Icarus Dev Tracker

I can certainly understand the frustration.

From a development perspective they have been very useful, because:

1. It reduces the "beta fatigue" of the players, but exposing small parts of the game instead of all of it at once - with each of the parts not having the benefit of time to address any faults.
2. Allow us to focus feedback into specific components in isolation, with time between to address that feedback before getting feedback on the next piece of the game.
3. Let us have focused development time without distractions, we're not "rushing to fix a bug" or trying to help customers out with the game and problems - we observe in the weekend and then have two weeks of focused work.

Originally posted by Malphas⚡⚡: That's a really long winded way to say you have no patience.

I think that's a little reductive, they gave a detailed overview of some important key points. I think we could differ in interpretation, but I would certainly agree that:

* The character customization is severely lacking
* The Beta map area was very small
* Much of the beta mechanics felt a little... boring?

I suppose though that was somewhat of the intention of the beta, to focus on the ground of the game and build from that.

I just think its vital we don't dismiss concerns raised like this because its "only a beta". We need to acknowledge them, and then hopefully address them in subsequent beta weeken... Read more

Originally posted by SKnAVEN: It was refunded after another request! Thank you again.

That's great - and remember you can refund at any time during the preorder, no matter how long you have played the beta. And once the game releases, your playtime will be zero so you can get two hours of playtime then as well to see if you like it, and it runs well.

Also: for BW2 please check you have the latest Nvidia drivers, and that DLSS is turned on (I would recommend "balanced" setting). This will make a *massive* difference to performance and visuals.

The game is very intense of VRAM (and RAM in general) because of the huge amount of fidelity we are providing, both with foliage as well as what is called "real virtual textures" (RVT's) which allow us to do unparalled terrain blending and many other things.

The game textures should look good. If you run out of VRAM on your GPU, then textures will not load in well and you may get some bad looking textures.

In terms of drop length, there are many different lengths you will have on drops. including outpost prospects, which have unlimited times. One of the purposes for the beta is to explore what is interesting, fun, and how people play - so our team doesn't make assumptions and we can make changes to the game before it becomes solidified too much.

You can always refund now, keep an eye on the game, and try it again later. I would rather someone refund the game and got their money back - that feel bad about buying it and write off the games we make. Not every game is for everyone - especially a preorder or a beta.

The game is designed around high end graphics cards. We have partnered directly with Nvidia and Epic (who make Unreal) to bring the absolute best out of modern GPUs. This is why the game has very high minimum requirements. The issues you describe sound like the game was running on very low settings, as it should not look like an "unfinished/abandoned low budget park simulator".

Could you post your computer specs and I might be able to offer some insight into viable settings?

Originally posted by SKnAVEN: They respond: Hello!
...
Perhaps I mention pricing in my refund request...I went ahead and again asked for just a refund on the preorder (zero hours played w/in 2 weeks purchased) and not to offer me the difference - just full refund.

Yes sadly I think in trying to do the "right" thing your refund got trapped! if you just refund it, you can always rebuy it at the discounted price. If you have any issues with that, please post here and I can contact you directly to follow up.

You should be able to refund (and rebuy!) at the discounted price.

Again - sorry for the mixup with the discounts. It skipped our minds at the time and therefore there was a delay getting it applie... Read more

Originally posted by LadyVodka: -How come we didn't got that version?
-How come he did had that version? There was nothing like this released yet.
Video: (now private)

There are many things for the game we turned off prior to the beta weekend, as we wanted feedback and play to be very focused. This will become very apparent with beta weekend 2, which will have extensive new systems and feel quite different as an experience.

"First time user experience" (FTUE) or "tutorial" as was shown is something we have worked on. We want to make sure it is well linked into the experience and meets our exact requirements before it is included. So what was shown in the video, like many things in the game, isn't currently enabled... Read more

I play a lot of euro truck simulator, and TrackIR is amazing in that. I actually spoke with the TrackIR folks directly and they were keen on us supporting it for Icarus. Once the game is stable, I really want to see us support it as much as we can.

I actually play a lot of games with TrackIR and I got them to send us some kits for testing. I have it on my list of things to look at, but will come after the release and not in the beta sorry.

Originally posted by Shawn: just refund and rebuy

Yep absolutely do this. Unfortunately the sale ran out and we had to wait for it to be re-added, it wasn't something we could directly do we had to wait for valve to action it. You can refund and rebuy with no problems at all - and still refund at any time during the preorder period as well no matter how long you play the beta.

Understand the frustration not being able to play on the off weekends, but we need time to be able to develop the changes based on our feedback and observations from the last weekend. Additionally, trying to support the server infrastructure for a whole two weeks, while rapidly iterating on the base game, would slow us down significantly.

I think when beta weekend 2 comes out, you'll see why there is tremendous value in us doing a short and sharp period of testing, followed by two weeks of development. We've packed an enormous amount of changes and new content - in addition to our scheduled stuff for beta weekend two.

There has been discussion quite a lot internally about wanting to do a permanent beta. However even ignoring "beta fatigue", it would slow down our iteration times through the beta.

Our Beta Weekend logic is thought out, let me try give you some of our logic here:

- Beta Weekends allow us to test specific features of the game that we want targeted feedback on, so we can refine, improve and optimise them to be the best they can be for launch. This is why each weekend is stacking new content on top of the existing!
- Running Beta Weekends also allows players to test the game without that 2-hour refund window looming over them, as someone mentioned above!
- It's also about avoiding Beta fatigue! We want to make sure the game is great when everyone gets in and grinds away, so doing it this way allows us to get the game there, without it getting all burnt out!

Hope this helps unravel it a bit! And your opinion on the weekends is absolutely fine too, not everyone has to like them or agree with them, but we have decided to go this direction for many reasons :)