EQN:Landmark Beta Starts March 26th!

cinge_sl said:

What game sold access to a beta that hasn't even started yet? What game sold access to alpha? I can see little kickstarter companies or super small dev teams doing it, maybe, but not big house developers. Buying into beta is nothing new, but its always been later in the phases(After alpha and beta has been going on for a while). This is a new low and gamers are there to just lap it up.

Alpha squad was only $40, was offered what 3-4 months before release, beta had long been going on already and came with 4,000 station cash, which is $40 by itself. The station cash can be used in any SOE game. Not even close to this crap.

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I agree, alpha squad was a much better offer. I think my previous post said the same though.

I'm not going to spend an hour finding out if any "big house developer" has done it before, I refered to games in general including indie or whathaveyou. Most prominent would be Star Citizen I suppose, where I actually bought the game with alpha and a specific ship with much less info about the game. Hell I think even now a year later details on Star Citizen are more sketchy then on Landmark or EQN, and they collected over $25 mill from people. What do small south sea islands go for these days?

Alpha and beta are marketing terms now, SOE could have sold it under the exact same conditions just replacing "alpha" with "first wave closed beta" and it would've been better? They decided to call it alpha because marketing wants to emphasize how well the fans are integrated into the development process right from the start, that's the reason it's "alpha". If their priority had been to reduce forum whines about it they would have called it "premium edition" and added the early access bullet point at end instead emphasizing it.

Point is, they take your money without giving you facts to judge the product/service you're buying with, and that is not new. I actually find it less shady then the lifetime access deals that were sold at the tail end of the subscription age, before F2P took over.

Dyvim_sl said:

One day gamers will open their wallets to take a spot for a live stream of the yearly SoE live, where they have gray ponytail and obese smed praising the newest installments of AAA franchise titles.
Yeah and some will lap it up and even defend that.

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Old news

Anyone got a "first thing" they are going to create?

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I'm a sucker for original Kelethin, so I'll be making tree platforms, huts, bridges, and ramps

The little UI they showed for templates seems like it holds enough space to save multiple templates, which I hope is the case. I as well am probably gonna start off building shit other than just walls just to save them.

I'm going to aim for building a little open temple near the top but partly inside of a mountain if I can get a spot. There are multiple Biomes though so idunno.. hard choice!

Lleauaric_sl said:

Anyone got a "first thing" they are going to create?

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A van down by a river.

I might also try my hand at some classic dungeons depending on how much time I have.

this first thing someone should create is a shelter for everyone to go to who got sucker balled into paying $100 for an alpha....

Hold on, you guys are paying SOE to build their game for them?

Its only a hundred bucks...

They're claiming that it will be added in the game, I can't wait for mobs either. I wonder if you can end up getting multiple plots so you can actually make a big chunk of dungeon that random people can wander into. Fuck, that would be so baller.

Quaid_sl said:

Then, once AI and MOBs are in I'm gonna make a twisting cave dungeon that is the innards of a giant fossilized crocodile thing. Would be super legit if it could be populated with MOBs so I hope they add that feature.

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So 6 months after launch at minimum, since they already said no combat till after Launch.

xzi_sl said:

They're claiming that it will be added in the game, I can't wait for mobs either. I wonder if you can end up getting multiple plots so you can actually make a big chunk of dungeon that random people can wander into. Fuck, that would be so baller.

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Sure, but that'll be $10 per plot and if you dont want to speed a few weeks gathering materials and making flair, then another $40 buying it from the cash shop / other players heh. Who knows how this'll be monetized but I would guess something along those lines?

I'm definitely down for multiple plots. I know they've mentioned giving permissions on your plot to other players which I enjoy because a friend and I were going to work together on something once it launches. I have to wonder how certain tools would work though, like could I for an example smooth out parts of your building and vice versa? There's gotta be more options than just "friends only / open to public / closed" I hope.

Tmac47_sl said:

Also, I have some fabric and thread that I'll be turning into a coat. Can I get you guys to pay me for the finished product? I'll let you wear what I have so far! I promise it'll be badass when I'm done

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You got that all wrong: Once the coat is done we get it for free, just being allowed to play with the yarn costs $100... I guess we have alot of kittens here =)

jesus christ this thing isnt even in alpha yet?