(This is the plan that was agreed on in late 2016, it's not news but I never gave a proper explanation on the forums which was my mistake.)
https://gitlab.com/groups/evol/-/milestones
How do milestones work?
Each milestone represents an area of the game that is being worked on. They are in order of priority, meaning that the first milestone needs to be completed before release regardless of the completion level of later ones (ex. Artis Legion needs to be finished for Hurnscald to be released). The current plan has been to release Artis Legion, Artis Sewer and Hurnscald as one block once they are all complete, this roughly coincides with the first release of the Hercules server. Tulimshar is the first milestone of the next release block, which is why it's still at 0%.
This is meant to be the least restrictive way to maintain a workflow. Anyone can work on any of the milestones or even make suggestions for future ones. Working towards getting the first three to 100% will ensure a faster release of the new server.
Here's the one caveat: some content is missing from these milestones, mainly Hurnscald. Hurnscald is at 55% at the time of writing this, but once certain things that are needed (like stats balance and equipment progression) are fleshed out with issues and merge requests, they will be added to it bringing the total amount work that is yet to be completed up. The first two milestones are much more accurate and they are truly about 50% and 70% completed respectively.
When will the new server be ready and what will be in it?
The new server will be ready for release once the first three milestones are completed. At release, it will include:
- Evol Aurora - the first release of Evol Online that is being merged with The Mana World
- Artis Legion & Sewer - two additional parts of the city of Artis from Evol which will allow the game story to progress into the next chapters
- Hurnscald - the town of Hurnscald and surrounding woodlands + a bunch of TMW content such as items and quests that will either be imported directly or re-mastered for the new server (with a priority goal of maintaining the same feel of classic TMW).
Later milestones will likely be centred on the continent of Ancea (the lands of current TMW maps including Tulimshar in the region of Tonori, Hurnscald in the region of Argaes, Nivalis in the region of Kaizei and the island of Candor). The second release will prioritise adding these areas to the game and ensuring that the world of mana we all know and love is fully set out.
As always, feel free to ask for any clarifications or any direction for how to get involved