April Alpha

Splendour

Splendour
Amorelia said:
But for FD to completely ignore so many of the paying customer-base, many of whom have had the goodwill to fork out more than 3x the normal price of a retail product, is inexcusable.
Click to expand...

As a premium beta backer I entirely excuse them. I am happy they are working on the game and sending occasional updates rather then sending me a constant trickle of updates about technical coding issues I wouldn't understand.

I'll get my hands on the Beta when there is a Beta - for all I'm itching to get into the cockpit of a Cobra once more I can wait. Honest... *twitch*
 

JeffRyan

JeffRyan
Bobbydylan said:
Sad. If it's any consolation, the alpha isn't all that much fun. It's more loading and CTD than kills and asteroid dodging.
Click to expand...

It IS getting better now. Which is good news... getting closer.

EDIT: And we alpha guys aren't that much better, you should have seen the uproar in January when we weren't sure when Alpha 2 was coming out. The tone of those posts was very similar to this thread.
 

Bobbydylan

Bobbydylan
Luniticisi said:
Have you updated to 3.4 ? .. if so is it still behaving that way?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I thought 3.3 was pretty stable. I've not tried 3.4 yet as I'm at work ATM. Will try tonight. Hopfully the early release of 3.4 means alpha 4 is coming soon, and then Beta a few weeks after.
 

Luniticisi

Luniticisi
Bobbydylan said:
To be honest, I thought 3.3 was pretty stable. I've not tried 3.4 yet as I'm at work ATM. Will try tonight. Hopfully the early release of 3.4 means alpha 4 is coming soon, and then Beta a few weeks after.
Click to expand...
Oh, I do hope so ..I mean, what real problems can arise from "Travel and Trading" .. :eek:
 

Winterwalker

Winterwalker
devastat said:
And for me this isn't really about patience - it is about the fact that I invested a large sum of money into the project based on the premise that I would be taking part into testing an early version of the game sometime around January, and it is now April.
Click to expand...

To be fair all dates were clearly marked "estimated" .. and, at the end of the day did you invest in an unfinished turkey or a tested functional classic? I "invested", in the latter, so couldn't care less how long it takes, as long as it gets made.

Here's an engineering joke:

A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer were being interviewed.

They were given 2 brass ball bearings, left alone for a while,
and then the interviewer asked what they had done;

The Mathematician said: "I haven't done anything with them, but I've some interesting theories about 2-ness."

The Physicist said, "I haven't done anything with them either but I tried to balance one on the other, and have some clever ideas about friction."

The Engineer says, "... they broke."
 

Tinman

Tinman
Luniticisi said:
Oh, I do hope so ..I mean, what real problems can arise from "Travel and Trading" .. :eek:
Click to expand...

Depends on how many systems they are going to let us travel between. If there is several there might actually be less issues since people will meet less frequently and therefore not tax the netcode as much. The issues will still be there, but just not as apparent due to less traffic...

This is why they need to fix as much of this as possible before going to Alpha 4 IMO. Of course they could still arrange dates for stresstests around certain areas, but right now we are practically doing automatic stresstests since we are all in the same areas anyway.
 

Memnoch

M
Agreed. I'm sure its been said time and time again that there is no point in rushing forward needlessly to satisfy the desires of those waiting to get access and leave unfixed problems in our wake, which we will in fact then drag forward with us and due to the larger influx of players, magnify their effects many times.

Fix the important game breaking stuff first, then move forward, no matter how long it takes.

Beta comes after Alpha etc.
 

Crayfish

Crayfish
Bobbydylan said:
Sad. If it's any consolation, the alpha isn't all that much fun. It's more loading and CTD than kills and asteroid dodging.
Click to expand...
I'm nothing but happy for the alpha testers, if anything I wish the game were more stable than it is now as that would mean it would be closer to a releasable state.

What has consoled me the most is how impressive each subsequent alpha phase has been. The Coriolis space station in particular far exceeded my expectations. In the meantime I have the Chaos Reborn Kickstarter and Sui Generis alpha test keeping me occupied.

I am in agreement with those that have questioned Frontier's initial estimates however. One month between each phase seems more naive than would be expected from a mature company like Frontier Developments. My hope is that they were an honest mistake based upon a plan that has since changed.
 
Last edited:

devastat

D
Eyota Winterwalker said:
To be fair all dates were clearly marked "estimated" .. and, at the end of the day did you invest in an unfinished turkey or a tested functional classic? I "invested", in the latter, so couldn't care less how long it takes, as long as it gets made.
Click to expand...

I understand that it is an estimation, and I was expecting the release date to be a later than estimated, but when we are starting to closing in being 6 months late, to me that's misleading people into pledging large sums of money.

And why would I pledge for an early beta, if I would want to play a tested functional "classic" ?? I signed for the early beta to find bugs, report them, try to brake different game mechanics etc... that's what I love to do, I couldn't care less how many bugs there are or not.
 

Tinman

Tinman
Memnoch said:
Agreed. I'm sure its been said time and time again that there is no point in rushing forward needlessly to satisfy the desires of those waiting to get access and leave unfixed problems in our wake, which we will in fact then drag forward with us and due to the larger influx of players, magnify their effects many times.

Fix the important game breaking stuff first, then move forward, no matter how long it takes.

Beta comes after Alpha etc.
Click to expand...

Yep...also people need to keep in mind that far from all developers over at FD are involved in fixing bugs anyway, especially in the netcode. This is mainly on the shoulders of the programmers. The rest of them are still working away on all of the good stuff they HAVEN'T shown us yet! ;)
 

Luniticisi

Luniticisi
Mad Mike said:
alpha 3.4? so there was a new release today?

cool! :)
Click to expand...

As far as I know unless it was an evil April Fools joke by Michael Brookes

Originally Posted by Michael Brookes
Alpha 3.4 is now available, it should reduce the incidence of disappearing stations, so as always take a look and provide your feedback.

Michael
(I got this from HERE)

If it was an April fools joke, even though I'm not in Alpha I will head up to Cambridge ... pitch fork and burning torch in hand...
 

Winterwalker

Winterwalker
devastat said:
I understand that it is an estimation, and I was expecting the release date to be a later than estimated, but when we are starting to closing in being 6 months late, to me that's misleading people into pledging large sums of money.

And why would I pledge for an early beta, if I would want to play a tested functional "classic" ?? I signed for the early beta to find bugs, report them, try to brake different game mechanics etc... that's what I love to do, I couldn't care less how many bugs there are or not.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm pledged up to Beta too ..
I just don't see the point in worrying about when that will be :)
Beta will be less buggy, by definition, no? :(
:)
 

Iain M Norman

Iain M Norman
devastat said:
we are starting to closing in being 6 months late
Click to expand...

Utter guff!

It was estimated Jan.

So on 1st Feb it would be late.

So today that makes 59 days late!

Not sure how you got to 6 months, or even closing in on.

It's even less "late" if you take the word "estimated" into account.

:D
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
Luniticisi said:
As far as I know unless it was an evil April Fools joke by Michael Brookes

Originally Posted by Michael Brookes
Alpha 3.4 is now available, it should reduce the incidence of disappearing stations, so as always take a look and provide your feedback.

Michael
(I got this from HERE)

If it was an April fools joke, even though I'm not in Alpha I will head up to Cambridge ... pitch fork and burning torch in hand...
Click to expand...

No it's not a April Fool joke, :3.4 dropped today. :D

Glad to see the Developer log is useful.

And please remember to keep it civil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom