Yes.
I named it after my late mom and dad. They liked going to bingo together. So it is a tribute.
A word of warning about the Alpha
- Thread starter Ayo
- Start date
Yes.
I named it after my late mom and dad. They liked going to bingo together. So it is a tribute.
Yes.
I named it after my late mom and dad. They liked going to bingo together. So it is a tribute.
Bro, you are awesome! It will be my first ingame mission to visit the Bingo Palace
The Only Warning I Want Is......
Is of when the game Alpha has arrived.
Is of when the game Alpha has arrived.
The first found bug in the alpha is that its already december and its not out yet.
Luckily Im patient with bugs.
Luckily Im patient with bugs.
I think the price at which you had to pledge to be a part of the Alpha will reduce the number of nubbins complaining of issues as the Alpha testers are no doubt dedicated fans of the game and know exactly what they're getting in the Alpha.
Until FD slap a "Released" sticker on the game no one really should complain of bugs or missing features but I can understand it if people get upset if the game fails to work at all for some people as they're really really looking forward to it.
Until FD slap a "Released" sticker on the game no one really should complain of bugs or missing features but I can understand it if people get upset if the game fails to work at all for some people as they're really really looking forward to it.
Hi KING5TON. I hate to complain but your sig seems to have some missing features (<INSERT THING HERE>). Also your N4ME seems to be a bit buggy (All caps and a number in it). Apart from that your post is good to ship. Good work.
I do worry a little that many who can afford £200 for alpha don't quite have the free time to dedicate to experimenting and bug hunting in the game. Alpha testing does require a lot of deliberately trying to break the game - thinking of things that 99% of players would never bother doing, but as soon as one person does it everything goes spluuuuurt. Try ramming asteroids multiple times from all angles, flying backwards into them whilst firing, shooting lasers whilst spinning stupidly fast and hyperspacing, dumping heat at the same time as triggering something that superloads the temperature, etc. If you just do the predictable flying and docking you won't find anything new.
A few crazy teenagers with a lot of free time would really help
A few crazy teenagers with a lot of free time would really help
Please guys, always try the unexpected. Don't try to dock properly when you can bump into every single square meters of a station. Go straight to a star even if it means death, gank any capital ship just to see if you can and have fun doing all these crazy things. I will join you in the beta and trust me, I have some nightmarish ideas already
I do worry a little that many who can afford £200 for alpha don't quite have the free time to dedicate to experimenting and bug hunting in the game. Alpha testing does require a lot of deliberately trying to break the game - thinking of things that 99% of players would never bother doing, but as soon as one person does it everything goes spluuuuurt. Try ramming asteroids multiple times from all angles, flying backwards into them whilst firing, shooting lasers whilst spinning stupidly fast and hyperspacing, dumping heat at the same time as triggering something that superloads the temperature, etc. If you just do the predictable flying and docking you won't find anything new.
A few crazy teenagers with a lot of free time would really help
Don't worry .. It's FDs responsibility to iron out the bugs, we are simply here to help.
I do worry a little that many who can afford £200 for alpha don't quite have the free time to dedicate to experimenting and bug hunting in the game. Alpha testing does require a lot of deliberately trying to break the game - thinking of things that 99% of players would never bother doing, but as soon as one person does it everything goes spluuuuurt. Try ramming asteroids multiple times from all angles, flying backwards into them whilst firing, shooting lasers whilst spinning stupidly fast and hyperspacing, dumping heat at the same time as triggering something that superloads the temperature, etc. If you just do the predictable flying and docking you won't find anything new.
A few crazy teenagers with a lot of free time would really help
I think Alpha is more to nail down core game play concepts, like docking, trading and combat. Reporting bugs will be cool, but more they will want to hear feedback so we they can go with one of configurations they have in mind.
I do worry a little that many who can afford £200 for alpha don't quite have the free time to dedicate to experimenting and bug hunting in the game. Alpha testing does require a lot of deliberately trying to break the game - thinking of things that 99% of players would never bother doing, but as soon as one person does it everything goes spluuuuurt. Try ramming asteroids multiple times from all angles, flying backwards into them whilst firing, shooting lasers whilst spinning stupidly fast and hyperspacing, dumping heat at the same time as triggering something that superloads the temperature, etc. If you just do the predictable flying and docking you won't find anything new.
A few crazy teenagers with a lot of free time would really help
They will most likely ask us to do certain things or release something for the day to be tested. If we are lucky they may just say 'Here it is, break it'... which for an Alpha should not be too hard.
Most Alphas I have been apart of they ask you to repeat a certain thing or stay in a certain area and see how robust it is or how well it is constructed.
But for Elite there is not much in the way of landscape or buildings so maybe they will ask us to test the UI, navigation, Inter system travel, docking.. do the weapons fire... are they coming from the guns or the toilet.
That sort of stuff.
There will be a bit of that, but alphas are typically buggy as hell, with things changing every day and the new content having unexpected conflicts, etc. Not to mention the huge array of graphical errors that can come about and the outright weirdness that can come from procedural generation.
Plus a big factor will be the testing of the software on a wider range of hardware. Until now FD have only tested the alpha on a few CPU/video card setups. Alpha, beta and gamma will all bring up serious issues on hardware and software configurations they haven't seen before. Everyone should make sure their drivers are up to date (really vital) and get a very clear grasp on *exactly* what their setup is for bug reports.
I'm really happy to be a part of this epic journey.
Just one thing
I heard the word "paid" a lot or "paid to be a part of"
We have pledged its a donation to the cause. ..
Good luck all of you
And make useful reports
No complaints
Just one thing
I heard the word "paid" a lot or "paid to be a part of"
We have pledged its a donation to the cause. ..
Good luck all of you
And make useful reports
No complaints
I'm pretty sure that there will be some people that will complain, start whining and raging and whatsoever 'cause they don't understand what this is all about...
But keeping in mind that alpha access isn't "cheap" to get, i suppose that probably most of the people spending those bucks DO know what "alpha testing" means.
So i'm very confident that their contributions will be very valuable for the dev team
The only point i'm a little bit worried about are the very short sheduled test phases...
Having been participant in several beta tests in the past, i'm very curious how such a complex game can get rid of most (important) bugs and can be polished (so it will be playable and fun) from alpha to release in under 6 months...?!!?
I have seen too many games being released in a bug-driven beta stadium...
But my hopes still live that this game will be awesome...!
I know what you mean. Before I saw the schedule, I thought they would alpha test from around july to september, 1st beta phase from september to december then 2nd beta phase from december through to release in march...This "one month per phase" is kind of short...Its a little alarming...
For my 2 cents, I am only a 2nd phase beta though I did recently up my pledge from £50 to £90 for associated benefits...I thought long and hard about pledging a little extra to get 1st phase beta but where exactly do you draw the line? lol..I mean, for just 5£ more I could get blah blah, so I pledge it...Then i'm thinking for just a measly £10 I could get blah blah...Like I said, where do you draw the line? In the end I decided to go for the 90 quid founders world start (and getting the tshirt and map had a big decider effect on me too lol)
Ayo, are you aware that FD have an opening in their Marketing department?
But seriously, I doubt very much it will be boring but I agree that it is likely to be buggy and crash etc. If anyone is put off by the game at this early stage then they have clearly misunderstood the implications of having Alpha and Beta access, and what they should expect when running such code.
I don't think it will be boring because by the time those feelings might be coming to the surface, hopefully the next Alpha/Beta will be made available and something new will need to be tested.
Ah yes, the year Falcon DeLacey stock plummeted.
I didn't know you had watched my Frontier Let's Play!
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Its only going to take one person to show the game negatively but its perhaps going to be combatted with lots of positive stuff. Personally, I think people would do better in recording alpha bits and putting them out in an edited video. If I do anything it will probably be like that.
When it comes to Alpha - I'd expect to be seeing core gameplay in there but its not going to be a finished product so its probably worth remembering that. I still expect something thats generally working and to see what a year of development has produced.
Well, I'm sure it will be better handled than the Godus Alpha, which transformed into a (paid for) Beta on Steam within a couple of weeks when it was not even close to being a fifth feature complete. There's not actually been a new release in about 3 months as the feedback was so bad that it seems that they're re-writing it and changing the design almost completely.
You may want to watch Dev Diary #7, which talks about the process. Notice that Frontier have switched from talking about date guarantees to quality guarantees, and have introduced a long "gamma" phase for balancing etc.
Most people interpret the diary to mean the gamma phase will start around March(ish), so backers get as much game as possible as near to the deadline as possible. But you're right to expect a lot more time to polish the game up for general release.