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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Alpha 2 & other releases
CamiShami
Member, Alpha Two
Are they gonna announce a schedule for the next phase of testing? also who else is super excited for the next set of testing !!!!
You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong. -Sue Fitzmaurice
Cami Shami
Cami Shami
2
Comments
No dates yet but yes I am super excited... maybe even super duper excited but it still might be to early for that
It's ok, you're allowed to be super wuper duper excited when it comes time.
I'd assume they would announce on one of their end of month update live streams as well, so make sure to catch those at the end of the month. I'd guess the next one will be July 29th.
I honestly think Alpha 2 will be 2024. They have showed very little to make me think that all the systems they want to incorporate into that stage are within a year of being ready. I would go as far as to say some of the systems are barely even started.
I would of course love to be wrong...
2022 you say ? lol
Cami Shami
I feel that is pretty optimistic. I hope you are right but I would not expect it. I feel we would have seen a lot more in the monthly Dev discussions around game play, if Alpha 2 were that close. Remember, we have not seen anything on the 5 other classes much less the secondary classes. Then throw in Crafting and new zones and quests for those zones, along with the new character combat system for the new untested classes. The Dev Discussions would have to be remarkable from this point on for us to have a chance at Alpha 2 by Jan 2023. I also would add that when we get within 6 months, that a date would most likely exist even if it had the (Can be pushed for any reason) attached to it. They want the hype but it has to be realistic.
You arent suposed to try and be realistic. Once people just start throwing out predictions its just price is right rules, and more and more predictions.
This is the list of things they want for alpha-2 I gave a green X for things they have showcased in the update videos and a question mark for the combat system as they showed some progress but still a lot more to go.
As you can see, there are quite a few Xs missing, so the beginning of 2023 is a bit too optimistic. My optimistic prediction is no earlier than 2024
Edit: This is just what I can remember from the monthly update videos. They may have completed more things but kept silent about it.
You assume they're going to show everything before A2. It's very possible most of these are out of design and into implementation and testing, like how we randomly found out in discord that all 4 node type benefits have been decided on for a while and they're just implementing and testing at this point. Also with 170 people working on the project I highly doubt it is more then a year away. But I could also be wrong.
optimisticly i think they would be planning for a November alpha2 but they push it back if they dont think it done enough
i have a feeling they keep some thing hidden too as a surprise
Things will speed up significantly if they find and fill lead system dev, lead economy dev, and jeff's previous role. Current progress rate is due to a talent gap not their natural speed.
Quite a bit of the delay has been due to upgrading to UE5 and significantly changing character models for Dunir, Py'Rai and Vek, revamping combat...and also significantly changing Node designs.
And... those are just the changes to the we know about.
In my mind, A2 is not coming until some time in 2024. I hope you are correct but I prefer to be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed.
I think the reason I am willing to be more optimistic is the above but also just me scorching A2 to start with only approximately half those things (including several classes.) And release the rest as A2 goes on.
That still means I think its summer 23 though not this year.
24 might be more accurate if they are less compromising (everything on that list and a lot of polish) and go even longer without the positions I mentioned. So I don't think you are being at all unreasonable in your expectations.
Starting A2 with half of the things listed is an approach I never thought about as an option they could go for. If they would go for this route then an earlier release can be expected.
But I think they should try to have at least an early iteration of all points in their list I posted earlier at A2 release. Why? Even though IS stated A1 was a technical alpha people stilled judged it as a complete game. A2 will be persistent and first impression of its content and I think first impressions can be important. Perhaps not for you and me but there are a lot of doubters out there and if there is not a lot of content/features since A1 then we will see the good ol' "AoC is a scam" in the MMORPG subredit.
I’m sure that they’re well along in many areas they haven’t discussed yet, but I somehow doubt there’ll be a whirlwind 3 hour livestream in December full of video coverage showing off the remaining half dozen systems we’ve been waiting on and a January A2 reveal.
That being said, they seem to be constantly hiring new folks in all development areas, so maybe that rate of content creation will increase exponentially as we get closer to release? Hard to say, but I'm keeping my expectations pretty far out.
I predict we will be getting an announcement by the end of the year at the earliest, or by the end of Summer next year at the latest. Summer 2023 would mark 2 full years since Alpha 1
We don't know if all these will exist at launch of A2 or be added in as it goes. Also have not seen does not equal not done or close to done.
We will be lucky to hear something by the end of summer next year that states Alpha 2 will start 1st quarter 2024.
There is just to many things to add to the game from the point of alpha 1 too alpha 2. Alpha 1 gave players a taste of what they want to produce. Alpha 2 Will have a lot of flavors to try. Add in the fact that they want this to be fairly bug free before testing and it really is going to be a ways off.
I want the game out now. There is a real content drought in the MMO market. If this game had been made ready to go this year and had actually been ready, they would have printed money. Luckily for them, there is not a whole lot of competition for the quality they are creating coming out in the next few years. Liberty is the next game but that is Korean.
They can take there time but just keep in mind that the longer it takes, the increased chance for a big company to step into the waters. For the moment the waters look pretty clear..