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What are your Alpha 2 launch expectations?

ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
edited August 10 in General Discussion
With Alpha 2 on the horizon, I wanted to ask the community what their expectations are for the release of Alpha 2. Intrepid has shown off a lot of amazing looking gameplay-loops and game mechanics over the past 3 years, but do you think everything we have been shown will be ready to test at the start of A2? If you could follow the format down below, that would make it a lot easier to gauge where the audience is at. All of these questions pertain only to the launch of Alpha 2. Also, please add anything that you think will be important if it is not covered in the questions below. Thank you.

Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?

How many biomes present at launch?

Which biomes at launch?

How many / which races will be available at launch?

All Artesian classes available?

World bosses?

Highest level node attainable at launch?

Will freehold exist at launch?

How many players can a testing server hold?

How many servers will be available at launch?

Will there be queues?


The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
«1

Comments

  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    edited August 8
    I guess I will start off.


    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods? - defined testing period.

    How many biomes present at launch? - 2

    Which biomes at launch? - riverlands & desert

    How many / which races will be available at launch? - 2: Vek and Kaelar

    All Artesian classes available? - all that have been mentioned

    World bosses? - no world bosses

    Highest level node attainable at launch? - tier 4

    Will freehold exist at launch? - no

    How many players can a testing server hold? 3k

    How many servers will be available at launch? 8 per region

    Will there be queues? Yes

    PvP on or off - on

    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • LinikerLiniker Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I'll reply after the 16th
    img]
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  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    Liniker wrote: »
    I'll reply after the 16th

    How can you have an opinion on everything, but not this?

    Let’s see how close you are to what they actually announce! It’ll be fun!
    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • HalaeHalae Member, Alpha Two
    edited August 8

    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?
    We know that Alpha-2 is meant to be persistent, but I don't know how likely that is.

    How many biomes present at launch? Which biomes at launch?
    I'm expecting the Riverlands, plus the bay area to the southeast, the encircling mountains, and a bit of the desert across the water to the southeast. That tracks with what they've stated.
    4lczrcqqaox2.png

    How many / which races will be available at launch?
    At the opening of Alpha-2? Everything but the Tulnar, most likely. Tulnar rely on the same subsystems as Animal Husbandry

    All Artesian classes available?
    Nah. Animal Husbandry still needs more work.

    World bosses?
    Given they were in Alpha-1, I'd be downright shocked if they weren't available.

    Highest level node attainable at launch?
    Probably only level 4 nodes, which are "Towns". There's just not enough space for a metropolis yet.

    Will freehold exist at launch?
    Likely, yes.

    How many players can a testing server hold? How many servers will be available at launch?
    No idea. I have no expectations here.

    Will there be queues?
    Almost certainly.
  • SmaashleySmaashley Member, Alpha Two
    My expectations :

    1. Bugs
    2. Server crashes
    3. Performance issues
    4. Queues
    5. Unfun gameplay because not balanced properly
  • mfckingjokermfckingjoker Member, Alpha Two
    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods? :D - persistent with some downtimes every now and then

    How many biomes present at launch? - 4-5

    Which biomes at launch? - riverlands for sure, probably desert, rest can't rly say

    How many / which races will be available at launch? - probably all apart from tulnar

    All Artesian classes available? - probably not yet

    World bosses? - for sure, some at least

    Highest level node attainable at launch? - 3-4 probably

    Will freehold exist at launch? - maybe, unfinished

    How many players can a testing server hold? - 2-3k

    How many servers will be available at launch? - no idea, 10-20

    Will there be queues? - in the beginning, definitely



    Also lots of bugs, wipes and server crashes :D:D
    3hmamy1ekfqy.gif
  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    Smaashley wrote: »
    My expectations :

    1. Bugs
    2. Server crashes
    3. Performance issues
    4. Queues
    5. Unfun gameplay because not balanced properly

    Yeah, of course, but what features will be available to test at launch? Are you thinking that there will be some or most of what they have showed in the showcases?
    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • Primarch001Primarch001 Member, Alpha Two
    Toothpaste wrote: »
    With Alpha 2 on the horizon, I wanted to ask the community what their expectations are for the release of Alpha 2. Intrepid has shown off a lot of amazing looking gameplay-loops and game mechanics over the past 3 years, but do you think everything we have been shown will be ready to test at the start of A2? If you could follow the format down below, that would make it a lot easier to gauge where the audience is at. All of these questions pertain only to the launch of Alpha 2. Also, please add anything that you think will be important if it is not covered in the questions below. Thank you.

    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?
    Persistent

    How many biomes present at launch?
    2 with additions every 8 weeks or so

    Which biomes at launch?
    I don't see how it could be anything other than Riverlands and Desert

    How many / which races will be available at launch?
    All excluding tulnar

    All Artesian classes available?
    All shown/stated

    World bosses?
    All shown with 1-2 as a surprise at launch

    Highest level node attainable at launch?
    4.

    Will freehold exist at launch?
    Yes but I expect they will be heavily reworked

    How many players can a testing server hold?
    No idea. 2-5k

    How many servers will be available at launch?
    Quite a few. I expect there to be approx. 110 - 150,000 players in the first week.

    Will there be queues?
    100%

  • AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited August 8
    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?
    Persistent but often unstable and broken until 2025.

    How many biomes present at launch?
    Three, four if we count coastal.

    Which biomes at launch?
    Riverlands, Shrublands, 'rainforest', coastal.

    How many / which races will be available at launch?
    All but Tulnar, but not in their final forms.

    All Artesian classes available?
    Not a chance.

    World bosses?
    Sure.

    Highest level node attainable at launch?
    City if lucky, but probably will just break a lot.

    Will freehold exist at launch?
    Sorta, I am gonna bet they won't actually be 'properly usable', so the Freeholds themselves would be available but most of the detailed playloops around them, not.

    How many players can a testing server hold?
    1800 before instability starts to kick in within Nodes.

    How many servers will be available at launch?
    28, 2 for most sub-regions.

    Will there be queues?
    Only for the first few days.
    ♪ One Gummy Fish, two Gummy Fish, Red Gummy Fish, Blue Gummy Fish
  • KilionKilion Member, Alpha Two
    I expect to test a game clearly in development, that is largely bare bones at launch of the Alpha 2. Basic mechanics with weird loopholes and exploits, buggy quests, broken worlds and weather events, skill tree options that don't work, server wipes and so on. If it turns out to run smoother than this - great, more time to look for exploits and bugs. It will be fun - if you aren't there to PLAY the game but to TEST its mechanics.


    How many biomes present at launch? Which biomes at launch?
    Probably 3-4 (Riverlands, Badlands, Sandsquall Desert + possibly the Jundark)

    How many / which races will be available at launch?
    Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs

    All Artesian classes available?
    Hahahahaha, no.

    World bosses?
    Yes, but not all.

    Highest level node attainable at launch?
    Tier 3 cause that'll be enough for the things they will be concerned about in the beginning.

    Will freehold exist at launch?
    No chance.

    How many players can a testing server hold?
    I'll say they could in theory go to full capacity right away, but with the limited accesible regions, I say the limit will probably be 2000-3000

    Will there be queues?
    No doubt about it.


    The answer is probably >>> HERE <<<
  • VeeshanVeeshan Member, Alpha Two
    edited August 9
    Its relatively safe to assume there be 3 biomes, steven mention like 3 times biomes for A2 2 were consistant and the 3rd changed each time.

    Riverlands/dessert was always mention
    3rd one that changes has been badlands/jungle and tropics

    So i feel it safe to say we will get atleast 3 biomes and 2 of them are riverlands/dessert and third one could be any of the 3 if not more.
    Wouldnt surprise me if we get bottom half of the western continent so badlands, riverland, dessert and jundark i dont think we see tropic since it very islandy and were not getting boats start of A2 so i feel it might not make it till boats happen

    Edit: Optimisticly this is what im expecting at best, Also new dragon boss they mention might be in the volcano area potentially)
    2qj5zif8zq5i.png

    Not optimistic Riverlands/Dessert probaly minimum (Steven in fighter showcase said closer to alpha he let us know what Biomes (plural) will be in A2 so pretty garanteed atleast 2, he also mention assets for 7 are done (But content for 7 most likly not done of course)
  • wakkytabbakywakkytabbaky Member, Alpha Two
    i expect bugs and lots of bugs, if not i will be sorely disappointed
  • KingDDDKingDDD Member, Alpha Two
    edited August 9
    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?
    Persistent world with targeted tests for things like sieges.

    How many biomes present at launch?
    3. They've shown the desert, riverlands, and snowy mountains (unreal 5 annoucement). The original targeted landmass was 220km vs the alpha 1 being only 70km.

    Which biomes at launch?
    They've shown the desert, riverlands, and snowy mountains (unreal 5 annoucement) .

    How many / which races will be available at launch?
    All the ones shown, not all body types in.

    All Artesian classes available?
    Some bits for all of them with basic loops to see how people like them.

    World bosses?
    Already seen in a1, I'd expect 12 or so of these.

    Highest level node attainable at launch?
    4

    Will freehold exist at launch?
    Yes with a basic loop in place to test land acquisition

    How many players can a testing server hold?
    6k

    How many servers will be available at launch?
    20+

    Will there be queues?
    yes
  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    i expect bugs and lots of bugs, if not i will be sorely disappointed

    Yea, but what content will be available at the launch? Intrepid has shown us a lot of great looking in game systems. From all of the showcases they have shown us over the last 3 years, what content from those showcases do you think will make it to the launch of Alpha 2?

    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • AszkalonAszkalon Member, Alpha Two
    Liniker wrote: »
    I'll reply after the 16th

    Fair Point. 🫡
    a50whcz343yn.png
    ✓ Occasional Roleplayer
    ✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)
  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    Aszkalon wrote: »
    Liniker wrote: »
    I'll reply after the 16th

    Fair Point. 🫡

    I get what you are saying, but you are just dodging the question. How can you have 1.5k posts in under a year and not have an opinion on what you think will be included at the launch of Alpha 2??


    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • LinikerLiniker Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited August 10
    Toothpaste wrote: »

    How can you have an opinion on everything, but not this?

    Let’s see how close you are to what they actually announce! It’ll be fun!

    I've been wrong on every expectation I had when it comes to dates :D
    I'll give it a try


    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods? - starting in September as NDAed week long tests with A2 folks, and opening in October as a persistent alpha

    How many biomes present at launch? - 4

    Which biomes at launch? Riverlands, Desert, Badlands and Tropics

    How many / which races will be available at launch? - Kaelar, Vek, Renkai, Dunir, Empyrean, Pyrai

    All Artesian classes available? - Yes but limited in scope

    World bosses? - 3 or 4 bosses like Tumok, dragons, ancients, the scorpion

    Highest level node attainable at launch? - 3

    Will freehold exist at launch? - yes

    How many players can a testing server hold? - 2000

    How many servers will be available at launch? - less than 10

    Will there be queues? - yes, big ones
    img]
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  • darthadendarthaden Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods? Steven has already stated it will be persistent other than downtime for patches. I'd assume at times it'll be play the game normally and at times test specific things.

    How many biomes present at launch? However many they have ready and feel they need.

    Which biomes at launch? Which ever ones they have ready.

    How many / which races will be available at launch? As long as the Vek is ready I don't care :)

    All Artesian classes available? No, but they'll have the main gear ones at least functional

    World bosses? Yes a few but not all or polished, we've already seen some in livestreams

    Highest level node attainable at launch? probably city

    Will freehold exist at launch? Yes, they showed us working freeholds quite a long time ago

    How many players can a testing server hold? less than the 10k planned for launch since we won't get the full map. Once more of the map is ready and kinks get worked out the numbers will go up

    How many servers will be available at launch? Probably somewhere around 10

    Will there be queues? Day 1 yes, after the first week doubt it. Most of us will call out sick or take vacation day 1, by the end of the week everyone will be back to work and many will decide they don't want to test a broken game, they'll wait until they can play a more polished version.
  • darthadendarthaden Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    My real expectation is 500k players on the server. I left a comment on a YouTube video about how 10k players was the goal per server for launch but I was quickly corrected by someone who's only knowledge comes from watching big streams like Asmongold. There's only going to be 1 North American server and it's going to hold 500k plus players. How foolish of me to trust the guy who started the company that each server would hold 10k players at launch.
  • AiyaraAiyara Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Personally I don't really care about races, biomes, freeholds and servers. All I expect and want is a working combat system, working PvP, working state artisan ship so I can get to bug hunting and providing feedback on how each of the systems feel. The content part such as bigger maps different bosses etc.. is not what's most important at the start of A2 in my opinion.

    It is not a game launch, not even a beta, it is the first iteration of a consistent non NDA game state with barebone systems so that devs can verify if their assumptions about what they think players would find fun, is indeed so it's easy to change early if needed, and continue to flesh out systems.

    Once both players and devs are happy and satisfied about the core systems and basic gameplay loop, then they'd get to add content, more races, biomes etc..

    So even if there's just 1 race, 1 node type I would be satisfied as updates roll out
  • VeeshanVeeshan Member, Alpha Two
    KingDDD wrote: »

    How many biomes present at launch?
    3. They've shown the desert, riverlands, and snowy mountains (unreal 5 annoucement). The original targeted landmass was 220km vs the alpha 1 being only 70km.

    Which biomes at launch?
    They've shown the desert, riverlands, and snowy mountains (unreal 5 annoucement) .

    s

    Definitely wont see snowy mountain at start that will come i suspect when naval system comes seeing as there no reason to have a biome that on the other continent without the naval content to go along with the ocean.
  • AszkalonAszkalon Member, Alpha Two
    Toothpaste wrote: »
    I get what you are saying, but you are just dodging the question. How can you have 1.5k posts in under a year and not have an opinion on what you think will be included at the launch of Alpha 2??

    Welp. Thanks for keeping at it. I personally think/hope for the Start of Alpha Two - we get :

    - All Races to play. Maybe that or one or two will be hopefully added sometime later. In the monthly Presentations we kinda saw pretty much every single Race already, did we ? Last Presentation even had a Dunir Tank. Now we are only missing the Nikua, or ?


    - All different Node Types. Same as with all the Races - > if not at the Launch, then hopefully somewhat later.


    - A hopefully mostly or finished Artisan Craft ingame.


    - Maybe Freeholds already ? I am aware Nodes would need to be Stage Three at least to have some.


    - Shipyards/Dockyards ? Like You know - > a tiny Pretaste and Appetizer to look forward to the later added Naval Content ? ;)


    - " Coastal " Nodes ? Nodes which can be Port Cities ? :sunglasses:


    - Parts of the Underground Realm of Verra. :sunglasses:
    a50whcz343yn.png
    ✓ Occasional Roleplayer
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  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    darthaden wrote: »
    My real expectation is 500k players on the server. I left a comment on a YouTube video about how 10k players was the goal per server for launch but I was quickly corrected by someone who's only knowledge comes from watching big streams like Asmongold. There's only going to be 1 North American server and it's going to hold 500k plus players. How foolish of me to trust the guy who started the company that each server would hold 10k players at launch.

    ok we all know that this is not true and not going to happen. These people are just misinformed.
    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • MichaelMichael Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Persistent testing period will be nice. But I hope there are defined periods where they have the player base focusing on specific things.
  • TryolTryol Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited August 11
    My guesses:

    Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?
    Persistent.
    (Although I wish it wasn't because it seems like an unnecessary resource sink from Intrepid's side.)

    How many / which biomes present at launch?
    3 - Riverlands, Sandsquall Desert and one of Tropics/Badlands/Jundark, with the other 2 probably coming shortly after launch. (Q1-Q2 2025).

    How many / which races will be available at launch?
    6 - Vek, Ren'Kai, Dünir, Py'rai, Empyrean, Kaelar

    All Artisan classes available?
    Yes, some in a more basic form than others.

    World bosses?
    Pass, no idea about this, between 2 and 20, lol.

    Highest level node attainable at launch?
    4 - Although Steven said stage 5 will be available less than a year ago, but I think that's too good to be true.

    Will freehold exist at launch?
    Yes.

    How many players can a testing server hold?
    Concurrently? ~3k.

    How many servers will be available at launch?
    ~20

    Will there be queues?
    Yes, queues are necessary to mitigate the amount of server merges needed later.
    Not having them would be a huge issue.
    I hope queue numbers will be displayed BEFORE trying to join a realm, that way you can pick a realm based on how many are in queue.
  • KingDDDKingDDD Member, Alpha Two
    Veeshan wrote: »
    KingDDD wrote: »

    How many biomes present at launch?
    3. They've shown the desert, riverlands, and snowy mountains (unreal 5 annoucement). The original targeted landmass was 220km vs the alpha 1 being only 70km.

    Which biomes at launch?
    They've shown the desert, riverlands, and snowy mountains (unreal 5 annoucement) .

    s

    Definitely wont see snowy mountain at start that will come i suspect when naval system comes seeing as there no reason to have a biome that on the other continent without the naval content to go along with the ocean.

    That's funny because snowy mountains were shown 2+ years ago.
  • SrixunSrixun Member, Alpha Two
    First couple of weeks, some up and down time. maybe a couple days at a time while they balance and build.

    Then strict testing parameters, as in "This is whats currently in A2, go test!" and we leave our feedback, etc. and then it expands as we go.
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I have Alpha tested before. My worry is the masses will not understand what A2 means on a studio making their first game.

    Myself I hope to test the Bard on every level. Help find where skills work and don't. Help find feedback to get the Bard to synergize with the other classes. I hope to find at least one exploit :)

    PvPing will be my reward for filling out bug reports :) That's just fun.
  • ToothpasteToothpaste Member, Alpha Two
    Srixun wrote: »
    First couple of weeks, some up and down time. maybe a couple days at a time while they balance and build.

    Then strict testing parameters, as in "This is whats currently in A2, go test!" and we leave our feedback, etc. and then it expands as we go.

    Yes, I definitely agree that there will be some uptime and some downtime in the first couple of weeks.

    But I’m talking content wise. From everything that Intrepid has been showing us for the past 3 years, what content do you expect to be at the launch of Alpha 2?
    The Steven giveth and the Steven taketh away
  • DygzDygz Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Toothpaste wrote: »
    I get what you are saying, but you are just dodging the question. How can you have 1.5k posts in under a year and not have an opinion on what you think will be included at the launch of Alpha 2??
    Because there's no way for us to guess what the minimum parameters for starting A2 are.
    Could be that hitting close to Q3 is more important than the criteria he set down internally in Jan 2024.
    So... he's just gonna go with all the stuff we've already seen in the Livestreams.
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