But who knows maybe they will?
Dear Frontier Developments
- Thread starter JeffRyan
- Start date
But who knows maybe they will?
I'm certain they will also give a bonus of some sort to the beta testers afterwards.
I have been seriously considering joining alpha as I can afford the upgrade now, but I don't want any perks or discounts.
I play most games on the hardest difficulty, I prefer the challenge, so hopefully these perks are optional.
Well guess what, they did, and it still broke.
I think a smooth beta release is just fantasy. It is bound to break even more, as it should, when the masses engage. AFAIK, FD have released no peer-2-peer network product on this scale, and with no experience, this will add to the expected beta network issues.
Its just a matter of managing the member frustrations spawned from broken expectations. Recent decisions are just relocating embers from the penthouse to the fire in the basement. In the end, it all depends on where you are.
In time, all will be fine.
I would absolutely bet that they will, at the appropriate time. A lot of people on this forum seem to be misinterpreting these perks as a thank-you to the alpha backers for their terrible suffering on everyone elses behalf. Frontier do no make this claim: in the newsletter they make explicitly clear that these perks are an inducement to get more alpha sign-ups at a time when the perceived value of alpha would otherwise have dropped to near zero. They have been very honest in this regard.
So if I have ever been sure of anything, I'm sure of this:
(i) When premium beta begins, there will very shortly be an upgrade path offered for standard betas and gammas, in exactly the same way we saw for alpha
(ii) When everyone is aware that premium beta is coming to an end, and the value of premium beta thus drops to near zero, there will be some perks offered to all premium betas to get a few last sign-ups.
The alphas and betas are a good to be sold, and for each of them the window will close, after which they can never be sold again. Sale! Everything must go! There's nothing wrong with this: Frontier want to make money and we all want them to be filthy rich. The problem occurs when the choice of perks compromise the game to some extent. Whether the current alpha inducements do that is the matter under debate.
Feel this is impossible, at least on the network level, due to the sheer numbers involved in the beta when compared to alpha. The alpha runs can never simulate such network congestion. When it fails at that point, I wouldn't call it 'working', and nor do I expect it to be.
It will take time.
- Also, all Alpha players will be granted a life time discount of 50% on ship insurance in game as a thank you for your support! - Newsletter #18
It's a very easy misinterpretation to make.
Well, lets try...
It could mean that the life time discount will only be available for the Alpha product. After all, there are no 'Alpha players' after the alpha phase ends.
I am quite fluent in Legalese.
Aha yes, you are quite correct - I managed to completely miss that sentence when I read the newsletter. I appreciate your correction.
In which case, I am rather disappointed now. I think they have been somewhat disingenuous there
Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
Yes, I understand that the next bone will exclude all alpha backers. FD expect none of them to even notice or post on a forum about it.
I get the idea that there needs to be limited external before full external testing, but why can't FD have sympathy with the beta people and say:
"Beta is a complex thing. As a result each build needs a limited test first, so we will be steadily sending the builds out to limited numbers of beta testers selected at random."
(for random insert "biased towards those who have submitted the highest number of unique tickets since the last build release" to select what one would assume to be the most thorough and dedicated.
Just because a person paid for alpha does not necessarily make them a better beta tester than a person who has not.
To be fair, the Alphas were ALWAYS going to get the game before you. There was never any suggestion that the BETA would involve you getting to see new features first was there? That would be what the Alpha was for, otherwise it isn't a Beta is it?
You'll still be in the first round of beta, you just won't be there first.
Let's say we were both in the Alpha. The day the first version of the Alpha was released you downloaded it and played within an hour of release, I on the other hand wasn't able to get it downloaded and play until the next day. Did we both participate in the first phase of the alpha? Yup.
I'm not saying I agree with them giving the beta builds to alpha pledger first (just have an opt-in for potentially extra unstable builds, simple as that), I'm just saying you're still getting what you paid for, no promise was broken...
There was more than a suggestion....there was a definitive statement:
"Participate in the first round private beta test"
Alphas playtest individual sections of the game (combat module, trading module, etc) but when the modules are released as a collective (the beta) £100 should secure first access.....as promised.
If that's not the case, its a little disapointing, but again I ask:
How much longer do we wait after the Alphas get beta ?
Most likely you will get beta with few days delay, those few days used to see if there's any critical issues with build.
So 25th April is a date when you can start to look around of premium beta release, most likely in week time, around first week of May.
It sounds to me as though you don't have to wait long because Beta is starting in the next few weeks.
I do understand that this sudden realisation that Alpha and Beta overlap is a bit confusing. I think everyone who signed up to the Kickstarter thought that there would be an Alpha period which would be finished, done and dusted and then we would move into Beta.
It seems to me (and I may be wrong) that there is still a whole load more functionality to add. Frontier can't add that new functionality into Beta releases because that isn't a Beta. You have to Alpha test things first and they want to keep doing this. So to get the Beta under-way rather than making you wait forever they are overlapping the processes and you can get started with testing the game.
I think perhaps you are now expecting the Beta to be a continuation of Alpha with a larger group and Frontier should just throw out new builds to the larger group, but then it isn't Beta is it? Where is the Alpha testing of the new functionality?
So either they should have
a) moved Beta further down the road
b) overlap the process
c) Discard the premium Beta and move everyone into a larger Alpha pool
It sounds like you are expecting C but I suspect Frontier have had a long internal discussion and gone for B as a kind of half-way house to keep the process of Alpha to Beta in place while getting you started on the game and what you paid for (premium first round beta)
I could be wrong and maybe Frontier have planned this all along in which case I agree that they should have been clearer about it from the start.
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That's the point though.
- Alpha - for alpha backers
- 1st round Beta - for alpha / Premium beta backers
- 2nd round beta - for alpha / Premium beta / normal beta backers
- Gamma round - for alpha / Premium beta / normal beta / regular KS backers
- Release - everyone including Joe Public
There is no need for a delay for them any further - the moment when ED transitions from Alpha to Beta THAT is the time to introduce Premium Beta backers into the fold.
There is another way of staying consistent.
Before Beta is released a build is given to the Alpha backers to check for showstopping bugs. Since this build is given to only Alpha backers it is by definition an Alpha build, is it not?
If it checks out ok it's relabeled as Beta and given to the Beta backers.When Beta 2 comes along the first build is then first given to BOTH Alpha AND Beta1 backers. If it checks out it's pushed out to Beta2 backers.
When Gamma comes along it is first given to Alpha, Beta1 and Beta 2 backers and if it checks out it's pushed out to the Gamma folks. (In practice this will happen anyway since Beta2 will probably be feature-complete and only be relabeled to Gamma when stable enough.)
Release: Everyone gets it at the same time.
Done!
Can't they see this will only add to the polarisation between the 'testing' backer groups. How can a Beta user justify access delays when they already know Alpha users already have the product. Especially considering Alphans got their product delivered on time, and the Betans got it late.
Hey why not frustrate them further by delaying it further, and not only that, tease them with the knowledge that Alphans already have it for no particular valid reason apart from 'they are 'nice' for giving us so much more money'.
Long live the Queen.
Lovely stuff
I hardly think the reason for giving Alpha/Beta1/Beta2/Gamma backers the "game" earlier is because "no particular valid reason apart from 'they are 'nice' for giving us so much more money'."
The reason is more to do with scaling up the game to handle more and more players in a multiplayer setting. Perfectly valid and logical reason from a development point of view IMO.
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