every year, it’s the same thing. broken features and bugs are confirmed to be broken during early access, but ‘fixed for official release day’. firstly, how much are dtg rushing if this many things can be fixed for a patch that comes out on day five and not day one, and secondly, what’s even the point of early access anymore? apart from a selling point, no one else is benefitting. instead we end up testing and identifying MAJOR issues that should’ve been caught earlier.
Early Access has its benefits. I guess its somewhat of a trial for those who want to report bugs and play the game early. Despite how much of a mess it can get, its still valuable to have it, last year during TSW6 early access most of the issues found were fixed in a post patch on release day iirc. I guess if you bought deluxe edition which is good value, early access is kinda like an inescapable roller coaster of bugs. Im playing early access to report bugs and for the good memes thatll cone out of it.
But normally with beta testing, the developer takes note of and fixes what you report. Or at least sets up a checklist and order of priorities for fixing.
And you get a discount as compensation! To be fair, I don’t think any long time users will be under any illusions that the early access period could be a bit of a car crash, although I do worry about any new players who might be tempted in.
No you pay for the content and get EA as a bonus. You also get compensated for the beta testing via the pre-order discount.
Thats the way i look at early access you get a discount on the deluxe and get to test/play early version and see what or if any issues..and see what others are experiencing , and report on forum s etc if experience any issues.
This would only be true if one were to explicitly pay for early access, and early access only. But in TSW's case, you pay for the core routes and deluxe locos, the early access is an added bonus, if anything