Beta Access

[Bacalao]

Worst part about it is, after it releases, they aren't going to touch the balancing for at least 3 more months. As much as they kept harping on "You (the players) will help us balance it! That's what betas are for!" ...it really rings hollow for the rest of the playerbase. So much enthusiasm and potential wasted.

So much shortsightedness and impatience expressed in one post. It's silly to assume only beta input affects gameplay changes, there are good reasons for not tweaking the game every week. 3 months is a pretty sweet spot for balancing passes. It takes time for players to generate data (aside from rants on the forums) and for FD to collect and analyze it, then to come up with solutions, implement them and release them.

 

[Moonax IRL]

This thread, surprisingly, is my opinion, so please don't jump down my throat and read what I have to say. Thank you.
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So as we all probably know, beta access is for testing and experimenting with the new additions to the game, whilst suggesting balances and ideas to go forwards also. On the negative side, at the start of the Horizons season we were required to pay for such access. In F2P games, early development games and nearly all MMOs (with beta), everyone is able to enjoy it in some way or another with full access (or a special event whilst the developers alone test the new content). Unfortunately, if we didn't pay for the beta access (yes, I said pay) at the start of the season, we cannot test, experiment etc. in the 2.1 beta. Now, being an MMO with P2P (pay to play) is one thing, which I accept, and having horizons, or expansions (which I also accept), but (in my opinion, again) having to pay along side this content for a feature (beta) which should be free in the first place is slightly annoying. I could go into more detail regarding the current gameplay and how things are made to deliberately be more time consuming (I'm looking at you, station modules and you, hyperspace jump, but I won't since that's petty and/or childish to complain about.
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Now yes, I understand the developers need the money to create more content, but games like Warframe or LoL are free to play with zero expansions. Bearing in mind they both have micro-transactions (platinum or Riot Points), so before you shoot me down for this, So does E: D. Paint jobs are definitely such a thing. Albeit there isn't a premium currency you can pay for, but we can admit the cost of the game, and its similarly priced expansion definitely make up for the cost.
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So, back to the beta; why must we pay for the beta in the first place? Shouldn't the cost of the game/expansion cover that already? And no, Beta is certainly not a valid expansion as it is a phase nearly every game has to go through at some part in the update/development period. Although this would still be 'pushing it' a bit, at least allow us to pay for beta as a one-time purchase (it isn't even on the store now... which technically limits their income from Horizons (since they lose out on money they could potentially gain from a permanent beta access)... or even charge for beta access during the beta phase, allowing us to purchase access whenever a beta period is on.
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Another thing contributing to this 'rant (debate, shall we?)' is the confusing way that Horizons is split into seasons. We paid for the expansion (costing nearly the base game) which, at the horrendous price it is (since we can only land on planets as of now, without much purpose...) so why should we have to buy yet another pass to unlock future versions of it? Now I can't elaborate on this because I don't know what actually will be added in future expansions, but when atmospheric landings come out, we should definitely not have to pay for that, too (heck, that should already be in the expansion! IN MY OPINION). I get that walking around the cockpit, cities on the planets, interactive people and AIs will be available, maybe even base building, which I understand should be released in separate expansions but, again, atmospheric landings should come as a free update in one of the... 'seasons'...
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Anyway, that's it from me. Please don't go too hard on me in the comments, have a nice day.
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EDIT: just to clarify, I'm not 'complaining' about the fact beta isn't free directly. Yes, that's a big downer, but the main thing is why can't I purchase it now?? As said below, that's leaving money on the table.. But some of us DO have jobs (I'm 14, so I don't have jobs, or money...) and we don't have infinite money. Some people have spent up to $200 on this game - that's saying something...
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Based on the response of those who disagree, I definitely agree with the "server load" that will be required for if beta was free for all. Instead, frontier could simply add a time lock on the game - say 100 hours played (just an epaying) required for beta access. Yes, people might just leave they're computer on all night, but the electricity bill will end up paying for the beta anyway, so it is much easier and more beneficial to actually play the game and earn those 100 hours. This way, all the newer players with (assumed) less experience of the game will not be able to take part in the beta, increasing the opportunity for less server load and more experienced testers. Said below, it isn't just about this player has X kills or X planets or X anything, but how diverse they have played and explored assets in the game. Not many have been to Obsidian orbital and fomented on how blue the planet is below because of the blue star. Same goes for the beta - not many have had the chance to actually take part, but they still made the journey leading up to it, only to be disappointed. Yes, my exact thoughts were “so I payed for the game and its expansion. I bought the season pass because, bravo frontier, wheres the lifetime pass? (It had gone off sale. What?). I was pretty disappointed in horizons as a whole anyway, and now they're locking me out of beta because i didnt arrive to the party early enough? What?! No! Beta should be free because the developwrs need as many people testing as they can, even if theyre just playing! If they find a bug, they will probably speak up about it anyway and slap it on the bug report. Just because they want to play earlier by all means does not mark them down as "you're only doing it to play, so you can't take part". Honestly frontier definitely need to rethink this.”
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And again for the millionth time, that my opinion so please don't kill me over that. Also, yes I'm arguing over 10 pounds. TEN pounds. Yes that's the whole pounds to play an incomplete part of the game which we already played for. This should be the last edit, but if I need to clarify more, I will.

Its called capitalism, simple supply and demand and I have a bit more than 200 dollars in the game. No freebies in life I`m afraid, its best to learn that in life early it avoids confusion.

 

[freedom4556]

So much shortsightedness and impatience expressed in one post. It's silly to assume only beta input affects gameplay changes, there are good reasons for not tweaking the game every week. 3 months is a pretty sweet spot for balancing passes. It takes time for players to generate data (aside from rants on the forums) and for FD to collect and analyze it, then to come up with solutions, implement them and release them.

I hope you can forgive my impatience, seeing as we're six months from the last content drop. I've been around since almost the beginning, and am in it for the long haul.

As to your second point, if it takes so long to do anything with feedback, then why beta test at all? Just release and wait. I'm interested in your "good reasons" to not patch often, if you'd like to share.

 

[Archvillain]

As I said here, speaking as someone who has beta access and also no intention of using it to participate in the beta, I really don't think you're missing out on anything.

I think you have an understandably strong perception that you're missing the party! That the game-input grass is greener over that fence, but... actually I think that's mistaken! A red-herring

The kind of game input you'll get in the beta is not much and not interesting compared to other avenues already available to you IMHO. My observation is that with Elite Dangerous, the forums and other avenues have more game design influence on the game than the betas, because betas are narrowly scoped to test things that have already been designed and built and are already pretty much carved in stone, whereas in the forums you can raise ideas and have discussions and show off things you created etc., and I've seen those influence the direction of the game far more fundamentally than some beta finetune tweak.

(That doesn't mean yell in the forums or make "if they don't do this the game will die!" posts, but thoughtfully use the avenues FDev makes available to the community, constructively, in the knowledge that (like the beta) you will never know if anyone (beyond other players) paid any attention, yet the game might - years later - incorporate something that while not at all like anything you ever suggested, serves the same underlying function as something you suggested, and thus indirectly fulfills that wish. And you'll never know you had a hand in what the game became, but you ended up getting your wish (sort of) so... win! )

 

[Red Anders]

As someone who has witessed the complete cluster-f that open access beta testing turns into, I think FD's decision to charge for beta access is an entirely good thing because there's a far greater chance that the people who paid for access to it have a genuine interest in actually testing rather than just spending a week messing around flying Anacondas into stars and so on.

Someone will now tell me that I'm impuning their good nature and the despite the fact they didn't pay for beta access, they are interested in nothing but selflessly dedicating themselves to the community for a week. Save yourself some typing; I'm sorry but I just don't care.

 

[Bokugo]

What they're doing now is not limiting the beta testers to dedicated individuals with the idea if testing, but people who are willing to pay for first dibs. It is unfair to those who are willing to test by paying for beta, if they came too late to buy it.

Lol ok. It sounds like those dedicated individuals have paid attention then and took the opportunity when it arose

 

[excalibus]

Paid betas don't filter at all by skill/talent/playtime/dedication. They filter by money. Certainly what you look for in a good tester.

With a financial investment the people involved in the beta are more likely to report problems and less likely to just look at the shinies...

Also the reason they charge for beta is beacause as mentioned, in the kickstarter and pre beta campaigns there was a level where you brought into early access which included beta testing etc. to give that away for 'free' now would be a kick in the balls to all those people that brought into that level.


@OP When I brought the game, I brought into Beta 1 access, I thought I was buying all beta access for the rest of the games development cycle, until the leadup to the Horizons season beta release when it become apparent we would have to buy beta access for each season, at that time they had the Lifetime Expansion Pack available on the store which gives access to all expansions and beta access.

I agree with you that they should have beta access available on the store prior to each beta release. maybe at a reducing cost as the season commences.

Atmospheric planets will be a different season expansion but I do I agree it should have been part of the horizons season itself IMHO. I do expect that when they release the atmospheric planets season we should see a lot of content added to those planets, we should expect to be able to walk around on planet surfaces by then and we should definitely be able to experience travelling through planetside sprawling cities not just small villiages etc.


Horizons is a season of it's own, split into release components of the season (2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and possibly 2.4) and the 'content' of those components has been documented on these forums, with 2.1 being the engineers component with looting and crafting, and 2.4 being left intentionally a mystery. I was concerned early on about the timing of the 2.1 release (being june 2016) with regards to delaying the realse of the othe components of the season, but after seeing how it has been progressing, I suspect that a lot of the work that has been done behind the scenes for the 2.1 release already includes the majority of the code and systems structures for the rest of the season, so hopefully we will see components 2.2 released around August / September and , 2,3 around October / November with Horizons 2.4 being released in conjunction with Elite Dangerous 1.7 for the and <Insert Season Name> 3.0 for the next season mid to late December.

 

[Jenner]

the simple truth here is that the early backers of the game and those that paid a huge sum for the LEP get beta access ... I wouldn't be adverse to anyone being able to buy into the Beta for any X amount of cash .. but I am pretty sure there would be a lot of people who did pay a lot of money for the privilege being upset .. Now this kind of thread will come up every single time that there is a beta, that's beyond question.. the answer will always be the same .. those that backed the game and those that paid over the odds for the LEP have Beta access .. everyone else doesn't until FD decide so.

It doesn't matter what other games have done in the past, this is FD's game and FD's model .. it seems unfair to some and they may be right .. but then again FD might be very happy with what they have.

Exactly this.

 

[Jenner]

Closed at request of OP.