Alpha 2
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So was alpha test 2 considered alpha 2 or was it alpha 1.2?
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It was still Alpha 1 (A1T2)
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Sorry, I could have read the roadmap. I finally found it lol. I was looking all over the forums for it.
Do you think beta will still hit Q1 2020?
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Kind of doubt it to be honest. Beta is a long ways off still.
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@Farlander said in Alpha 2:
Sorry, I could have read the roadmap. I finally found it lol. I was looking all over the forums for it.
Do you think beta will still hit Q1 2020?
Right now it's hard to give you a precise answer; all will depend on the features that the team will succeed to bring out in this period and also on the timing of the next test phases.
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Well it's certainly not unusual for games to miss dates. The main thing is the game comes out with few bugs. The biggest source of downvotes on steam is games not running correctly at launch.
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@Farlander said in Alpha 2:
Well it's certainly not unusual for games to miss dates. The main thing is the game comes out with few bugs. The biggest source of downvotes on steam is games not running correctly at launch.
I would have to agree. Developers these days have gotten pretty lazy overall in terms of actually finishing a game properly before a full release. There are even cases where a game gets released, then a patch is put out a few months later that is almost half the size of the initial game...
games were rarely perfect back in the 90's, but they were usually more complete than games r these days. Sometimes even less buggier than the ones nowadays are, even after they have been patched a few times.
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I think part of it may also depend on what we haven't seen. Sometimes development is ongoing on many parts of the whole, and what is ready to be shown is fairly small. That may mean that there are dozens of things that are 80% toward completion, and then just have to be integrated and tested.
Still, unless they have a lot more done than was seen, it will likely be late Q1 2020 at best.
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what I'd hope the devs with avoid is the b.s. seen in some games in the 'freemium' sphere: launching the game as an 'open beta' that never quite stops being a beta so gives devs seemingly endless cover for bugs & glitches. DisruptorBeam came in for a lot of forum criticism for this transparent charade. I've seen other games I didn't play get called out for it in reviews that warned me away....
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@Farlander said in Alpha 2:
Well it's certainly not unusual for games to miss dates. The main thing is the game comes out with few bugs. The biggest source of downvotes on steam is games not running correctly at launch.
Got that right, i would much rather wait 6 months for the game to be fully polished than have them release it early & bugged only to kill all the hype.
Seriously this only hurts themselves in the long run. (so many companies i refuse to buy from now)
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Waiting too long can hurt also. Life is Feudal had a huge hype in the beginning. They had a few unique systems that got some attention. Then the game drug on well past launch. So the devs felt pressured to give everyone something. So they released a system that supported about 50 players in the world before it started crashing. This went on another year or two. They finally released their mmo but by then everyone had moved on. Even their mmo I think is still considered in beta. Alot of games seem to have the everlasting alpha/beta tag on them in steam. Those games get horrible reviews which keeps people from buying them. The devs either do some serious fixing or the game slides into oblivion.
My buddy plays Atlas. He swears the game is good but yet if you read the reviews it is trashed by about everyone. He says those were primarily from the launch before the big fixes. I still won't buy it simply because I see all those bad reviews.
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In Game of Thrones Ascent the game I started playing about one year after launch ran fairly well, but was a very basic builder/RPG. What I loved was the excellent graphics and creative content - story lines for each house were really cool.
When I'd been playing for awhile, and gotten through a few incarnations to get house buffs, they rolled out the Alliance v Alliance system. It was very buggy but and at first I was hella confused but after about 6 months it was the best part of the game. Once they got that situated they rolled out another type of game w/in game that I didn't find as interesting but many people enjoyed.
Not sure how this idea of incremental feature roll-outs might be translated to a sandbox MMORPG, but I would give the devs permission not to have every single thing nailed down before launch. Get the basic thing ready and polished; if there are features that can be introduced later (e.g., player in-game auction house, wandering NPC crafting material vendors) no one will hate you for giving them MORE.
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Alpha 1 Test 2
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@Farlander said in Alpha 2:
Waiting too long can hurt also. Life is Feudal had a huge hype in the beginning. They had a few unique systems that got some attention. Then the game drug on well past launch. So the devs felt pressured to give everyone something. So they released a system that supported about 50 players in the world before it started crashing. This went on another year or two. They finally released their mmo but by then everyone had moved on. Even their mmo I think is still considered in beta. Alot of games seem to have the everlasting alpha/beta tag on them in steam. Those games get horrible reviews which keeps people from buying them. The devs either do some serious fixing or the game slides into oblivion.
So many games in "Early Access" for years on Steam. A few I've played were ok, but many that seemed promising were bad - a bit gun shy from EA any more.
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@Farlander said in Alpha 2:
Waiting too long can hurt also. Life is Feudal had a huge hype in the beginning. They had a few unique systems that got some attention. Then the game drug on well past launch. So the devs felt pressured to give everyone something. So they released a system that supported about 50 players in the world before it started crashing. This went on another year or two. They finally released their mmo but by then everyone had moved on. Even their mmo I think is still considered in beta. Alot of games seem to have the everlasting alpha/beta tag on them in steam. Those games get horrible reviews which keeps people from buying them. The devs either do some serious fixing or the game slides into oblivion.
My buddy plays Atlas. He swears the game is good but yet if you read the reviews it is trashed by about everyone. He says those were primarily from the launch before the big fixes. I still won't buy it simply because I see all those bad reviews.
This is modern gaming. Everyone still expects that the first time they hear about a game it is 1-2 years out. However, companies are generally at cycle start 6-8 years out for many of the big ambitious projects. That conflict is one that certainly needs addressed, but the difference is one merely of being seen vs. not seen and the frustrations that result.
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@Jairone I agree that a short development time under 3 years is very ambitious for Fractured. Most dev teams these days have the problem to keep the publishers happy more than the players. If they are at risk to not meet the estimated release date the publishers are forcing them to release it anyway.
They want to see their invest to give back some revenue. This results are frustrated players cause they think they play a Beta instead of a full released game.
Only big companys with a name can shift out their release dates again and again (Blizzard) cause they have a proven track record. Hard to do so for new or little companies.
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However, companies are generally at cycle start 6-8 years out for many of the big ambitious projects.
And if you're Star Citizen it's more like that 8 or 9 year development!
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Oh wow is Star Citizen even a thing any more? lol. I remember my buddy telling me about it and I checked it out. First thing that turned me off was all the store grabs for ships. It looked play to win and I'm not a fan of those. Most FB clicky games are like that. I know I'd be mad if I dumped a huge chunk of money into it and now 7 years later it still has no release date. I also bought the Cortex app from steam waiting patiently for Firefly Online. Oh man I was excited about that being a Firefly fan. They even posted videos of working parts of the program. Then they mysteriously vanished with no word. So sad
Any investment into an unfinished game is a risk.
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@Farlander Oh yeah; SC is still definitely a thing! Some pretty cool updates according to @Bardikens!
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@Farlander said in Alpha 2:
Oh wow is Star Citizen even a thing any more?
You can play a large part of the game in the alpha right now. It's fun. It needs another two years of work, I'd say, but they are getting there.
