Where is the progress

Mag7spy

Chicago wrote: »

Mag7spy wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Mag7spy wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Dygz wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Would be nice if us simple foak with the real questions could be invited to an AMA lol

List 3 questions you would ask Steven....

Hmm I would most likely ask something along the lines of

Why is fomo being pushed so hard as a marketing technique and is the game still funded to completion given that we most likely won't even get a launch till 2030+

It's been stated that devs are working on systems simultaneously of each other, with now over 200 experienced devs, why are we not seeing any real progress?

Why do the visuals of the game vary so much from live stream to Livestream and were the showcases like weathering systems even real

As stated earlier I have no issue with the company or Steven, the issue I have is transparency, I would rather see one Livestream per quarter with real improvements than once a month that's usually delayed and shows next to nothing that we have not already seen every single month prior.

8 years into development I don't see the innovation, the gathering system is a copy and paste from new world, the commission's system is a copy and paste from new world, whilst I understand these systems are great and don't need much work changing as new world did them right, at least add some sort of uniqueness not just copy and paste

the combat is improving I'll give credit where credit is due, but is extremely sub par for a game that will release in 2030, we had the exact same combat in 2005. Where I fully understand this game is not for everyone it feels like the decisions made are pushing the game in the direction of the niche before it even launches. What happened to action combat?

Anyway these are just my opinions, I'm not trying to hate on anyone

1. Fomo has nothing to do with the progress of the game this is a separate topic

2. 200 people doesn't mean 200 also includes people that are not building art related things. having around 200 is a recent thing in the last year. As you are not clarifying you could be stretching or doing misinformation if you re trying to suggest the have had 200 people for a certain amount of years or at the start of the project.

3. This has been explained to you in this thread, and in other threads but you continue to ignore people. I've even went as far as explain the details on why the looks of things can be different on a technical level. ( @Apok (this is why i said its a waste before as its been explained I've had to repeat this in multiple threads and he still uses the same point)

For the 4th time if they are changing lighting DO to PBR which gets its information from lighting it greatly effects all things in the scene so that is one of the things where you will see different quality. It is not limited to that, you are seeing a actual alpha in development they are also trying to polish.

This is akin to asking why a construction site looks messing as people are int he middle of building the house... I don't know how you are bringing this kind of point up again and again. This is a alpha not early access.

4. 8 years in development doesn't mean full production development, you are also talking about the preproduction, and the time they were not in full production on creating the game and content. You can look at other games that do preproduction ahead of time and most likely won't include the time that goes into that. On top of that this is a indie studio its going to be slower for them before it gets into full production as this is an expensive genre to make.

5. I don't really care about this combat aspect.


These are not strong points....I'm sure there are much better ones that make sense. This is more like you complaining a alpha is in development and isn't a full game yet.

There is not much point having this conversation with you mate, no hard feelings but the questions I would like answered from intrepid. I understand they have not had 200 devs for the entirety of the project but the reason I made this post essentially is the dragon showcase, if you believe that 3 years of progress have been added to that encounter I have nothing to say to you

Furthermore I agree progress has been made with lighting etc, the graphics are not my issue, my issue is that apart from the tiny points of interest setup souly for the live streams, the rest of the map from what I have seen just looks bland, UE5 can make the visuals of the world looks amazing but the world it's self to engage people needs a real artist and I feel like this is what the game is lacking ( the question of why the game looks so different and varies so much in live streams ). And yes I understand it's an alpha but we should be seeing elements of completeness in the world by now even if unpolished

The question about the fomo, it is another topic but this is also my post and the topic was raised so I think it's reasonable to ask.

To conclude I think it's great you disagree with me, even encourage it, but to me personally the answers you give about these questions are not good enough, I think most people don't understand how negatively these issues can effect the finished product. Say for example we have 6 years left minimum, it feels like ( I could be wrong ) intrepid are running out of money with all the fomo marketing, if intrepid need to get a sponsor or partnership because of the long release schedule this is how p2w aspects come in and everything we don't want

This idea that you don't see 3 years of progress on a random level 25 raid boss does not make sense. You are trying to make a blanket statement when there is no reason for 3 years of progress to be seen on a single boss. Point of that was another open world boss people will be fighting that has some unique mechanics, the same how all open world bosses will end up being.


The map is massive not every single spot is going to be looking like a image to have a screenshot of. Your expectations are really out of the mark, not to mention the game is in development. You trying to make a argument areas don't look as good as you want to is more a question for after alpha or the end of alpha not during....

This doesn't make sense you are talking about seeing world completeness in a alpha state. Why on early are you going to see a complete state before we see all the biomes that are needed int he game. Again this is what happens (and you have admitted) to not understanding development. They aren't going to be finishing one biome but working on all them so they can test content in the areas and get them tested. There is no reason to see something in completeness right now...

You can ask whatever you want it has nothing to do with "Where is the progress" It is makes the thread more toxic as you have admitted to ranting. Which the point of that ends up just leading to get a bunch of people to jump on some hate train, which is very not productive in any kind of element of feedback. Trying to say where is the progress but then trying to throw any kind of negative feedback not to even do with the thread is a clear sign of that.

If you are worried about he game running out of funding make a thread for that and say IS is running out of money and they need to change what they are doing with your speculation, don't throw it into this thread.

i not once asked for 3 years of progress on a world boss, but the reality is there is not 3 months of progress added onto this world boss, it is the exact same, down to the last bad animation, its also not a random level 25 mob its one of the first encounters to a world boss in the game, also why is it unrealistic to expect progress on this after such a time period? i will remind you, this exact world boss has ALREADY been previewed 3 years prior, its ALREADY had the exact same forum post made asking for feedback and suggestions, and now we are 3 years on, asking for the exact same feedback that was not taken into account the first time around? what are we doing...

secondly i understand the map is massive and not every single spot will not look like a screen shot, but the point is, 3 years ago, the livestreams looked like the world had a soul, in todays livestreams it looks like whoever is working on the world, is spending a few weeks developing tiny portions to make the next livestream look good, and the rest of the world looks more bland than white rice, its just the same mountain, the same rock and the same tree copy and pasted into infinity to add the illusion that the world has anything more than 300 kms of nothing, YES you are right its an alpha, but after 8 years, there should be small area's of the world that dont need an entire re work, how many people noticed the high density fog and sunlight in the last livestream? i can guarantee thats just to hide the fact that there is nothing else outside of the crappy area for a boss fight

if you think my criticism is bad and toxic, you will have quite a shock when the NDA of A2 is released if it drops in this state, everything im saying, may sound toxic but one of the smartest things intrepid could do is take in on board, 200 of the best devs on the planet, we are at the point where they should be the ones making the calls and just focusing on designing the game instead of trying to get feedback on every single system that they show and just develop, at this point during the livestreams, they don't even sound like they want to be there anymore there is no excitement in their voice its hard to watch.

its quite obvious that the other two biomes added for the launch of A2 have been converted into '' lawless '' area's to hide the fact their not even remotely close to being done, and the fact that the entire A1 map was scrapped just for it to look worse 3 years on is a serious issue

Again this is not early access yuo are trying to be picky on the dragon mob with its animations in a alpha actually makes 0 sense. Functionality is the most important part not doing polish on animations so they are perfect, when they have a ton of other content they need to be adding animations for functionality. This idea you have that because they had a dragon before every element of it needs to be polished and finished is a terrible take. What is more important is all the other npcs / classes they need to be adding animation to so it can be in the game. You should feel lucky you don't see more T-poses if anything...


Stops saying 8 years you are trying to rage bait, they have not been in full production for 8 years. You are trying to make it seem like they have been going full force for a long period of time when they clearly have not. Being a indie studio it takes them longer than a triple A studio to get their talent and work force going. On top of any growing issues they have being a new studio.

The fact you are so focused on art looking done is entirely why i said most people can't handle alpha development. Art doesn't need to look finished, let alone have polished. What is important is getting as much functionality over as large of the game as possible. Not making sure certain areas are finished / polished to your own bias expectation.

Alpha 1 was a alpha testing area, why are you talking about something be scrapped that is meant solely for testing. You are simply just rage baiting at this point and bringing up the devs aren't happy to be there lmao.

Your criticisms about he studio having 200 people, complaining about art, time for the game to be made, fomo (this has already been talked about in the past and won't have a relation to the alpha 2) are not going to be complained about lmao. When i play deadlock and that game (though most likely further alone) art wise is lacking in some elements but people focus on the gameplay more than anything not complaining about the art.

People will play the alpha and complain about somethings for sure as most people can't handle an actual alpha. They think they can but in reality their expectations are akin to early access do to their own bias.

Your points are just weak and you are trying to focus on the worse aspect possible, idk why you are choosing art in an alpha to focus on over more design elements. Even more so when you are talking about art in one of the most massive worlds a mmorpg is trying to make.

I feel you are really trying to be over critical on this game as well as you try to reference unfinished areas as a reason why it looks bad, yet you are fine with some areas they also show off (that have more polish in them). Overall things look fine and its much easier to add more detail to areas when you have your base done, and they have many areas that need to be built. There is no reason for them to be finishing (polishing) area right now until people can walk over the entire map. This kind of contradicts your own post to be honest as you would see less progress if they were polishing everything more than they already have been as there would be less progress....

Chicago

Mag7spy wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Mag7spy wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Mag7spy wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Dygz wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

Would be nice if us simple foak with the real questions could be invited to an AMA lol

List 3 questions you would ask Steven....

Hmm I would most likely ask something along the lines of

Why is fomo being pushed so hard as a marketing technique and is the game still funded to completion given that we most likely won't even get a launch till 2030+

It's been stated that devs are working on systems simultaneously of each other, with now over 200 experienced devs, why are we not seeing any real progress?

Why do the visuals of the game vary so much from live stream to Livestream and were the showcases like weathering systems even real

As stated earlier I have no issue with the company or Steven, the issue I have is transparency, I would rather see one Livestream per quarter with real improvements than once a month that's usually delayed and shows next to nothing that we have not already seen every single month prior.

8 years into development I don't see the innovation, the gathering system is a copy and paste from new world, the commission's system is a copy and paste from new world, whilst I understand these systems are great and don't need much work changing as new world did them right, at least add some sort of uniqueness not just copy and paste

the combat is improving I'll give credit where credit is due, but is extremely sub par for a game that will release in 2030, we had the exact same combat in 2005. Where I fully understand this game is not for everyone it feels like the decisions made are pushing the game in the direction of the niche before it even launches. What happened to action combat?

Anyway these are just my opinions, I'm not trying to hate on anyone

1. Fomo has nothing to do with the progress of the game this is a separate topic

2. 200 people doesn't mean 200 also includes people that are not building art related things. having around 200 is a recent thing in the last year. As you are not clarifying you could be stretching or doing misinformation if you re trying to suggest the have had 200 people for a certain amount of years or at the start of the project.

3. This has been explained to you in this thread, and in other threads but you continue to ignore people. I've even went as far as explain the details on why the looks of things can be different on a technical level. ( @Apok (this is why i said its a waste before as its been explained I've had to repeat this in multiple threads and he still uses the same point)

For the 4th time if they are changing lighting DO to PBR which gets its information from lighting it greatly effects all things in the scene so that is one of the things where you will see different quality. It is not limited to that, you are seeing a actual alpha in development they are also trying to polish.

This is akin to asking why a construction site looks messing as people are int he middle of building the house... I don't know how you are bringing this kind of point up again and again. This is a alpha not early access.

4. 8 years in development doesn't mean full production development, you are also talking about the preproduction, and the time they were not in full production on creating the game and content. You can look at other games that do preproduction ahead of time and most likely won't include the time that goes into that. On top of that this is a indie studio its going to be slower for them before it gets into full production as this is an expensive genre to make.

5. I don't really care about this combat aspect.


These are not strong points....I'm sure there are much better ones that make sense. This is more like you complaining a alpha is in development and isn't a full game yet.

There is not much point having this conversation with you mate, no hard feelings but the questions I would like answered from intrepid. I understand they have not had 200 devs for the entirety of the project but the reason I made this post essentially is the dragon showcase, if you believe that 3 years of progress have been added to that encounter I have nothing to say to you

Furthermore I agree progress has been made with lighting etc, the graphics are not my issue, my issue is that apart from the tiny points of interest setup souly for the live streams, the rest of the map from what I have seen just looks bland, UE5 can make the visuals of the world looks amazing but the world it's self to engage people needs a real artist and I feel like this is what the game is lacking ( the question of why the game looks so different and varies so much in live streams ). And yes I understand it's an alpha but we should be seeing elements of completeness in the world by now even if unpolished

The question about the fomo, it is another topic but this is also my post and the topic was raised so I think it's reasonable to ask.

To conclude I think it's great you disagree with me, even encourage it, but to me personally the answers you give about these questions are not good enough, I think most people don't understand how negatively these issues can effect the finished product. Say for example we have 6 years left minimum, it feels like ( I could be wrong ) intrepid are running out of money with all the fomo marketing, if intrepid need to get a sponsor or partnership because of the long release schedule this is how p2w aspects come in and everything we don't want

This idea that you don't see 3 years of progress on a random level 25 raid boss does not make sense. You are trying to make a blanket statement when there is no reason for 3 years of progress to be seen on a single boss. Point of that was another open world boss people will be fighting that has some unique mechanics, the same how all open world bosses will end up being.


The map is massive not every single spot is going to be looking like a image to have a screenshot of. Your expectations are really out of the mark, not to mention the game is in development. You trying to make a argument areas don't look as good as you want to is more a question for after alpha or the end of alpha not during....

This doesn't make sense you are talking about seeing world completeness in a alpha state. Why on early are you going to see a complete state before we see all the biomes that are needed int he game. Again this is what happens (and you have admitted) to not understanding development. They aren't going to be finishing one biome but working on all them so they can test content in the areas and get them tested. There is no reason to see something in completeness right now...

You can ask whatever you want it has nothing to do with "Where is the progress" It is makes the thread more toxic as you have admitted to ranting. Which the point of that ends up just leading to get a bunch of people to jump on some hate train, which is very not productive in any kind of element of feedback. Trying to say where is the progress but then trying to throw any kind of negative feedback not to even do with the thread is a clear sign of that.

If you are worried about he game running out of funding make a thread for that and say IS is running out of money and they need to change what they are doing with your speculation, don't throw it into this thread.

i not once asked for 3 years of progress on a world boss, but the reality is there is not 3 months of progress added onto this world boss, it is the exact same, down to the last bad animation, its also not a random level 25 mob its one of the first encounters to a world boss in the game, also why is it unrealistic to expect progress on this after such a time period? i will remind you, this exact world boss has ALREADY been previewed 3 years prior, its ALREADY had the exact same forum post made asking for feedback and suggestions, and now we are 3 years on, asking for the exact same feedback that was not taken into account the first time around? what are we doing...

secondly i understand the map is massive and not every single spot will not look like a screen shot, but the point is, 3 years ago, the livestreams looked like the world had a soul, in todays livestreams it looks like whoever is working on the world, is spending a few weeks developing tiny portions to make the next livestream look good, and the rest of the world looks more bland than white rice, its just the same mountain, the same rock and the same tree copy and pasted into infinity to add the illusion that the world has anything more than 300 kms of nothing, YES you are right its an alpha, but after 8 years, there should be small area's of the world that dont need an entire re work, how many people noticed the high density fog and sunlight in the last livestream? i can guarantee thats just to hide the fact that there is nothing else outside of the crappy area for a boss fight

if you think my criticism is bad and toxic, you will have quite a shock when the NDA of A2 is released if it drops in this state, everything im saying, may sound toxic but one of the smartest things intrepid could do is take in on board, 200 of the best devs on the planet, we are at the point where they should be the ones making the calls and just focusing on designing the game instead of trying to get feedback on every single system that they show and just develop, at this point during the livestreams, they don't even sound like they want to be there anymore there is no excitement in their voice its hard to watch.

its quite obvious that the other two biomes added for the launch of A2 have been converted into '' lawless '' area's to hide the fact their not even remotely close to being done, and the fact that the entire A1 map was scrapped just for it to look worse 3 years on is a serious issue

Again this is not early access yuo are trying to be picky on the dragon mob with its animations in a alpha actually makes 0 sense. Functionality is the most important part not doing polish on animations so they are perfect, when they have a ton of other content they need to be adding animations for functionality. This idea you have that because they had a dragon before every element of it needs to be polished and finished is a terrible take. What is more important is all the other npcs / classes they need to be adding animation to so it can be in the game. You should feel lucky you don't see more T-poses if anything...


Stops saying 8 years you are trying to rage bait, they have not been in full production for 8 years. You are trying to make it seem like they have been going full force for a long period of time when they clearly have not. Being a indie studio it takes them longer than a triple A studio to get their talent and work force going. On top of any growing issues they have being a new studio.

The fact you are so focused on art looking done is entirely why i said most people can't handle alpha development. Art doesn't need to look finished, let alone have polished. What is important is getting as much functionality over as large of the game as possible. Not making sure certain areas are finished / polished to your own bias expectation.

Alpha 1 was a alpha testing area, why are you talking about something be scrapped that is meant solely for testing. You are simply just rage baiting at this point and bringing up the devs aren't happy to be there lmao.

Your criticisms about he studio having 200 people, complaining about art, time for the game to be made, fomo (this has already been talked about in the past and won't have a relation to the alpha 2) are not going to be complained about lmao. When i play deadlock and that game (though most likely further alone) art wise is lacking in some elements but people focus on the gameplay more than anything not complaining about the art.

People will play the alpha and complain about somethings for sure as most people can't handle an actual alpha. They think they can but in reality their expectations are akin to early access do to their own bias.

Your points are just weak and you are trying to focus on the worse aspect possible, idk why you are choosing art in an alpha to focus on over more design elements. Even more so when you are talking about art in one of the most massive worlds a mmorpg is trying to make.

I feel you are really trying to be over critical on this game as well as you try to reference unfinished areas as a reason why it looks bad, yet you are fine with some areas they also show off (that have more polish in them). Overall things look fine and its much easier to add more detail to areas when you have your base done, and they have many areas that need to be built. There is no reason for them to be finishing (polishing) area right now until people can walk over the entire map. This kind of contradicts your own post to be honest as you would see less progress if they were polishing everything more than they already have been as there would be less progress....

Ah mate you are not seeing what I am saying and there is no use trying to help you see it that way, I don't agree with your opinions but I do respect them and your right to have them, I hope you're right,

I'll leave you with this, this company has been milking funds from the community for 8 years so there is no reason to not trace back this far

The visuals and dragon I'm not picking out of thin air, the reason these are the examples given is because the dragon is the exact same dragon as 3 years prior and the graphics have gone way downhill since the live streams 3 years ago, both are fair evaluation and should have reasons behind this. If the dragon was new created souly for this showcase I would most likely have a different opinion

mxo

I really would be interest in the financial reports and balance of the company. I really would like to see their books from an economical point of view. Like it is done if working together with a publsiher as annual reports are published so that investors and the market gets insights.
Does anybody have some source/links for me to get detailled financial information from 2016 up to now?

daveywavey

Chicago wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

Dakthar wrote: »

Nothing to do with the state of the game, (but I am picking up a real Star Citizen vibe) the fact that the community seems so polarised and toxic. The point raised seemed logical, but the personal attacks and back and forth rants point to a baseline of aggression that wasn't in earlier gaming communities.

To be fair, the OP's generally one of the main perpetrators there! Hahaha
And the points made weren't actually that good, when you look at them as part of a development process. You don't build a house from the top downwards, you build it from the ground upwards. He's asking for the middle/top floors, when the foundations and ground floors are still being made.

Thank you for replying, the hahahaha! Sais all I need to know, however if these questions ever got answered I wouldn't need to ask them

If you were building a house, and went to inspect it and saw a small but solid base established, then went away for 3 years,

whilst away the builders were sending you videos of your beautiful house being built and it looked astonishing, you come back to inspect it again to find the house looks nothing like the videos, infact the entire base had been scrapped and all they had kept was a thin layer of cement which had been painted but was the exact same, you would be okay with it?

I mean, houses don't take 3 years to build. If I came back after a week or two, and there was nothing happening, maybe I'd ask why, and they'd tell me that the foundation needs its curing time before it can be built on.

Now, what you're doing is saying: "OMG you have to build on it now why haven't you built on it already?!"
Whereas I'm saying: "That's sensible. Get the underlying structure sorted first, and then start building."

I mean, they've not got all the archetypes up and running, yet, why would they be bothering to create different World Bosses already? Why would they be creating multiple World Boss mechanics when they haven't finished the last archetypes that will be fighting against them? Every archetype that's added needs to be tested against everything that's gone before, so each one increases the work and the testing exponentially.

I'd be gobsmacked if the World Boss from the latest livestream made it to Launch without any changes. It's simply a test-dummy at the moment; something they can throw archetype testing at to see what needs tweaking.


As I said earlier, just let them do their thing. They know what they're doing.

Chicago

daveywavey wrote: »

Chicago wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

Dakthar wrote: »

Nothing to do with the state of the game, (but I am picking up a real Star Citizen vibe) the fact that the community seems so polarised and toxic. The point raised seemed logical, but the personal attacks and back and forth rants point to a baseline of aggression that wasn't in earlier gaming communities.

To be fair, the OP's generally one of the main perpetrators there! Hahaha
And the points made weren't actually that good, when you look at them as part of a development process. You don't build a house from the top downwards, you build it from the ground upwards. He's asking for the middle/top floors, when the foundations and ground floors are still being made.

Thank you for replying, the hahahaha! Sais all I need to know, however if these questions ever got answered I wouldn't need to ask them

If you were building a house, and went to inspect it and saw a small but solid base established, then went away for 3 years,

whilst away the builders were sending you videos of your beautiful house being built and it looked astonishing, you come back to inspect it again to find the house looks nothing like the videos, infact the entire base had been scrapped and all they had kept was a thin layer of cement which had been painted but was the exact same, you would be okay with it?

I mean, houses don't take 3 years to build. If I came back after a week or two, and there was nothing happening, maybe I'd ask why, and they'd tell me that the foundation needs its curing time before it can be built on.

Now, what you're doing is saying: "OMG you have to build on it now why haven't you built on it already?!"
Whereas I'm saying: "That's sensible. Get the underlying structure sorted first, and then start building."

I mean, they've not got all the archetypes up and running, yet, why would they be bothering to create different World Bosses already? Why would they be creating multiple World Boss mechanics when they haven't finished the last archetypes that will be fighting against them? Every archetype that's added needs to be tested against everything that's gone before, so each one increases the work and the testing exponentially.

I'd be gobsmacked if the World Boss from the latest livestream made it to Launch without any changes. It's simply a test-dummy at the moment; something they can throw archetype testing at to see what needs tweaking.


As I said earlier, just let them do their thing. They know what they're doing.

i don't know mate, i sort of disagree, i think after 8 years of development they should have the foundation already laid down and be working on other aspects of the game, i think there are other things to work on sure, but its been stated many times that with now 200 devs different aspects of the game are being worked on simultaneously,

i would like to believe they know what their doing but if that was the case they would stop asking for feedback on every little system they need to show and just design a game, a dragon fight has been designed 100s of times over, and ashes version is probably one of the worst i have ever seen, there are better dragon bosses from games released in 2005, so if they knew what they were doing why do they need to ask for clarification every two minutes, also the only game ive ever seen making people pay to test their game for them.

are people really going to still be using the narrative 15 years into development '' its development it takes time let them cook'', they are building a game on UE5, its not like they had to build their own engine, everything they have shown us this far is just expected, nothing innovative, nothing new, no good combat, literally copy and pastes from other games ( new world ), the dungeons are lackluster asf, the loot system is terrible, the world is dull and grey and bland other than a few area's, when can we ask for something to have some sort of polish?

KingDDD

Chaliux wrote: »

I really would be interest in the financial reports and balance of the company. I really would like to see their books from an economical point of view. Like it is done if working together with a publsiher as annual reports are published so that investors and the market gets insights.
Does anybody have some source/links for me to get detailled financial information from 2016 up to now?

It's a private company, they don't have to provide anything. Likewise, you do not have to buy any of the packs. It'd be a different situation if they were asking for seed money, but in reality the alpha packs are just glorified preorders. Backers don't own anything related to ashes or intrepid.

As far as progress goes, ashes is moving along quite well. You can tell they have made great strides on the tools developers can use to create content. Id be shocked if the majority of prealpha and alpha 1 weren't hard coded, and mostly for testing the backend systems.

Apok

KingDDD wrote: »

Chaliux wrote: »

I really would be interest in the financial reports and balance of the company. I really would like to see their books from an economical point of view. Like it is done if working together with a publsiher as annual reports are published so that investors and the market gets insights.
Does anybody have some source/links for me to get detailled financial information from 2016 up to now?

It's a private company, they don't have to provide anything. Likewise, you do not have to buy any of the packs. It'd be a different situation if they were asking for seed money, but in reality the alpha packs are just glorified preorders. Backers don't own anything related to ashes or intrepid.

As far as progress goes, ashes is moving along quite well. You can tell they have made great strides on the tools developers can use to create content. Id be shocked if the majority of prealpha and alpha 1 weren't hard coded, and mostly for testing the backend systems.

I asked when Alpha 1 was going on quite a few times and discord mods just said go run around and have fun as well as a some warping people around doing some pvp events, nothing really happened with jank and abusive quests but the lag on stability got better with each test. it really felt like they were 100% focused on back end work through the alpha test