Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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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.
What I'm looking for in A2
Diamaht
Member, Braver of Worlds, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Numbers and systems aside, there are a few things daily gamelay wise that I'm checking during A2.
1. Was my time well spent and productive? In other words, am I actially able to set daily goals (even spontaneous ones) and actually acheive them or are most things so combersome and time consuming that they take forever and feel like a job? (Eve Online has this problem).
2. If I leave the node and head out on an expedition, by the time I come back did enough happen to make the time spent feel varied and meaningful. In other words, is the only thing out there the thing I set out for or are there plenty of things happening to make the journey feel eventful.
3. Does the game present options to me and give me surprising things to chase or does it feel more like a blank slate where I always have to invent the fun myself? In other words, can I head out with nothing specific in mind and find enjoyable things to do?
My outlook for this game is extremely positive. What I'm still curious about is what the little day to day experiences will be like.
1. Was my time well spent and productive? In other words, am I actially able to set daily goals (even spontaneous ones) and actually acheive them or are most things so combersome and time consuming that they take forever and feel like a job? (Eve Online has this problem).
2. If I leave the node and head out on an expedition, by the time I come back did enough happen to make the time spent feel varied and meaningful. In other words, is the only thing out there the thing I set out for or are there plenty of things happening to make the journey feel eventful.
3. Does the game present options to me and give me surprising things to chase or does it feel more like a blank slate where I always have to invent the fun myself? In other words, can I head out with nothing specific in mind and find enjoyable things to do?
My outlook for this game is extremely positive. What I'm still curious about is what the little day to day experiences will be like.
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Comments
Well yeah, it won't be any where near feature complete, but I'm hoping to be able to see and test what the day to day experience will be like.
I wonder if i should put this into the MeMe Topic as well ... ... ... ^.^
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Gasp! You're so internet scary.
Do not have a key and do not need one. In general I wish the game would just do what WoW did back in the day and that is to host open alpha/beta at some point, maybe with no access to area's that are not as polished yet.
I'm tired of seeing haters shit on Ashes, say how they cannot wait to have their grandchildren play this game or have the game be called a scam entirely. This would be the ideal chance to shut them up or at least a big part of that noisy crowd.
The monthly update's are nice too of course but I also understand that some people want to be closer to the game and when any kind of Alpha or Beta approaches again, I hope this could become a more regular thing in general or just be constant in general, just like WoW the last year before release.
Especially not at the beginning.
Half the design will be missing.
Beta is when you should test what the daily experience will be like.
You can still get an early idea of what gameplay is going to be like. You guys shouldn't go into this thinking you are just bug testers. That's really just saying "I just want to play the game early". If you don't experiment and test the waters early on, ask questions and give feedback, you can't complain when the game design took a turn you don't like.
"It's fine, it's just alpha" is a prelude to forum posts later on saying they should redesign whole gameplay systems because we were not paying attention in the beginning.
1. Explore, learn all the back roads on all the map that is released
2. Learn all about the game that I possibly can
3. Give IS the best feedback I am capable of
I've been involved in alpha testing expansions that were representative of the final experience - but that is largely because the base game was already there.
Take from that what you will.
Fair point. Hopefully with this being a persistent alpha we will see a lot more meat to bite into.
With the open development approach they have taken so far, I'm willing to bet we will be able to see and give feedback on a lot more than what other developers have shown in the past. It would be best to put as much in as possible IMO, most of the other restricted alphas resulted in bad games. Best to find gameplay loop issues early on.
Ashes of Creation's core game systems are expected to be in place at the start of Alpha-2.[4][5] By the end of Alpha-2, the game is expected to be feature complete, but it will not be content complete until launch.[6][7]
Because Alpha 2 will last until launch, probably we will not see content like story.
The day to day experience is what Steven wants to see too, to be able to balance everything.
And the Bounty Hunter system. I really hope A2 doesn't start without the BH system at least feature-complete, the buyer's remorse whiplash might be too much.
Curious Question over here,
is the Bounty-Hunter System really THAT desired ? I have no Idea actually. I know only that some to many People are afraid of getting corrupted for Playerkilling - and that Bounty-Hunters apparently can set on hunting said Playerkillers.
I imagine something like Geralt's Witcher Senses or something else, that may help You looking in the "about Direction" of the targeted Playerkiller the Bountyhunters are going to hunt. 😁
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
^
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This.
Hence my Picture from above.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Not really. What I'm seeing a lot of, and its been this way for several years now is folks focusing more on balancing issues for their own personal class and other things exclusive to themselves. For a lot of people it seems like this is more of a personal practice session to get a leg up on launch. Just read between the lines when people post. This mentality won't work anyway, the larger community will catch up in no time.
I'm more worried about whether or not Ashes will actually be a fun video game. Luckily it looks like this stuff will be present as the alpha goes on so we'll be able to test it.
Honestly, how some of you managed to manufacture the negative in even that simple concept is miraculous.
It'll likely be the same as it is in other games: appealing to some, not to others, Yours truly played live Star Wars: Galaxies for about 5 of the 8 and 1/2 years it was up, and have played SWG: Legends (the game's unauthorized emulator) on-and-off since 2016, and have NEVER tried to collect on a player-bounty. This, despite placing them fairly often.
Will be in the Alpha to break it; I want to find all the little bugs that initial development hasn't already caught. What happens when I try to put a bag of holding into another bag of holding? Will collision-detection cause players to become trapped in taverns if I *try* to block a doorway? Will any of the abilities still fire, despite showing that they are still supposed to be on cooldown? Can I rock/roof-climb into a quest-area, even when we are explicity intended to fight through/travel through certain areas? What happens to my crafting materials/items if I lose connection in the middle of the crafting process? Etc, etc.
I ultimately don't want this game to face the legion of troubles that New World went through, after they skimped on pre-launch testing.
Seeing how developers tweak things prior to a games launch
Creating alliances and friendships in the Alpha and Beta testing phases
And killing time as the other mmos are not keeping my attention span and I need something different to do and explore.
Balanced gameplay is not a primary goal of Alpha 2. Especially not at the start of Alpha 2.
The very last thing the devs want us to do with Alpha 2 is play as though it already has the typical balanced daily gameplay expected at release. Or even to give feedback in that manner.
The purpose of Alpha 2 is to test; not play.
Sure... give feedback on how the A2 gameplay feels.
But, that should still be with the understanding that the gameplay in the Alpha 2 is not truly representative of how the devs hope daily gameplay will feel at launch.
1) does the game function as designed? (Testing / Bug logging / retesting)
2) how does the current design match the spirit or direction of that capability? (UX / experience issues)
3) will the game break if I play it ‘my way’?
I agree if you reverse that a bit:
"Sure... test for bugs/glitches/exploits.
But that should still be with the understanding that if the general gamplay feels off or unsatisfying, we should have the initiative to start asking if this is what they truly have in mind or if other systems are missing."
You could also say you're going to test to see if Tulnar, Summoners and Bards are in Alpha 2 and write bugs if they don't play like they're expected to play at release.
You can do that if you want to, but... including Tulnar, Summoners and Bards are not development goals for the start of Alpha 2, so those bugs won't be particularly meaningful.
We already know that the start of Alpha 2 will not be representative of the intended daily gameplay.
They could be developing further assuming we are fine with the basic design, while we are assuming they will fix it up later.
wait what? i thought the bards were going to be present at thee start of alpha 2 and only the summoner was going to be missing. where did you see that? T_T
also diamaht you gonna be dissapointed if you have those expectations for a2 xd