Campaign outcomes and the next chapter¶
Edition scope — 9 September 2026: Chapter One focuses on frontier advancement, basic parties, three tutorial lessons, repeatable timed gathering and crafting anywhere. Deeper RPG systems are disabled but retained for the full MMO. Six-frontier, naval, custom-equipment and extended-story designs below describe that larger world. The current roadmap takes precedence over earlier milestone/group-size wording.
The six-frontier war is ongoing. It does not wait for a scheduled final hour to become meaningful. Players gain ground, lose it and adapt their strategy as goblins and orcs counterattack. A recorded campaign outcome determines the next content pack we develop and activate.
This replaces the earlier M4-only, 48-hour preparation / 60-minute assault proposal. The current Emberwake champion is a local encounter foundation; it is not yet a persistent campaign or proof of territory ownership.
The first rehearsal: Greyfen holds or falls back¶
M3 rehearses the complete loop on Frontier 1: capture its three connected nodes, provision a defence, stop or lose a counterattack, then reclaim ground. Record contributions and visible consequences. This proves the war system before six regions depend on it. Players can keep fighting between major story resolutions.
The beta campaign climax¶
M7/M8 culminates in the Ashen Crown. The proposed victory condition is to defeat the final campaign encounter while holding a supplied route through the required fortress/landing nodes, then complete an extraction or consolidation objective. Publish the exact conditions, event identity, contribution rules and tie handling before that campaign opens. A kill alone, a poll or a last hit does not silently override territory conditions.
| Recorded outcome | Consequence | Next reviewed content brief |
|---|---|---|
| The Crown breaks | Final objectives and supplied route secured; an enduring chronicle records the coalition’s victory | Open the next frontier/chapter, with its art and enemies influenced by the route and objectives players chose |
| Victory at a cost | Final boss defeated, but the route or extraction is lost before consolidation | Rescue the stranded expedition, rebuild naval logistics and secure the passage before expanding farther |
| The counteroffensive | Players lose the advance; enemies reclaim temporary holdings | Reclamation campaign with different approach objectives and an enemy response to the players’ previous tactics |
Names and exact outcome weights are draft content. Failure remains playable; it does not erase learned skills, haven storage or the record of accomplishments. A later successful push can advance the campaign. The enemy can still counterattack holdings after a recorded victory; the historical first clear is never revoked.
Completion opens content, not a dead server¶
While the next pack is being reviewed, the existing war continues with defence, recovery, gathering and repeatable expeditions. A safe consolidation period can provide a celebration and resupply opportunity, but it must not freeze the world indefinitely. Completed personal quest rewards remain one-time; repeatable war activities have separate bounded rewards.
Prepare a bounded follow-up pack for each declared outcome before the final event is enabled. Use player actions and feedback to prioritise subsequent details. AI helps produce scripts, Blender kits, encounters and tests quickly; an unchecked generated pack is not automatically published into a running campaign.
Durable, understandable history¶
Persist event ID, rules version, stage, objective results, contribution receipts, winner, activation state and reward receipts. Resolve once and show the same result in the war map, journal, haven residents and world chronicle. On uncertainty, preserve the last confirmed state and recover; do not invent a victory or rewrite history to match a new build.
A reconnect must not duplicate rewards. An unattended defeat must use the published NPC/territory rules. Server downtime pauses the simulated clock rather than pretending unseen battles occurred. Announce an applied content update in the chronicle with its relationship to the players’ campaign result.
Acceptance¶
Rehearse victory, costly victory and setback; restart during every stage; return with an old character; join as a newcomer at the current front; repeat resolution messages; restore from backup; and activate/rollback the matching reviewed pack without deleting the campaign ledger. M8 requires two complete campaign cycles and human play evidence, including 10–20-player and naval sessions. Content delivery speed is reported from measured turnaround.