Early Access

[psykokow]

beta blockers !!! YAY!! lol..

I really think FD have their own ideas here for what they want to happen and the only reason we don't know is because it's their aim to get there.. but things can change.

When I think of some of the proposals in the DDF and how Frontier listened and changed things, that has a huge impact on their development plans..

Also be honest here... IF you have the multiplayer Alpha on your workstation while you're 'meant' to be 'working' and they need feedback and bugs hunted prior to the alpha test (call it pre-alpha testing), then could you EVER get any work done?? lol...


I take my hat off to frontier.. they are doing a wonderful job on the game which is the KEY important point, communication have waned over January but they are actually working desperately to get ALpha 2.0 out.

So to those unsung hero's please forgive our impatience, our unreasonable demands.. we all want this soo much and we don't mean to take the fun out of the forums. We want to be Elite.

*surveys post to see how far off topic he got*

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I take my hat off to frontier.. they are doing a wonderful job on the game which is the KEY important point, communication have waned over January but they are actually working desperately to get ALpha 2.0 out.

Of the all people we should know FD never slacks around. Michael works on weekends, sometimes releases some stuff to us, answer questions, etc.

In case when you strive to do your best, delays happens. Also Michael said that they added little extra to this build, without specifying what. It's not supercruise because it's covered by travel, but it is definitely something tasty. Let's wish them luck with getting code right in first go, so they could release next phases faster.

 

[Bruce Turnbull]

I for one have never said anything against FD and the work they put in, I think they are fantastic, I may have my own issues with people on here, moderators, some users and some psykokow bloke, but not with FD.

My point, before my thread was hijacked..... Was, was there any reason why we, as funders of the game to lesser or greater degree, could not get the alpha missions earlier than the people who come in and buy the game for £30-35 when it's finished. Maybe if you have just backed the game... £50 you could get them at the second Beta point, if you have paid for second Beta (ME) you could get them when the first Beta is out.

ALL the Alpha players will be busy playing first Beta when this happens so won't even notice........ maybe......... maybe not. Of course some people will winge, but surely as far as FD is concerned, the more people who get their hands on the Alpha, publicise and show off their good work the better.......... oh sorry........... IMO

 

[Kroy]

My point, before my thread was hijacked..... Was, was there any reason why we, as funders of the game to lesser or greater degree, could not get the alpha missions earlier than the people who come in and buy the game for £30-35 when it's finished. Maybe if you have just backed the game... £50 you could get them at the second Beta point, if you have paid for second Beta (ME) you could get them when the first Beta is out.

This thread has happened at least once before

 

[jedt]

This thread has happened at least once before

only once?

that must be a record.

 

[Bruce Turnbull]

I DID actually look for a similar thread but didn't find anything, so sorry for the duplication. Having read the old posts there doesn't seem to be ANY kind of answer from FD. Not that I saw anyway, as you can tell me search ability is somewhat lacking so if anyone did see and comment from FD by all means let me know.

 

[Geraldine]

This thread has happened at least once before

Thanks for that Kroy, threads merged.

 

[Bruce Turnbull]

Did we ever get any reply from FD about this matter? maybe when Alpha 2.0 comes out???

 

[Zarconian]

They just posted a newsletter in the announcements section, they said Alpha 2.0 will most likely be released on February 3rd.

 

[alchemy42]

I'm of two minds on this.

In theory it sounds fine. Rational side of my brain likes it.

Not so rational side would be annoyed that Beta players get to play what I ponied up money to play (i.e. I'm someone who bought into the Alpha based on the offer made by FD last week).

A compromise might be that every alpha version that comes out let's you buy into the alpha at a steeper discount. So early access to Alpha 2.0 would still cost you, but less than it cost me to get into Alpha 1.1.

 

[Bruce Turnbull]

I'm of two minds on this.

In theory it sounds fine. Rational side of my brain likes it.

Not so rational side would be annoyed that Beta players get to play what I ponied up money to play (i.e. I'm someone who bought into the Alpha based on the offer made by FD last week).

A compromise might be that every alpha version that comes out let's you buy into the alpha at a steeper discount. So early access to Alpha 2.0 would still cost you, but less than it cost me to get into Alpha 1.1.

I can see your point of view, but the true aim of an alpha test is just that, a test. As I said previously, you can't have too much testing information.

I've signed up to the second beta, cost me £80, when I go to the shop it still tells me it's going to cost me £200 for Alpha..... I just can't do it.

Once the first Alpha is finished why not give us a chance to have go with it? As far as I can see there would be no overheads involved, no support needed from FD. After all said and done, we aren't going to have a go and then NOT buy the game, we've already bought it.

 

[KickahasTier]

Due to

a)The extended development time frame
b)That some people just paid for alpha access
c)FD need testers

A date should be set a month from now when all beta 1 gets access to alpha.

 

[munkor]

sorry, but no. delays happen and im pretty sure FD have all the testers they need. They 'should' do what they want to do, not be dictated to by a lot of forum warriors.

 

[Bruce Turnbull]

Still no reply from FD either way. Is it not possible to get some kind of answer?

Is it just a total non-starter of an idea?

 

[Dejay]

Is it just a total non-starter of an idea?

There will be gamma access for people who preordered, before general release. I'm not sure how that will differ from simply buying the game before it's officially released but anyhow Beta 2 is rather cheap too. As a backer you got other rewards besides early acces (which I would gladly get but unfortunately I was too late. For example the permanent start with a cobra which could provide a big advantage in Ironman).

 

[Dr Wookie]

Still no reply from FD either way. Is it not possible to get some kind of answer?

Is it just a total non-starter of an idea?

I can't remember off the top of my head who, but several people have the FD reply as their sigs... Michael Brookes says beta starts when alpha is finished.

I'm all for letting people play alpha 1.1 as a quick combat demo down the road, but you can't waive alpha prices and ask for alpha perks !

 

[Cody]

Michael Brookes says beta starts when alpha is finished.

As a Beta-2, that's fine by me - I neither expect, nor wish for, early access.

 

[Wardiaper]

I'm torn. I think having separate access with alpha and beta premium and regular beta Frontier screwed themselves out of a ton of money. The perks should have been naming systems and other things, but they should have opened testing to everyone like Star Citizen.

I bought into the $75 level of Star Citizen (you can get in for as little as $40) because of sticker shock looking at Elite (I much preferred Elite over Star Citizen). I was fortunate to get a nice bonus at work and bought Elite Premium Beta. Then a couple of nights ago in a fit of lust I upgraded to Alpha.

Unless Frontier has a limited capacity to serve a certain number of players, I would be all for letting beta lag behind alpha by one version. I think that would bring a ton of money into Elite instead of watching Star Citizen announce another million dollar milestone every 2 weeks ($39 million now?) while Elite is bringing in maybe 1/10 of that money. I honestly think Elite's pricing drove a lot of money to Star Citizen, even though Star Citizen only has a stupid hangar to walk around and look at your glitchy ship sitting idle. Elite has shown their pew-pew and it must have been a lot better than SC was expecting to make them delay their own dogfighting module for months.

Star Citizen has shown one video of them playing their dogfighting module (which honestly I wasn't impressed and who knows the specs of those machines? Why no actual vid capture and having to film standing back 10 feet from the monitors?). Otherwise, they have only shown nice shiny brochures of how to part with your money by adding yet another ship to you hanger and some nice prerendered cinematics. Elite has shown their actual gameplay and blown everyone away. Elite should be raking in the cash 10x what SC is bringing in, yet in this crazy world people are throwing their money at promises. The difference is a product that can be bought for as little as $40 and one that costs $336 to try right now. SC's cash flow should be dried up now that Elite has shown they have the goods and not just an enormous list of promises.

We all want Elite to be the best and have access to the most money and resources for development right? Bring your pricing into the realm of reality and watch the bank account explode. I think kickstarters getting their feelings hurt is hurting Frontier. They should either offer something in exchange for the extra money like naming things in the game, ships, etc., or even refund those people that are truly outraged and let Frontier start bringing in the big money from people chomping at the bit to play this game and willing to part with $100 (USD and not that expensive British money). I spent a total of $336 for alpha. Most people have a cap of $100. I'm just stupid, impulsive, and fortunate (not to reflect on the game which is fantastic beyond all expectations so far).

 

[Rog]

I paid up to Beta. I didn't cough for Alpha. I expect to get access to Beta, not Alpha.

I want access to Alpha, and I want the game to be brilliant and skip all the testing phases, alas, life ain't like that.

Let's just wait for the development process to complete, and we will all be mostly happy. Eventually.