This Alpha needs a Second Kick Start Action
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Evening all,
Is it just me or does this current Alpha need a kick start of some kind. I don't even mind if they have to shut server down for 2 to 4 days before bringing back up for a week or 2. I was not privileged to be in the last Alpha. I am hearing though its the same set up and same mob spawns. This one was for Talent Tree and Cities so I understand. At this time though it seems most of the city mechanics have been gone through and Talents worked a bit (Minus the ones not ready yet).. I really think the Population has died after the first days to almost nothing. Just some new stragglers coming in here and now.
So I understand its Alpha.. I understand steps. But if this is it then the Alpha should close honestly after this week. Just will (IMO) cause those interested to lose some interest and have to Hype ourselves back up after reading the upcoming additions.
I also feel the next Alpha/Beta should not Drop after this one at ALL until another Planet or 3 Continents exist showcasing each race on each or At Least Human/Beastman on one planet and Demon on other.. Or the 3 races on one planet on 1 of the 3 continents as explained.
Just can't see interest staying Hyped without something different to explore and more engagements to have both PVE and PVP.
Also note: I purchased and backed this game for access. So I am very excited for the end result. Just feel we need a bit more in Alpha or the next one.
Just my thoughts.
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Actually, this Alpha is going pretty good. You can't really judge an alpha by only a week's worth of data anyway. There is a reason the Alpha was set to run a month, and to end it premature for anything but a major bug problem would be silly.
Remember, different testers have different schedules and priorities, and also, some things in game are being tweaked as we go along even in this alpha, during hot bug patches on an almost daily basis to handle the little things found by people. Some of the intended Alpha testers, for instance, may not even have gotten to log in at all yet, so their feedback isn't even reflected yet in the alpha testing. Other testers work M-F and can only log in to test on the weekend for limited time slots, and should still be allowed to come in and give the game as much of a once over as they possibly can.
I still find much in the game to explore and try to fiddle around with. My sister is contemplating changing Cities right now to explore a relationship with a different city than the one we started with, while I and my GF are looking at staying put because of the involvement in moving everything we've established. I'm beginning to get quite the enchanter's station set up in my home in town, for instance, and I'm still trying to deck out the optimal equipment build for my characters.
People like me want to put the game through as many paces as we possibly can in the very limited time we're allotted to play in the alpha stages, and cutting that already limited time short would really be a disservice to those of us still die hard about doing the alpha test justice.
I currently am running 4 characters in the game, 2 of each archtype, and I plan on possibly creating a 5th character with a more Archer custom build in the future as well. I play both Solo and Group with 2 or 3 of us at a time, so far, and would love to get in a session or 2 with a larger group of players as well. Shoot, we haven't even had a chance to explore every area of the given continent yet, let alone spreading things out into further continents and worlds at this stage.
Instead of ending the alpha prematurely, a better idea would be expanding the 'Tutorial Quests' with some more exploration quests to get people checking out some of the other areas on the continent that aren't getting as much traffic because there's no-one incentivizing you to go to those areas.
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@GamerSeuss there is nothing anywhere else on the map but bushes some bears, more wolves, a rabbit, and a fox. The only 2 places to go is Gobbo's, Skele's, and Spiders which you have been to.
I also know not everyone is on the same schedule. Enchanting you can't go over level 2 on very limited enchants like 4 of them. There is just not much here. We are what 4 days into this alpha and I can almost guess there is not more than 10 people online maybe 15 now at most compared to probably 100+ if not more first 2 days.
I agree with some of your points. They do need to add if they can a little more to explore. That would help some.
Thanks for contributing to this post!
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Actually, we're 7 days into the test. Tomorrow it will be 1 week since it opened.
You point out lacks, but that isn't the point. What there is to see is. For instance, many people got the check marks for Vale of Shadows, but how many went all the way in and saw the stunning rope bridge scenes to the far NW of the Vale?
As to numbers of players, I think your greatly underestimating that as well. I personally passed a group of several yesterday, and at different times throughout the day, just watching Hlobal you can see there's probably dozens chatting, and for each person chatting on global, figure there's 5 not chatting, so there's still over 100+ using and testing the Alpha.
I'm not saying we need more land to explore, just more push to explore what's here already. The next test, who knows? Mayhaps they'll give us more geography...shoot, with the most recent patch, they did shuffle some of the mob spawn points making for interesting in town encounters
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@GamerSeuss Maybe your right man. I have seen it all. And I play on average 12-hours + a day. Moved houses twice. Ran the whole map.. besides the Gobbo villages and Infested Ruins nothing else but same stuff. So far in global I have seen the same 5-8 people talking after first 3 or so days. Sometimes I have been on for Hours literally hours and nothing in global. Just hope that next Alpha has a lot more to offer. If they drop another Alpha/Beta without another character race to play or another mob besides the Trees, Spiders, Gobbos, Wargs, or occasional same old same old mob in the wild. I just hope they don't rush next alpha and give a little more to expand upon.
Wishful thinking I suppose as this is my highlight game. I have yet to find a game with end game mechanics as this one predicts since UO and Shadowbane. Just hate logging in now and not seeing anyone hardly or much in global now.
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This Alpha was to test talents and Citys~ But also to work out some bugs.
We're missing a lot of things that make citys~ citys.
A few more updates will come out this week and there is plenty of bugs the devs are still working thought.
The game was not meant to maintain players atm.The best solution to possible even try would to put in very hard world bosses, or a dungeon/raid.
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personally, I don't see the other races coming into the alpha until Alpha 3 really.
I figure they will expand on some of the mobs we can fight though, next test, flesh out the talent tree a little more, maybe add more reagents and expand on some of the crafting/skills potential of the game would be my bet. Another alpha test in say Sept/Oct is what I'm predicting, but who knows. Might be okay if they put in a couple more archtypes too
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@Wika said in This Alpha needs a Second Kick Start Action:
(...) Enchanting you can't go over level 2 on very limited enchants like 4 of them. There is just not much here. We are what 4 days into this alpha and I can almost guess there is not more than 10 people online maybe 15 now at most compared to probably 100+ if not more first 2 days.
I agree with some of your points. They do need to add if they can a little more to explore. That would help some(...)
@Wika said in This Alpha needs a Second Kick Start Action:
@GamerSeuss Maybe your right man. I have seen it all. And I play on average 12-hours + a day(...)
You want to consume content, you want to have fun playing a game. Unfortunately, this is a test, not a game. Functionality is best tested in small steps, because that way you find logical errors before they get nested too deep and become very, very tricky to track down. Content is (even though that is sad for players) last on the list to be implemented. As for the burnout you're feeling, that's your conscious decision to put 12 hours a day into the test. As an advice, try 2 hours a day on the next test and spend the remaining time on different games or other things. You won't feel the burn out as fast. But at least, now you have an idea of how professional Q&A teams feel when trying to iterate over the very same procedures day in, day out trying to spot bugs in games
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@maze @GamerSeuss
Can I ask where you are both located ? not to specific just US or Europe will do.I have to side with @GamerSeuss on the amount of people, I have played a couple of hours most days of this test, I have actually "seen" 10 other players in game, and 3 of those were Guild members in our Capital, I am in Europe.
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I'm in the US Midwest
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@GamerSeuss That cancels out the time zone being the reason for so few testers, So I have to agree with you it is very quiet.
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@Stacy555 I didn't say it had been quiet, that was the other guy, I specifically said dozens are usually chatting on global, which means still over 100+ is probably online and not chatting.
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Eastern Canada.
But I play mostly Solo and interact with people who are working on the wiki, Game websites and spreadsheets.
Pretty much just gathering all the necessary data.
A bit of scouting of the world to see if anything is snuck in.Then I mostly log off and work in the spreadsheets for the rest of the test~ with a once a day log on to test or see something.
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@GamerSeuss Dozens in chat is not my experience, playing on EU time as I said, I've seen exactly 10 other players and seen the chat box empty for as much as 2 hours, this was 3 days after Alpha launch, so unless Europe embraces the game a heck of a lot more by release, it's going to be a short term game for me.
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@Stacy555
It's an alpha test with a specific focus and very little content - if you played the previous tests, it should take you about half a day to do everything and unlock all abilities. Of course the server will be mostly empty after 3 days!
