoming sandbox MMORPG known as Dawntide will have to wait a bit longer to get their open beta fix, as the game's developers recently announced a delay of a few days to iron out several pesky issues. Working as Intended's Wiz, posting on the game's official forums, left fans with a brief overview of the decision.

"We're having a few remaining issues with physics and crashes that we need time to sort out before we can open up the beta. As a consequense, we will be delaying the Open Beta to later in the week. We apologize for the delay and the late announcement, but we think a more stable and playable beta is worth the wait. Further announcements on new opening time will be posted in the coming couple of days," he writes.

Working as Intended, an independent studio based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been developing a feature set that includes skill-based progression, a fully explorable and conquerable world, complex crafting, and player cities. You can learn more about the game at the official website.

[Thanks to all the folks who alerted us to the beta news.]

These days, "sandbox" so often gets read as "constant PvP" that the two can almost be used interchangeably. But Working As Intended's sandbox game Dawntide is focused on the creation of societies, cities, and an entire world based solely on player input, the sort of thing that's quite attractive to a number of players. The game has been in closed beta testing for quite some time, but if the premise intrigues you, there's good news on the horizon -- on May 31st, the game is going into fully open beta testing.

As the game approaches the deadline (which is very close indeed at this point), the development team is rolling out several improvements to the game. Those include a revamped and improved UI, a number of skills being implemented, and a stretch of islands available for players to claim as their own and build up as they see fit. If truly open-world gameplay appeals to you, the upcoming holiday weekend might be best capped off with a look at Dawntide's beta.

[Thanks to Bartillo for the tip!]

Danish developer Working As Intended is continuing work on their sandbox MMO Dawntide as the game progresses through closed beta.

We've been keeping an eye on Dawntide since last July when the game caught our eye with its unusual approach -- Working As Intended sought to deviate from the usual hack-and-slash fantasy fare. The opportunity to create and rule over your own society, as well as the player driven economy and fresh combat ideas sounded like a nice package. Shortly thereafter we got a chance to spend some time with producer Christian Hummeluhr for a more extensive look at Dawntide.

Since then, Dawntide has kept interest high with not only closed beta testing, but some great concept art and screenshots, released periodically. The newest batch came up yesterday, featuring some pretty beautiful landscape screenshots. Even better, we get concept art showing castle blueprints. They can all be viewed at the official site, so head over and take a look!