Welcome to Final Stand: Ragnarök!
Final Stand: Ragnarök (FS:R) is something that has never been done successfully in the game industry to date. An online-only, action-style, co-op match and lobby-based PvE game that can pit any rational number of players (say, 1000 for example) versus thousands of NPCs (or other players) in the same real-time battle in a very small land area. While there are some great games and engines that can support 1000s of NPCs and also thousands of players, none of them can put as many NPCs in this type of real-time, action battle (not a server, a battle) along with hundreds or even 1000+ players without resorting to game streaming (our way is actually quite light on the bandwidth usage) or other method. This is Ragnarök as it should be: 1000+ NPCs of different types, abilities, and challenges seeking to bring down the forces of Asgard and bring about the final destruction of the Nine Worlds!
Today we start off with 10 player-matches, but during this initial access to the game we will also test group sizes from 4 – 20 (or more). Frankly, the only current issue with having more than says 30 people in the same match today is the fact that FS:R’s UI doesn’t know when to quit. We could easily put 100 people in a battle, as we’ve done with Camelot Unchained, but this UI is different from CU’s and it would try to render all the portraits of players on the screen. It’s not a pretty sight and it is not built to handle that yet, but it will be by full launch. The game’s initial setting is in and around the town of Odi in Valhalla. You are in a race against time to help Odin and the Asgardians by fighting off the hordes of Hel, while at the same time protecting special objectives, and accumulating rewards and progressing your characters (Champions) for doing so. The game currently has a very basic progression system but that will be expanded on as we move through the various stages of development and testing.
What is First Access?
First Access is a way for people such as yourself to help us to continue to build this game. We didn’t want to call it Early Access since that term can encompass everything from indie games that have barely started to games that are nearly finished. First Access is what the name implies; you are purchasing First Access to a game that is still early in development and to date has only been played by some of our Camelot Unchained Backers and paid testers. As such, the game is unfinished, buggy, and by no means nearly finished. OTOH, it has been running for months, happily spinning servers up and down while players engage in matches. While it is indeed light on content, it’s stable, fun, and quite a solid experience, considering the amount of time we had to spend on it over the last eight months.
Please bear this in mind: all of the images and methods of getting into and playing the game, including the UI, mechanics, graphics, dialogue, voiceover work (done with a text-to-speech algorithm), and everything else are in beta and subject to change. Our intention is to slowly bring in new players over the next 5-6 months, and expand CSE’s team as we expand the game. Thus, what you are seeing here is just what we are going into First Access with, nowhere near what we plan on having for the game’s eventual launch.
Also, please keep in mind that CSE created the vast majority of this game in only 6 months while also building out the tech for it and continuing to work on our MMORPG Camelot Unchained. That commitment to developing both CU and FS:R isn’t going to change and our plan is to deliver both games to our CU Backers and FS:R players.
What is the status of the game?
Final Stand: Ragnarök is currently in First Access, which is a way for people such as yourself to help us to continue to build this game via donation, playing the game, and feedback. We didn’t want to call it Early Access since that term can encompass everything from indie games that have barely started to games that are nearly finished. First Access is what the name implies; you are purchasing First Access to a game that is still early in development and to date has only been played by some of our Camelot Unchained Backers and paid testers. As such, the game is unfinished, buggy, and by no means nearly finished. OTOH, it has been running for months, happily spinning servers up and down while players engage in matches. While it is indeed light on content, it’s stable, fun, and quite a solid experience, considering the amount of time we had to spend on it over the last eight months.
Please bear this in mind: all of the images and methods of getting into and playing the game, including the UI, mechanics, graphics, dialogue, voiceover work (done with a text-to-speech algorithm), and everything else are in beta and subject to change. Our intention is to slowly bring in new players over the next 5-6 months, and expand CSE’s team as we expand the game. Thus, what you are seeing here is just what we are going into First Access with, nowhere near what we plan on having for the game’s eventual launch.
Also, please keep in mind that CSE created the vast majority of this game in only 6 months while also building out the tech for it and continuing to work on our MMORPG Camelot Unchained. That commitment to developing both CU and FS:R isn’t going to change.
Finally, keep in mind that for this phase of First Access, the game will only be available on the weekends, not during the week. During the week is when the team looks at feedback from its games, and works to fix broken things, make new and interesting things, and at times, make new and exciting broken things. 🙂 That said, we will, at times, be running tests during the week and may open/close the servers as well to players.
Store Tiers
Final Stand: Ragnarök access is currently split into four First Access tiers: Champion, Aesir, Vanir, and Jötunn starting at $15 and going up to $95. In addition to granting access to the game itself, each FS:R tier grants special in-game and forum rewards exclusive to First Access. All of those tiers come with unlimited access to the game when it is running. The higher priced tiers come with extras such as skins, additional Champions, Season/Battle/Saga Pass content, etc. As you can see from the pricing, we wanted to keep access to the game at this point at a very lower level and we will also allow people to upgrade their tiers in the future. Thus, if you want to take a chance with us at the least expensive level, please free feel to do so secure in the knowledge that you’ll be able to upgrade your tiers in the future.
What if I want a refund?
Unfortunately, these tiers are non-refundable for any reason whatsoever unless City State Entertainment, LLC. does not put up a game for people to play, for at least one weekend in December.
These 1,000 tiers are not designed to make a lot of money for CSE, they are only there to pay for the server bills (even 1,000 x $95 wouldn’t cover CSE’s development costs for the whole studio for a month). FS:R is an online, multiplayer game where all the servers are hosted on the cloud, not on a player(s) PC so hosting these matches costs us a not insignificant amount of money.
So please, read the section of Minimum and Recommended System Requirements as well as the rather extensive manual for this game *before* pledging!
Again, these tiers are not refundable for any reason other than CSE not putting up a game to play at least for at least one weekend in December.
Where can I download Final Stand: Ragnarök?
You can find the download for the game client here <>.
Upon checkout from our store, we will request that you make an account with us. This is a quick process, and will give you access to our Backers- and players-only forums for Camelot Unchained and Final Stand: Ragnarök, respectively, upon completion of purchase.
All Backers of Camelot Unchained™ and players of Final Stand: Ragnarök gain access to our forums, where our devs discuss the progress of the game, post contests, and discuss many facets of the game’s design with the community. If you want an inside peek into game development and want to have your voice heard, our forums are the place to be! You’ll find everyone from our Community Manager to our President inside our forums, talking to our players and, more importantly, listening to what they have to say.
Troubleshooting
Who do I contact if I encounter a problem?
Contact us at support@citystateentertainment.com. If this is in regard to a purchase, please provide your: Name of the game you donated for, Name, Username, Transaction ID (If your purchase is not in your purchase history, you can get your ID from Paypal), and Transaction Date.
I’m not receiving my email confirmations when I make a purchase. What should I do?
First check your spam folder, especially if you are a GMAIL user. Second, verify the email you are expecting to receive emails on has been added to your CSE account. You can verify this through the CSE Account Settings link in the store.
These terms and conditions of this FAQ can and will change
CSE reserves the right to change anything contained in this FAQ at any time. As a matter of fact, we also know that things will change, because they always do, so please don’t be surprised. We will inform you of a change via this FAQ. By purchasing a tier in our game you acknowledge that you accepted these terms and conditions and waive any claim arising out of the change.
No guarantee of availability
CSE does not guarantee that FS:R will be available 24×7 nor even 24×3. You acknowledge that outages are expected, due to everything from bugs to cloud/internet issues and that CSE has not, in any way, implied, promised, pinkie-swore that the servers would be up all the time, apocalypse notwithstanding!
Nothing lasts forever!
While we would like FS:R to live forever, no online game ever does. As such, you acknowledge that even though you are purchasing a Reward Tier from us that gives you access to the servers, that you waive any expectation, cause of action, claim, etc. based on the fact that the game’s servers are or have been shut down someday.
Once again, with feeling!
A tier purchased for this game is non-refundable for any reason whatsoever unless City State Entertainment, LLC. does not put up a game for people to play, for at least one weekend in December.