MXL: Sigma Announced

Marco wrote:It will probably start small and maybe grow bigger. The problem is that everyone wants to test but in reality they just want to play it. We want to look for people who can actually bring useful feedback to the table and not just get to play before everyone else. Also for alpha we won't probably have much security measures - meaning it could get leaked, and we certainly do not want that to happen.

For XV alpha a member of the community that was around for over 5 years had to be banned for leaking the patch.

If at some point we manage to implement some kind of beta-key system, that opens up possibilities and we could include more random people.

So basically testing implies random functional testing for sigma like various mechanics and other things

Just try not to get caught up in the gameplay is what I'm getting from this

Marco wrote:It will probably start small and maybe grow bigger. The problem is that everyone wants to test but in reality they just want to play it. We want to look for people who can actually bring useful feedback to the table and not just get to play before everyone else. Also for alpha we won't probably have much security measures - meaning it could get leaked, and we certainly do not want that to happen.

For XV alpha a member of the community that was around for over 5 years had to be banned for leaking the patch.

If at some point we manage to implement some kind of beta-key system, that opens up possibilities and we could include more random people.

I'm not going to start the train of "sign me up I'll be your tester and beg for opportunity (though it would be a good opportunity)" but I'm curious how you'd choose people and what they'd be doing? Would it be just general consumer experience in the game or like hard detail searching for bugs and glitches and such. I think it'd be neat to be able to do that. Might help myself with learning mechanics better to improve my playing ability. Regardless, I dunno where I'm going with this, but curious about what testers would be doing I guess.

Finding glitches is important, but the core aspect of the alpha will be testing the difficulty curve. There is a massive overhaul which mainly involves cube recipes, tiered uniques, sacred uniques and charms (and mystic orbs becoming end-game items). This will require a big rework in monster stats, including uberlevels. So anyone who has played the mod before will be qualified in terms of skill, in fact variety is good. As I said before, what we are looking is for people that are interested in helping to the project with their feedback rather than just playing for their own benefit.

It's simple, we all wait, Macro picks 10 and rest of us goes home crying.

Marco wrote:Finding glitches is important, but the core aspect of the alpha will be testing the difficulty curve. There is a massive overhaul which mainly involves cube recipes, tiered uniques, sacred uniques and charms (and mystic orbs becoming end-game items). This will require a big rework in monster stats, including uberlevels. So anyone who has played the mod before will be qualified in terms of skill, in fact variety is good. As I said before, what we are looking is for people that are interested in helping to the project with their feedback rather than just playing for their own benefit.

IMO you can't get much of a benefit when playing an prototype version of a mod aside from a few things

The main purpose of alpha as stated above to make the testing life a little easier so that there's no glaring issues within the mod.

Besides, testers who don't give feedback are just greedy and intend to get in on some free content if ever chosen

Sounds a little cheesy what I just said but I like to see things in their finished form in a satisfactory state of being.

Marco wrote:

I was always wondering why this wasn't open. Hail Sigma.

Are the sewer entrances in the bottom entrance k3k gonna be another sublevel too?

Marco, I must be in this test so I can see if you finally added the death sound to those Diablo 1 hell knight models

I'm wondering what your rules on the alpha tests will be: content you can share, information you can give, etc. I've never participated in one so forgive me on that.

Also, I really like designing around lore and such and I've read like all the Diablo books and have gotten some hidden lore as well, so if you need help with names or layouts of levels or whatever I can help make them or give feedback whenever the testers are allowed to say or share what they saw. Really looking forward to this project's completion, Marco!

Edit: GOD DAMN IT I MEANT TO THUMBS UP BUT MY THUMB IS HUGE FOR THIS SCREEN

Dude Love wrote:Are the sewer entrances in the bottom entrance k3k gonna be another sublevel too?

Lore-wise I find it hard to believe that those sewers had the same sewer tileset all those millennia ago, so making an uber there is problematic from that angle.
The huts in K3kBA are more believable, since those are pretty low-tech.

Edit: Is the Jails of the Triune the new location of the Triune bosses, or a separate uber? It'd make sense if it was just used to separate the boss encounter, IMO.