Do you think this alpha should be in waves?

Title says it all, should relic consider adding additional waves for the alpha? It would allow those who are interested to have a go at it and give everyone a chance. So many good players got left out, our community was split by this. Everyone who cares should be able to provide their feedback. What are your thoughts on this?

Going by the last alphas we had, the question is pointless unless you are against waves.

Going by the last alphas we had, the question is pointless unless you are against waves.

The question is designed to see what people think about how Relic went about with "selection" and if they should consider additional waves.

This really depends on what they want to achieve in the Alpha. For most tests like this you need to allow in a range of experience levels, and the point of the alpha is better served by severely limiting the number of players in the test.

An open beta is for large numbers, and once the aims of the alpha are completed.

Do I think it should be in waves? Well, it depends on what Relic are trying to achieve with this test.

The alpha test isn't for letting everyone provide feedback, to let all those interested have a go. That's what the final release is for.

This really depends on what they want to achieve in the Alpha. For most tests like this you need to allow in a range of experience levels, and the point of the alpha is better served by severely limiting the number of players in the test.

An open beta is for large numbers, and once the aims of the alpha are completed.

Do I think it should be in waves? Well, it depends on what Relic are trying to achieve with this test.

The alpha test isn't for letting everyone provide feedback, to let all those interested have a go. That's what the final release is for.

This is my opinion on it. For months we go on very little information, we know they are working on something... that's about it because of the NDA. Had a good bug patch in Feburary and a decent balance patch in March. April comes around and Relic announces an alpha and everyone gets REALLY excited, some new content to sink our teeth in. "Hey sign up for the alpha." People sign up, some people get in, some do not. Problem is it split the people on this website down the middle, the people in and the people not in. That is a REALLY bad situation, keep half of this forum's community in the dark and keep the other sworn to secrecy, people feel betrayed. Relic says they want more transparency, they need to start doing it. Something they should do for people that didn't get in is to announce what they are working on, so others who are not in the alpha know what's going on. Another thing is to come up with a better application system, my feelings is it came down to RNG due to so many people selecting the same categories. Lastly, less randoms, I cannot stress this enough. Give slots to people who will actually test it, not some person who signed up just for the hell of it and stops playing halfway through. All this did was caused drama between community members, this could have been avoided by not over hyping it and then disappointing so many loyal fans that should get the chance to test, especially if it's a new faction.

It depends on what relic needs. If relic need more feedback BUT do not want it to be public yet, there will likely be more waves. Of course , I personally welcome more chances to get into the alpha.

[Sarcasm]People that press 'Yes' simply didn't get a key[/Sarcasm]

Honestly, if the keys were simply given away random then this is bullshit.
It wouldn't have been to hard to check the player's skill because the register form even had the Steam ID as a necessary input.

That Hans didn't get a Key is simply rubbish.
He is one of the best players in CoH2 and probably one of the best known, if not THE best known, CoH streamers.

We didn't randomly pick people, and we certainly didn't pick people based on their avatars :/

We've mentioned before that our main criteria was to ensure we chose both active players and a healthy mix of players when it comes to preferences in the game.

As for waves, I've addressed that in other threads but will also answer here - we don't have any current plans to do waves. Things can possibly change, but I don't want to get your hopes up in that respect.

@Cynthia, official forums

That makes it kind of scary knowing alex is in and Hans or Barton not.
Now I got shivers.

@Cynthia, official forums

That makes it kind of scary knowing alex is in and Hans or Barton not.
Now I got shivers.

Hans & Barton, RIP.
____
It's damn scary.

All people who are outside want a key.

I doubt Relic did it randomly, but maybe they did... I don't see why they'd have an application with questions aside from steam id and email if they were going to do random invites but who knows.

Point being... Sure it is lame that Hans didn't get in but to be fair, he has been in other alphas/betas. Sounds like he just got unlucky this time around. There's no reason not to give other people a chance to provide feedback. I don't see why prominent community members should get special treatment.

Just my two cents. We will all get to play with the new faction soon enough, not getting in is no big deal really.

If you've been in relic alphas you know you barely have any impact anyway

If you've been in relic alphas you know you barely have any impact anyway

if you have provided balance feedback to relic you know you barely had any impact anyway. although if you publicized abuse you are a hero and get an iron heart.

If you've been in relic alphas you know you barely have any impact anyway

Directly, yea.
Indirectly, you generate them data to analyze from the matches you've played.

But Obersoldaten are the best proof that they don't really care for feedback provided or at least don't care as much as we'd expected them to.

I just hope changes are implemented on a reasonable amount of time to be tested on.

Example: don't wait till the last week to make a huge change but also don't wait 2 months to do something.

Hans & Barton, RIP.
____
It's damn scary.

See and that's what confuses me, they should have got in, they would have brought so much valuable feedback to the table. And personally would I have preferred to be in it, yea... but at this point I'm past it. I feel for some people though, some people have applied and never been accepted and those who have applied and get accepted everytime. For those who argue that everyone should get a chance for alpha some time or another, remember that there are those who have gotten sidelined everytime. My only issue that I have just based on these forums that majority of its members got into alpha, Relic should do some sort of announcement so those who didn't make it actually feel invested in it and not the minority who's not in on the secret.

I get a feeling Alphas are more about polishing bugs and appearance out. Balance is more of a fine adjustment thing that takes time and is probably easier when the game is being played in the public domain.

Why should they have got in?

Yes, they are very good at this game.
I don't know if they would have given good feedback or not, but I suspect they would have.

But, simply put, being highly ranked in the game shouldn't just get you access to the alpha.

For this to be a valid test of any kind they need a wide range of players that fully explore the skill curve of the community. Putting in too many of the games top players throws this curve hugely.

That is why some of the best guys didn't get in, it's also why some of the worst will have. Almost regardless of what they want to gain from this Alpha they will have needed to recreate a much smaller version of the player base.

TL;DR: Putting in all the top players just because they are top will not make the test, or end product, better - it'll probably make it worse.

Also, the point of the Alpha isn't to showcase things to the community. It's not to make us feel more included (well, that probably isn't it's primary purpose). It's not a reward to the most excited or most loyal players. It's an Alpha that is designed to test the code they have written for whatever has been tested. Its a test to find problems, be they balance, features, abilities, units...etc.

People haven't been betrayed by the alpha, the people in the dark will have been anyway and the people who can't talk about it knew that was the case when they signed up for a closed alpha (or should have).

I get a feeling Alphas are more about polishing bugs and appearance out. Balance is more of a fine adjustment thing that takes time and is probably easier when the game is being played in the public domain.

Not really, we had some drastic changes in the previous alpha. What you say makes sense, but that's not the case here. It was like 5-6 days prior to release and they changed the whole mechanics of OKW. Not that it was a mistake, but come on, changes like that at the final moments?

[Sarcasm]People that press 'Yes' simply didn't get a key[/Sarcasm]

Honestly, if the keys were simply given away random then this is bullshit.

Lets be honest here like almost every alpha is dealt with the exact same way, you can hardly expect relic to waste time and comb through the top 100 giving out keys to certain individuals.

I'm sure the twitch e-celebs will get keys given to them by there followers anyway, so it's not the end of the world.