Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Time for a Release Poll Again!
akabear
Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
It is has been a good span of time since a poll was posted to speculate on the release date!
Place your bets
https://strawpoll.com/polls/BJnX4DDVLnv
Place your bets
https://strawpoll.com/polls/BJnX4DDVLnv
0
Comments
does everything in life have to have a beneficial purpose? Why do games add the option to pet dogs in games? It's not gameplay. But it's something that people like.
I don't see any harm in a speculative poll on when you think the game will come out. At a time where we have so little to talk about, we can afford to have topics like this that are just for fun.
Incidentally, I picked "2024 Q4" - which is up there with the popular choices.
I am thinking autumn/winter 2023 for Alpha 2, giving us a year to try and get Beta ready which will hopefully have the game a few months from release at that point.
Don't forget there's 2 betas. I'd say early next year for Alpha 2, then a year later for Beta 1 then a half a year or so for Beta 2.
Anyways I was going to edit and say Beta 2 then rolling out right into a release.
60 votes and almost the same result..
Would be the ''I'm okay with it coming out as late as it wants as long as it comes out good = we shouldn't hurry the devs out, they're clearly of good faith, hurrying things would only bring bad results'' option I guess.
I sort of agree with it, although, objectively, looking at how serious Intrepid seems to be, at UE5's performance and how long it took other mmo-rpgs to develop, I'd expect mid or late 2025.
I picked later mostly due to a lack of key staff positions not being filled. There is a lot of failure and trial and error inherent to game design. A game can have good tech and a lot of bodies for failing quickly and repeatedly but without the right decision makers to guide failure towards a desired end state it's mostly random guessing.
If Steven were more skilled in game design I think my opinion would be different but how much he needed someone like Jeff has been very apparent this past year.
Jeff's old position, lead systems designer, lead economist. You can add more bodies all you want but these positions have an outsized effect on progress. The quicker they fill the shorter A2 needs to be and the quicker the games progress will be. Once filled I will start agreeing with late 2024. Early 2024 is still optimistic.
How is it more apparent Jeff is needed this year? That is kind of card to assume when you don't know what they are doing...
I'd agree with you if the project we were talking about wasn't so insanely amibitious and if the devs did not promise to take their time so they can serve a polished product on release.
They really need to take their time and deliver an impressive Alpha 2.
Intrepid knows the huge impact the state of Alpha 2 will have on the game's image and future in general.
The way streamers and all other content creators portray the game now will decide it's future greatly.
Your average content creator viewer doesn't understand what an alpha is, even if the content creator literally takes out the dictionary and explains it to him again and again.
Hell, many content creators themselves don't get it really.
So, while of course it won't be close to a finished product, it still needs to leave a good+ impression.
The character gameplay and world systems or at least most of them need to come out and come out in good enough shape that the content creators can have some serious fun with them.
This will take a lot of time. The game is very ambitious.
Alpha 2 is planned to be persistent, until release. It is an alpha. The game will not be completed yet when alpha 2 starts. Beta's are planned to be short.
And even after release, it'll be their public test server (which I'm still on the fence about liking or disliking its existence).
I mean... with complex systems, a test environment of an adequate scale is needed, to make sure patches truly are ready to be pushed.... as long as the "test servers" are reset on launch, and still possibly at risk of further resets, i dont mind them existing.
I'd rather them take all the time they need instead of rushing any part of the game and patching later.
I had a full thread discussion about this, but people chose to bury it by commenting on the umpteenth Cosmetic thread, or reviving Tank is a bad threads etc.
I personally don't think it is needed. Just have Intrepid test it internally or by hiring QAs. Opening it up to everyone will ultimately lead to similar situations as with WoW, where things are over-attuned for and by the 1% of players who actually test things to min-max their raid runs/node development choices etc. Though with the lack of story in AoC, there will at least not be a massive issue with spoilers.
Is a shame it gets burried as its a more interesting topic to discuss.
In a way, i feel like opening up alpha sales in general makes intrepids stance clear. They would rather get "free" or even "paid for" testing. Over having to do so internally. They are relying on their experienced team, and mmo experience to out weigh the overly focused testing envionment feedback.
it's just for fun, its atleast as pointless as this comment
Not sure why you would be against a public test server. It helps them prevent patches come out that turn out to be broken.
Other games manage to release non-broken patches without a PTS. The idea that you need one is a very Blizzard idea.
To quote myself:
125 votes and same prediction.. 50% Q4 2024 or later