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Demigod tentative schedule

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Demigod tentative schedule

from JoeUser Forums

image Greetings!  With the release of Beta 1 starting to get closer (August) to all those who pre-order the game, we're starting to put together a tentative schedule.

Those of you who have been through other Stardock betas know how these things go. Below is what you can expect:

August. Beta 1. This will not be a "fun" beta. It's a stress test of the engine. Those of you who were in the Sins of a Solar Empire beta or the GalCiv betas know we're not kidding. There will be very little balancing in this version. It will also be multiplayer-only at this stage.

October. Beta 2.  This beta won't be that fun either but it'll be better than Beta 1. THIS is the key beta in which players give us their ideas and suggestions.  The beta process isn't just to find bugs but to let players suggestion changes to the game.  There will be a series of Betas 2 (2A, 2B, 2C, etc.) that will be released in which we begin incorporating player suggestions. These will happen quite rapidly thanks to Impulse.

December. Beta 3. This may or may not be a public beta depending on how things go.  What we have done in the past is give players who have been particularly helpful access to late betas so that we can keep tweaking and enhancing with their feedback.

January. Gammas (release candidates).

February. Tentative release date at worldwide retail in multiple languages.

We do plan for the game to be available at stores roughly the same time in North America, Europe, Russia, and Australia/NZ at the very least.

Users who are part of the beta will be getting something special but I am not at liberty to talk about it yet.

139,717 views 58 replies
Reply #26 from Demigod Forums Top
looking forward to helping polish such an awesome game!
Reply #27 from Demigod Forums Top
Can't wait its been a long wait since the Pre-order see ya in the arena next month
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Reply #28 from Demigod Forums Top
I was just fooling around, I do know what betas are about and if balance is done last traditionally no wonder most games are massively imbalanced on release, I am glad you work on it for so long already


Actually, you kind of have to put balance in last. To take Starcraft as an example, how would you work balance out if you didn't have air units implemented yet? As soon as you added Battlecruisers, Wraiths, and Science Vessels to the terran side, they'd play completely differently -- with brand new balance requirements. And the same thing applies to Zerg and Protoss!

I don't know what features have yet to be put in, but you really can't fine-tune balance until everything is in place.

Reply #29 from Demigod Forums Top
Something like air units seems a little too important to leave out of the betas  :D.
Reply #30 from Demigod Forums Top
Something like air units seems a little too important to leave out of the betas  .


The principle -- and the point behind it -- is the same, however. Until every single feature is in the game, you can't do much more than rough balancing, because the fine balancing is going to be deranged every time you change anything.
Reply #31 from Demigod Forums Top
adding all the broodwar units worked pretty well though :P
Reply #32 from Demigod Forums Top
adding all the broodwar units worked pretty well though


Given that broodwar was an expansion to an existing game, you can bet that most of the production time was spent balancing those new units. So it's not like they threw them in and did the balance overnight.
Reply #33 from Demigod Forums Top
I've done a few betas before, so I'll have to get in on this pre-order and hope Left 4 Dead doesn't eat all my time after November. ;)
Reply #34 from Demigod Forums Top
So if we pre-order (I did) are we automatically in ALL the betas or just the first phase (august)?
Reply #35 from Demigod Forums Top
The first two phases, I think; the last is possibly for hand-picked testers only.
Reply #36 from Sins Forums Top
The gammas are hand-picked and under NDA, yeah.
Reply #37 from Demigod Forums Top
So is the final stage invite only and when will start phase I
Reply #38 from Sins Forums Top
Well beta 1 is still tentatively set for sometime in August. The latest we're hearing is probably not until after the Penny Arcade convention, which ends on the 30th, so it'll probably be either the last few days of August, or early September. But there's been no "official" announcement. And yeah, if Stardock treats it like they do their previous betas, the last stage will be invite only.
Reply #39 from Demigod Forums Top
So the final stage who gets the invite the players with the most seat time or the the top players in the ranking??
Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top
So the final stage who gets the invite the players with the most seat time or the the top players in the ranking??


Neither by default - generally, it's the most contributive to the beta process ones, if it goes similarly to Stardock's other betas. In some cases that may be most seat time or top ranked ;)

But again, I'm just speculating based on the past, I have no official knowledge on this :P
Reply #41 from Demigod Forums Top
The ones who are most helpful in the earlier stages will get to the final stage.
Reply #42 from Demigod Forums Top
They should have an online board that shows the user and how many bugs they posted, that way users will know their bugs are getting looked at, it will also make people want to find bugs more I think. Something about visuals makes people try harder. It wouldn't be hard to code, make some co-op (if you have any) do it :P


Reply #43 from Demigod Forums Top
thats a bad Idea - quality > quantity.
Reply #45 from Demigod Forums Top
I actually think it's a good idea. A bug is a bug and should be documented. Of course, it shouldn't be worth anything more than bragging rights, but a lot of the time, bragging rights are motivation enough.

Besides, the idea that quality and quantity are mutually exclusive is grossly false. You're not going to know the "quality" of a bug until after you found it. The more searching you do, the more likely you're to find bugs, the more likely you are to find something significant.
Reply #46 from Sins Forums Top
But bugs aren't the only issues in game development, and thus a poor "stat tracking" idea overall. When a beta is laid out in a manner that allows testers to influence game mechanics and concepts (such as the case with Demigod will be), it's also important to consider those contributions and they can't be quantified in a chart. Who's a better tester, a guy who finds 10 bugs but constantly complains that there aren't enough Demigods and offers no rational and thoughtful ideas or suggestions, or the guy who finds 8 bugs but is very actively discussing game balance, mechanics, improvements in a rational manner?

;)

But really, it's half a year at least down the road, why worry about it now? Do the best you can when you test, and if you're picked you're picked. They aren't going to change the way they pick people based on a popular poll or anything like that :P
Reply #47 from Demigod Forums Top
I wasn't part of the previous stardock betas, but I can't imagine they are going to look at the logs and simply choose users based solely on how many bugs they have found.

Even now, if you have been on these forums, you have a good idea of the active particapants and the helpful posters. Similarly, I'd like to think final beta testers will be those who are active, helpful, easy to work with, and/or good at playing the game.

Course alot will depend on how many participants are in the early betas, and how many openings they want to offer.
Reply #48 from Demigod Forums Top
Linden Labs, the people behind Second Life, run a public JIRA which is a bug tracking system. Residents can submit bugs to the system, and apparently there are pencil boards which cycle through recently added bugs in the LL offices. This way, bugs can be submitted with a defined format and most likely are put into the right categories (no UI bugs in the Game Play section for instance).
Reply #49 from Sins Forums Top
/frown
Reply #50 from Demigod Forums Top
Even thouhg I am a brand new member I can already tell I'm gonna have a blast. The fact that you seem so connected to your community is impressive. I am looking forward to the beta as well as sharing my thoughts and suggestions.