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.
A2 feedback - thus far
Arkyfinity
Member, Alpha Two
Hey everyone,
Some feedback I've collected over the past two weeks of playing alpha 2:
Combat
I really, really, really like the combat. Coming from Guild Wars 2, I love the fact that I'm not rooted to the spot while I'm casting and that I can use skills without having a target - which are issues in other MMORPGs than GW2. I'm a tab-target fan by heart, but I've tried the action cam/tab-target hybrid out and it looks fun. There are some quirks to be ironed out, of course. But I'm well aware that it's an alpha and everything needs a bit of polish. So far, I'm really happy with the direction and it's been a smooth transition.
Lack of UI intuivity
There's much to be desired from the UI, however. There isn't much help from quest descriptions or map pins. As a result, I probably have 10k XP waiting for me because I simply can't find the NPC that gave me the quest in the first place. I'm aware of the button in the top right corner of the quest view, but this is grayed out once these quests were completed.
I know this game isn't designed to hold your hand while you play, but I'd rather not sit with a spreadsheet open with quest notes like "who did I get it from and where?" etc.
The same goes for caravan events. I'm asked whether I want to attack or defend. But I have zero clue as to where this caravan is, as the map simply doesn't tell me. It will tell me about events on the other side of the map, though.
Maybe this isn't what we're testing, and the focus is on stability and bugs. But I just wanted to note it here as a minor frustration.
Various non-sticking things
Many settings simply won't stick after relogging. Especially the graphics settings have been reapplied, and the "click anywhere to deselect" and "auto attack" checkboxes under Combat settings have been ticked every time I've logged in this weekend.
It would also be nice if food buffs could carry over, so I don't have to waste ingest another fruit salad right after logging in. Maybe even save which bard melody I had applied before relogging.
Lack of friends list and other chat annoyances
A big sell point of this game is that it encourages team play. But without a contact/friends list, it's hard to keep up with in-game friendships. I see it's being added down the line, but it was a frustration for me during these past two weeks. The guild panel also lacks any form of interaction. Something more than add and kick members would be nice.
In the chat panel, it would be nice if I could click on a name to interact with them (or even block them). And while the chat background has a slider for transparency, I would love it if I could control the colors for channels, as the salmon color for /global can be quite bland. Much in the same way that I can control the colors of floating text.
A big thank you
As a note at the end here, I'd like to say thank you to the dev team for addressing the vast amount of issues that have been raised. Reading the mountain of changes poured into the game just in two weeks is really inspiring. Thank you!
To the future! 🥂
Some feedback I've collected over the past two weeks of playing alpha 2:
Combat
I really, really, really like the combat. Coming from Guild Wars 2, I love the fact that I'm not rooted to the spot while I'm casting and that I can use skills without having a target - which are issues in other MMORPGs than GW2. I'm a tab-target fan by heart, but I've tried the action cam/tab-target hybrid out and it looks fun. There are some quirks to be ironed out, of course. But I'm well aware that it's an alpha and everything needs a bit of polish. So far, I'm really happy with the direction and it's been a smooth transition.
Lack of UI intuivity
There's much to be desired from the UI, however. There isn't much help from quest descriptions or map pins. As a result, I probably have 10k XP waiting for me because I simply can't find the NPC that gave me the quest in the first place. I'm aware of the button in the top right corner of the quest view, but this is grayed out once these quests were completed.
I know this game isn't designed to hold your hand while you play, but I'd rather not sit with a spreadsheet open with quest notes like "who did I get it from and where?" etc.
The same goes for caravan events. I'm asked whether I want to attack or defend. But I have zero clue as to where this caravan is, as the map simply doesn't tell me. It will tell me about events on the other side of the map, though.
Maybe this isn't what we're testing, and the focus is on stability and bugs. But I just wanted to note it here as a minor frustration.
Various non-sticking things
Many settings simply won't stick after relogging. Especially the graphics settings have been reapplied, and the "click anywhere to deselect" and "auto attack" checkboxes under Combat settings have been ticked every time I've logged in this weekend.
It would also be nice if food buffs could carry over, so I don't have to waste ingest another fruit salad right after logging in. Maybe even save which bard melody I had applied before relogging.
Lack of friends list and other chat annoyances
A big sell point of this game is that it encourages team play. But without a contact/friends list, it's hard to keep up with in-game friendships. I see it's being added down the line, but it was a frustration for me during these past two weeks. The guild panel also lacks any form of interaction. Something more than add and kick members would be nice.
In the chat panel, it would be nice if I could click on a name to interact with them (or even block them). And while the chat background has a slider for transparency, I would love it if I could control the colors for channels, as the salmon color for /global can be quite bland. Much in the same way that I can control the colors of floating text.
A big thank you
As a note at the end here, I'd like to say thank you to the dev team for addressing the vast amount of issues that have been raised. Reading the mountain of changes poured into the game just in two weeks is really inspiring. Thank you!
To the future! 🥂
/arkyfinity2