It's early access... this is the experimental branch. We are the bleeding edge testers. People who don't want to deal with big changes shouldn't buy early access.

Such a branch exists, but you have to join Discord and be a good community member.

Devs allready actively take feedback on all of us, the early access testers :)

There is a difference between a Beta & Early access!

Many early access games have experimental branches.

Originally posted by nodehappy:

Such a branch exists, but you have to join Discord and be a good community member.

Is it working? Lots of people were kinda upset about the last release. An experimental branch might have helped.

Just an idea.

Originally posted by Kauldric:

Originally posted by nodehappy:

Such a branch exists, but you have to join Discord and be a good community member.

Is it working? Lots of people were kinda upset about the last release. An experimental branch might have helped.

Just an idea.

that people in exp were pretty confident about the changes.

Originally posted by Vault Traveler:

Originally posted by Kauldric:

Is it working? Lots of people were kinda upset about the last release. An experimental branch might have helped.

Just an idea.

that people in exp were pretty confident about the changes.

Some improvement is possible then.

Originally posted by Kauldric:

Originally posted by Vault Traveler:

that people in exp were pretty confident about the changes.

Some improvement is possible then.

Yep, the game oozes for opportunities.

Perhaps restricting feedback on proposed changes to the game to those deemed "good community members" by discord mods is a super bad idea?

That is practically preselecting for validation.

Simply making an opt in test branch will get the devs much more diverse feedback, that will better represent how changes will be received.

Like I said if you want to take part, join the Discord. Be a helpful community member, and you could possibly receive an invite. But, unfortunately, the branch is not available on Steam, nor is it available for download.

Originally posted by SanityBasket:

Perhaps restricting feedback on proposed changes to the game to those deemed "good community members" by discord mods is a super bad idea?

That is practically preselecting for validation.

Simply making an opt in test branch will get the devs much more diverse feedback, that will better represent how changes will be received.

You can make constructive criticism on the games discord just fine and be considered a good community member. You cannot be a toxic screaming twit raging with comments like "lulz, lazy devs took money and run! Dumb fanboys! Trash!" and such. Remain civil and constructive and critism is welcome. Being rude and such isn't allowed even by those who are supportive of the devs.

Originally posted by Vault Traveler:

Originally posted by Kauldric:

Is it working? Lots of people were kinda upset about the last release. An experimental branch might have helped.

Just an idea.

that people in exp were pretty confident about the changes.

Yeah it's no surprise that if you handpick yes-men you get no negative feedback on your test build.

Originally posted by Weaver:

You can make constructive criticism on the games discord just fine and be considered a good community member. You cannot be a toxic screaming twit raging with comments like "lulz, lazy devs took money and run! Dumb fanboys! Trash!" and such. Remain civil and constructive and critism is welcome. Being rude and such isn't allowed even by those who are supportive of the devs.

The point of a test branch is to figure out how a community will react to changes in a game, before they are released. If the only people allowed access to the test branch are those who:

a) bother to join the discord.
b) bother to be active in it.
c) and are hand picked for being "good community members"

you are going to have a very narrow and specific sample set. If you open it up, that will change.

Does this fact mean I am a super fan of toxic people? No. If however you want to know how the player base is going to react to things, you have to interact with the actual player base. Not a curated selection from among it's most passionate supporters.

For clarification: There are 2 test branches.

Public Test Branch, access for everyone. You get the code and instructions on Discord.

Private Test Branch, access only for verified and invited users.

The private testers (called "Protovikings") test major updates under NDA, the public testers can only test "normal" patches.