Ugleb

Join Date 09/2003

Beta2 - When? Will I have access? And other stuff.

There are alot of new threads springing up about the same thing at the moment, and I'm a bit surprised about that.

Most threads are asking when it's coming out - todays news update says it will be released in the second week of June, so that means from Monday 6th to Monday 13th by my count.

Second most frequently asked question - how do I get acess to the beta? All pre-orders or TGN subscriptions made before Beta2 is released will have access to it.

What is Beta2 about? I quote the beta schedule thread:

Goal: Performance/Compatibility still. But now with the focus moving towards user interface design. Is the UI looking okay? Is it intuitive? Are the basic game mechanics easy to figure out? Can you play the game without needing a manual (the game will have a manual but a well designed game shouldn't need much of one)
Feedback we need: Suggestions/complaints on UI. Crashing issues. Performance and compatibility.
Feedback we DON'T need: Spelling errors, complaints about missing features, , complaints about game balancing or "that it's not fun" (beta 2 should be playable but it won't be balanced yet). "First off, you spelled 'manufacturing' as 'manufaturing'. Secondly, I can't believe that a capital ship only takes 4 months to build but a fighter take 3 months. Hello? Why bother with a fighter?"

Stardock have just announced that Beta2 will contain more than originally planned. No details on what exactly will be included, but the current game build is a little more developed than originally expected.

And the final point that has been coming up lately, and I'm quite irritated with. Beta2 was originally scheduled to be released in late may, due to Stardock moving building and extra workload in preparing for the E3 conference/show, they couldn't release it on schedule and be availiable to take feedback from players. As the entire point of the Beta is to get feedback, they had to push things back a little, hence the new second week of june release.

Somehow a few people think that stardock have been negligent and let us, the customers, down here. I've read posts saying that Stardock staff have been slacking off because the boss has been away at E3. That's just not fair. It really isn't. It's not as if Stardock promised us that Beta releases would be set in stone. They never said it would be out on a specific day, and I really can't see why it is such a big deal. When I pre-ordered Gal Civ 2 I was purchasing the end product which is due out in 2006, not the beta builds. The one and only date Stardock are promising to hit is the day the final game comes out, and they haven't set that yet.

The point of this public beta is not to give us something to play, the beta is intended for us to help stardock make the game we want to play. In order to do that stardock are putting together milestone builds of the game for us to test. If the code isn't ready there is no point in releasing it. If stardock cant be availiable to gather feedback (because their builders have messed them around I might add) there is no point releasing it. If stardock find a critical bug at the last minute, I hope they delay the beta release an extra day or two to fix it so we can test a stable version of the game instead of trying to give constructive feedback in between the game crashing.

We have all played a game that was released before it was ready. I have "Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines". It was released full of bugs, typos and all sorts of niggling little problems. When I turn a specific street corner the game ALWAYS jerks and lags. Yet I know that it should have been one of the best games I ever played. The developers were rushed to hit dealines and the game suffered for it. Since release, Vampire's developers have gone bust as the game's poor reviews killed sales. Stardock are trying to avoid going down that road and are taking time to get it right. We should be more supportive.

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Well said.

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Yup.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

That's just not fair. It really isn't. It's not as if Stardock promised us that Beta releases would be set in stone. They never said it would be out on a specific day, and I really can't see why it is such a big deal. When I pre-ordered Gal Civ 2 I was purchasing the end product which is due out in 2006, not the beta builds. The one and only date Stardock are promising to hit is the day the final game comes out, and they haven't set that yet.

Hear, hear.

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Indeed, well said.

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For anyone who believes firmly in ANY projected software release date - I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona that I'd like to sell you.

Complaining about slipped software release dates is like complaining that the cops in Tijuana are corrupt... no ship, Sherlock.

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Another

from me.

To be fair to the developers, writing software is a tricky process, and estimating time to do things is hard. It's even harder when you factor in feature creep (which seems normal for every software project I've ever seen).

Dates slip, always have, probably always will.

Actually I'm impressed enough with progress I've finally decided to pre-order. I've been holding off until I saw how beta one was progressing. My assessment: good enough to give Stardock my money.

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Software is half art and half science... developing a truly new game is probably more art than science. If the architects go too far, they end up biting off more than they can chew - and there becomes a high risk of failure... the trick is to balance things so that the game is good/new enough that people will buy it, and that it can be developed in a reasonable amount of time so that revenues can be generated before the company's coffers run dry (Stardock offsets this phenomenon somewhat buy allowing folks to buy in at beta time, and by having more than one product).

The fact is, developers/architects CAN'T AFFORD to let things slip too much, otherwise they'll put themselves out of a job. Having said that, some slip is ALWAYS going to happen - if it didn't the game would probably be a POS in the end.

In any event, schedule is only 1/3 of the entire equation... resources ($), and quality being the other legs of the table. Many times, it is best to slow things down to save money and increase quality.

Another thing that affects schedule is whether or not the company is able to keep key people - if a key person leaves at a critical moment, the schedule can be totally screwed... if enough key people leave, the whole house of cards can collapse. So - the trick to being a successful company is to recognize and reward high performing individuals... and the trick for high-performing individuals is to work for companies that are good at doing this

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2411

The biggest thing affecting us is literally logistics. We are physically packing up the office. This stuff was supposed to be in April but the new building wasn't ready then. That's why we didn't have a beta drop scheduled for April was becasuse we expected to be moving then.

Beta 2 will be a bit mroe "mature" than it was originally expected to be so more screens will likely be in than originally planned since schedule-wise we're on target skill for features.

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Beta 2 will be a bit mroe "mature" than it was originally expected to be so more screens will likely be in than originally planned since schedule-wise we're on target skill for features.

Sounds good to me!

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Welcome to the Internet... where people can and will complain about every perceived slight in the universe. Regardless of how small or large, regardless of whether the slight was intended or not, or even if there is an actual slight or a misunderstanding on the client's part, the internet was practically MADE for people to gripe. And they can do so from the comfort of their largely anonymouse keyboards.

One would THINK that by agreeing to join in the beta, their experience would be at the whim of the development cycle.
It's a shame really...

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For anyone who believes firmly in ANY projected software release date - I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona that I'd like to sell you.

Well actually now that you mention it, EB games site and many other sites for the game Rome Total War for a year and a half before the date was announced had right release date on their sites. There was a huge forum arguement on the fansite twcenter and I said basically what your saying and I turned out to be wrong, lol.

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