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
My two cents is that having all of that specific information is just not very useful ... right now.
Unless those stats and systems are specifically what is being tested, there is no need to make it fully transparent. The numbers and relationships between those numbers are not just something that could change; they are something that will change. Even if there ends up being any form of transparency, I'd much rather have it in Beta.
Take it from me - min/maxers are not using that information without checking it.
I've yet to see a single game where the provided information on how stats and such work is 100% accurate. What min/maxers do is check that what they are saying is what is actually happening.
Also, they only way there won't be a meta supplied by min/maxers is if all builds are basically equally viable.
It's also because the devs themselves don't arrive at the expected results.
So leaving a margin of opacity gives devs the means to correct inconsistencies and bugs before players discover the problems and exploit them.
Devs should also be allowed to make unofficial updates and do their job as devs. Anyone who wants to know the game's code should join Intrepid.
If i need all that info to beat raids its no longer a game, its a math problem.
So when a balance pass gets released the sweaty guys test everything. Then they find out that ability X that was supposed to get a 5% damage increase got a 50% damage increase because someone messed up, and the playtesters missed it. Sweaty test guys now have an advantage until others catch on. Then game balance is screwed until game devs catch on and issue a hotfix or patch.
Stats are also nice for theorycrafting a build. If you don't actually know your crit chance % or how high your crit chance can get, it's really hard to make a build that relies on specific proc-on-crit effects. This means you also need to know if softcaps are a thing for crit chance, where they start, and how much the softcap takes away.
Alpha 2 isn’t going to be the testing phase where there’s a high focus on polish by the Intrepid Combat Team.
It’s more about functionality of the primary archetypes. Indeed, a couple of the primary archetypes aren’t even ready to showcase yet.
Bottom line: Those forum-goers who are eagerly posting in this thread (about getting their hands on precise stat calculations) … should be prepared to be disappointed in Alpha 2 and should be looking forward to Beta.
Still excited.
Clearly the final balance changes wont happen until the polish starts to go on at the end of the alpha phase or into the beta.
But the functional form of equations are not likely to change, just coefficients.
As well as what stats interact with what other stats.
We can still get all the testing framework in place for the future by figuring out the interactions, and later on during beta, and all future balance updates figuring the coefficient changes will then be a very quick thing to do.
TLDR, its still fun, not sure why you think we would get disappointed
And if there is one thing i have discovered, it is that choosing to be blind sometimes makes things more entertaining. One real life example is alcohol, you sure can't see the world as it is under the influence or perform as well. But it sure is hella fun (done right, dont drink kids)
wood alcohol
i see what you did there lol