[POLL] What is your *overall* rating for this Pre-Alpha Release 3?

Very impressed with what they have managed to achieve already... and it's early pre-alpha. The multiplayer is working well for me. Not much lag at all, I'm on a 3 year old laptop so I had the graphics turned down a bit but ran all okay.

 

The solo player stuff will come, it's just important for them to get the game engine sorted out first then they can start crafting the 'storyline/npcs/solo content'.

If you put this in too early it gives away the story... and less likely they will use the beta/alpha testers to test this - they will do it internally otherwise risk giving away the plot.

 

I'd be okay with a delayed release if it meant more content - better NPCs, better optimisation etc.

 

It is amazing how quick the improvements are coming.
I was not familiar with the WSAD movement and found it almost unplayable. Now with total mouse control for movement and camera by holding down both the left and right mouse at the same time the game is spectacular and easy to play. Thanks Dev team, keep up the great work.

 

Really love the ambience of the zones. Feels more alive with other players around. Only thing I have a bit of an issue with is the zones are very small. Not sure if the zone sizes will be varied as we get access to more zones, but I hope that this zone size isn't what all zones will be when the game is live.

 

I would be interested to see a collection of all the polls you did for each release and match the curbs cause it site seems like the same bell curve with the same people picking the same number.

Just found it pretty funny.

Cheers.

 

I'm perfectly fine with them never "releasing" the game, as long as they continue to provide monthly content updates.

I guess one does have to say "Here: We are done this, let's start working on something new.", but they can do that whenever they want as far as I care.

 

It is an early pre-alpha and plays like one. There is clearly a long way to go but what is there is good. I had no issue with lag and crafting seems to have come a very long way since R2. Overall pretty pleased with R3.

 

I gave them a lower score this time ...

 

Well, aside from the bugs (to be expected in a Pre-Alpha), I was pleasantly surprised. I played in the highest resolution mode and had little to no lag. I am very concerned, however about the economy. There needs to be a driving force for crafting, resource gathering, hunting, and pvp. The economy is that force. If Richard tries to control it too much, then everything will grind to a halt.

 

Only thing that keeps it form a 5 for me is the lag in MPO which makes doing some rather basic things (crafting, jumping) difficult to impossible. Basically, if you want to play what "game" is there, best to drop to SPO, if you want to hang out with SotA players/devs and just generally "**** around", then MPO you go.

So a 4 it gets from me.

 

I had a similar reaction to what I'm seeing. People are "amazed" (at what?) - same folks who were "amazed" last time - (at what?). How can such an unfinished game be amazing? Maybe amazing we can remain logged in for more than 30 seconds? No really, I want to know exact details of what was amazing, because I'm not getting it. Maybe the devs need to hear exactly what they're doing right so they don't change it.



If all we tell the devs is that "we love it, we're amazed, keep up the great work" - how is that feedback on what needs improvement, or what we want to keep the way it is? That's what game testing is about. Maybe they need a pat on the back for the work they're doing, but if I were designing something, I'd want to make sure people are able to even play a minor portion. I'd hope feedback was real & authentic, not trying to gain brownie points for being nice.

 

I base mine on the actual expectation of the Release... what is and is not supposed to be part of it. So there's no "downgrading" for features that are mentioned as non-existent (yet). In this case, my score is slightly lower than my scores for R1 and 2 for the reasons posted above.

 

Then please explain what were your expectations? Why rate it a 4? What were your criteria?

 

I had to give this release a 1. Quite simply, multiplayer was completely unplayable for me due to performance issues. I have no idea if these sorts of extreme performance issues are just expected for the first multiplayer test, but I have to rate it based on what I played - which was barely controllable, jerky, and constantly crashing. Single player seemed to work just as well as release 2 for me, but I was excited about playing around with my friends, not hanging out on my own.

 

I said a 4, but not because the game is a "4", but because what is working is working well.
Down side is that the game is a memory hog currently (even with no digital video or voicovers).

The instancing seems as though it is really really basic currently and needs a lot of work done yet, and everything else seems to need a lot of work done to it.
Nothing left to say other than the progress from R2-R3 is excellent and a hearty well done to get the game on it's baby-feet.

 

I actually get pretty worried after every release when people say they're amazed. I understand it's a prerelease and they're making good progress - they're meeting the ambitious goals set out for them. Good for the team. But am I supposed to find anything about the game, as it is right now, amazing? Because I don't. And when other people say they're already amazed, it makes me worry that all this optimism about the game is for something that I don't "get" and won't enjoy.

 

Right. If this is amazing, what the heck will the final product be? Cosmically orgasmic?

 

My criteria are the Release notes and how well the Release matches up to the Advance notes and the final ones. In this case, it did very well with the lag issue being the main reason I can't give it a "perfect 5". I have some detailed thoughts in a post on the Feedback forum below.

 

So the only release notes I see are these (for R3) - if there are more, I don't know which you are referring to:

In this release we’ve added multiplayer mode, allowing players to see each other and interact through an enhanced chat system, friend list, and emotes.

Multiplayer mode barely works for me. I couldn't stay connected longer than 7 minutes, but usually much less. I stared at loading screens much longer than the game.

When adding a friend to my friend list, the game always crashed. When removing a friend, it crashed.

The chat system needs a lot of work.

The emotes were mostly great, but a couple look a bit odd (the yawn), and especially clap, where if you have something equipped, you clap one handed instead of it unequipping. The "toast" does not equip the mug in your pack. You are unable to equip the mug. There was so much lag in multiplayer, it's hard to tell how some really looked. I could only access them all in single player, because I could stay connected long enough to see them.

Oh and they said there would be 30 emotes. There were 18, and some don't work properly.

In addition to the towns of Owl’s Head and Kingsport, there is a new village to explore, Braemar.

I liked Braemar. It looked more authentic and I loved the old growth forest.

There are numerous crafting enhancements as well as merchants where you can sell your crafted goods.

Because I crashed so easily when clicking on anything, I was not able to experience the crafting enhancements. I was able to buy and sell from vendors. But it led to crashes.

Also included are several new songs created by the community via The Bards of Poets’ Circle.

The tavern song I heard sounded like an echo in a marble hall, rather than a small wooden tavern. It was nice they were able to implement something, rather than the way it was in R2. The banjo western song, eek.

The much requested ability to reconfigure the game controls has been added,

I never made it that far since I crashed too much. I would've liked to have seen it.

player housing and decorating can be fully experienced in the single player online mode.

In other words, no change from R2.

Maybe some people never crashed. If a person never crashed, they may give the game a higher rating. I don't have an older 32 bit machine. I have a pretty nice PC that runs perfectly well with other fully developed MMOs.