@Thordin They still intend for certain material refinemime to ent processes to take a bit of real time to accomplish, so expect smelting to stay at around 4 hrs or so.
As to exchange rates, this game is a 100% player driven economy, so the game won't be publishing exchange rates at all. We, the player community will determine the value of our goods by what we buy and sell them at on a case by case basis.
@Grapher except maybe a charge or bullrush ability, movement speed affecting damage would indeed be confusing.
As for Fractured (and many other games) using stats reminiscent of D&D, that's pretty much axiomatic considering MMOs were directly born of a desire to take games like D&D and move them to a computer sim format. The first MMOs grew out of MUDs, MOOs, MUCKs and MUSHes, which were all written primarily by D&D and ex-D&D players. This is especially true of games like Ultima Online, which was a variation on the Ultima franchise of Computer games, which was written by a group of long time D&D players.
@dallonz88 This also assumes, unlike other MMOs out there, that Fractured won't be using an Anti-Macro detection software. It is becoming standard on a lot of games to try (mostly unsuccessfully, mind you) to limit Bot-play
I think he meant to say Heartily Need a New MMO.... or even Whole Heartedly
Many streamers can give away free keys as part of the affiliate program once they reach a certain level.
In addition, usually, although not always, right after an official Alpha play phase, a week or so later, they Devs have a tendency to reopen the Alpha server for like a 3 to 5 day Open Playtest/Stress Test cycle allowing non key holders a chance to get just a taste of the actual game play, so you might expect it like the 2nd week in May
@Thordin Almost all Alpha phases are initially planned for 1 month, but are sometimes extended
Steam will more than likely not get the game until full release, as was said, they are harsh on early releases as well as Alpha/Beta testing.
@drfate786 I think you have a major misconception about what Alpha and Beta testing is about. Developers are the ones that go through and test the way you seem to think Alpha testers should be doing.
Alpha testers, followed by Betas are there to give a smaller than full release sample audience testing environment. A small, usually invited group of testers who play the game as if it were in full release, knowing it's an Alpha/Beta so they don't necessarily complain about what would be finished product issues, but rather, go through the mechanics over and over en masse in order to reproduce common bugs that the end users will thus not have to deal with, as well as ironing out mechanical interaction issues that a controlled tester might NEVER find because of their more controlled, systematic method of playing the game. Often bugs and exploits of said bugs are discovered because the 'player' did something not expected by the development team and thus triggered an unforeseen outcome that they might be able to use to their advantage, or conversely, might ruin their account and make them start over completely.
Also, as Logain said, QA testers aren't developers, they are paid in-house testers who are just sometimes given specific assigned tasks to go over for bugs, and the only real required skill isn't being an expert coder or even gamer, but rather the ability to write a detailed bug report. They are underpaid, and frankly, if these guys were to find an actual Exploit in-game, if they thought they could get away with it, just like any other player, they might keep it to themselves to exploit when the game goes live for their own benefit anyway.
The fact of the matter is, by running an open Alpha/Beta test cycle, the developers save money on paid testers, AND open themselves up to a much more rigorous testing process, as these 'un-paid' testers are going to run the game through a much harder workout than a 9-5er playing the game for a paycheck.
@LtKrunch As I understand it, their combat vision is based around a click based movement arrangement and a keyboard system would not give the same feel. Also, as a programmer, I know that some gamers use multi-button programmable joysticks to play games and if you give a key-map to movement, you can include said movement variations and combinations into the mapping to said joysticks and gamepads, thus granting those types of players a possible response time advantage in PvP combat. I know it was a real boon when I used to play Mechwarriors 3 with my Wingman Warrior Joystick and Paddle combo back in the day. (One of the only shooter-type games or PvP type games I really ever participated in fully)
@stef0ra ahhh, you just said on Mobile, I stay away from Apple Products personally, as most apps are developed first for Android, then ported to Apple afterwards and thus the apple vs is often buggier
I went the opposite route, I chose the Northern town first, not even seeing the southern town available, then switched to the southern area to be closer to the Veil of Shadows...easier gold accumulation than the Goblin Hills, and more interesting Mobs
@stef0ra On the main Fractured site, there's an X that shows up above the menu to close it.
On the Forums, you simply tap anywhere outside the menu and it closes automatically
In general, each Alpha test is set to go for about a month, but may get extended depending on circumstances.
@GamerSeuss For Ultima Online, I can't really offer any proof this late in the game. If you happen upon an original EverQuest guide, and turn to the back where the credits are, you'll see Clyde Starr listed as a Beta Tester right there. Also, somewhere around this mess of a house, I also have a set of the programmers autographs on a piece of EverQuest stationary as well.
Regardless, I feel its not something I need to prove or disprove, because the nature of the beast is what we're talking about, and it is still valid that this is how Alphas and Betas are run. Granted, like I said, often, Alphas are closed or very limited invite list testing phases, often done by in-house testers or a professional benchmark group nowadays, but smaller publishers are starting to go with the open Alpha format because they get more backers AND more eyes on their product prior to it releasing to beta and the much less forgiving public. Alpha testers are supposed to realize going in that the game is far from complete and still open to much change. Beta is more set, and they are just ironing out bugs and adding in variable features that are less likely to cause major issues with the code/mechanics, and more QoL for the players for when the game goes live, so they can say the whole game was tested and they don't just spring something new into the game when it's live and nnobody has had a chance at it before.
@drfate786 You are confusing Betas with Alphas.
When a game gets to its Beta phase of testing is when you generally see most of the coding done and they are just looking to clean up the code and add some new variety features. Alpha is usually almost entirely done internally, rarely is it open to the public at all, and it is exactly what Fractured is doing right now, in the midst of coding snippets of the game, they send those snippets out to be tested.
As to when to announce, the ONLY time a definite date should be mandated is 1. within 2 weeks of that date, so peoplecan prepare to participate, and 2. When announcing the actual game launch. EVERY other date should be left nebulous to allow the developers to adjust on the fly without disappointing too many expectations.
The fact that they have made the Alpha testing phase open to backers is nice, but that doesn't change what an Alpha test is, nor the expectations of an Alpha testing phase. The only other testing they are getting is the internal testing, or Pre-Alpha before they release it to us to get a wider view of their work.
I have been testing MMOs since the very first MMO hit the market, Ultima Online, and this is pretty much how its supposed to go. Your expectations are unreasonable and you need to actually readjust your thinking to the phase of testing that we're in. Don't treat this as a Beta-Test just because it is not being done internally, and don't confuse a testing phase announcement with a release announcement...even release announcements can be subject to change, but all testing phase announcements are fluid and dynamic in nature, by the nature of the beast.
@Gothix This skill is in a very very very advanced skill tree, and the unlock for it is a total nail-biter!
This is a case of someone who just didn't read anything before really investing in the game.
All over the website, it is made clear this game is in Alpha testing, especially when you go to buy into the game, and are rewarded 'Alpha Access' to the game.
When the game didn't look like it would have an Alpha ready in February, they did in fact post an update, not to mention since they just give the month of the prospective Alpha, you have an entire month to look forward to that update, and it gives them an entire month to decide if they need to announce a delay because of what's been going on.
The trouble is, maybe, the fact that they kept up the link to the Dev Updates on the website, but they have not really been utilizing that for quite some time now. Those of us on the mailing list all get emails within a few days of the most recent update coming out, with a link to the update for us to ready and understand, and frankly, other than the delay, the update was GOOD NEWS!
They say a fool and his money is soon parted, well, you can be a fool who invests in something good, if you don't learn about what your investing in to make sure you actually get the full advantage of said 'something good' just as much as you can be lured in by a scam. You do in fact need to READ what's out there before blindly throwing your money at it with expectations...nuf said
They never give dates until those dates are A. Definite, and B. within 2 weeks of the release.
This is done for a few reasons I'm sure...
1. is to prevent people from claiming they are not meeting expectations on announced dates, a serious breach of trust,
2. is to give them as much leeway as possible in the announced month to tackle any complications in the new coding that comes up while they are internally testing what they have before serving things out to us. They definitely don't want to give us an inferior product experience when a couple more days will generally alleviate that concern.
3. In general, when they do release, and they give us a specific month, there is always the chance that the release will end up pushed off into the next month, and that's excusable, and for that reason they generally schedule such releases of the Alpha test near the end of the month, not the beginning.
As I said in a pervious thread about this, I wouldn't expect the release anytime until after the 20th, of course, it being the 10th now, push it back even further, probably the last week in the month, if not delayed again...and this is Alpha, delays happen, you should never expect hard and fast release schedules for either Alpha or Beta phases, the only hard and fast numbers that matter in this regard are the actual game release, and release dates for platform ports if any.
@Pirdragon I don't remember which thread they said it on, but they pretty much confirmed that a Steam version would be availabe, but not until full release of the game, no Alpha or Beta
@aKaDeMiK It was originally supposed to begin Late February, but some delays were felt, and so it moved to March, but when in March hasn't been said yet...I'm anticipating Late March, like sometime around March 20th or so, unless another delay happens (which is common in Alpha Testing, so not a worry)