Alpha to Beta

[Lord_Void]

Does anybody know if the Alpha will continue until the Beta or if there will be a gap of time between them? I hope it is fairly continuous so we don't have another long doldrum period with no game to play, but I have a feeling that there will definitely be a gap.

 

I was thinking about it today and I couldn't remember reading anywhere that said specifically.

[ATMLVE]

I imagine there will be; after all, what would be the point of differentiating between them? The beta will be open to more players, and the alpha players will have done lots of testing; thus, I feel it would be NQs style to at least make a very thorough update between alpha and beta.

 

All speculation, of course; there most likely isn't a definitive plan for this yet.

[DarkHorizon]

Instead of a lengthy holding period between stages, one would think that the developers would continuously optimize the game with live feedback from the alpha as opposed to waiting till the end of alpha, then going through all the feedback at once.

 

Then again, maybe I'm too eager to start playing.

[Hades]

I imagine there will be; after all, what would be the point of differentiating between them? The beta will be open to more players, and the alpha players will have done lots of testing; thus, I feel it would be NQs style to at least make a very thorough update between alpha and beta.

 

All speculation, of course; there most likely isn't a definitive plan for this yet.

 

From my experience alphas are used to bring feedback into the game and iron out bugs and unintended game mechanics, continually.  Once the game reaches a point where the developers think all they have to do is add more content, then they push the game to Beta.  Sometimes there can be a gap if they need to push a new server architecture or something, but generally they are straight through.

 

Agreed though, no idea until it happens I suppose ^^

[Croomar]

I can't remember NQ stating their exact plans either, but you can often suspect a developers intention from the way they handle and phrase certain things.

Typically, "Alpha" refers to a single, continuous testing phase for most developers, whereas developers like to use "Alpha-testing" on their websites to indicate multiple testing phases. Some of those choose to open up the servers for a few days with limited features, collect player feedback and work on that until the next testing phase. It's however noticeable that these games have usually received close to zero marketing and information for public access. And through limited access, the games are also rather in a pre-alpha state. So the phase-wise testing is commonly used for games that are in a VERY early state and have just started to become playable.

That tells us a bit, because the way alpha and beta phases are used is less a developer choice than more a necessity based on the way a developer constructs his game.
From the devblog and dev dairy we know that NQ  has been building on the game for years now, they have a clear vision, concrete ideas and a goal. They have also stated that they use a lot of placeholders and are beginning polish on certain aspects. Which in turn tells us that what they plan to deliver is suppsed to be a stable and fundamentally enjoyable experience.

Also, when devs want to intrduce multiple alpha launches they usually know it beforehand and state that in forums, founder packs and news. Something like "Access to all alphas" or "Access during the timeframe of alpha" or the likes.
In the pledge section, NQ describes an "Alpha Access Key" in singular and same for the beta key. That may not tell us much, but might hint on their mindset of a continuous alpha.
Then again, having in mind what I said before, multiple alphas are well suited for extensive testing, so when devs want to receive feedback on specific features instead of presenting an early version of their game like it's often the case with Steam Early Access titles. Seeing the Kickstarter and Facebook comments from NQ, they see Alpha as a duty rather than early access for loyal fans.

So, we have different signs we could try to interpret. According to the way NQ handled their production in the past and their progressive views on their game, I think a continuous alpha is not only more intelligent but also more likely. But that's only an opinion based on previous experiences.
Although it's also quite common that there is a certain downtime of a few weeks right before beta launch, and that really just depends on how well the content is they implemented until then. 

[Lord_Void]

Thanks for the replies. That's all pretty much what I'd thought. I am sure there will definitely be at least a month between the two testing phases, which isn't really a bad thing since it will give people some time to reflect and plan. (I imagine Beta is when the orgs are going to really start testing out their plans to compete with each other.) I do hope it isn't too much longer than a month or two, just for the sake of keeping activity levels high and giving people something to do. In the end though, the have to do what they have to do to deliver a high quality game at launch. 

[Shynras]

I doubt there'll be a too big of a gap, since they plan on going from pre-alpha to release in a year and a half.

[wizardoftrash]

It depends on whether or not DU will get a "traditional" development cycle alpha, or if it will get a "greenlight" style alpha.

 

A "traditional" development cycle does sporadic alpha tests, often with downtime periods to implement changes. Server-side games (like a single shard mmo for example) would be limited uptime, so that in-between uptimes the development team will be able to make tweaks. The design team would work on new content until it is ready, and then there would be a gap of several days to a couple of weeks where development implements the new content before alpha testing resumes. With the traditional cycle, there is usually a big difference between alpha and beta. Alpha is more geared towards getting new core content systems into the game and working, beta is more about polishing and rebalancing existing game elements, and implementing less essential core elements. This means a significant downtime between Alpha and Beta, so that the Design and Development teams can plan what kinds of changes they are testing for in beta and in what order. Often times traditional games use Beta testing primarily for server load (stress testing) and user feedback for re-balancing, tutorial design, ui design, and future updates.

 

A "greenlight" development model is more iterative, attempting at each development phase to create a "complete" game for players to play during Alpha and Beta. They still use Alpha to add bigger content portions to the game, but the line between alpha and beta will be blurred. Greenlight projects often use the shift from Alpha to Beta to signal that they are shifting from adding new features (depth) to focusing on performance and iterative content (variety). Since NQ announced that they are delaying access to Alpha so that they can provide a more complete play cycle at that stage, it looks as though DU's alpha and beta will be a bit more like a "greenlight" project. We don't really know what features will be there day 1 for the Alpha, but I've got a hunch that the bulk of the game's actual mechanics will already be present when the game shifts from alpha into beta. The fact that there is a minimum cutoff for who will actually be included in the alpha might be a good thing: you won't get people throwing money down and expecting a complete game on day 1 like often happens with Green-light projects on Steam. Assuming NQ still allows people to pledge into Gold level and higher after Alpha has already started, a really playable alpha will mean a big injection of revenue as lower pledged backers will want to upgrade and people on the fence will finally throw-in.

 

There isn't a way to know for sure, but I've got a hunch it will be more continuous, with minor gaps during the Alpha and Beta for big updates, and possibly an outage for a couple of weeks in-between Alpha and Beta. The smart play might be for NQ to make implementing the Beta mechanics a part of the alpha, slow-rolling the content until the transition is seamless.