My brother and I played for 2 hours this morning in LAN.
So. There a lot of bugs (it's normal)... but i have those feelings about the game : The map is too light. We don't have the oppression that we could feel in NS1. The map is too square and too small. In fact, level design is boring. We hate that idea of the alien commander.
For the other things, i'm juste very enthusiastic and i'm looking forward for the coming updates ;o)
PS : Sorry for the mistakes i could make in this message.
Don't forget these maps currently do not have DI running or anything of the sort, it's just basic stuff for some small gameplay.
For those getting 5~ FPS, not sure what to tell you, i get about 35-50fps, the only time this drops and the game becomes unplayable is whenever there are more than like 8 people.
This is still an Alpha people, this is what you paid for. I can obviously tell that most of you have never been involved in an Alpha before, but that's fine, now you'll know exactly what it's all about. There will be bugs, there will be fixes, there will be discussions, there will be results. In the end we'll reach a build where everything is starting to run as it should, and then gameplay suggestions will probobly be looked into.
So right now their major concern is more than likely, Server performance, optimizing the engine for better FPS, netcode and stuff of that sort. After all of that is fixed, then we'll probobly see stuff such as Walljumping being implimented, then more chambers will be added, more weapons/upgrades etc.
Just give the game some time it was initial released hell, whenever the game was released on HL1, we ended up having 350-1000ping, Charlie got his ass working and fixed everything up, now with him AND Max, trust me ###### will get done, and it'll be wonderful ;D
There does seem an awful lot of people who think Alpha is the same as Beta.
Right now, the bar for expectations should be set around the "can i get to the main menu when i start the game" sort of area. If that works for you, everything else is candy. Its bonus.
<!--quoteo(post=1786122:date=Jul 27 2010, 11:18 PM:name=Harathan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Harathan @ Jul 27 2010, 11:18 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786122"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->There does seem an awful lot of people who think Alpha is the same as Beta.
Right now, the bar for expectations should be set around the "can i get to the main menu when i start the game" sort of area. If that works for you, everything else is candy. Its bonus.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Which rather raises the question of why bother releasing it in the first place...
Look, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that UWE wants to involve us in the process, and I know that our feedback is going to be crucial in shaping the further development of the game. It's just that after attempting to play the Alpha, it's becomes quite apparent why most devs don't let the general public anywhere near their alpha builds; they're not a good advertisment for the game. I'd be surprised if any of the people I played with tonight walked away with a good impression of NS2, given that their gameplay experience was absolutely abysmal FPS, non-existant hit-registration and virtually nothing useable aside from basic abilities and weapons. About the only good thing to say was that it looked pretty.
Hence I'm worried that this alpha is going to do more harm than good for the future of NS2. First impressions mean a lot.
<!--quoteo(post=1786076:date=Jul 27 2010, 02:30 PM:name=kyliegirl)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (kyliegirl @ Jul 27 2010, 02:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786076"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->far from finished (Well that is an obvious comment)
But from what I seen and played its awesome, I cant wait until its polished, I will try to give feedback where I can. Please keep the cute little growl the gorge does when you press z.. I almost died from cute..
I must admit the alien commander is well done and the drones and robots are great, you are definitely heading in the right direction. There is of course your bugs, like drones disappearing after something is built (bug?), when the host leaves the server the player is stuck on a freezed frame, the connection problems and also the inability to go back to the menu when your stuck on connecting. These are of course things that can be fixed in due time. For now I can only say good work and keep it up! You are so close!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think they are meant to "transform" into things like resource extractors, there just aren't animations for that yet so they just disappear.
<!--quoteo(post=1786135:date=Jul 27 2010, 02:32 PM:name=Ryo-Ohki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Ryo-Ohki @ Jul 27 2010, 02:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786135"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Which rather raises the question of why bother releasing it in the first place...
Look, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that UWE wants to involve us in the process, and I know that our feedback is going to be crucial in shaping the further development of the game. It's just that after attempting to play the Alpha, it's becomes quite apparent why most devs don't let the general public anywhere near their alpha builds; they're not a good advertisment for the game. I'd be surprised if any of the people I played with tonight walked away with a good impression of NS2, given that their gameplay experience was absolutely abysmal FPS, non-existant hit-registration and virtually nothing useable aside from basic abilities and weapons. About the only good thing to say was that it looked pretty.
Hence I'm worried that this alpha is going to do more harm than good for the future of NS2. First impressions mean a lot.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First off, they released it because even so many people having problems tells them vast amounts. It's insanely useful to know when stuff is going wrong, much more so than when stuff is going right.
Second, the Alpha is available only to those of us who have already PAID for the Special Edition. Your custom is already guaranteed, the Devs dont need to market the game to you. Besides which, thats not the point of the Alpha. The Alpha isnt an advertisement, its not meant to give you a good impression. Its not a demo, its an Alpha. Clue in the name, yeah? The ONLY expectation anyone should have had on downloading this was that it MIGHT work. And if it didnt, you'd still be able to give useful feedback. It sounds to me like you were expecting a beta test.
If you or anyone else has played the Alpha and been left with a bad impression of the game, then you were here for entirely the wrong reasons.
Ask yourself, why did you pay for the Special Edition? Only you can know the answer to that, Im not going to guess. But unless the answer is "To support a game I like thru to release" and NOTHING ELSE, then you wasted your money and your time.
<!--quoteo(post=1786154:date=Jul 27 2010, 02:52 PM:name=Harathan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Harathan @ Jul 27 2010, 02:52 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786154"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->First off, they released it because even so many people having problems tells them vast amounts. It's insanely useful to know when stuff is going wrong, much more so than when stuff is going right.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
obviously ! xD
but its kinda like this : if you dont feel like hiring proper testers.. release the alpha and have people pay to test the product for you
Guys, please keep in mind that this is NORMAL for an alpha. Actually, what we have now is a bit more than usual at this state in the development process. I don't know if any of you have played other alphas before, but I sure have.
Biggest one that sticks out in my mind is Doom 3. I remember playing the alpha for that on a PIII 933Mhz computer with a Geforce 3 and at the lowest possible settings and resolution, it ran at about 10fps. The map was only a partial map with a couple small hallways, there were no animation effects, no hit feedback, etc. Was also really hard to shoot with what you had since the lighting was so poor. You used to fall through the floor a lot, as well as other goofy ######.
<!--quoteo(post=1786209:date=Jul 27 2010, 03:41 PM:name=p00se2)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (p00se2 @ Jul 27 2010, 03:41 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786209"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->but its kinda like this : if you dont feel like hiring proper testers.. release the alpha and have people pay to test the product for you<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But they needed cash to continue developing the game. That doesnt happen free. So they asked their playerbase to pay for the privelege of testing the game right from Alpha. They get cash, we get to try out an Alpha build and help the development process.
Comments
So. There a lot of bugs (it's normal)... but i have those feelings about the game :
The map is too light. We don't have the oppression that we could feel in NS1.
The map is too square and too small. In fact, level design is boring.
We hate that idea of the alien commander.
For the other things, i'm juste very enthusiastic and i'm looking forward for the coming updates ;o)
PS : Sorry for the mistakes i could make in this message.
For those getting 5~ FPS, not sure what to tell you, i get about 35-50fps, the only time this drops and the game becomes unplayable is whenever there are more than like 8 people.
This is still an Alpha people, this is what you paid for. I can obviously tell that most of you have never been involved in an Alpha before, but that's fine, now you'll know exactly what it's all about. There will be bugs, there will be fixes, there will be discussions, there will be results. In the end we'll reach a build where everything is starting to run as it should, and then gameplay suggestions will probobly be looked into.
So right now their major concern is more than likely, Server performance, optimizing the engine for better FPS, netcode and stuff of that sort. After all of that is fixed, then we'll probobly see stuff such as Walljumping being implimented, then more chambers will be added, more weapons/upgrades etc.
Just give the game some time it was initial released hell, whenever the game was released on HL1, we ended up having 350-1000ping, Charlie got his ass working and fixed everything up, now with him AND Max, trust me ###### will get done, and it'll be wonderful ;D
Right now, the bar for expectations should be set around the "can i get to the main menu when i start the game" sort of area. If that works for you, everything else is candy. Its bonus.
so its the money we gave them to "play" this "alpha" lol :D
Right now, the bar for expectations should be set around the "can i get to the main menu when i start the game" sort of area. If that works for you, everything else is candy. Its bonus.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Which rather raises the question of why bother releasing it in the first place...
Look, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that UWE wants to involve us in the process, and I know that our feedback is going to be crucial in shaping the further development of the game. It's just that after attempting to play the Alpha, it's becomes quite apparent why most devs don't let the general public anywhere near their alpha builds; they're not a good advertisment for the game. I'd be surprised if any of the people I played with tonight walked away with a good impression of NS2, given that their gameplay experience was absolutely abysmal FPS, non-existant hit-registration and virtually nothing useable aside from basic abilities and weapons. About the only good thing to say was that it looked pretty.
Hence I'm worried that this alpha is going to do more harm than good for the future of NS2. First impressions mean a lot.
But from what I seen and played its awesome, I cant wait until its polished, I will try to give feedback where I can. Please keep the cute little growl the gorge does when you press z.. I almost died from cute..
I must admit the alien commander is well done and the drones and robots are great, you are definitely heading in the right direction. There is of course your bugs, like drones disappearing after something is built (bug?), when the host leaves the server the player is stuck on a freezed frame, the connection problems and also the inability to go back to the menu when your stuck on connecting. These are of course things that can be fixed in due time. For now I can only say good work and keep it up! You are so close!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think they are meant to "transform" into things like resource extractors, there just aren't animations for that yet so they just disappear.
Look, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that UWE wants to involve us in the process, and I know that our feedback is going to be crucial in shaping the further development of the game. It's just that after attempting to play the Alpha, it's becomes quite apparent why most devs don't let the general public anywhere near their alpha builds; they're not a good advertisment for the game. I'd be surprised if any of the people I played with tonight walked away with a good impression of NS2, given that their gameplay experience was absolutely abysmal FPS, non-existant hit-registration and virtually nothing useable aside from basic abilities and weapons. About the only good thing to say was that it looked pretty.
Hence I'm worried that this alpha is going to do more harm than good for the future of NS2. First impressions mean a lot.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First off, they released it because even so many people having problems tells them vast amounts. It's insanely useful to know when stuff is going wrong, much more so than when stuff is going right.
Second, the Alpha is available only to those of us who have already PAID for the Special Edition. Your custom is already guaranteed, the Devs dont need to market the game to you. Besides which, thats not the point of the Alpha. The Alpha isnt an advertisement, its not meant to give you a good impression. Its not a demo, its an Alpha. Clue in the name, yeah? The ONLY expectation anyone should have had on downloading this was that it MIGHT work. And if it didnt, you'd still be able to give useful feedback. It sounds to me like you were expecting a beta test.
If you or anyone else has played the Alpha and been left with a bad impression of the game, then you were here for entirely the wrong reasons.
Ask yourself, why did you pay for the Special Edition? Only you can know the answer to that, Im not going to guess. But unless the answer is "To support a game I like thru to release" and NOTHING ELSE, then you wasted your money and your time.
obviously ! xD
but its kinda like this : if you dont feel like hiring proper testers.. release the alpha and have people pay to test the product for you
Biggest one that sticks out in my mind is Doom 3. I remember playing the alpha for that on a PIII 933Mhz computer with a Geforce 3 and at the lowest possible settings and resolution, it ran at about 10fps. The map was only a partial map with a couple small hallways, there were no animation effects, no hit feedback, etc. Was also really hard to shoot with what you had since the lighting was so poor. You used to fall through the floor a lot, as well as other goofy ######.
or can't afford?
still there are enough people who would test the sh*t out of it for free and this situation could have been avoided.. arg :P
ill just
/palmface untill NS2 can be played