Greetings, glorious testers!
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Alpha 2 Announcement Thoughts
GamerLyfe
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
As someone who bought in way back for Alpha 1, the recent announcement and explanations seem on par with Intrepid to date and honestly, IMO, they remain true to who they are more often than not.
- Phase Rollout and Access: While this is definitely not what was promised on numerous occasions previously, the end goal for Alpha2 is to reach persistent operations. Intrepid may not have been able to predict every single scenario they have come across and there may have been things out of their control that forced them to realistically adjust their goals but are still working toward delivering to us what they originally promised. The game is still in development and the fact that we are even given an opportunity to partake in an 'early access' campaign essentially is a choice on our end. Those of us who paid into the game early on are the people that probably had more understanding of the type of commitment we were making when purchasing those packs for a game that doesn't exist yet but on the promise that one day it will. While a lot of ppl are frustrated regarding the 'last minute Alpha2 pack purchases' that was marketed to find out that it wasn't actually true, your feelings around being 'misled' or upset because you purchased cosmetic items that you do not care for are valid. Hopefully, Intrepid takes that feedback and works to address this concern, but I believe there was communication shared around when they discussed opening up access to Alpha2 for more testers because the work that they had done around their server meshing and thought they can probably accommodate more stress on the servers that can provide more accurate reporting for them. This is 100% a good thing to be able to do on the operations side of things, but obviously not so good look on the user side. I do not think this was an intentional slight by Intrepid as a cash grab scheme since they were transparent about the changes that were being made on access and why it was happening and were very thorough (as much as they could) during the technical segment when talking about server meshing tech and Intrepid approach to making the game feel seamless and immersion doesn't get broken. Intrepid is ran really well with focus on player feedback that actually gets heard, which is already a huge positive when a lot of game studios nowadays take in feedback but rarely will act on it (ex./ Intrepid redefining Alpha 2 packs due to feedback received from the community and how vague the descriptions are). I would give them some time to field the feedback and to address the feedback. They made the announcement less than 7 days ago, so they are probably flooded with feedback from multiple sources (discord, forums, reddit, social media, etc.).
- Delay in Goals: They promised Alpha2 in Q3 of 2024, they promised Alpha2 would be persistent until release. Obviously neither of these are true 100% (Alpha 2 announced officially for 10/25/2024, with persistent phase beginning May 26, 2024). I am choosing to believe that Intrepid has done everything they can to deliver on their promises, but things happen. We all are human, and life is not always smooth sailing, despite our best efforts. Intrepid as a whole has done a great job thus far keeping us informed of their progress, they do their best to show us actual results of their progress with their dev streams and office hours. For me, this game has come A LONG way since I tested during Alpha 1, and the progress has been for the better 100%. Disappointment is a natural feeling when expectations are not met and it sucks for sure, but I give Intrepid grace for having to change their timelines, because the game is still in development and that means that promises are subject to the unknown and have to be adaptable. When they made promises in the past, I believe that at that time they believed what they were promising was possible until they reached a point that it wasn't possible. They also faced some unexpected real-world obstacles (pandemic, recession, inflation, volatile industry) that some studios have not had to face during development. There are more outside factors that Intrepid has had to face during the development than some studios have had to face their entire existence. I think it holds value that they are still working toward the promise they made about a persistent Alpha 2, but they had to be realistic the closer delivering on that promise got closer.
- Price Point: This is not a finished product or even close to being released. The money spent on access to the early stages is to compensate Intrepid push to get us content to sink our teeth in until the game is ready for the world. I personally have invested well over $750 thus far into Ashes and know that there is risk I never see a finished product. That money I have written off. But its money I can afford to write off. If people have been spending money on a game that is not released yet or close to release but are upset that they spent that money that could have been used elsewhere, I think you need to reflect on where you have priorities placed. No one is being forced to pay for early access or to be a part of those testing and providing feedback. If the cost for early access was that of what it would cost to play the game as if it was polished and complete, that would be dishonest on Intrepid side and naïve on the side of the user. Pricing is to help deter those who do not view early access to mean a finished product. This would create unreliable feedback because the user sharing the feedback using the perception that this should be a finished game vs. the actual state of the game that Intrepid wants feedback on.
At the end of the day, Ashes is managed and being developed by human beings. We only have so much we can plan, develop, and execute to the best of our abilities despite how much we try to exceed those limitations. Disappointment is a valid feeling to experience but don't let it cloud your critical thinking and reasoning. I look forward to Alpha 2 and seeing the progress toward official release.
- Phase Rollout and Access: While this is definitely not what was promised on numerous occasions previously, the end goal for Alpha2 is to reach persistent operations. Intrepid may not have been able to predict every single scenario they have come across and there may have been things out of their control that forced them to realistically adjust their goals but are still working toward delivering to us what they originally promised. The game is still in development and the fact that we are even given an opportunity to partake in an 'early access' campaign essentially is a choice on our end. Those of us who paid into the game early on are the people that probably had more understanding of the type of commitment we were making when purchasing those packs for a game that doesn't exist yet but on the promise that one day it will. While a lot of ppl are frustrated regarding the 'last minute Alpha2 pack purchases' that was marketed to find out that it wasn't actually true, your feelings around being 'misled' or upset because you purchased cosmetic items that you do not care for are valid. Hopefully, Intrepid takes that feedback and works to address this concern, but I believe there was communication shared around when they discussed opening up access to Alpha2 for more testers because the work that they had done around their server meshing and thought they can probably accommodate more stress on the servers that can provide more accurate reporting for them. This is 100% a good thing to be able to do on the operations side of things, but obviously not so good look on the user side. I do not think this was an intentional slight by Intrepid as a cash grab scheme since they were transparent about the changes that were being made on access and why it was happening and were very thorough (as much as they could) during the technical segment when talking about server meshing tech and Intrepid approach to making the game feel seamless and immersion doesn't get broken. Intrepid is ran really well with focus on player feedback that actually gets heard, which is already a huge positive when a lot of game studios nowadays take in feedback but rarely will act on it (ex./ Intrepid redefining Alpha 2 packs due to feedback received from the community and how vague the descriptions are). I would give them some time to field the feedback and to address the feedback. They made the announcement less than 7 days ago, so they are probably flooded with feedback from multiple sources (discord, forums, reddit, social media, etc.).
- Delay in Goals: They promised Alpha2 in Q3 of 2024, they promised Alpha2 would be persistent until release. Obviously neither of these are true 100% (Alpha 2 announced officially for 10/25/2024, with persistent phase beginning May 26, 2024). I am choosing to believe that Intrepid has done everything they can to deliver on their promises, but things happen. We all are human, and life is not always smooth sailing, despite our best efforts. Intrepid as a whole has done a great job thus far keeping us informed of their progress, they do their best to show us actual results of their progress with their dev streams and office hours. For me, this game has come A LONG way since I tested during Alpha 1, and the progress has been for the better 100%. Disappointment is a natural feeling when expectations are not met and it sucks for sure, but I give Intrepid grace for having to change their timelines, because the game is still in development and that means that promises are subject to the unknown and have to be adaptable. When they made promises in the past, I believe that at that time they believed what they were promising was possible until they reached a point that it wasn't possible. They also faced some unexpected real-world obstacles (pandemic, recession, inflation, volatile industry) that some studios have not had to face during development. There are more outside factors that Intrepid has had to face during the development than some studios have had to face their entire existence. I think it holds value that they are still working toward the promise they made about a persistent Alpha 2, but they had to be realistic the closer delivering on that promise got closer.
- Price Point: This is not a finished product or even close to being released. The money spent on access to the early stages is to compensate Intrepid push to get us content to sink our teeth in until the game is ready for the world. I personally have invested well over $750 thus far into Ashes and know that there is risk I never see a finished product. That money I have written off. But its money I can afford to write off. If people have been spending money on a game that is not released yet or close to release but are upset that they spent that money that could have been used elsewhere, I think you need to reflect on where you have priorities placed. No one is being forced to pay for early access or to be a part of those testing and providing feedback. If the cost for early access was that of what it would cost to play the game as if it was polished and complete, that would be dishonest on Intrepid side and naïve on the side of the user. Pricing is to help deter those who do not view early access to mean a finished product. This would create unreliable feedback because the user sharing the feedback using the perception that this should be a finished game vs. the actual state of the game that Intrepid wants feedback on.
At the end of the day, Ashes is managed and being developed by human beings. We only have so much we can plan, develop, and execute to the best of our abilities despite how much we try to exceed those limitations. Disappointment is a valid feeling to experience but don't let it cloud your critical thinking and reasoning. I look forward to Alpha 2 and seeing the progress toward official release.
0
Comments
A2 a bug part is learning what they have designed that's fun and needed more add to the game and what the community does not like, so needs to be changed or removed.
So if IS has guessed right at everything, smooth sailing. That is never the case. Looking at what they want to implement in 7ish months. Is no small undertaking. Im interested is seeing how they pull this off. My guess is allot more staff needs to be hired. With all the lay offs, that should not be difficult.
I can't wait to test this stuff.
October 25th for existing alpha 2 access owners. The new "Alpha 2 Phase 1" keys will have access starting November 8th
Thats just their plans for the first few months of phase 3, they will update their roadmap again later. Beta is for testing feature complete game.