Protocol Ashfall Alpha/Beta Is Live — Let the Ashes Finally Fall

Post news Report RSS Protocol Ashfall Alpha/Beta Is Live — Let the Ashes Finally Fall

Well… after quietly pulling a fast one and releasing Negative-Zero while nobody was looking, it’s finally Ashfall’s turn. Protocol Ashfall v1.5.8.9 is officially entering public Alpha/Beta testing. MAP01: Ashfall Station is open, the arsenal is loaded, the vehicles are fueled, and now I need actual players to break everything I somehow missed. The ashes are finally falling.

Posted by DarkRamsey on Sep 15th, 2026

PROTOCOL ASHFALL IS LIVE

Well…

I said Ashfall was coming.

Then, while everybody was looking in that direction, I apparently decided the sensible thing to do was quietly shove Negative-Zero out the door first.

Nobody stopped me.

So naturally I took that as encouragement.

Negative-Zero is now public, and today it’s finally Protocol Ashfall’s turn.

THE ASHES ARE FINALLY FALLING

Protocol Ashfall v1.5.8.9 Alpha/Beta is officially available for public playtesting.

This project has spent a ridiculous amount of time being built, broken, rebuilt, stress tested, exploded, patched, driven through walls, filled with more weapons, exploded again, and occasionally stared at while I wondered what series of life decisions resulted in Doom having attack helicopters.

And now I’m finally handing it to you guys.

WHAT THE HELL IS PROTOCOL ASHFALL?

Ashfall is a Doom II wave-survival project built around heavy combat and experimentation.

The basic idea is simple:

Survive. Loot. Upgrade. Restock. Do it again.

The execution became slightly less simple.

The current sandbox includes:

• 100+ weapons and weapon-related combat tools
• randomized loot and rarity
• elemental weapon effects
• RPG progression
• perks and character stats
• escalating waves
• elite enemy breeds
• Champions and named Unique enemies
• allied combatants
• supply drops
• vehicles
• tanks
• mechs
• attack helicopters
• environmental systems
• dynamic music
• battlefield FX
• Player Tools
• and enough experimental nonsense to make the original Doom engine question why I’m doing this to it

This is still an Alpha/Beta.

Some systems are polished.

Some systems are experimental.

Some systems are held together by programming, stubbornness, and whatever dark ritual keeps old Doom source ports alive.

That is exactly why I need testers.

MAP01 — ASHFALL STATION

The current public build intentionally starts with one playable map: MAP01 — Ashfall Station.

Here’s an important bit of transparency about it:

The original MAP01 layout was generated with Obsidian Level Maker.

I deliberately used that generated foundation as a testing ground instead of pretending I spent six months hand-placing every hallway.

The goal was to take a generated map and start asking:

How much life can we build into it?

So Ashfall Station became the laboratory for:

• environmental detailing
• combat flow
• enemy spawning
• wave pacing
• lighting
• weather
• atmosphere
• props
• vehicles
• AI
• supply drops
• music transitions
• battlefield debris
• performance
• and everything else Ashfall throws at the engine

It is less “here is my masterpiece map” and more:

“Here is the place where we repeatedly throw the game down a flight of stairs and see what still works.”

Future maps can take what we learn from this one and go much further.

THERE ARE A LOT OF GUNS

I may have gotten slightly carried away here.

The current development content spans 100+ weapons and weapon-related pieces of equipment.

Pistols.

Revolvers.

Rifles.

Shotguns.

SMGs.

Machine guns.

Sniper rifles.

Explosives.

Plasma weapons.

Experimental energy hardware.

Heavy weapons.

Melee weapons.

And several things where the safest operating instruction is probably:

“Point that end away from yourself.”

Weapons can also interact with Ashfall’s rarity and elemental systems, while enemies can have resistances or outright immunities.

So eventually you may encounter something where the solution is no longer:

shoot it harder.

Instead it becomes:

shoot it harder with a different gun.

Progress.

YES, YOU CAN DRIVE THINGS

Because apparently Doomguy walking everywhere wasn’t excessive enough.

Ashfall contains battlefield vehicle systems including ground vehicles, tanks, mechs, passenger systems and attack-helicopter gameplay.

Some vehicles use third-person cameras.

Some carry passengers.

Some have ridiculous weapons.

And most of them eventually explode.

Sometimes dramatically.

Sometimes very dramatically.

I regret nothing.

NEW CONTROLS

Ashfall adds several controls beyond normal Doom gameplay.

Some important ones:

Mouse 2 — Aim Down Sights
R — Reload
G — Throw selected grenade
- / = — Cycle grenade type
P — Character / Perks
F4 — Third-person view
K — Hook Shot / additional action where supported

And for people who want to open the hood:

CTRL + ALT + D

opens PLAYER TOOLS.

That menu exposes weapons, monsters, allies, vehicles, items, effects, testing utilities, stability tools and a whole pile of development systems.

This exists so testers can isolate problems.

Which means I fully expect somebody to instead spawn 400 things into one room and send me a screenshot of their computer begging for death.

That technically counts as testing.

WHY RELEASE IT NOW?

Because at some point you have to stop testing your own game exactly the way you know how to play it.

I know where things are.

I know what buttons I expect people to press.

I know what systems are supposed to do.

You guys don't.

And that is incredibly useful.

I want somebody to walk into Ashfall Station, completely misunderstand one of my systems, do something I never considered, and uncover a bug that has apparently been sitting there for three months waiting for its moment.

So play it.

Try different weapons.

Use the vehicles.

Experiment with builds.

Mess with Player Tools.

Try to break the waves.

Try to kill things in ways I absolutely did not plan for.

THIS IS A PUBLIC PLAYTEST

Please expect:

• bugs
• unfinished features
• balance changes
• visual problems
• strange AI behavior
• performance issues
• occasional Doom-engine black magic

If something breaks, report it.

Screenshots help.

Videos help.

Crash logs help.

Knowing the map location, wave number, weapon, enemy or vehicle involved helps tremendously.

If you aren't sure whether something counts as a bug:

send it anyway.

AND YES… NEGATIVE-ZERO IS ALSO OUT

For anybody who missed the sneak attack:

Call of Duty: Black Ops — Negative-Zero also entered public Beta while nobody was paying attention.

That project lives over here:

Moddb.com

So apparently this has turned into the part of my life where I start releasing the things I’ve been hiding in the basement.

Probably healthier this way.

Maybe.

DOWNLOAD PROTOCOL ASHFALL

Requirements and installation instructions are included on the download page.

If you're replacing an older development build, use the current public package instead of stacking old test files and hotfixes together.

Please do not construct Ashfall: Frankenstein Edition and then call me because the helicopter has become sentient.

ONE LAST THING

I’ve spent long enough building this thing behind closed doors.

Now I want to know what you guys think.

What works?

What sucks?

What feels good?

What needs changing?

What should disappear forever?

What should I double down on?

And most importantly:

What did you manage to break that I somehow didn't?

Protocol Ashfall is finally out of containment.

Life is short. Mods are supposed to be played.

So here we go.

Let the ashes finally fall.

Play it.

Break it.

Send feedback.

Or…

DIE WITH THE ASHES.

— DARKRAMSEY