Current status: Milestone 3 in progress

Milestone 1: Finalization of the Imperial Realms server architecture, including basic databases, message-passing queues, turn counting and interaction with clients.

Milestone 2: Finalization of the Imperial Realms client architecture for both Windows and Linux. Features include generation of planets, basic movement, and messaging.

Milestone 3: Astrographical features complete. Players can join from the web site, choose an assignment, build cities, produce and move units.

Milestone 4: Both planetary and deep space combat are ready. All units will have statistics for health, morale, experience, and alert status. Alpha testing begins.

Milestone 5: Cultural,economic, trade, and research features become part of the game. Start of registration for beta-testing.

Milestone 6: Features frozen and debugged until basic stability is achieved. Alpha testers and staff have basic access to the site.

Milestone 7: The business and community ends of the game become functional: the Imperial Encyclopedia and technical documentation, secure registration and on-line payment, game forums, and both official and community web sites. Beta-testing begins.

Beta testing will continue for at least one month. The game will be officially launched when all community features are complete, and all serious bugs have been fixed.

To see more general information about the game and its background, visit http://www.imperialrealms.com.