Open Alpha FAQ
Treisk
Member, Administrator
We’ve had a lot of questions roll in since we announced our Open Alpha date this morning, and we wanted to address the ones we’ve been getting the most to prevent confusion!
What does “Open Alpha” mean?
On August 26th, the game will be available for anyone to sign up and immediately play for free. We are not charging an entrance fee or selling founders packs at this time. The open alpha is our chance to show off Atlas in its current state, gain valuable feedback from community members like you, and help us improve the current game mode (we’re calling it “Skirmish”) as well as develop future game modes.
Before 8/26 at 9am PST, the NDA is still in effect. Please do not share or post anything about the game outsides these forums.
Starting August 26th at 9am PST, however, the NDA will be lifted, and you will be free to play, discuss, stream, and otherwise share the game however you wish! We’ll also have a community content policy to outline our policy around streaming, videos and fan sites. (Hint: It’s mostly do-what-you-want!)
What’s up with the closed PvP queues?
When the open alpha begins, players will be able to play the tutorial, bots, and create custom games, but PvP matchmaking will be disabled outside of certain times. We’re doing this to make sure everyone gets together at the same time to make sure everyone has a positive matchmaking experience. The reason you’re seeing this now is because we need to test it to make sure it works. 
What will happen to the client and to the test environment?
What we currently refer to as the “Prod” server will act as the primary game server. Those with “Staging” access (and some players that may still be selected to have it) will retain it, and that will become our testing environment. There will also be a private subforum here for those taking part in our testing environment.
What will happen to our current account progression?
On August 26th, we will be doing a full account reset for all players. We are considering allowing people to keep their win counts, but may reset that as well. However, all players will keep their account badges (such as Daily Tester, Alpha Tester, etc).
If you’ve got any other questions and curiosities, we’d be happy to answer them in this thread!
Thanks again for being incredible testers!
- The Artillery Team
Comments
Awesome, This answers most of my list of questions in the patch notes thread. Thanks
I'd love staging access btw
lol I'm really enjoying testing this game and seeing the experiments.
If the interest is strong enough will you lift the restrictions on playing? This part really doesn't make a lot sense to me. I feel like we're just a small group of active players away from being able to get games like 20hrs out of the day
I mean I get it, but just very sad, and I don't see any new players actually liking this mechanic either. The entire thing seems to contradict the whole purpose of going public instead of just tripling the size of the current setup. Just my thoughts, I hope this doesn't sound harsh.
This just seems like it would do as much harm as 20minute queues. I feel like there's an inconsistency between "open" and "everyone gets together at the same time". Why not just restrict to to certain days and have it entirely open on those days, so people can plan according to day, instead having to rearrange their day if the windows are inconvenient?
If this was just the go date, and technically it's premature, then why f2p open? I know half of this is probably none of my business and you have no reason to hand me anything but bureaucratic hubris.... but I love you? Sorry, I just might as well ask?
Will the custom games we'll be forced to grind instead give us currency towards unlocks?
If I DL a game i've never heard of, spend the time to sign up and DL, and then I have to wait 10hrs to even see if I want to play the game more, I'll likely never play it again. (I'm one of those types that normally just doesn't play the campaing/bots, etc) I don't think I've ever played a bot game in sc2 or dota for instance.
Well this got out of hand, a tornado of questions and discontent. lmao Please don't take it that way. I'm just passionate about your game ok. hahahah. Just my 2 cents, I'm sure you've thought this through thoroughly. This is what I'm here for though? (no probably not lol)
(Edit 100: I feel like you're over estimating the difference between logging in and being told I can't play, and loggin in, sitting in queue, and not finding a game after 10 minutes) One feels worse than the other, maybe we just disagree which
)
Loves!
Seconding grinding to play the game more - doesn't seem like something I'd want to do, as a new player, for a random alpha game.
@Motiva The PvP windows help condense player availability to make sure that the pool of players is as large as possible when someone goes to play. If there are enough players online to make sure that everyone gets a good match, we might widen the windows or remove them entirely. Right now, PvP windows prevent players from downloading the game, not finding a match, thinking "Well I tried Atlas but couldn't find a game" and leaving for that reason.
Why a F2P open alpha now? Because it's time.
We need to show Atlas to a wider audience to get as much feedback from the community as possible.
Custom games do give you credits. But the large point here is that, if you other players don't like the progression system, definitely tell us! The open alpha is all about getting feedback from people like you.
Keep the questions coming
Thanks for the replies
I understand your reasoning, just as a consumer, the list of indie games that have given me just a weekend to play to alpha/beta test (that I wanted to play) that I didn't just because I'm busy most weekends. etc. This concept extrapolated into the exact same situation you describe is all I'm worried about (besides selfishly wanting games 24/7 <3) I only got to play Sunday on TW4 for example, and barely <3
"Oh I can only play 12-12 EST (I wish your windows were this big) well I live in XYZ, Guess I won't play this game for several months." We are worried about the same thing I think, just different causes. I'm just giving voice to what affects me
:D hahaha
It seems more like simply being unavailable for some people rather than everyone getting together to me.
As for the progression system, I think it's a fine idea, especially with more units/heros coming in. Although it does create a few problems I think. I've had several games, even with not everyone getting a full reset, where no one on my team has a single answer to X unit (aquadillos several times) and this is a pretty bad experience. I don't know if giving people a starting amount of money, or nerfing unit, or creating a utility merc that is good at killing tanks, idk...
I just think, a few experiences like this and then being told you can't play for another 10 hours to grind the point for that counter so you can actually win etc is a really bad experience for someone who is already going out on a limb to try a difficult game they've never heard of in practically a new genre... etcetc
Maybe some feedback is that the progression system should be rolled out after restricted play times for these reasons.... 2late, i'm sure there are countless -possible- solutions.
I don't know the answers, just being vocal.
<3
Hey, will the forums be changing in any way at the launch of open alpha?
@Motiva - Thanks for the feedback! We totally hear you. Things like progression and playtest windows are hard things to work out. Just know that, if something's not working, we'll do our best to fix it.
@TokOwa - We no plans other than flipping a switch and making these forums public.