myosin2p

Join Date 05/2011

[suggestion] It's only a beta

So I know there have been mixed reactions on Stardock delaying the beta. And they say they want to delay the beta until it's where they want it. But it's just a beta! Why not release it now, and then patch it in a week? Why not just keep releasing betas, then patching them every so often as things get tweaked and bugs get quashed?

It's been about 2 months since the last beta release, and, from what I can tell, the devs have responded largely to the feedback from a month ago. What's happened in the past month hasn't been very new-- it's the same old issues, but issues that exist only in a version long left behind by the devs. Let's see what's actually going on! If it's rough around the edges, then no pressure, we'll know that it's a beta. Not only that, but a beta still months out from its release. We'll have something interesting to play with, and the devs will actually get useful feedback from us. It's win-win.

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astrath

Join Date 04/2006

+28

Because then its a waste of their time. They would have to spend the week sifting between new bugs and bugs that they'd already fixed. Much better to release a version where they know exactly where it's at.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

I'm getting the impression that SD is concerned about putting out a buggy beta, and then having folks blast the game saying it's no better then WOM.

I think they are going too far in the other direction, I have no incentive to play .86, and a big part of my enjoyment of SD products has been the beta process and getting the new stuff in.

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The frog once said that it was quit a bit of work to finalize and publish a beta version. I can see why they dont want to do that this week and the next, just to make us happy. They will take their good time on this one, and quality control takes first priority. I am disappointed too, as I love this game and play it as a released game more than a beta, Still I fully understand that we have to wait.

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Heavenfall

Join Date 07/2008

+441

They are depending on betas to form public impressions of the game.

However, given how long we still have in development (game release is eta this fall), I don't really buy that argument too much. You can't both say that it forms public impressions, and keep saying how it is so far away from release - eat your cookie or keep it.

That is not to say that I can't imagine legit reasons for keeping beta back from release. Bugs like constant crashes, obvious gameplay pitfalls, and straight up missing (delayed) content.

Meh. Any ETA is an ETA. They'll have to judge for themselves.

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As much as I absolutely hate seeing the beta delayed I have to say it is kinda important to deliver a good, working, version. If they release one with lots of known bugs they will get unnecessary bug reports to sort trough, wasting everyones time. If they release one which crashes it is both going to piss people off and make it harder to bug test. It is so much better that the beta is working as intended so we can test it properly and avoid frustration.

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The hole point of beta is to find bugs. Polishing beta's are a wast of resorces.

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Heavenfall

Join Date 07/2008

+441

Quoting FrostyThundertrod,

reply 6

The hole point of beta is to find bugs. Polishing beta's are a wast of resorces.

These sentences make no sense. How can the point of a beta be finding bugs, and at the same time it is a waste of resources to fix bugs?

To me, this situation appears fairly easy to understand. They have a version of the game. They know of a series of bugs that will take about a week to fix. They delay it a week. Why release a version with bugs they know of? Why not delay it, and fix them before the release?

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Quoting FrostyThundertrod,

reply 6

The hole point of beta is to find bugs.

It's not the whole point.

The point is to give feedback in all it's forms. If the entire beta is used for bug squashing, then when would the gameplay and features get worked in?

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There's no point in releasing a beta where reports would be dominated with bugs we are already aware of.

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 9

There's no point in releasing a beta where reports would be dominated with bugs we are already aware of.

And inevitably half or more of the responses would then be spent pointing out just how buggy the results are. All of which would get in the way of the real business, assessing changes to the features, balance, and design of the game.

Take the time, do it right.

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Also, many people are waiting for a solid beta release before jumping in the pool. I know there were at least a few game reviewers that said as much about beta 3.

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I can still promise that beta 3 will be plenty buggy.

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Frogs love bugs - Yummy!

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 9

There's no point in releasing a beta where reports would be dominated with bugs we are already aware of.

You could include a list of known bugs and issues with a beta release. Of course, no everyone would read it and then you'd still be dealing with lots of useless forum posts.

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Quoting FrostyThundertrod,

reply 6

The hole point of beta is to find bugs. Polishing beta's are a wast of resorces.

How do you know that it is a "waste of resources" do you even know what your talking about? I doubt that you do. The SD devs are the only ones that will know if they are as you say ""wasting resources."

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 12

I can still promise that beta 3 will be plenty buggy.

As long as they are "Fun Buggy" that is all that counts

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Quoting Bellack,

reply 15

This reminds me of a few weeks ago when Brad mentioned how releasing a beta took alot of resources they need to be spending on the game.

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Quoting seanw3,

reply 17

This reminds me of a few weeks ago when Brad mentioned how releasing a beta took alot of resources they need to be spending on the game.

I did a fairly elaborate mod for Oblivion--not heavy tweakers with new content like your excellent ones for WoM, just adding a bunch of new purchaseable content with additional scripted options. If at any time I'd been asked to supply a beta, I'd have had to take time out to finish up a lot of object creation and remove things that were in progress but definitely didn't work, in order to get what I had to the mod's audience. Might have required a few days' effort, at least. Definitely wouldn't have been fun.

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