Sure, we can give our opinions but you have some asshats who are saying that their opinion equates to what is "finished".

I think I was misunderstood. From the first time I've seen the trailer, I've become a valiant defender and " marketing agent " for this game.

I would talk about it non-stop with every gamer-type friend I would meet. I love the idea. I love the concept behind the game. For me to leave behind any dota beta discussions and to start reading almost every post on this forum and basically drooling when thinking of this awesome great and perfect game, meant a lot.

I would stay up and chat with the other dudes over the irc channel. I would patiently wait for the beta. And I'm hit with this news right into my face : we will have 8 demigods. I almost fell out of my chair.

I'm with you guys untill the end. No matter how many demigods we'll have. But I hope I won't be disappointed.

What a laugh. So here you have the publisher of the game saying what is going to be in the game before release and you get to decide whether that constitutes being finished?

You don't even have the beta yet. Why don't you just go cancel your order or something and find some other forum to troll? Egads.

Has Stardock ever release a game that wasn't good?

Really, bug fixes in patches and anything expansion-wise are completely moot at this point since we haven't even played the beta yet. And there isn't a whole lot known about the single player either.

People need to chill.

I think there's an issue of quality vs. quantity here.

As I said in another post, Galactic Civilizations II includes 12 unique civilizations, each with their own unique technology trees (units, structures, backstory, etc.).  Starcraft has 3.  Does that mean GalCiv II is "better" than Starcraft?

The design objective with Demigod is not to have tons of quantity but rather to limit quantity in favor of quality so that each Demigod is truly special.

I don't know where the 5 on 5 discussion came from. I don't remember ever saying there'd be 5 on 5 given that the beta hasn't even begun and hence we haven't even begun stress testing multiplayer.

What I am saying, however, is that we are committed to releasing 8 Demigods at release. And while there may be more Demigods released than that or released afterwards, it is very unlikely, given the expense in making them, that they'd all be freely given away. In other words, we're only promising 8 on release.

Now if this is somethign someone finds unacceptable, then by all means, quit now. I'd rather us lose any toxic "fans" at the start rather than spend the next 6 months dealing with them complaining about every choice we decided to make.

Demigod is a pretty unique game concept as Dota fans know.  Demigod is NOT, however, Dota. It has significantly different game mechanics than Dota. 

I would like to think that by now, Stardock has established enough of a reputation for releasing quality games that players would have a little faith that we're working with GPG to produce a kick ass game.

I should also point out that we have a budget for free updates for many months after the release of Demigod.  Anyone who has been with us with GalCiv or Sins knows that we release a lot of free updates with a lot of extra stuff in them.

But I have to tell you, it really pains me, as a gamer and game developer, to see people obsess over quantity of "stuff" instead of caring much about quality.  I think people should reserve their opinions until they've made it to beta 2.

If you're going quality > quantity the current skill trees need to be doubled/tripled to make up for the lack of pure quantity of demigods. That way each demigod can be played in more ways to make up for the lack of numbers. Honestly, I prefer each demigod be more diverse than having pure numbers but looking at the current skill lists they are extremely lacking. I'd like to at least see skill lists nearing diablo 2 if we're only getting 8 demigods. Before someone says items, no, they do not make up for shallow skill lists.

That's a reasonable suggestion.  We'll see what we can do.

Taking a step back this is what we're trying to get at:

From a game design point of view, we want each Demigod to be very special. We explicitly don't want tons of them. But we do want to make sure that people can play each Demigod in lots of different ways.

Enhanced skill trees would be very nice. I'd like to see them able to customize themselves over time for certain situations. Like if you can't seem to hold down a horde of creeps, you add some AoE effects, etc.

I personally think this game is going to be great! Stardock has a Great reputation for QUALITY, and GPG has a good reputation for a useful smart Interface.

When I first saw this game my first thought was "Wow look at that graphics quality!" you cannot really find many games with graphics quality that good plus when I found out it is supposed to run MUCH better then Supreme Commander I nearly fell out of my chair!

Frogboy, I for one appreciate you taking your time to inform us the status of the game on this forum, So thanks.

It is amazing on how big of a deal only having 8 demigods is causing and no one is really played the game yet.

I'm sorry to hear that. I think that the reason that a lot of people are on your case about the quantity is that it's the only part of the game they have all the information on, and it's easy to go from being disappointed by a lack of quantity to assuming that little snippets about quality is all there is and that abilities that sound bland from experiences with other games will be bland in this one. I'm confident the beta will show us all we were wrong to suspect the worst, especially if you include the demigods' entire skill trees.

In short: shut us all up with the beta, I know you've got it in you.

The first beta won't shut people up. It wouldn't shut me up anyway since it's an engine test.

What we will want to hear from beta testers are things they think the game needs to be really good.  What I find painful is feedback that comes from without playing the game.

We're totally all over ideas on adding new spells, abilities, items, equipment, etc.  What we're not all over is adds tons of derivative demigods to the game purely for the sake of having a big number.

Frogboy, I have a small suggestion... Nothing big... Ive noticed not many people sit through credits and just skip them (But not me I like to see all the people that put hard work into the game.)

Anyways, what would be nice is something Funny / Interesting at the verry end of the credits. Something that says I just spent a lot of hard work to win and now im going to "lmao".

Just an idea though

Fine, then, just tell us how little of a slice of the ability/item/skill pie we're getting. Now that my attempt to get more stuff in beta 1 has failed (shoulda known considering the last stress test beta I've done (sins) had NO COMBAT FRIGATES in it, but at least I'll get a 10 for effort =P), I can just ask the question you really should answer, because that's got a good chance of quieting down this discussion so I don't have to refresh five times a minute.

lol, nice. Good to know you're as hard to satisfy as we are.

Seconded. My dad's an actor, and he makes me sit through the credits and respect all the people who made the movie, and a bit of that's rubbed off on me. I want there to be an enticement for everybody to give you all the respect you deserve for making the game they just enjoyed.

In my experience, the only way to get people to shut up is to duct tape their mouths shut. Even then, some will still make noise...

Wait, is that de-confirming 5v5?  I could have sworn someone confirmed that at some point.

Anyway, I don't really see a problem with 8 Demigods on release.  If there is 5v5, and if there is an option for unique Demigods (both of which I believe have been confirmed?), then a minimum of 10 Demigods would either have to be released with the game or the shipped 8 will have to have two more added as dlc very soon after release.  Anything else, while it would still be an awesome product, will leave an obvious and ugly blemish on the game.  I personally don't care (I'm not even really interested in the Unique Demigods option) but it will undoubtedly look very bad, and many people will care.  Giving people an opportunity to whine will always result in them taking it.

Again, if 5v5 Unique Demigods is possible, then I think at least 12 should eventually be reached through dlc/an expansion pack.  This way the last person to join a 5v5 unique game won't be stuck with the final Demigod, but will be able to choose between a couple free Demigods.  Any more than 12 Demigods would be pointless, imho, and that number could be reached post-release.

I think that, if anything, the focus should be on adding items and skills (and maps) to the game.  As more Demigods are created, one of two things will undoubtedly happen.  They will either start becoming very similar and the uniqueness of each one will be lost, or they will fall into very specific roles and people will be forced to adhere to specific strategies with each Demigod.  Demigods in specific roles will skew balance, as most high level ranked play will be decided by whose Demigod counters the other guy's better.  Plus, it will limit the possible playing styles for each Demigod.  A much better option, imho, is for fewer Demigods to have access to larger skill trees and a larger item shop so that, for example, two Torchbearers in 1v1 could end up being relatively different characters.  I think fewer Demigods with more options for growth would ultimately allow for games to be more dynamic, interesting, competitive, diverse, and ultimately better than having many Demigods that fit specific roles.

Plus, the more Demigods that are added, the farther out the window balance flies.  It will simply get impossible to balance if too many Demigods are added in.

I'm relatively newb and definitely far from pro at pretty much every game I play, so I know that my argument is most likely flawed .  However, that is the way I see things, and no one in this thread has changed my mind.  I think the game looks fantastic, and I can hardly wait for the beta to start so I can get a small taste of what's to come.

Regarding the credits, I tend to read them.  For games, I like it when the devs sneak funny easter eggs into them.  If the people on the development team get a line or two each to write whatever they want, that tends to be pretty funny too. For movies, I always stick around until I find the Key Grip.  Still don’t know what that guy does, but I’ve got to find him in every movie.

He neither confirmed nor denied.

5v5 MAY be avilable but only after they release more Demigods.

The UNIQUE option will only be for 4v4 and less.

To steal Brad's likely answer: "Then don't play unique 5v5s. Nobody's forcing you."

Sorry, Brad, couldn't resist .

EXCELLENT!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grip_(job) (The Key grip is the chief grip on the film. Sorry I can't get links to work.)

The Problem about comments without playing the game, or Comments with playing the game is that Our Credit cards will have already been charged by the time we play it. I Know this because I got stiffed on Sins. I played the beta for a while and went "Ehh, not what I expected and no one takes my suggestions seriosuly" so i wanted to cancel until i got the message form Sales saying "We got you sucker thanks for depositing your hopes in monetary form."

Speaking bluntly here I'm probably gonna try and find a torrent or the engine test beta and judge if I like the current content from that(with the objective opinion that most of it will be stripped) and If I like it I can always pre order again for the Phase 2. If it turns out it blows chunks with what I want in my vision then I've not invested anythign into something I'll never touch. I know thats not the best choice but when my options Pay for something i potentially don't like or try it risk free and enjoy it, then buy it. I'll take the less hassle option anyday.

It's the same reason I'd never run through a minefield to see if it's active. It doesn't make much sense. Sure one is my finances and 1 is my  legs, but ultimately it's the same, and it's not a dota or RTS or FPS analogy.

I recieved a notice saying my card will not be charged until the game release... But I think it will becharged for the beta, but either way I think this game will be worth it, If it is not good in the beta when we have the chance to improve it.

But when I bought Sins I was dissapointed too, It looked good but was nothing what I saw.