Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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.
Comments
judging from the korean beta, everything that can be acquired doing pvp can also be acquired without pvp. if anything, the game needs more pvp, not less
I don't see that happening to be honest.
If I theoretically had access to the closed technical test on a PS5 and had already spent hours studying its design, I would take your bet in hopes of making some easy money.
Without even talking about the closed beta and looking at the open one in kr you can tell by the systems the amount of focus there is on pvp and gear chase. You think a guild is just going to let you get gear from a boss and not pk you ?
Let alone flag up on people around the area to pvp just cause or to boost ranking.
You can see from the gameplay that people will definitely be pvping a lot and fighting for gear.
You haven't been paying much attention to the things that the L2 or FFXI players have been telling you about how they get gear in those games.
This isn't the topic for it, but in case anyone needs to know.
TL gearing works like L2 + FF. You can fight normal mobs for a tiny chance of getting the things you need to make even great gear, and then it becomes a huge legendary-esque quest to get the mats without the PvP part, which might the playstyle of certain players who shall remain nameless except that Mag already called them out by name...
The FFXI part lets you take multiple economic paths to obtaining these things as well. So this is about as useful a claim as talking about Ashes based on what happened in Alpha-1, but of course, Mag would never do that, as he's not the type to judge games in that way, he's said that many times on this very forum.
If I theoretically had access to the closed technical test, I would probably be able to confirm the above with even greater certainty.
In other words, what's the pulse of other players, if that's a thing one has access to if one also has access to the test?
I would assume, that in that case, players would be enjoying it, but having many of the same reactions as those who pass through here, just a bit less.
But of course, those who are having fun might be more likely to be playing and enjoying things like the wonderful story they promised, the incredible changes to PvE complexity and difficulty that they also promised, the deep synergies and teamwork that might be available in the game based on the skills we've seen in previous posts on this forum, and so on.
Other players, I expect would be complaining about PvP despite the claim from NCSoft that they would be changing things in many ways relative to that based on feedback, such as possibly changing it so that the PvP area events are not always PvP, or making dungeons the known PvP areas. Since, after all, there are always those who complain about it regardless of any other situation, even if they could theoretically take a much longer path to whatever they want without having to worry about becoming good at the complex PvP the game would probably have.
I'd assume that any large scale battles might be a strain on the servers though, since Amazon would probably have stood up a different infrastructure underneath it than one might expect in the previous Korean tests, so I really hope that if they have done that, that they get it worked out soon so as to not disappoint any players in their test.
And of course there would be yet another giant enemy crab whose weakpoint you should attack for massive damage, and players would be enjoying that to the fullest.
It wasn't enough for NCsoft to still not release LineageW to the "world" (which W was supposed to fucking stand for), but now TL could potentially not be so bad and I still won't be able to play it.
The only hope now is that A2 will in fact come way earlier than I expect.
A2 can take their time and be a good months after Throne and liberty. That game is going to hit. Im pretttty excited for all the content and pvp.
I mean, of course I'm obviously just speculating on what I expect the game to be based on its design goals, convergent evolution, and the strange, almost uncanny correlation between areas in it that we've seen in the game footage, and a similar layout in FF.
It's almost as if designers are influenced by old games they like, and it would be a good idea to focus on games that are similar to games that you played and like, or games that you heard about and liked. I particularly expect that since there are many areas and concepts that are common in games, such as the way certain Orcish strongholds look, or the positioning of port cities next to desert-like areas with random monoliths, that there may have been someone else out there whose favorite games are the two I wish would be combined.
But just because one could achieve a robust and enjoyable (for some) combat system simply by adding an Active Defense skill and some FF level variation in 'heavy attacks' or similar special abilities by some mobs, doesn't mean that you need to feel bad about it, since, as I mentioned, TL's economy probably can't be that good, based on the datamine and other things we know.
I'm sure that whenever Alpha-2 arrives, it will show us the difference. I personally hope that TL and Ashes go in different directions but incorporate many of the same features, since I expect TL combat to be more enjoyable for me, but as long as Ashes combat doesn't go full Tarisland, I'm sure that those who prefer not to have to think about 'exactly how to time their shield blocks based on the enemy or if to use the block at all when they have other skills to resolve the issue' will have a great game to play that has enjoyable combat.
I expect the two games to be nicely complementary to each other, since the designers of the two seem to value different things, in a good way.
Over a year starting with 17th of January or starting 4 months ago when you say Steven said first time that is "not years" away? 4 months ago would be June and maybe they discussed internally and decided something a few weeks before.
If it is more than 1 year away from this upcoming stream, they should tune down any hype and hint that it can still be more than 1 year.
Should IS actually take into account the release of TL or any other MMO now?
I would say no, because usually such events are important when you want to sell the game well and you are afraid that other games will delay players buying the game and give them enough time to see reviews and have second thoughts instead of buying while hyped.
AoC Alpha 2 is ending the sale in January and player's massive presence on first day of A2 launch is not very important for this testing stage because we will get updates and Steven will keep the habit of streaming and showing players testing the new features. We will already have access and be able to return anytime. And those who do not buy until 17th January, will not get access anyway, no matter if Alpha starts a bit sooner or later.
The only reason to want to start the Alpha 2 before other MMO releases is if the Alpha 2 will feel like a fully functional game, able to keep players addicted. And if they need a constant massive presence.
Actually it should since it is a new mmorpg it isn't worth potential risk, point of Alpha 2 is for people to test it. People having to pick which mmorpg to play time wise impacts amount of limited testers. There is no reason to release the same time as another mmorpg, even more so if it has a lot of hype behind it which i expect for T&L.
I write 1.9 years. Is that wrong?
Fixed.
Studios are always hiring when they are in full production and have roles up. It doesn't mean things rent done, it leaves the door to get good talent.
Point of the discussion is what was said about not years away. Though if you think they have not developed much on the game than that is fair.
Personally ill take "not years away" as if they are following the schedule and have realistic expectations, and not just a random number thrown without knowing their timeline for what they need to do within margin of error. The longer the period of time of guess the less accurate it will be.
I would have acceped your point of view a few months ago.
But the "not years away" was reinforced by "Soon (TM)" and by saying that all core parts of the game are done.
But my expectation is to get a very limited Alpha 2 which will grow over more than 2 years. Maybe beta 1 could start in 2 years but I feel that Alpha 2 player feedback will cause delays.
And I see no reason to not start Alpha 2 with only 25% map size and fewer classes and with only side quests to avoid main story spoilers.
What I don't know is how expensive running a server is and if they can cover the costs with the monthly cosmetic sales.
All signs lead to early next year as there internal target.
- They had planned internal PI testing at the end of this year (this was planned months ago and u dont plan that far ahead unless it important like the release of A2, if it was combat testing or event testing or what not it would of been tested when feature was done not planned at x time)
- The last cosmetic pack going to the 17th if January this is such a random date in the scheme of thing if it was just a random date it would be at the end of month or a week not Wednesday in the middle of the month 4 months away, this would indicate that there internal release date is around that time which wednsday is prime day for that aswell since it allow 2 days to pre before hand and 3 days to square issues away so devs can enjoy the weekend. The other possibility is that they announce the date on december livestream and this would allow 2 weeks for people still on the fence waiting for a date to buy into it, Steven also wont release a date until he know he can garantee will hit it since A1 debacle so if he does give a date on december livestream it wont be to far away and will likely be already to release at the time so he can garanteed it be ready 2-3 weeks later
so yeah highly likly the internal planned A2 release will be 17th of jan and will be pushed back if there hiccups leading up to that date if required.
I could see maybe private NDA Testing like they did for A1 that early. It's hard to say though since we aren't aware of where they are with all the planned systems for the start of A2.
the NDA testing was planned for later this year not sure if thats still the case however since that plan was like 4-6 months ago
* No Glitches
* No economy/gamebreaking bugs
* No end game purpose or boring
That being said, personally i dont really care when the official release will be announced , i just want this MMO to succeed like nothing else. Sending love to the devs.