By PF2K on Sep 20, 2024 at 7:17 PM
  1. PF2K

    PF2K Lead Developer
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    Hello everyone!

    It's time. After what feels like an eternity, we are finally ready to announce that the Indian civilization now has a planned release date!

    The Indians will be released on the 26th of October, 2024 (assuming everything goes to plan, of course). There are, however, a few things happening before and after their release that are explained below:

    [​IMG]
    Stage 1: Closed Beta Playtest (Sep. 29 - Oct. 12):
    • During this stage, we will be inviting a limited number of people to playtest the Indians and provide feedback and report any potential bugs. To keep it fair for everyone, these players' progress will be fully reset when the playtest phase is over.
    • You can sign up for the closed playtest group here, but please be aware that we have very limited spots available for the group due to our small development resources.
    Stage 2: Final Preparations (Oct. 13 - Oct. 25):
    • During this stage, we will review all feedback received by the playtesters during Stage 1, implement their feedback and fix any reported bugs. This is the final stage before the full public release of the civilization.
    Stage 3: Release (October 26th):
    • The Indian civilization will be released. Being the second largest piece of content in the history of Project Celeste, the Indians will bring an entirely new roster of units, buildings and technologies, as well as unique Milestones, Advisors, and more. See below for more details.
    • The Indians will start at level 20, similar to the Persians, Babylonians, and the Norse.
    • We will also be launching the Indians with a full Booster Pack of quests. Follow the story of Tivala on his journey to find the weapons and armor from the Nanda dynasty after their downfall.
      • This Booster Pack will feature a storyline of several quests, as well as Repeatable, Elite and Legendary quests to follow it up, as well as minigame quests.
      • It features a unique playable hero unit that will change appearance throughout the story and unlock passive and active abilities.
      • More details about this Booster Pack will be shared before release so stay tuned!
    • After the Winter Event, we will also be releasing a complete Indian-themed Legendary quest pack. More details to follow later.
    Stage 4: Halloween Event 2024 (Nov.18 - Dec. 01):
    • This year's Halloween Event will be the shortest one we've ever had; we simply haven't had the development capacity needed to add any new content to the event, and we are out of time to fit the Indians, Halloween and Winter events all within the span of a few weeks.
    Stage 5: Winter Event 2024 (Dec. 23 - Jan. 26):
    • The Winter Event will resume almost at the same time as last year, lasting the usual 5 weeks.
    • It will still feature a full set of unique login rewards, as well as limited time quests, decoration, and more.

    With that out of the way, let's have one final look at some of the Indians most notable additions, shall we?

    Indian Civilization Recap
    =======================
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    Barracks
    =========
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    Archery Range
    ==============
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    Stables
    ========
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    Mahout Camp
    ==============
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    [​IMG]
    Fortress
    ========
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    Economy Tech Tree
    ==================
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
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    Utility Tech Tree
    ==================

    [​IMG]
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    [​IMG]


    Indian Advisors
    ==============

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    Indian Milestones
    =================
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    [​IMG]
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    It has been an incredibly long journey for us, but we are finally at the end and we can't wait for you to try out the Indians, which are going to be the 8th civilization in the game, and the 2nd one from us here at Project Celeste.
    (PF2K's Personal Note: despite the Indians being a Pro civilization as opposed to a Non-Pro civilization like the Romans that start at level 1, the Indians have been way more work for me personally, and to make things more difficulty, I also don't have nearly as much time on my hands as I had during the Romans' development, and it's a huge relief for me to be finally done with the majority of the work needed to get this civilization ready. I'm pretty excited for you to try them out. I think you're going to have a lot of fun!)
    Remember to join our Discord for the most up-to-date information regarding the Indians, and any other developments for Age of Empires Online!

    All current and future content will stay 100% free and accessible to everyone.

    ========

    Project Celeste Development Team

    Let us know what you think of the Indians in the comments below!
    ========
    The Indians are (almost) here! Watch the Reveal Trailer.


    The Romans are here! Watch the Overview Trailer.

    Project Celeste is completely free and always will be. However, we gladly accept donations for our overhead costs, which are larger than we have budgeted. If you want to support us, you can do so HERE.

    Read every Romans related blog HERE.
    Read every Indians related blog HERE.

    Tell your friends! Join our Discord HERE.
    ========
     
    #1 PF2K, Sep 20, 2024 at 7:17 PM
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2024
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Comments

Discussion in 'News' started by PF2K, Sep 20, 2024.

    1. John Quincy

      John Quincy Long Swordsman

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      Congratulations! It was a long road but I am expecting many hours of great fun with the Indians! Great job!
       
      PF2K, NeoXist and bbgambini like this.
    2. ByFstugan

      ByFstugan Immortal

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      Awesome that it's near <3

      Just wanna double check since I've told some friends to look into this game when it's possible for them to skip to level 40 directly - I know you said earlier that that feature would come before Indians - so I just wanna make sure you haven't forgot.

      Also about this - plz make it possible to also skip to level 40 with an already started civ since I have some friends that started and didn't have the patience to do the level grinding. When doing this I thought about it a bit -> If skip with a started civ, either give starting epic gear to all empty slot only or make a choice to overwrite all old gear.
       
      bbgambini likes this.
    3. NeoXist

      NeoXist Spearman

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      Very excited for the Indians. The whole dev team has done an amazing job implementing a whole new civilization, words cannot describe how impressive that truly is! Congratulations guys, and may we enjoy the civilization for many more years :)
       
      Maki Evil Zero, PF2K and bbgambini like this.
    4. Nkara

      Nkara Spearman

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      Amazing! I'm very excited to try the Indians and I'm so impressed and thankful for the incredible work you guys put into it <3
       
      NeoXist likes this.
    5. bbgambini

      bbgambini Hippikon

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      (speechless)

      wow, amazing, this is going to be epic! great job and thanks for all that hard work guys!

      can't believe all the amazing stuff!
       
      PF2K and NeoXist like this.
    6. Dameon Bourland

      Dameon Bourland Villager

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      Any know, would that Horiculture milestone tech, apply to Babylonian gardens wrt build time?
       
    7. RASPUTINPRIME

      RASPUTINPRIME Champion

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      amazing work. Can't wait for the launch!
       
      PF2K likes this.
    8. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
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      We have not forgotten - this will come shortly after the Indians.

      However due to how the game is structured, we can't do the "possible to also skip to level 40 with an already started civ". We will, however, offer a full set of gear on civs that start at level 40. :)


      It does not. As you can see, it clearly says "Farms and Plantations". No Gardens in there. ;)
       
      FeteFatale likes this.
    9. MainMan B

      MainMan B Berserker

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      Love this. Insane amount of work you put into this.
       
      PF2K likes this.
    10. Prime2206

      Prime2206 Villager

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      Ready for this :) even took a week of of work to get on it :)
       
    11. ByFstugan

      ByFstugan Immortal

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      Well - there must be an easy walk-around that - just make a "quest" that gives 60'000'000 skill points (it's like 500k more than you need for ALL levels if I'm correct)? Not a quest to play, just to get the civ to lev 40.

      If the items problem can't be solved at least "skip to lev 40" can be done easy.
       
      #12 ByFstugan, Sep 22, 2024 at 11:44 PM
      Last edited: Sep 23, 2024
    12. Gerkiki

      Gerkiki Long Swordsman

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      Many thanks to the entire Celestial team for all your efforts, the game has nothing to do with how it was at the beginning. The work must have been colossal and we couldn't have hoped for better !
       
    13. Exclusive0r

      Exclusive0r Immortal

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      looking forward to this - thanks to the team . Going to be so interesting to get to know the 'personality' of the Indians
      I must be a strange guy I actually like getting a Civ to 40 - gives me a good feeling. Did it Microsoft days and re did it on Celeste .
       
      Kire likes this.
    14. ByFstugan

      ByFstugan Immortal

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      I've also done it on both but I can't say I ever wanna do all them low-level quests ever again - and also I have many AoE2 friends that tried AoEo but stopped qiuckly since that grinding wasn't for them - and I'm sure the Legendary quests would have been more of intrest, but that couldn't be done since they never got any lev 40 civ. So skip to lev 40 opens up the game for MANY new players that otherwise NEVER would do more than a quick visit in the game and then leave forever.
       
      Exclusive0r likes this.
    15. Ardeshir

      Ardeshir Immortal

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      Great job guys nearly there

      Thank you for the unbelievable stuff you have done for this game and community

      @ByFstugan just be patient. Quick 40 start is coming and at worst your friends can start civs now and delete the unfinished ones and remake at 40 if they don't get there in time before the feature is out. You won't lose your account wide coin/EP and can just vault any good stuff you'd want to keep for a 40 or store it on other civs anyway.
       
      Exclusive0r likes this.
    16. ByFstugan

      ByFstugan Immortal

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      Hi. I know how it works - but I don't really wanna level up my Indians and I have saved ALOT of things for when they come and I had a promise long ago that this feature would be out BEFORE Indians was released (there was a time-table announced and that specific question was asked about). So when they come I don't wanna play them with starting epic gear just to delete later - I wanna start put in my lev 40 gear instantly. As it is now it's like they are released but only in a beta version that will be reset in a bit.

      As I said - there is an EASY fix to it that can't be hindered by how the game is programed and it is to just make a quest that give your civ 60 million skill points straight up just to skip to lev 40, then you don't need to delete anything and can start put in all your stuff instantly.

      I don't understand why this shouldn't be done - is there some other reason that make anyone wanna stop a mid-level civ to skip to lev 40? I can't understand what that would be?

      I got several friends from AoE2 community that for sure would benefit alot from this feature to awake their accounts again where half their civs is partly leveled and some are lev 40. There is ALOT of stuff that goes lost for them if deleting (recipes and such). If the fix is so easy as I imagine this is a no-brainer in my book.
       
      Exclusive0r likes this.
    17. Ardeshir

      Ardeshir Immortal

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      The developers aren't some company making money out of this, it's a labour (autocorrect wants me to change this word to the American spelling, but I speak English) of love. We were "supposed" to get Indians before Summer Event, and yes, the level 40 start before that, and then the unit advisor rework before Halloween too, but here we are.

      They're not even 40 on these civs in question, they're hardly going to be deleting lategame epic and legendary crafting plans and crafting material recipes. Or if they are, they can probably afford to replace them if they had actually been using them at all during this time?

      And they don't want to do it because even though it's an easy route, it comes off as a very unpolished, illegal-WoW-private-server way of doing things. Not really fit for a dev team that aims to put out content ALL at an equal or higher standard than the original devs.


      Even if we had the feature to get to 40 today or 2 years ago there would be people "stopping mid way" and using it.

      Again, given how relatively little the amount and value of whatever gear, crafting and material plans, event gear and cosmetics, other discontinued or non-retroactively changed items or other "sentimentally important" items a player that's not 40 has, does it really matter that they have to delete and remake? There is the capacity to save any items not actually bound to the civ.

      I don't mean to be rude but man most of us would be in an insane asylum after a year in the shoes of the lead, quest, 2d, 3d, or animation devs. Most of them are non native English speakers, and some are even studying and working in another nation that requires learning a 3rd language. Then putting the majority of their free time into listening to us whine about development delays while they work as fast as they can.
       
    18. ByFstugan

      ByFstugan Immortal

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      No dev has made a comment about this beside the first one that it wasn't possible - and it likelly can be true in the way I first suggested it. But this suggestion no dev has commented about; and if you're not one of them you can't speak for them either. Your argument for this being some unpolished sollution is just as irrellevant as it is wrong. Can it be made on creation screen it can be equally made in the capital on a mid level civ.

      There already is an idea (FINALLY) to start civs on level 40; to help people who have half their civs just partly leveled to be able to do the same without deleting everything is just a nice way of the devs to show that they are not making it worse for them who already put time into the game than for new ones - and it would be worse to have to delete and restart than to simply start fresh lev 40.

      That you don't need this feature can make you say what you do - and I don't either very much - but I do have many friends that I want to get into this game or back to it; and this for SURE is helping that. Both the "start on level 40" as well as "skip to level 40 for already started civ"; and some of them who I more than anything want and have hope for coming back would need the later most.

      I don't in anyway lack appriciation for the EXTREMELY GREAT work they put into this game both now and from the start - it's WAY above the MS original team - and a BIG part of that is that Celeste team both are players as well as listen to the community. So it should be in their best intrest to listen to ideas to make the game even better and this for sure is nothing else than that. And it's same idea as they have on the table, just not restricted to creation context only, so nothing to make a big scene about objecting to when it's an easy fix.
       
      Exclusive0r likes this.
    19. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
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      Correct. Getting a civilization to level 40 is more than just "give them 60 million "skill points"".

      We will offer players an option to start their civilization at level 40 upon civ creation. If all they really care about is starting at level 40 and the ability to play Legendary quests from the get go, then they are either going to play to level 40 from whatever point in the progression that they are, or they will simply delete their civ and start from level 40.
       
      rpgcrash, Ardeshir and Exclusive0r like this.
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