Goblin Squad Member
|
I am hoping that Goblin Works can comment on (clarify) the status of some of the "perks" of these pledges. Looking at the Kickstarter page, there are 57 of us at this level.
Early Enrollment should be starting this year(Q3), that is only months away. Should these 57 people now be in the closed alpha? From the Alpha pledge:
"You will be welcomed as part of a very small group of alpha playtesters in a closed Alpha of Pathfinder Online. This will be a great chance for you to give us direct input on how Pathfinder Online ends up looking and playing in its final incarnation."
I am just wondering when this will start? From the blogs, internal play testing is going on. Is the game still in pre-alpha with only months left for EE?
Just curious as to what is going on with this part of the pledge.
Thanks.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
EE will probably not begin before the very end of Q3, it is just such a short timeframe for all the goodness they have to implement even for the EE. That is still over 8 months away. Should leave room for a nice stretch of alpha.
Also I am curious how many people here are not expecting at least some delay: I am totally counting on 3-6 months delay for EE, but maybe I am just shielding myself for the disappointment if they do not make Q3. :)
I think we get some info about how things are progressing in the next blog if I recall correctly. Looks like they are going strong so far.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
EE will probably not begin before the very end of Q3, it is just such a short timeframe for all the goodness they have to implement even for the EE. That is still over 8 months away. Should leave room for a nice stretch of alpha.
Also I am curious how many people here are not expecting at least some delay: I am totally counting on 3-6 months delay for EE, but maybe I am just shielding myself for the disappointment if they do not make Q3. :)
I think we get some info about how things are progressing in the next blog if I recall correctly. Looks like they are going strong so far.
I have a Countdown Clock set on our UNC forums for Day One of Q3 2014.
The good thing about wishful thinking is that it is never wrong, until it is proven wrong.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
I'm going to wing it and say I'm optimistic for EE on time, despite just about all mmorpgs ever in existence. ;)
Any info on how GW are finding Unity is always interesting to hear, also. There's a slew of good indie games made in Unity and a growing number of larger games (SotA and a few others) and of course PFO in dev. So it's big news I think for the engine as much as for these bigger, bolder games.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
EE will probably not begin before the very end of Q3, it is just such a short timeframe for all the goodness they have to implement even for the EE. That is still over 8 months away. Should leave room for a nice stretch of alpha.
Also I am curious how many people here are not expecting at least some delay: I am totally counting on 3-6 months delay for EE, but maybe I am just shielding myself for the disappointment if they do not make Q3. :)
I think we get some info about how things are progressing in the next blog if I recall correctly. Looks like they are going strong so far.
I'm expecting a 3-6 month delay as well. That happens. When people hit the alpha they'll realize how much work needs to be done and it will take time.
It happens. As long as they keep us in the loop and let us know of delays on a regular basis.Just as long as I have Emerald Spire to keep me occupied.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
I'm guessing that the Pit Fighter thing and alpha will occur together, with the 'pit' area being a limit for most accounts (until someone discovers a way to glitch through the walls), while alpha players are free to walk outside to stab one another in the face. Minimum viable expectations and all that. Anyway, by making Pit Fighter online rather than offline, they can use it as a stress test on the server and as a way to gather combat data.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm guessing that the Pit Fighter thing and alpha will occur together, with the 'pit' area being a limit for most accounts (until someone discovers a way to glitch through the walls), while alpha players are free to walk outside to stab one another in the face. Minimum viable expectations and all that. Anyway, by making Pit Fighter online rather than offline, they can use it as a stress test on the server and as a way to gather combat data.
I would not expect the Pit and the Alpha world environment to be accessible to each other even with intangibility, or even hosted in the same virtual world. I'd imagine separate virtual servers, even if on shared hardware, for both.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
Kickstarter Update #34 - Announcing Pathfinder Online: Pit Fight!
My understanding is that Pit Fight would put players into a single-player environment where they would test out specific scenarios. I don't believe it was intended to support PvP at all, and I'm pretty sure it was an entirely separate environment, unconnected to the PFO world servers.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
Goblin Works has been pretty transparent in their process. They'll likely tell us they've started the Alpha in a blog when it happens.
I was close enough:
The question that everyone is asking is "when will Alpha testing begin?" Our answer is early in the 2nd quarter of 2014! The next quarter's milestone is targeted at getting us ready to begin Alpha testing and we expect that we will start that test in April. Right now we do not have firm dates or a process for how players will get access to the Alpha or how our Kickstarter backers who paid for Alpha access will be prioritized into the testing—those are all questions we'll answer in the first quarter as we determine critical system features like how much load we can put on the servers and what kinds of system requirements we need for testers, etc.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
@Dinan It seems there will be no regular NDA, since this does not mesh with the whole idea of crowdforging.
Quote from Ryan: about alpha
Goblinworks Executive Founder
|
@Dinan It seems there will be no regular NDA, since this does not mesh with the whole idea of crowdforging.
Quote from Ryan: about alpha
Thanks, Tyncale. I appreciate the response.
I had a similar thought and thus why it caught me by surprise.
Cheers!
-Dinan
|
Goblinworks Executive Founder
|
It would be pretty hard to hide that fact, given the clarification I have gotten on how strong of a NDA is expected.I was curious about your post, Brutus. Is there a thread or something that I possibly didn't see describing the NDA?
Many thanks!
-Dinan
My understanding is that it will be closer to "no piracy" than to "no discussing what the Alpha is like".
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
@Pax Shane Gifford I think so. My finger has been hovering over the "Add to Cart" button several times now, but each time my entire flock of children come stand around me and look at me with eyes that say, "Daddy, don't do it, we need new shoes......"
Ok, so I guess not for me. :)
Do you think they would be content with these Bootstrapper Boots ?
|
Goblinworks Executive Founder
|
Is this WoW-style soon™? :)
(And I'd rather Alpha starts when the game is ready for it, than on some predetermined schedule which got hit by the reality of software development which, for a project of any size, always causes some form of deviation from the original plans).
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
Is this WoW-style soon™? :)
(And I'd rather Alpha starts when the game is ready for it, than on some predetermined schedule which got hit by the reality of software development which, for a project of any size, always causes some form of deviation from the original plans).
May.... And there is always deviation from original plans, delay or not. It has been my experience that MMOs are never "ready" for release, they are typically "good enough" to be released.
