NDA Verbal dropped and the testimony of the testers.

Hey everyone!

Has most of us that didn't get in the test, I'm currently listening to the testimony of those who have.
And while I have no concerned about the stat of the game , I'm a bit concern about the testers...

A good portion of those I have listened to so far , do not know what content was available to them in the Pre Alpha, or even do not know much about the game itself.

And while content testing wasn't the focus of the last test week end , some thought that they did't tested the same version of the game as the one we have seen so far in the dev update , while others said that they tested the same or even a better version that what has been shown.

So from what I heard , those who knew what they were testing , saw bugs and lack of server performance while it did't work as planed. And those who had no idea what there is in their test version, accused the stat of the development ...

Why did't they get a briefing to make sure that they all know what they where testing ?
I'm a bit sad to see out there on the internet nonconstructive criticism while it seems that IS did a fairly good job by now ...

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Comments

Songcaller

Be thankful that the few are willing to give verbal feedback. The majority have kept the experience to themselves. Neither path is a bad path but I do appreciate those who are willing to spread the knowledge rather than those who hoard the knowledge.

Gimlog

@Neurath It isn't knowledge if you accuse IS of not being sharing content while you could't experience it because you try to test the game with a potato.
It would have been knowledge if they said " ok guys spell and others stuff did't work for me because i'm playing it on my potato, so the game is not optimized yet enough."

Dygz

I dunno. I think we were told that we are a couple versions behind what the devs are currently playing.
And we were also told that the focus of this test is on logins, server population, network optimization and progressing our characters and the Nodes.

If stuff wasn't working for you, you were probably in a very crowded region.
Heading out to explore less crowded areas of the map should have helped fix that.
Which the devs also told us.

Songcaller

Not sure who has said the game isn't optimized yet but that would be true. The game engine itself isn't the best game engine for Massive Multiplayer Games, we learnt that in Apoc and three years later we are still faced with the same issues because of the engine.

I wouldn't expect personal client optimisations until Beta at the earliest, perhaps even after launch when the player base has increased to cover people who haven't ran the game before. Most of our testers have more than a potato to test the game on.

I was accused of giving inappropriate feedback in one thread because the recent test didn't cover those specifics (Combat and Q Spam). I wasn't even aware at that point what was in the test and what wasn't in the test. It appears, some A1 Testers didn't understand or know either. I simply maintained the same feedback I gave some months ago, which, is still valid feedback until I see a new iteration of combat.

The whole shebang isn't my forte and I wouldn't release any NDA until the whole package is ready. I don't believe the game is ready for any NDA to be lifted but I wasn't an A1 Tester, I have simply listened to the A1 Feedback. We also have optimism clouding the judgement of the now which is okay but I find too much optimism can skew what needs to be remedied before the NDA is dropped. So much is still placeholder and placeholders should be more final before the hype train smashes onto the scene.

Gimlog

Well guys seems that my English is not good enough to make you understand my point , but as I do understand yours point , I can say that we are in the same boat.👌

Ragecon

Just look at what people have said about the combat, most skills were lacking animations that we have seen in the live streams, Like mages blink. this build was deff older

Gimlog

@Ragecon Well half of those I listen to had the full effect and enjoyed it.

Vhaeyne

Gimlog wrote: »

@Ragecon Well half of those I listen to had the full effect and enjoyed it.

Add my voice to the half that enjoyed it. Now its half+1. XD

Gimlog

Tanks @Vhaeyne , can you share your thought on why you experience was better than others?

Vhaeyne

Gimlog wrote: »

Tanks @Vhaeyne , can you share your thought on why you experience was better than others?

I don't know for sure why my experience was better. I would not spend the time I spend on this forum if I was not truly excited about Ashes. Likewise, I feel like I have a clear idea of what Ashes will be at this point. On here I see many crazy ideas about what kind of game Ashes is going to be. People have high hopes and expectations for Ashes, and I think people were only imagining Ashes to be what they wanted from a MMO. When they got in the game this weekend they might have not seen the game they wanted to see. When I got in the game this weekend I saw the framework of the game I wanted to see all in place. Many of my doubts were lifted. So, I came away with a very positive experience.

Gimlog

Well this is a point that I completely forgot to think of , and it can explain lot of stuff ^^"
Tanks @Vhaeyne!

truelyyy

I am an A1 tester.

Most of the testing at the moment is around performance and rubber banding. I know they are now increasing the number of players compared to previous tests so with each of the tests with more players they have more optimizations to make, it's just part of the process.

The world we have access to it the same stuff they have shown in the monthly videos so there is a small alpha world for us the explore.

My overall very simplistic impressions are:

- The combat is already in a good place for alpha 1
- networking and rubber banding is an issue but fixes and testing is coming in quickly and was expected and is part of the process
- bugs are in the game as would be expected. Saw some bugs fixes from last week already.
- surprising amount of bugs around questing.
- Overall I found it a fun and immersive experience

"do not know what content was available" true but that's part of the fun exploring a new world. As they were doing backround check we just report bugs we see and report rubber banding issues.

I agree that it's best to release the NDA when the rubber banding and quest bugs are in a better state then I think it will be adequate to show to the public. People will always expect too much but that's just the way they have decided to showcase where the game is.

Shabob

They all ready explained that the game wasn't ready to be shown. The main purpose of the testing last weekend and this Thursday was a technical test of login and the servers. Yes, look for bugs and feedback. The testing of content and systems will come later.

Sure the wiki has alot of information to read up on and familiarize yourself with, but we're going to be target testing of these features thoroughly.

Khronus

@Gimlog There is a lot of feedback that you are unable to see because it is in AOC discord NDA channels. We have been told as a community several times the current state of the game and to not expect anything other than bugs and issues. All A1 testers should know very well what we are getting into.

All that being said, I had a freaking blast in the game. It didn't feel like an Alpha test even though they were testing rubberbanding issues and other various things. There was rubberbanding and it was terrible but for only those who stayed in the starter/populated areas. I have my gripes about the combat system being a massive spam of the Q button (or left mouse click if you switch to the action combat option...which I find not fun because of the forced movement upon Q/left click spam)...but that's a different story. Other than that the world is beautiful, the movement feels right, and you can clearly see that the core of this game is their top priority.

Most of the bugs are expected. Quests not being able to be completed is guaranteed at this stage. Mobs bugging out and not being attackable....for sure. I even went to fight a boss mob for a quest and it glitched, killing me and my party in one shot while not lowering our health but instead putting our mana 0/0 lol. It was SUPER odd but really fun to experience. The issue I am seeing players have is they are getting mad at losing items or having exp debt but fail to realize they are on a character that will be wiped and every little (or big) thing that happens to us is USEFUL INFORMATION to prevent it from happening upon launch. Don't listen to the negative reviews as someone reviewing an alpha status game is just silly lol.

Dygz

It’s an Alpha One preview, so...
It’s still very basic combat systems - we just have press Q for basic weapon attack while the Weapon Abilities skill tree is completely disabled.
The Passive Abilities skill tree is also disabled.
But, we did get to play with Archetype Abilities skill tree.
Just enough to play around with Adventurer progression while the devs collect population density data.

Steven warned us that it was not going to be fun. But, it was kinda fun anyways.
Those who were there to test probably had fun.
Those who were there to play probably were very frustrated.

Khronus

@Dygz I was there to play and I was still blown away haha. Even if we get stuck with the Q spam, it feels like we are headed towards a quality game that will last a long time. If greed continues to be snuffed out, Intrepid can go down as some of the best developers/creative minds of our time imo.

Dygz

I spent 3 hours in the cave trying to find Zemez...only to finally confirm the quest is broken and she ain’t there.
But, at least I found out where she’s supposed to be.

I was level 15 in a level 4 cave.
Chatted with a few other people in the cave also bewildered by how the quest was supposed to work.
Even that was fun.

I’ve been in Early Access “launches” which were way more tedious and frustrating.
Also, Steven global shouting messages to us is always a blast.

Mahes

I am also an A1 tester.

The most frustrating part of the test was the very part they wanted testers for. The rubberband man was not a fun game to play. They did tell the testers what their intentions were for the test. They apparently got good data as the situation did improve. We were also told to submit bugs but that was not their priority for this particular test. Bug submission was more of a secondary concern. I found that a lot of the bugs I submitted had already been reported.

It was easy to see why the NDA was delayed. It needs to remain Delayed until they truly fix the rubberbanding issue. Its one thing to discuss it, but to actually see it might deter a lot of potential players from keeping this game on radar.

In short the game has a lot of bugs and a metric ton of testing to go for content and server stability.

That said, what I and many other testers noticed was the foundation of a wonderful system. They have a great art crew and it shined despite all the bugs. The classes felt solid enough and the play was engaging. The most important part for me was how dedicated the Intrepid team appear to be. They put in long hours and have many many more hours to go. The enthusiasm of the developers feels genuine.

So far...so good.

Songcaller

I understand the frustration with rubber banding. I want you to know that rubber banding happens in BDO and happened less than 6 months ago and still happens sometimes. I do not know how to fix rubber banding and I do not know if the rubber banding can be permanently fixed. I merely get frustrated when rubber banding occurs. I've heard a hotfix remedied the situation on the friday/friday night. I'm not sure if the rubber banding will return when more than 1000 Players are on a server at the same time. I hope the issue can be permanently fixed but as I've explained, rubber banding has happened in a game long after alpha stages.

Memoroni

I mean, it's important to tell people what they are testing / what they can / what they should test. But, it's also important to make sure people know how to test. I've tested a lot of software, and it's a skill that you have to really practice. It could be a good idea to have like 'how to test a game' resources available prior to the release of Alpha 2.

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