I didn't see a thread about this, but I thought I'd bring it up here.

The Alpha looks pretty good, but work clearly remains. They have opened up early access on Steam, but I'll be delighted when I get to put the finished version in my GOG library.

Up until a day or two ago, I couldn't load save files, but they posted a fix and I no longer have that issue.

For my tastes, the alpha starts you out rather abruptly, dumping you into a very large town with way too many things to do, and most of them are fatal. I didn't have any money going into the town, and the only money I found was one time I looted a couple very loaded chests in plain sight, but no one seemed to mind. Even then, a hireling I randomly recruited is doing much more damage than either of my two starter characters, who just now hit lvl 2. My warrior is there to take 3-5 hits and then die, as the starter weapon literally isn't cutting it.

Maybe you're supposed to spend a few afternoons solving quests in town that only require talking to people to get started, but I was sort of itching to try out the combat, and it's sort of rough going. Much like the other Divinity titles, there is no respawning, and the only way to get up to level is with a careful scour before moving on. If you'd rather farm exp than track it down, then as usual, you won't get to do it like that. (Unless there's some way to respawn things I don't know about yet.)

Anyway, if anyone has been able to progress consistently, I'd appreciate some tips for getting the ball rolling. I haven't put in a ton of time yet, but the backtracking was already taking its toll the last time I played when saves weren't working, and I still didn't quite have the overall plan worked out.

Save and sneak / loot to be able to afford spells and weapons.

There are 2 companions you can recruit in town. They are a little bit over powered, and after the patch a couple versions ago the warrior and ranger are a little under powered (especially the ranger trying to do piercing damage against skeletons). Apparently warriors do ok with a two handed weapon.

You can do a fair amount in town first (and having Pet Pal adds to that). When you do leave town, the north west would be the best direction to start with, and then head towards the east.

I'm not sure where to go next (discussion of builds, spells, etc - OP mentions being level 4 doing part of a main plot quest, but there are no quest spoilers)

Larian is working on another update, that will likely address some balancing issues, etc, but no ETA has been given.

Cool, nice response. (What's Pet Pal?)

I found the crazy lady with the Phoenix dive at the bar. I forget her name. Are the skills unique to the companions, or are there books and talents for them? (Or eventually/thinking about it/whatever)

Pet Pal is one of the Talents you can get (during character creation, or after leveling and getting a talent point), which allows you to talk to animals. Try clicking on animals with a weapon drawn; due to a bug or oversight they will talk to you then even if you don't have the required talent.

The skills are not unique. There are vendors in the market that sell spell books, including Phoenix Dive. Other NPCs can have scrolls and spell books, and certain plot points will make additional spell book vendors available.

Is the alpha still accessible? Are any purchases required to access it?

Raze will probably have a better answer, but IIRC you can now get early access on Steam even if you didn't do the Kickstarter alpha. Larian is eventually planning to compensate Kickstarter backers who paid for alpha access earlier on.

I'm not certain what happens after that. I know that D:OS will be on GOG, and I know that Kickstarter backers had the option of getting the finished product on GOG. I *think* - but I'm not certain - that all Steam early access purchases can be redeemed for a GOG final product. To be safe, I'd look at the Larian website and purchase through them - I think they have a system in place for distrubuting early access as well as final game keys.

TL;DR: Yes, early access is available, and it's on Steam, but I'd go to larian.com first for info.

As Mothwentbad said, if you missed the kickstarter, alpha access is only only available though Steam Early Access.

All kickstarter backer were given alpha access, though, so if you know anyone who doesn't want to participate, or has an extra key from a dual pack, they can give you their key. The kickstarter alpha keys will become invalid once the game is released, and anyone who selects Steam as their distribution choice will be issued a new key.

. Kickstarter backers will get a key for their distribution method of choice once the game is released (GOG, Larian Vault or Steam). Early Access purchases directly from Steam will remain on Steam.

There isn't going to be any non-Steam alpha/beta option (due to the extra work it would take to support different distribution channels and the limited resources available), but there should eventually be a pre-order option from the Larian Vault, etc, which could come with beta access. For Dragon Commander GOG didn't give out Steam beta keys for pre-orders (gave bonus games instead), so unless they have added support for beta programs since then, they probably will not for D:OS.

Larianvault doesn't have D:OS content that I can find. larian.com and D:OS.com both link directly to Steam for early access. I don't see any other mention of pre-ordering anywhere. I think everything was done through Kickstarter, and I'm not sure there's any way to pre-order that way anymore.

So I think this means that the only Early Access option now is Steam, which continues to be a Steam-only product after the final release of D:OS. Kickstarter backers had more freedom though.

I could be wrong, but if the situation is different, then the website is currently confusing about it.

No, any pre-order option would be much closer to release. Sorry about that; I intended to have an 'eventually' in that sentence, but by the time the message got to my fingers it was lost...

I so wish that was true. But nooo, Larian decided to change that and now it's all a big mess for the people who backed the game and gave away their alpha keys to promote the game and now have trouble getting their GOG keys. :-( I'm sad.