Ohhh My bad!
Great work with this thread!
Thank you! Don't worry, the forums are not that intuitive to navigate
I'll try to answer this but keep in mind that I'm a francophone, if it's not clear enough just let me know, but :
As of writing this, Bannerlord is in
Early Access, meaning it is not in its completed state, called
Full Release. To reach that level of completion, Bannerlord will be updated for about a year.
In order to make this year of update more functional, TaleWorlds decided that they would keep 2 up to date version of the game, one Beta version (/branch) and the Public version (/branch).
The difference is this : Content that has been tested internally (by TaleWorlds) will be pushed into the Beta version of the game, for folks like us to test and give feedback. After around a week, TaleWorlds will pick the functional content from the Beta, push it to the Main Branch and leave the content that needs tweaking in the Beta. (
This is in theory. It is the ultimate goal of this thread to help make it work like that, but it is a tad optimistic)
So we've got the Public Branch, made to be stable and only receive tested content. The Beta made to test said content that should have been tested by TaleWorlds before.
Your question was : What's an Alpha Branch
Right now : Nothing
But, when TaleWorlds announced the Beta Branch, they said they would also open an Alpha Branch, where players that opted for this could test crude and untested content, a buggy frequently updated version of the game that introduces a lot of content, broken or not.
If you wonder how to opt for a branch or an other, there's something in the Support Section for Bannerlord in the Forums about that.
I hope it helps, cheers