What We Learned from the First Anthem Closed Alpha

What We Learned from the First Anthem Closed Alpha

Anthem is now in alpha, and we’ve passed a major milestone with our First Closed Alpha Test. This Closed Alpha was an internal technical test to run water through our metaphorical pipes and assess the game in a live environment. We ran tests, did hotfixes, and adjusted servers on the fly, the way we will when the game is live. The goal was to test our server technology, patching, and a subset of content with a small group of players. Only the first three missions of the game were available, and all pilots were capped at level five.

Even though it was a technical test, we wanted to encourage feedback on the limited content that was available. We learned some valuable things from our players and want to share them, so you can see how we’re listening to feedback and making an even better game.

Here are our biggest findings from the Alpha, and what we’ll be doing to address them:

LOOT

Loot is critical to upgrading your javelin and leveling up. Alpha players let us know that during their time in Anthem, loot drops weren’t frequent enough and were hard to spot out in the world. We’ve done a pass on the frequency of loot drops and will look for more feedback in future tests. We’re also investigating a way to make loot drops more visible in the world so they’re easier to find.

Other Notes:

• We’ll be hosting more focused testing sessions on loot in the future.
• All loot is personal (not shared with the team), and we’ll make tweaks to ensure that’s clear.
• You will be able to access all loot obtained from a mission upon return to Fort Tarsis.

MISSIONS

We wanted to help players ease into the dangerous world outside of Fort Tarsis. That in mind, we limited the difficulty of the first few missions and cut down on how many different kinds of creatures were roaming through them. Players let us know that they wanted more challenges sooner. We have now done additional passes to balance all three difficulty levels, and will be updating the game to introduce different creatures earlier and use more of them.

Other Notes:

• Mission content in the Closed Alpha was limited, so some players felt there wasn’t a lot to do. We will be adding significantly more content into future builds.
• Critical expedition bugs were fixed.

PROGRESSION

Leveling systems, how to spend skill points, and how to use the Forge to equip gear were not always clear to our alpha players, because our tutorials for those features were not in place. Also, some leveling actions (like unlocking new javelins) were visible in the menus but not accessible during the alpha. We’re working to finish our tutorials and will seek feedback on their effectiveness once they’re in place.

Other Notes:

• Players asked to extend the amount of time they can be airborne, which will be tied to progression and was not available in the Closed Alpha. This type of leveling will be tested in a future build.

PLAY WITH FRIENDS

Multiplayer is an important part of Anthem, so we want to make sure it’s as smooth and easy-to-use as possible. Some of our alpha players mentioned they ran into difficulties trying to form a group with friends, and couldn’t always tell if their teammates had successfully joined their party. We’ve added several systems that we think will help: Join and Leave notifications when there’s a change to team make-up, tutorials, and making Add/Kick/Leave features accessible in different places.

Other Notes:

• Some players felt it was hard to find their teammates. We’re iterating on some UI elements to help with this
• We are planning to add a way to help players who get stuck in the world, details TBD

These are just some of our learnings from the First Closed Alpha. We’re already making changes based on the feedback we received. It’s an exciting time for all of us, and we look forward to future tests internally and with our players. We’ll soon be back with more information.

As Haluk once said, “Time to get to work!”

Ben