I stop in every few months to see what is going on. My understanding from a couple of recent live streams is the game is still Alpha but does anyone know more specific details? Like is it early Alpha? Mid or late Alpha? I notice the pledge levels just state Alpha and Beta access.
Also what pledge level will get you in the game at this point in time? I pledged Knight level a few years back. Was wondering if I could upgrade to a higher level and get in the game now?
Thanks & peace out :)
I will reroute you the this month's newletter, that will surely answer most of your questions about the current state of the game.
http://www.pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/2018_august_under_wraps/
For the second question about pledge benefits, I can't say.
According to the devs, pre-alpha three now with pre-alpha four next and then alpha next year.
I'm curious, since they're already in pre-alpha three why aren't we seeing screenshots of more fleshed out areas? I understanding putting love into something, but what about other areas. I understand solid decision making to move production forward. I can count on both my hands the times I've worked on projects that were held up by idle minds overthinking the most basic of items only the make the project take longer than it needed. I don't know if that is the case here or you're all just too busy to take screenies. To be clear, I'm not trying to start anything here, but the lack of images has me wondering.
We've seen Black Rose Keep so many times now that we practically know what it will be like to go in there. I don't want to see everything to the point there isn't any mystery. How about some teasers of other areas, the world is massive.
:D thanks
Bronsun said:According to the devs, pre-alpha three now with pre-alpha four next and then alpha next year.
I'm curious, since they're already in pre-alpha three why aren't we seeing screenshots of more fleshed out areas? I understanding putting love into something, but what about other areas. I understand solid decision making to move production forward. I can count on both my hands the times I've worked on projects that were held up by idle minds overthinking the most basic of items only the make the project take longer than it needed. I don't know if that is the case here or you're all just too busy to take screenies. To be clear, I'm not trying to start anything here, but the lack of images has me wondering.
We've seen Black Rose Keep so many times now that we practically know what it will be like to go in there. I don't want to see everything to the point there isn't any mystery. How about some teasers of other areas, the world is massive.
:D thanks
I would not believe them to be sitting on idle minds. You do not believe that to build a house you must first lay a foundation that is solid? That is what they have been focusing on in my impression. The game streams have shown amazing stability during gameplay. They have shown more refinement of classes and their skills. They have implimented more classes to be played. They still have yet to show us more detail on things like enviorement effects, Mana gathering in artifacts, Colored mana effects on spells, actual quest lines, itemization, and classes effects on enviormental blockaids. Also have seen nothing yet on aclimation effects of items. Crafting and fishing... which is truly what I care about... hell its what keeped UO still up to this day. So crap ton of core functions to still be pubically released let alone refined in testing.
Game mechanics alone can cause entire projects to hit the scrap pile and never see the light of day.
I guess people don't understand what PRE in front of ALPHA means :)
More fleshed out zones? In PRE-Alpha?
It looks like they are testing core game mechanics to me. It is after all PRE alpha.
Look at some of the classes they just added. Looked like Frame work of the class as in testing out the core mechanic's of that class which would be resource generation and expendatures and how organic those can be baked into the frame work of the class.
We have seen different zones in other vids but those must not be ready for the pre alpha people just yet. My guess is they will be ready in PA-4 which is suppose to be this Fall/Winter time frame.
So till then we'll have to rely on Dev steams of what they polish up enough to show us ;)
2020-2021 does not sound far fetched if you think about it. If Pre Alpha is about a year and Alpha for almost as long with even more people in it then followed up by a 1-3 month beta test. Sounds about right to me.
Krugus said:I guess people don't understand what PRE in front of ALPHA means :)
More fleshed out zones? In PRE-Alpha?
It looks like they are testing core game mechanics to me. It is after all PRE alpha.
Look at some of the classes they just added. Looked like Frame work of the class as in testing out the core mechanic's of that class which would be resource generation and expendatures and how organic those can be baked into the frame work of the class.
We have seen different zones in other vids but those must not be ready for the pre alpha people just yet. My guess is they will be ready in PA-4 which is suppose to be this Fall/Winter time frame.
So till then we'll have to rely on Dev steams of what they polish up enough to show us ;)
2020-2021 does not sound far fetched if you think about it. If Pre Alpha is about a year and Alpha for almost as long with even more people in it then followed up by a 1-3 month beta test. Sounds about right to me.
Frankly you don't understand what it means either. Game companies are just making the **** up now. Every studio doing development comes up with their own definitions. Go check what Crowfall is in, and maybe Camelot unchained, and even Star citizen. It's all over the place.
I was always under impression that old school term for pre alpha was in-house testing. Alpha was select contributers to test out not just game mechanics but also stability issues with a population load. Closed beta was yet another increase in server population to get even more bug reports and game balance more finely tuned. Beta was basically a much much large testing group with game nearly finished final stability tests on servers for peak load emulation and very small amount of tweaking left to do. Closed beta, beta were typically when the entire map would have been fleshed out and game completed for play testing.
The only real reason they vary from one company to the next IMO is based on the experience of the game developers and size of the production staff. Ya must remember the typical time to create a MMORPG in traditional time frame is anywhere from 3-5 yrs. The staff on vanguard, prior to release, was 150 people. After release 50 remained to creat new content and improve game stability. Heck right now city of titans does not even have paid staff. They are all voulenteers. Normally the hype and excitement for the game would not even peak its head up till after all the pre-alpha, alpha phases were complete. Hell often times NDA were stil enforced during closed beta so only updates were still given by game company.
This whole showing off game during pre-alpha or alpha is still a very new concept to the now 20 yr industry of online rpgs. Sure as heck would not be getting in house gaming streams minus industry insiders and then the reporting was just a written article and if lucky shots of in game footage not actual gameplay. Definetly would not be getting, as we did this month, a public group stream on actual gameplay.
bobwinner said:too many people confuse pre-alpha for early access nowadays...
I definitely do not think that is the case. This game has a lot of dedicated fans who pledge their time and money to helping the game in any way that they can. As a result a lot of these players have earned the right to pre-alpha or alpha test the game and that is what everyone is excited for. The concesus seems to be that everyone really does want to get into the game to test it out and find all the bugs and glitches that can be found to help make the game better.
Early access is simply getting the game a week early.
Wikkyd said:Also what pledge level will get you in the game at this point in time? I pledged Knight level a few years back. Was wondering if I could upgrade to a higher level and get in the game now?
Hello @Wikkyd !
I was thinking of doing the same thing, I believe you can do it HERE.
EDIT
Only extra info on Pre-Alpha is that Alpha is a full functioning version of the game. Everything before(Pre Alpha, now) that is not. Pre Alpha could end in a few months of Pre Alpha 4 or it could roll into Pre Alpha 5. Pre Alpha might not finish till 2025 with pre alpha 45.
The pre-alpha pledge is the highest pledge of the VIP teir Pledges: Ascendant's Pledge. Its price starts at $10,000.00 and you can upgrade from your Knight's Pledge for $9,900.00.
Alpha access upgrades start with the Pathfinders Pledge, at $250.00, or $150.00 for your knights upgrade.