When doing a beta like this, it is generally more important to be using the latest build available. If you're not on the same page as the devs, then there's not a lot of point to testing (since you will be encountering issues that have since been fixed, and missing any new ones that have arisen since).

Thanks for the rapid response, Kryo. I had mostly guessed that immediate updates were best, but wondered if there was something I wasn't seeing about how a complete long game regardless of build might be useful to Stardock.

Cyberj, your take on the speed of 1A makes sense to me, and I hope you're right that the full beta process will manage to capture some input from mature or near-complete long games, even if my work sched stabs me in the back, which is likely for Dec & Jan .

When doing a beta like this, it is generally more important to be using the latest build available. If you're not on the same page as the devs, then there's not a lot of point to testing (since you will be encountering issues that have since been fixed, and missing any new ones that have arisen since).

For my 2 cents, while I would agree the reporting of old errors is counter productive, there is an aspect of play that could be ignored by immediately dumping a current game in favor starting one on a newer release.

There are errors that could occur only with large number of fleets moving around in unanticipated ways. There are also other issues related to the scale of the game that might not be detected in shorter games. I think one of the purposes of a beta is to find errors that occur in different kinds of games with different styles of play.

I would encourage you to *not* ignore problems that may only occur during long games.

I agree it's not a good idea to get too far behind the curve, I was just suggesting that's there's some utility in investigating issue's that may only occur deep into a game.

This will probably be more effective later in the beta cycle when the pace of change slows down and the functionality is closer to final.

I design hardware and although it's not precisely the same, the process is analogous. The most difficult problems to find, debug and fix are the ones that are infrequent, only occur under certain combinations of events, or both.

I once had a failure that only occurred once every two weeks on one machine out of twenty running in a thermal chamber cycling between -10C and 50C. It took me close to three months to find the problem. In a short duration test, you’d probably never even see the problem. I’ve also learned over time that you ignore these types of low error rate problems at your peril.

I'm several days behind in updating for Beta 2A, and my current Huge game has just yielded my first encounter with the new unit distibutions when an AI surrenders.

I have a screen cap that seems very odd to me and a question about whether the Stardock devs need input from "late" people like me or if they might be better off not getting caps, comments, SmartException zips, etc. from folks who are not able or willing to update within X days of the latest public build.

I have a screen cap that shows a stack of ships that appears to indclude two AIs who were at war. I can email to support if it is of interest.

I have a screen cap that shows a stack of ships that appears to indclude two AIs who were at war. I can email to support if it is of interest.

Send it to [email protected], with save if you have one.

My worry is that there are a few (plural) bugs that appear in every game I have played once I started in on a game size huge or larger (1.2-1.4). Ships losing destination points on game load + ship and planet build complete icons on the right side of the screen fail to appear are the most common. I have hesitated to report them formally, because I always seem to be one rev behind, given the time it takes me to play a game... It would be nice, if at some time, the dev team found a reasonable means to allow a few users to run through the very large maps and address bugs (old and maybe new) that commonly crop up due to the size of the map and the number of planets/ships etc. you consequently have. Having worked for several companies that develop software, I know early cycles are simply not the place for this, but maybe later?

See.. I knew your long games would be of use GW .

As I said before anything that helps track down bugs is a good thing so long as you don't post about something that has already been fixed. Some things just won't show up unless a game goes really really long.

Keep it up. Gotta squish as many as we can so that the public release goes out without any serious hiccups