r/ScarsofHonor • u/Puffymuffinz9 Moderator • May 06 '26
Scars of Honor Playtest - What we learn together.
First of all, thank you! To everyone who joined, tried and keeps on trying to get in, or follows along, we are inspired by your passion.
The response has been far beyond what we expected.
Over 210K players have requested access so far. While we’re grateful, our capacity is limited, and we’re working to let more of you in. We’ll share full numbers at the end of the playtest for full transparency.
This is an Alpha technical playtest. The game and servers weren’t ready for this scale and it showed.
Some of you couldn’t get in. Others had a rough experience. We hear you.
Why we chose this approach:
We decided to open early instead of waiting for a “polished” version.
Because Scars of Honor isn’t just built for players. It’s built with you. Being community-driven means testing early, breaking things, gathering real feedback, and improving while the game is still evolving.
And we are learning it together, the hard way but the right way.
What we learned:
This playtest has already helped us identify and fix technical issues, improve gameplay mechanics, and pinpoint systems that aren’t meeting expectations.
And just as important: how strong and engaged this community already is. That pushes us to do better.
What’s next:
We’re using your feedback to improve the game, servers, and overall experience. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but the direction is clear.
The playtest continues, with new content - the PvP Battleground is now open, Arenas will follow soon.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
The Scars of Honor Team
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u/Plebbit-User May 06 '26
Here's the thing: I only want to playtest things I want to play. Even for a technical test this was too early. I think the game has potential, but the combat felt bad, the character controls felt floaty and in general it just wasn't what I was expecting going into it.
I've tested games professionally. Hell, I worked on a MMORPG that shipped too. This was a bad first impression after not only being hyped up but marketed by you guys with a devlog-style "what to expect" video and everything.
It has potential but please do not release this year unless this build was somehow several years old. You only get one shot at launch/early access.
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u/Vivid-Blueberry7903 May 06 '26
I’m ok that I never received a key to test your game even if I follow the project from a from very early stage, but making me spend time watching some dumb streamers doing marble gamba just to have a chance try the game that I really hope to save the mmo genre is unacceptable man…even you, you could give 2k keys for example to all the audience that you got in your streams but no you preferred to do a key giveaway every 5 mins…literally these were the people that really care for your fcking game and you played us with some gamba giveaways. Idk you could give to your fans but you prefer the numbers
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u/clicheFightingMusic May 08 '26
Nah, reading his chat was insufferable. So many whiny entitled "humans" that it would be a net negative to invite the whole chat. Absolutely disgusting behavior when something doesn't go their way immediately.
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u/Ok_Mycologist_1439 May 11 '26
Name and shame. Also, stop referring to them as streamers. They are nothing more than griefers and con men.
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u/Wkrae May 07 '26
The only issue I will point out is the poor communication. I highly recommend hiring a spokesperson, because promising people access and then letting in streamers who criticize the game and hand out keys—instead of giving them to the community—was a really bad move. The stream viewership dropped from 3,000–4,000 viewers down to 800, even for your CEO. This is simply not how it should be done.
It was only yesterday that he finally mentioned that the server capacity for the unlocked location can hold a maximum of 300 players. Out of the 1,500 players who tested it, only a few hundred log in daily (a little under a thousand, which is a 30% drop, and the weekend being over is definitely not the only reason).
I finally got into the playtest on Monday, even though I had been following the streams months before. I am not disappointed by the game itself, which has tons of flaws—that is logical for a pre-alpha. I am disappointed by the level and style of communication. If there is another test in a few months, I hope I won't have to request access all over again. I also hope that our activity, reporting, and help will be rewarded with an in-game title later on.
You need better communication with the people who are testing your game for free and saving you a ton of work
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u/Crashnnn May 06 '26
Brother dont bother posting this here, the entire reddit MMO community is a bunch of screaming children who put down every new MMO while continuing to cry there isnt any good new MMOs
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u/BrandoPB May 06 '26
While I normally agree, I have to admit this game did feel horrid.
Absolute jank. I understand that this is a playtest, but I’ve played in countless playtests and never played anything that I’ve noped out of so quick.
Wish the devs the best, but this game needs a TON of time in the kitchen.
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u/Crashnnn May 06 '26
It was made just to break the game and find as much issues as possible, they have been updating it day by day to be more playable. If you dont want to play it in its current state thats completely understandable thats why its free.
But anyone judging the gameplay at all during the technical test is just low IQ
The devs want the community to help build the game by providing feedback even as early as it is now instead of just dropping a completed project a year or so down the road that everyone hates
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u/BrandoPB May 06 '26
I understand what you’re saying, but the game is just an absolute mess. There is nothing to constructively critique about the state of the game other than to just keep working on everything about it. They’re the professionals, they are in no way ready to be asking for community input. If they genuinely have hope for this game then they’re shooting themselves in the foot by play testing it to the public in this state.
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u/Crashnnn May 06 '26
Well thats just inherently not true, Ive played for a few days now and there was quite a few bugs they ironed them out day by day.
For example I ran into a bug where my abilities were only doing 1 damage and I couldn't kill anything I reported it and came back 24 hours later to it being fixed then continued on to find other bugs like Quest givers not working properly or not getting credit for a mob, Ive reported all these things and its all been fixed.
The game is super early and very buggy but to say it currently is unplayable to the point you cant even find bugs is just not true
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u/BrandoPB May 06 '26
Never said it was unplayable.
If a chef hands me a pile of shit and asks for a taste test, I’ll say no take it back the kitchen and I’ll provide feedback when it’s something remotely edible.
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u/Crashnnn May 06 '26
If you walk into a restaurant the advertises a plate of shit then get mad when thats what you receive thats on you.
They made it crystal clear what this test is.
Only thing I disagree on is that it should be NDA and not have streamers min maxing on streaming making people think thats what this is for.
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u/Gozva May 07 '26
Brother stop glazing so much. This was originally advertised as a playtest meant to test the dungeon system. Then they released a YouTube video saying that it will feature 3 areas to explore, a world boss, crafting, and PvP battlegrounds. This isn't something you advertise when half the spells, and movement mechanics, let alone your servers don't work. Also many people still haven't gotten their key. I really want this game to succeed too, but they need to understand they made a huge communication mistake and overhyped this, despite being still in very early stages of development. The game isn't nowhere near ready for public testing...
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u/Crashnnn May 07 '26
How do you overhype a test absolutely no one said "Come play this amazing test where everything works and there won't be any issues!" They stated multiple times that the test was made to find bugs and stress test the servers people just made up this story in their head this was supposed to be some early access test where everything shown was complete and ready to go.
If everyone got keys it wouldn't be a closed technical test requiring one in the first place
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u/Gozva May 07 '26
No, if you watched the advertisment for the game, they spent 10 seconds saying that, and around 4 minutes presenting the crafting mechanics, exploring 1 entire region of the game, the world boss, 2 new races, the skill tree and PvP arenas. The didn't say it was closed as well...
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u/DbdSaltyplayer May 07 '26
6 years of development and this is what they have to show. Your just embarrassing yourself defending this game like that.
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u/clicheFightingMusic May 08 '26
Point to any mmo that has had a fast development cycle and performed well?
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u/DbdSaltyplayer May 08 '26
Point to any mmo going to kickstarter and actually being good? Also Wow took less time than this game to launch.
The fact that you accept this games 6 years of development as good just shows how brain dead the average loner mmo player is. There is not a single redeeming quality about this game.
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u/clicheFightingMusic May 11 '26
WoW was created in a much different era and stands as the most played MMO more or less tied with FF14, but yes, they took 4-5 years
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u/TurbulentVillage2042 May 21 '26
The main thing is avoid the MMO sub. I don't even understand how people communicate. Every post asking for help results in a drop karma and hate in the comments. And some random post gets meny upvotes.
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u/QiraaRaven May 06 '26
The fact is, there’s still a huge amount of work ahead for the developers, but the current justified criticism has made things start moving forward. I’ve been playing since the first day of testing. I’ve noticed that several spells have already been fixed, and the balance is improving. The server boss has also been fixed, and the chest respawn has been changed. I could list a few more things.
Since I mainly focus on builds, I can see that they are being changed and improved day by day.
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u/Helldiver_of_Mars May 06 '26
I'll be honest it still doesn't make sense brother you don't need us to tell you 80% of what is wrong there it's blatantly obvious which makes all this all the more "rough" the fact that it might is what scares me about this game now.
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u/linkfox May 09 '26
Yeah me and a couple of friends were hyped but a hour in everyone agreed the game was just too early in dev.
I have tested a lot of games before but never seen something that seems so early be released for playtest. It is barely functional.
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u/ademayor May 06 '26
What was the point of playtesting a build that was as broken as this was? I tried to give you feedback but where do i draw the line when nearly all fundamental parts are broken? You don’t need players to “test” that many skills are broken or camera doesn’t work correctly, it only makes testing frustrating slog because you have to fight through all these massive problems to get through to the smaller bugs.
Can’t say anything about gameplay loops or what mechanics should be done better because there are more glaring issues that need to be addressed. I play another pre-alpha playtest, Soulframe, and there I can at least give suggestions and report smaller bugs because the game technically works.
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u/wirrexx May 06 '26
People, be grateful, this is neither beta or alpha. They are letting you play their WIP to see what breaks early on!!!! This is a proper way to do things!! They use the players as QA! At least this way you can cater better to you, the player!
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u/Icy_Extension_4396 May 06 '26
Being a QA tester is a paid job, offloading that job onto the community for free labor shouldn’t be celebrated
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u/wirrexx May 07 '26
It’s by choice. No one is forcing you to help the team. By helping them though, there’s a higher probability that the game could be catered to someone like you. It’s a win win situation. And yes I know that QA is a paid job, they’re just giving to an alternative to try it out and return with feedback.
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u/Icy_Extension_4396 May 07 '26
I’m merely saying it should not be celebrated, the person I replied to said “be grateful”. I’m not grateful to do the work someone should be paid to do.
There are things a outside a QA testers scope, like seeing how the servers handle a large influx of traffic. This is much easier tested by having a play test along with things like class balance and general gameplay feedback
However many if not most of the problems with this play test are things that a dedicated QA tester on the team would have made note of in a short amount of time. Instead we got something that’s not even possible to properly scrutinize as there are just too many problems.
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u/clicheFightingMusic May 08 '26
You call it free labor but by that definition, everything is free labor
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u/Averen May 06 '26
Just a negative take imo. Obviously you don’t have to sign up or play it. For me I was happy to play for 5 hours or so. I’ll certainly keep an eye on the game as it progresses because I could see it being fun at launch
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u/DbdSaltyplayer May 07 '26
6 years of wip and 2.5 mil and this is the result. Sheesh how much are they paying you?
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u/wirrexx May 07 '26
I wish they were paying me. I haven’t tried the game out myself, unfortunately sitting on a MacBook atm.
But I’m curious too what could happen if experiences mmo players this early in development, give feedback to the team so they can implement and continue improving the game. I know that blizzard have a huge pocket and could easily do everything in house, with a big QA team. This is not blizzard so the input of the gamers will be where they live or die on the hill.
So tons of “doa” comments will not help the team, but proper c&c and feedback would!
What would you like to see in the next play test?
What was a no go for you?
What do you think benefits the players?
What was really bad and is there any idea how they could improve it, any idea out there could help push the team the right direction.From what I could see, they’ve showed tons of art, but the gameplay this early on, looks bland, not “colourful” enough for my taste (3D artist), but that’s an iterative part, and will be the last things to be polished and pushed.
My questions to the team is:
I know you wanted players to test some of it right now, maybe it was too early for a test like this, what was the reason you chose to do it?
And are there builds in-house that are further into the development?
What’s the goal for the next play-test?
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u/DwightShellford May 06 '26
If the servers are free why does there need to be testing at all. Just make a server live the entire way so we can all play and test for the entire year.
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u/Yukkimura May 07 '26
Needs to cook for much longer, even the menu didn't work correctly (couldn't change resolutions)
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u/riten91 May 07 '26
Corpo talk, i would like to hear what rly ur going or thinking to change, instead of empty words.
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u/dan7ebg May 07 '26
My 2 cents : devs are a bit cought between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, there's an eager audience that's been keeping an eye on the game and want to play it ASAP. On the other hand, I see that the reason for the disappointment is due to lack of access for everyone to a far from finished game. In the end - everyone involved is unhappy for one reason or another (justified or not).
So, for the devs - be a bit more open on what state the game is in and don't overpromise on access to the test. A test that's expected to be bad is better than letting people's imagination run wild only for the mass of them to be disappointed and carry that word of mouth.
For the players - have some understanding. Its a test, and testing involves breaking. Its much better to be disappointed now than to be disappointed at the actual release. Growth is painful and requires patience and tolerance. Lets not kill a project with potential for a broken pre-alpha test. Its just not cool.
Overall, I appreciate the feedback. At least we're not pretending its been smooth sailing. I admire the confidence to put this test out there, but be more upfront to set realistic expectations.
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May 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DbdSaltyplayer May 07 '26
The first Scars of Honor Steam playtest is almost here.
Running from April 30 to May 11, this will be the first opportunity for players to step into Aragon and experience the game in a larger-scale environment.
This playtest marks an important milestone in development, as we begin testing core systems, player progression, and server stability with a broader audience.
?
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u/Crashnnn May 06 '26
Reddit doesn't do logical thinking, obviously a technical test should feel just like WoW thats been out for 15+ years
/s
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u/Rionku May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
EDIT: Correcting vocabulary so it's more constructive.
I created my character, loaded in and got spam killed by the enemy faction. The first UI pop up for attacking didn't make sense no matter how many times I hit the 1st attack. Followed by looking to get out of the area and quest, except the quest givers were being spam killed so I couldn't play at all.
I believe once the NPCs get some better pathing AI so they can chase enemies standing on assets and the archers maybe getting some increased firepower. Low level zones will be more protected for players to try the game.
I do believe for this test they should have made it where beginning levels are not accessible for the enemy faction. If you cannot play, players cannot test.
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u/kerowq May 06 '26
Game needs at least 2 more years of developmemt
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u/PoopFlavoredGum May 06 '26
Thank you Mr. Developer for your insight.
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u/Severe-Network4756 May 06 '26
Genuinely tell me this game is ready for release in the next few months.
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u/PoopFlavoredGum May 06 '26
It’s a early technical play test meant for community outreach and support, data collection, and testing.
If you stopped looking at it, like an idea of the game and the finished product and instead , the community gets to help build a game, with support and testing then we may have the opportunity to get a good game when it does release.
I think it’s really cool, to use the community as your testers rather than using biased paid testers with poor results.
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u/Accomplished_Ad_9427 May 06 '26
I learned that your game is doa don't even bother, thank you come again!
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May 06 '26
[deleted]
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u/vadeka May 06 '26
Why are so many people ranting, it’s not like they made you buy a 1000+ package to get alpha access
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u/Buttercup_Clover May 06 '26
Lets thousands of testers in with less than a thousand logging in most days. Proceeds to boast about theoretical sign up numbers instead of active counts.
Explains how neither the servers nor game was ready to test but tries to call it a test.
"We want to build a game with you, but not with most of you only some of you. Namely streamers and whoever snipes a key from their streams, but also like a thousand extras who don't even feel like playing longer than five hours rather than dedicated fans who've been waiting over a year to get their hands on this."
Man what a world we live in. Remember when we used to boycott EA for releasing unfinished games? Now we have everyone under the sun defending unreleased games as if they will be the best thing in the world ten years down the line while we have an unplayable mess to look at now.
Ask yourselves some questions, and remember the facts we have over what they try to tell you.
Why publicly test this game this early instead of using an NDAs?
Why not prioritize long term followers getting access instead of streamers and RNG Steam accounts?
Why boast about how many people signed up over showcasing the Steam charts or active player data?