Yes.

I no feel necessary beta 4, becuase the most bugs / desbalance has been fixed, so, minor bugs can fixed after final release without problem. I think the game was really ok for a final release, i had no more crash, can plays hours without problem. The only problem is enter on a battle against the fucking ragnarov.... this take down my capitals very easy , but i take his fleet very easy too, so, for me is ok.

NO

Someone in the forum reported that the desync can't be reproduced with the same save file.

I guess it may have something to do with the auto save, so I suggest to decrease the interval to 5 minutes or so, during the beta phase.

Crashes , from my expireince , are limited to vasari. Stripping makes game extrimly unstable , and mobile SB doesnt help too.

If u dont play vasa , especialy vasa loyalist, u wont see the problem.

If SINS wants to cater to the MP crowd, releasing the game "as is" would be ill-advised. I wouldn't mind waiting a whole month for them to fix balance issues, because if they work extra hard on it, that's probably how long it will take. (And I have a 52k connection... >.< )

As to the original question of another Beta or a post-release patch, if SD doesn't push the release date back, I'd like another beta.

Didn't Blair Fraiser say that they're taking the "Its done when its done" approach? Leaving MP in its current state wouldn't be following that philosophy at all. 

SD is moving towards a more, shall we say, pragmatic stance...their adoption of Steam and commitment to this (I'd argue early) release date is testament to that...

Well, many of those games were with Vasari, and I played VL as well (and watched others strip rush). But there does seem to be consensus that Vasari are to blame. I also still think its partly the larger games.

In a 4v4 today, I did suffer my first minidump (in a long time). And a Dev was there! Later, I played another 4s game with another Dev, and that game clearly desynced! So I know they are aware of the issues, and actively working on them today.

Auto saves + Fastest Settings are another Minidump/Desync instigator.

Turning off Auto Save and not playing of anything faster than 'normal' allows me to play 10+ hour games with 6 players and with every race played.

Im a firm believer that the 'Fastest' settings has been a cause of issue since it was introduced. It seems the need for speed has it disadvantages.

There were desyncs in Diplomacy along side minidumps. That issue is still there. 

Im sure there are some other issues purely Vasari based that is causing crashes. 

More than likely its compounding on the ones no found pre Rebellion, if there still any.

I still stand its a combination of the Fastest setting causing an issue. Since the game is ticking faster it easy to see a small blurb could cause it to desync easier.

Since Ive had some long games with no dumps or desyncs with the Vasari being played. I could be the odd man out in my experience.

Its something that can be easily tested a few game on ICO. Turn down the settings and see if still happens with such frequency.

Finding this bug from Diplomacy can only help eliminate possible causes to the Vasari ones and other newer ones.

I ->NEVER<- had desyncs playing fast in diplomacy.  I never had a desync in diplomacy period.  But the desync's are so bad in rebellion i can't play multiplayer at all.  I think your theory may be flawed.

Played another 5v5 yesterday. After 40 min everybody was dropping like flyes.

UNPLAYABLE

There were minidumps in Diplomacy, if you played on ICO you got them. Not as often as now correct. But its still there. And thats my point.

With addition of Rebellion your just compounding on past issues. Like I said I dont think it the only issue. But its there, unless its been fixed already by the devs.

Ive yet to have a minidump or desync while playing with the slower settings online. Yet, you cant play at all. 

Why dismiss this theory? It can only help everyone who plays with the 'faster' settings?!

At one time a simple random generation caused desyncs and minidumps, who not to say it something as simply as the game doesnt keep up on 'faster' fast enough?

Just checked the calendar again. Only one week left. Now no more beta will we have, sigh...

It is still possible - what time is it at Vancouver right now? Half past 7 morning... BELIEVE! 

 So nothing happened, next week it is most likely. Oh, well.

I would love to see at least some update on the progress, i mean something beyond "adressed internally" and "investigating number of  possible solutions"... something more descriptive - adressed how?, what are those possible solutions, etc... just few sentences would be great...so there is something to discuss in the meantime until release day... 

EDIT: this was meant to be edit of the previous post, misclicked on quote instead... 

But it's only one week left. And there are many things to do: produce the CDs, package and deliver to the shops, many many.

There are no CD's, or packages to deliver to shops. Its all digital.

And besides folks, where has any Sins expansion or game released on the 'release date'? I doubt they change that now.

I do think they should do another round of beta.  All the brouhaha surrounding game balance aside, I think the mini-dump issue is downright game-breaking for some people at the moment.

Then again, maybe they have that fixed internally.

Definitely agree that this needs another round of patching after the new patch (hopefully, please?) comes out in the next few days.  Finding the right balancing point for when Strip to the Core should come online (along with reaching the point where the Kultorask is tough but not nigh-invulnerable) will need a good deal of ironing out, and some of the other Vasari loyalist & rebel techs will need another go-over after the overwhelming balance issues are addressed.

And this should be done as soon as possible - the sooner a new patch comes out, the sooner we can give feedback on it.

What happened to "it will be released when its done" approach? I honestly prefer it to rushed games. Take your time devs.

I guess most of forum users would like to see beta3a and beta4. But I'm afraid more people, who rarely come here, just want to play it ASAP. And obviously most of them just want to play a "fresh" game, not a well balanced game. They want big ships, they want big fireworks, and they want to cry "Wooooo it's cool!", and then they turn to their preferred games: StarCraft, WarCraft III, online pokers and so. At least that's what I observed in my local game forums.

And considering the dev guys, they are under the pressure of cost and sales income and all kinds of finacial figures, and maybe some of them even have already turned to next game development. So more beta is obviously a problem of them.

And everyone of us know two important points: 1) we only found one Blizzard in the whole world; and 2) unfortunately IronClad is not Blizzard.

So the only hope is, we can get some updates later, within two months or so. Maybe we can even get some important changes (like Gauss Rail Gun can slow down the enemy, or Guidance becomes an AoE skill).

i play on highest setting and fastest speed and have played EVERY faction and i have NEVER had a mini dump or desync i guess I've just gotten lucky

Something I've always been afraid of was what if they lost money on Rebellion?  That would certainly lead to development getting cut short unfortunately..  I really hope that this isn't the case though.  I mean beyond the fact that it would mean less time for them to be able to justify working on it during the day, I'd feel bad for them for making a great game and not making money off it.  I really hope that isn't the case.  Great games deserve great profits and Sins is a great game.

The same fear of me. And I doubt that they are really being under heavy pressure.

I don't agree. One of the reasons making a good product great is financial success. The biggest obstacle is Sins is always a small-circle game. At least the brand value of IronClad is less attractive comparing with Blizzard.

What makes the thing worst, is that people like big ships, so the devs give them, with tons of new balancing problems and new bugs. Such problem will severely jeopardize the core player community, and lower the game popularity even more. Actually it could be solved easily - just make the Titan only available in campaign and let the normal game more balanced. But, we all know it is impossible...

But I still have confidence on IronClad. They have proved me that they are responsible, and will continue to release patches even after several months. That's one of the important points I use to persuade my friends.

So let's pray we can have new patches in the next two weeks...