Need some clarification about the alpha.

[FD3242]

I am a little confused about what the alpha is actually going to be.

 

Are they going to make changes to the game to make it easier to progress for testing things, or is it going to just be the game as it's meant to be?

 

I have heard it both ways multiple times, none of the times from the devs. So which one is it? Or do we not know?

 

I am fine both ways I would just like to know.

 

[Kurosawa]

could be both, my guess is they will run the game as is. but add/change certain things they want tested.

[Zamarus]

I recall reading or seeing that Alpha will include multiple wipes and start bonuses to make sure players can test out as much things as possible.

[Anaximander]

This is not "Early Access". This is an Alpha test..

Alpha tests are usually staged. Usually devs will ask players to congregate in one place. Or log out and relog. That's what Alpha tests are.

The "MVP" or Minimum Viable Product (what Early Access games like Empyrion or Space Engineers are in essence) is where the Beta phase starts. Alpha is not about "playing the game before the others". That's just what shit game devs did for excusing their terrible game.

So no, if you hoped to play the game 2 years before anyone else, you will be thoroughly disappointed. I wouldn't be surprsied if the first month was simply bug-fixxing on login screens, or stress tests with players running in one specific location on the map. Sure, the Devs may elect to go for "here's the building part of the game in Alpha", but still it will be full of glitches and bugs, that's what Alpha is for, hunting down bugs and polisihing the turd that's a game after pre-alpha developement and up until Beta.

And yes, real Alphas are in stages. Alpha 1 would have buildng, so devs can focus on THAT aspect of the game and polish any bugs on it. Then they would move to flying ships, then on w/e else there is. They COULD hot-drop all the features they developed so far, but don't expect their priority list to match the individual's priority list. If flying crafts has bugs, tough luck, until the building bugs are all hammered out, there won't be any bugfixxing done on those.

You know, otherwise you are Space Empyrion Citizen game, going 6 years into an Alpha due to a scattershot of a developement phase and no prioritiies on bug-fixing. 

I have faith on JC, he's an engineer, engineers like doing things in a proper manner. Like for example, building the game as an MMO and the net-code coming first, rather than as an afterthought (glares at Space Empyrion Citizen). So I guess the Alpha will be done in stages. Not long ones, like monthly additions on top of each other or even weekly.

[Shynras]

What is confirmed :The alpha is meant to fix bugs and test things, it's not early access and some features necessary to make the sandbox work will be missing. There'll be a wipe at the end of alpha and at the end of beta.

My guess: they'll make us play the base game with all the features they have ready, like building and mining, since they decided to delay it to september specifically to give us a better experience, so they'll likely use it not only to test but to promote the game (so probably no NDA, i mean JC has never been scared of showing the state of the game). As far as we know (from the first devidiary i think) they already have a testing server with bots running fulltime (not sure if it's still the case), so since alpha players are not that many, I wouldn't be surprised if they'll keep the servers running most of the time. Another reason for that to happen is to test stuff you'd need more time to develop (big ships, rare bugs, ...) and to understand better how the player behaviour will shape the sandbox in the long term

[Anaximander]

What is confirmed :The alpha is meant to fix bugs and test things, it's not early access and some features necessary to make the sandbox work will be missing. There'll be a wipe at the end of alpha and at the end of beta.

My guess: they'll make us play the base game with all the features they have ready, like building and mining, since they decided to delay it to september specifically to give us a better experience, so they'll likely use it not only to test but to promote the game (so probably no NDA, i mean JC has never been scared of showing the state of the game). As far as we know (from the first devidiary i think) they already have a testing server with bots running fulltime (not sure if it's still the case), so since alpha players are not that many, I wouldn't be surprised if they'll keep the servers running most of the time. Another reason for that to happen is to test stuff you'd need more time to develop (big ships, rare bugs, ...) and to understand better how the player behaviour will shape the sandbox in the long term

I also think NDAs are ridiculous. NQ could ask the streamers to dislcaim it's Alpha footage and not the final game, but NDAs are so early 2000s, and they eventually don't work as intended.

[Ardour]

Don't plan on doing anything special with organizations and players during alpha. It's main purpose is to fix bugs, attract player attention, and get players ready for when the actual release is out... Imagine organization leaders not knowing anything and having no experience. That's why alpha is so important.

[ostris]

I used to think the alpha would be just pure testing and what not. However, the dev diary explaining the delay in alpha seemed to imply the are going for a more early access vibe. JC saying they wanted to have a more satisfying game loop in before alpha as an example. I will just assume multiple wipes and primary focus on testing until its confirmed otherwise but might be more of a real game then I first expected.

[FD3242]

So what I have gotten from all of this is that we don't know.

[jintzy]

This is a great question from mefsh...  It piques my interest because of the perspective. 

 

From the videos and media I have consumed so far, I believe alpha players will know enough to teach the new-comers later on.  From that I would assume we should be able to survive and experience a playable game but I don't expect them to have a ton of servers online (compared to release anyhow) so we may not be able to travel far from the arkship..  Or planet possibly....?

 

Basically what @Shynras said is how I see it.