What are your Alpha 2 launch expectations?

Srixun

Toothpaste wrote: »

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?

Oh oh! copy, my mistake.

I suspect freeholds will be in a few months, maybe a year.

Much of it will be just players and some questing, crafting, navigation, cities nav and usage (no metros or player possession yet) some minor PVP potentially. not a ton up front. mostly just a very silo'd push to make sure they get as much feedback as possible on select things.

I dont see any Naval coming in for awhile. Could be wrong though.

Caravans could be in the game, maybe even setup as NPC caravans so we can see the dynamic of it and how itll work.

Veeshan

KingDDD wrote: »

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.

I know but there no logical reason for it to exist at start of alpha, they said there no boats at start of A2 so unless ur swimming (assuming u can swim threw the ocean (which they also have to have finished then too)) there no way to even get there Snow will come when naval starts to gets added to the game.
It was also shown off as the engine swap videon not a biome showcase which might be they chose that to be the best biome to show off unreal 5 and then did minimal work on it for the video then swapped to another biome. Also having a biome is completely different than having a completed biome. Terrain work gets finished alot faster than adding content to the biomes so i wouldnt be surprised if 90% of the entire map is done terrain wise however only 20% of the game has content in atm

Toothpaste

Dygz wrote: »

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.

Sorry, just confused on the last sentence. If you are saying he is just going to go with the stuff we have seen on the livestreams then I agree with you.

willsummon

I plan to take a "take it as it comes approach". Whatever is presented I will do my best to find and report bugs, while offering suggestions on balancing of what is presented.

Toothpaste

willsummon wrote: »

I plan to take a "take it as it comes approach". Whatever is presented I will do my best to find and report bugs, while offering suggestions on balancing of what is presented.

For sure, agreed, we should all agree to test whatever is presented to us. But from everything Intrepid has shown us from the past 3 years worth of livestreams, what do you think will be presented to us to test at the launch of Alpha 2?

arkileo

Persistent Alpha or defined testing periods?
Well it has been advertised as a persistent alpha, but some comments about talking about uptime last stream has me wondering. It seems possible that at A2 launch, it will not be up 100% of the time and be more focused until some later time when it becomes really persistent.

Which biomes at launch?
3-4 - Riverlands, Desert, Tropics, maybe Badlands.

Some people are mentioning the "snowy mountains" as another biome because we've seen them, but I'm not convinced that that was where some people seem to think it was. There are plenty of mountains around the Riverlands, and sometimes it is winter.

How many / which races will be available at launch?
Everything but Tulnar

All Artesian classes available?
Not sure about Animal Husbandry, Arcane Engineering, and Scribing, but everything else seems likely.

World bosses?
Certainly

Highest level node attainable at launch?
Level 5, but with level 4 assets

Will freehold exist at launch?
For sure, it was ages ago that they were focusing on them.

How many players can a testing server hold?
10k with 2k concurrent

How many servers will be available at launch?
~8-10

Will there be queues?
For sure, and they'll be bad. Queues are a necessary thing, unfortunately, but they should drop off within a day or two.

patrick68794

Tryol wrote: »

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.

I don't think it's really a waste of resources, this is supposed to be a very long term test and they'll be gathering data on long term progression of both the world and players. That really can't be done without long term persistence and there will be a lot of balancing that needs to happen to that as they add new mechanics, content, and features.

One of the big things here is the open development and reliance on player feedback. They need that over a longer term to be able to strike a balance that the players are okay with before full release. They also will need to gather a lot of data on the different ways that the world can progress and change over time, which isn't something other MMOs really need to do.

willsummon

Toothpaste wrote: »

willsummon wrote: »

I plan to take a "take it as it comes approach". Whatever is presented I will do my best to find and report bugs, while offering suggestions on balancing of what is presented.

For sure, agreed, we should all agree to test whatever is presented to us. But from everything Intrepid has shown us from the past 3 years worth of livestreams, what do you think will be presented to us to test at the launch of Alpha 2?

Finding bugs in the node system will likely be the most important part because as the node changes the game board (as it were) changes with it.

While archetype bugs will only effect the specific player experiencing the bug, and caravans are group effected, a bug in the node can effect the game play as a whole.

Caeryl

Semi-persistent. I think it’ll be a continuous experience (so no wiping for a good long while), but no consistent. Maybe 75% uptime generally.


Riverland for sure, Desert and Tropics, optimistically a few more added not too long after the preliminary launch.


All but Tulnar.


Proooobably not all artisan classes, and not particularly in-depth systems. I’m expecting the framework for crafting systems and that’s about it.


World bosses yes. That’s one of the core features they'll have to make sure works.


At least tier 4, maybe 5 node progress.


I wouldn’t be surprised to see the freehold system since they’re part of sieging and its consequences. So, selecting the freehold area, movement of buildings, storage and destruction/looting of it.

Not a clue on servers or player count. It depends what aspect Intrepid wants to test, but I’ll echo want people have said already, about 3k - 4k concurrent players, but 10 servers max. More doesn’t seem good for testing purposes, better info is gained from more people playing together than less.

Queues on queues on queues. That’s just how it is. Put a movie on in the background lol

Toothpaste

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.

Ok that’s interesting, what do you think will be the first things that they let us test? And how many servers will there be for 100k testers to test?

nanfoodle

I don't know a MMO that's launched many servers that will host 10k + populations on each server. Also at the same time using new server tech never used live on a large population. My guess it may be very messy for months. I plan to play allot but expect to get to very little at the start.

PenguinPaladin

Im here for liniker's reply

Khronus

I expect absolutely nothing always. Anything that we see will be what they want us to work with. The more work we put in, the faster the game comes out. The more real effort the testers put in, the more likely the game will shift (ever so slightly) in a way that favors what they are looking for.

Toothpaste

Well that was a doozy. Im in the process of tallying up the results. Will have them out later today. But, I dont think a lot of people were expecting what was announced. Overall, IMO, I think the Roadmap telling us what will be in each Phase was pretty hype.

Liniker

PenguinPaladin wrote: »

Im here for liniker's reply

wasnt too far from what I was expecting tbh

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 (got this wrong lol)

How many biomes present at launch? - 4 (its actually 3)

Which biomes at launch? Riverlands, Desert, Badlands and Tropics (no badlands)

How many / which races will be available at launch? - Kaelar, Vek, Renkai, Dunir, Empyrean, Pyrai (this one was the biggest mistakes, but I honestly don't care I think races are just "skins" until we have racial augments, so having 1 or 9 races doesn't change much)

All Artesian classes available? - Yes but limited in scope (I got this right)

World bosses? - 3 or 4 bosses like Tumok, dragons, ancients, the scorpion (I got this right)

Highest level node attainable at launch? - 3 (I got this right)

Will freehold exist at launch? - yes (only by phase 2)

How many players can a testing server hold? - 2000 (its 3000, even better)

How many servers will be available at launch? - less than 10 (I got this right)

Will there be queues? - yes, big ones (100% got this right lol)