Hi everyone,
The private Alpha has been running for around 3 months now and will continue to do so while we get the game ready for Beta.
Although updates to this blog and the Facebook page have been lacking, the Alpha has been very busy and is progressing well!
You can follow the progress of Alpha more closely on the Alpha website.
Video uploaded by Alpha players
Some of the Alpha players have been uploading gameplay footage, so we thought we’d share a few of those videos here.
Battle
Two strong Syntis fleets go head to head. The advantageous angle of the attack proves too strong and the defending fleet is obliterated (only turreted weapons and rockets can fire outside of a ships front facing firing arc – which is why the defending fleet needs to maneuver before being able to retaliate fire with all weapons). Credit JH R.
Syntis vs Mankind in deep space. The Mankind fleet has a numerical advantage but the weaker hulls are unable to stand up to the level of the attack. Credit JH R.
Gameplay
A detailed walkthrough from the perspective of a well-established empire. Credit Manni-Gaming.
What’s been going on in Alpha?
Alpha is the first time anyone outside of the immediate development team has been able to play Beyond Dark, which as expected turned up a number of bugs which we’ve been busy resolving.
At the same time, our developers have been able to add features and content to the game in parallel to the bug fixing, to keep things moving forwards. Some of the screens shown in player videos have already been updated as part of our UI overhaul, with more changes to come over the next couple of weeks.
To find out more, visit the Alpha website and click the Release notes link at the top of the page.
Next steps
There’s still a lot to do to get the game from the current Alpha state to one suitable for Beta. There is no specific timeline as to when this will be just yet, but we’ll keep you updated and let you know more when we can.
In the meantime, when possible we’ll get some more Alpha invites sent out to random Beta subscribers (should be in the next couple of weeks).
Thanks for your continued patience and support!
Thanks for shared my vid.
In order to be in a favorable position in combat, the two most important conditions are needed.
1.Firing focus : You must unify the first attack target for each ship. Each ship changes its target at will according to its position and the location of the enemy ship. It proceeds regardless of the intention of the player. Therefore, the attack is easy to disperse. If you do not realize the firing focus, there is a possibility of defeating the conditions that can win enough. If you realize the firing focus, you can win even if you have a large number of enemy ships.
2. Entering in the enemy fleet rear : the defender will show his back, the defender can not fire the weapon properly, the ships must turn to the front in order to launch the weapon properly, the attacker will receive less damage. And defender will receve more damage.
Even if the above two conditions are met, the variable will always exist, so they will not necessarily win.
No problem, thanks for taking the time to upload your gameplay footage 🙂
Good tip regarding firing focus.. About attacking from the rear, turret based weapons and rockets are a good form of defense against this. Otherwise, as you pointed out, the ships must turn to face the enemy before being able to use weapons with reduced firing arcs.
gave up on game. never any notices or anything on when it will start
i want to be in ALPHAaaaa 🙂
thx for the update and video. I hope i get a alpha key to in the next weeks.
Be seeing the footage i feel like there is still a lot to balance here. Syntis fraktion seem work well (strong offensive weak defensive) however the man kind just got blow to pieces without much of a fight back (long range vs shorter range i would say)
Hi McRib, there is a lot to balance, it’s something we’ve not focused on yet while we’re still implementing features/content. In these battle videos the appearance of unbalance can mostly be attributed to the fleet tactics, angle of attack and attached weapons. We’re looking forward to making significant improvements here 🙂
I want beta accesss please
You guys haven’t posted in months. I would love an update for this games progress.