Beta

[cyborg718]

Well, I have just recently heard about the beta they will release later on, and I was wondering if only certain people will be able to join it? Or will it be an open beta where everyone can try it like Warhammer?

[Someguy]

There will be a beta stated by Relic. However they did not give any other kind of information when it is and what kind of beta it is.

[vsc714]

MMMMM beta, I can't wait for that to come out. Hopefully there will be an open beta. Since there was an open beta for DoW, they probably will have an open beta for CoH. God I once I get my hands on that, I'll never sleep for the next few moths.

[Jimmythefoot]

An open beta would be great, too bad my pc has no chance of running it though.... In 10 weeks I get a new one in 10 weeks........

[vsc714]

You know, maybe the Beta won't even be out until 10 weeks later and you'll be able to play!!! WOOOOOO, muahahah and you shall face the wrath of my infantry squads!!! WAhahaha

[retroholyfire]

It will be such torture for Jimmythefoot though if it comes out tommorow and we are all playing it and he is pummeling his comp for not being good enough. BTW CoH is highly scaleable so unless your comp is completely useless it should work.

[hillhome]

Given the fact that the scalibility would also need to be tested more you might still have a shot at it. I mean they aren't going to just have testers that have super computers, they'll need to test various system setups (including net connection speeds) to make sure a large part of the gamers can play multiplayer. At least so I'd think, so don't say it's hopeless for you :-)

Plus, it might not be out and you'll have upgraded anyway! Hope there is an open Beta as that would be awesome! My tanks will crush your infan! Muah haha

[TBS]

I would guess that the beta will take the same form as the DoW beta (open).

[Maximus Decimus]

I suspect the beta will run two tier as before, they will have a closed beta with a limited number of keys and an open beta afterwards.

[Alliance]

All tomar noash, or dont admit failure in english.
like most games today, and as already stated above, most games today are designed to work on a very wide array of machines and generations of computers, and are downgradable to asure better gameplay, so just wait untill its out, and dont set everything to high, medium or low will do too with most new games and still look very impressive.

[LoneWolf666]

How did the DoW open beta work?

[Someguy]

How did the DoW open beta work?
It was a promotion through Fileplanet. The Closed beta consisted of sign-ups plus paying fileplanet members. Later they opened it to everyone on fileplanet.

[hillhome]

Ugh, I dislike fileplanet! Might be worth it for the CoH beta however... I can't get my free account to download anything (even the rate limited servers) it tosses me to a "pay us money" screen.

More on topic: How did error reporting work? Was there a section of FP used for that or a seperate service?

[vsc714]

If I'm able to get my hands on an open beta it would be my first time playing as a beta tester. I was just wondering, do they include everything from the game or just exclude the single player campaign only including the skirmish and multiplayer? Or simpler what do they include in the beta?

[Someguy]

Usually its multiplayer. For Dawn of War, it was to test network, stability, gameplay, animation, etc.

[Bonnet]

They did do balance stuff as well. I remember some big ones in there for sure.

[Tranj]

Expect the beta to be similar in nature to DoW. There was an early "closed" portion that went out to a small group of people and then an open portion later that had a huge number of participants.

[TheLoneKnight]

Any word on how closed Beta members will be chosen, or is it just primarly from a pool of people who reported alot of bugs in previous betas?

/me is extremely subtle

[vsc714]

Ohh okay I see, so the beta's main purpose if for the multiplayer aspect of the game and of course for bugs, alright thanks.

[deadlybydesign]

anything we could do to ehh...ya know convince ya tranj that we are the best choices for beta pick? :bow:

[LoneWolf666]

;( I don't have a Fileplanet account... ;( I guess I'll stick to anxiously awaiting a demo...

[Worf]

Probably not poking him every second post.
Looks like there will be a public beta after all so (almost) everyone will be able to participate from a certain point on.

Besides, playing a closed beta is work since it serves a bugreporting purpose. THQ is going to choose carefully whom to show these.

[Corsix]

Do we know if this will be open to people outside USA/Canada?

* Corsix is extremely subtle

[TBS]

I dont see why it wouldnt be - I played in the DoW beta and I'm also from blighty.

All you need to get into the beta is a fileplanet account, a PC and a fast enough internet connection to download the installer (probably a CDs worth or more even with all the single player stuff removed). None of those things are exclusive to the US and Canada.

[Starfisher]

Fileplanet account :(

Do you mean a paying subscription to fileplanet, or just a free account?

[Soldier of Dest]

For the Battlefront 2 Beta you first needed a paid acc.
Then after a shot time you only needed a free account. Maybe it'll be the same here *hope*

[cyborg718]

Most times I think you just need a free account. Dawn of War was a free account beta, or at least when I joined it

[Maximus Decimus]

The DoW Closed beta was for Fileplanet subscribers and people who won contests and thus recieved keys from fansites, RelicNews and Dawn of War Planet being among them.

[Starfisher]

Heh, somehow paying for Fileplanet doesn't seem the best qualification for a closed beta tester. I imagined that they'd have a more relevant standard.

Don't get me wrong here - I don't have the time to be a good closed beta tester. If its jusy playing a few games in the open beta to help with stress testing, I'm there, but I always thought closed betas were supposed to be about straining out people like me so that you'd get better feedback :/

[Worf]

fileplanet=gamespy
DoW=powered by gamespy
--> fileplanet subscriber = closed beta

For the open beta just a free account was enough (that's how I got here). It'll be similar for CoH I imagine.

[Trizzdog]

Yeah, I think so too, and I have no doubts that anyone determined enough can get into the open beta easily. Now, the closed beta on the other hand, will either be much harder or simply cost you some of your country's currency. With all my free time I'd love to be in a closed beta, since that way my input will not be flooded by all the other people's input :p

/me is not being subtle at all

[vsc714]

When did the Beta come out for DoW? Was it like a month before the release or 2 months? I'm just wondering to see if CoH will have a similar release time for the Beta like DoW.

[TBS]

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war/527079p1.html

According to that the closed beta probably started in early July (the game was released in September IIRC).

[LoneWolf666]

And how exactly does participating in an open beta look? How do we apply, how do we get the game, how do we report bugs?

[TBS]

As far as I remember there was a page on fileplanet you had to go to and fill in your details to sign up for the open beta, you were then emailed when it began and had to download the beta installer. I think most bug reports were made via the forums but there was also a reporter tool that ran whenever the game crashed.

[LoneWolf666]

Was a fileplanet account required to participate? I don't feel like paying for one, to tell the truth... But as everyone, I'd like to take part and (hopefully) give some helpful feedback.

[TBS]

You need one of the free fileplanet accounts for the open beta, I believe places on the closed beta were one of the perks for paying account holders.

Edit: I should say you needed that for the DoW beta - I'm only assuming that the CoH beta will use fileplanet in the same way. Certainly, I cant imagine that you will need to pay anyone before you can take place in the open beta.

[hiddensmoke]

I beta'd dow and i dont pay for my account on fileplanet. It wasnt required. It should or i hope it will be open for CoH.

[Bonnet]

Hidden, what you didn't do was beta the closed portion, which for the most part required a Fileplanet subscriber account. I hope that thats not the case this time, but rather those who have actively participated in the community get directly invited.

[Mogolov]

indeed, those of us who spend our lives glued to this message board should get complimentary closed beta tickets. ;)

[Akranadas]

3 months isn't glued.

I think board staff members should get a free Beta, failing that, I'll be happy with open beta.

[Mogolov]

i was here a long time before i actually registered, sometime last year when i first found out about CoH.

[immortal44]

Didn't want to start a new thread. Anyonewant to speculate what may be required to play this game comfortably at max settings? I'm gonna get a new computer for this and MTW2.

[Mogolov]

hmmm, wouldnt know for sure until it comes out but i would imagine you'd have something like this to run it without any snags or slowmo's at maximum settings...

AMD X2 Dual Core 4200+
A8N-Sli premium
2GB DDR 533Mhz
Sapphire Ati 1800 XT w/512MB onboard
Creative X-Fi

Wouldnt imagine you'd need anything more than that to max things out.

[Starfisher]

Why do beta threads always turn into "well I think group X which I coincidentally am a member of should get a closed beta slot"? Wait, no, that's not a mystery at all. Duh.

The theory behind a beta is to get good feedback from a large group of users using your software. There's no demographic on these boards that is more suited to this task than any other. There are plenty of conscientious regular members and lazy senior members. The Mod Squad might be more dedicated to moderating but that doesn't mean we have the time to be closed beta folk.

I guess this is why THQ/Relic ended up going with the rather arbitrary "Fileplanet subscribers for closed beta" option.

[Lochar]

To be honest, most games I got into beta for I did submit what I could but I think if CoH is half as fun as it looks I will probabably be playing and only write down something if it interrupts my gameplay..:)

But yeah they need to open up to a variety of systems just to see if the game works with such and such setups and graphics altho its funny how people will try it way under min specs and yell that the game sucks cuz it doesnt work for them.

[retroholyfire]

If I ever did a beta I would just play normall and, like lochar, simply record anything that ruins my fun. After all if that is all you find whilst playing chances are it's all other players would find :D

[Worf]

No, Fisher, that was part of the contract between relic/THQ and Lamespy, errr Gamespy/IGN.

People want to see a game as early as possible. So for IGN it's free advertisement in the community if they offer a chance to not even see but play a game (even though it's a beta). The open beta for DoW was imho more of a stability test. No better way to get the game on a large number of different systems for crash but hunting.

I don't disagree with you that everybody is equally suited for a beta test account.

[immortal44]

that everybody is equally suited for a beta test account

No but there is no reason for relic to restrict it to certain groups if they want the best testing available. A hardcore player is much more valuable as a tester than a time restricted, casual player, but both are worthwhile. What casual players lack in quality they make up in quantity.

[retroholyfire]

And casualty :D

[vsc714]

Man I just hope they'll at least have a date for the open beta, I don't know how much longer I can hold out, everything I've been playing seems so bland and boring and all that's on my mind is CoH and comparing how all these games cannot match up to the next revolution of RTS gaming.

[retroholyfire]

My personal oppinion is most fun in CoH will be infantry only battles

[LoneWolf666]

It is probably also the most bugged part of all. ;) A squad of germans unloading on an american bazooka soldier standing half a meter away for 10 seconds unable to scratch him - priceless. :D

[PuGGy]

that could have just been a feature to stop the dudes men being killed before he had a chance to show off what battles were like - it would be a bit embarassing if all his men died while he was trying to explain how the ai worked

[LoneWolf666]

Problem is, it's during a playable part of the game. It's not scripted.

[Mogolov]

indeed, it was clearly a bug that needs to be sorted. It'll probably be working fine by the time beta comes around, but then again, thats what beta's for, working those little bugs out.

[Akranadas]

No but there is no reason for relic to restrict it to certain groups if they want the best testing available. A hardcore player is much more valuable as a tester than a time restricted, casual player, but both are worthwhile. What casual players lack in quality they make up in quantity.

I have to disagree with you there, In the gaming market it is the casual gamer that is the largest target group as they pick up a new game every few weeks, and casual gamers would most likely have a down graded computer than a hardcore gamer.

I would think that relic/thq would want casual's playing to see if it hooks them in to the game, and even if they were in the beta testing, a few hours could help find bugs and what not, because I've noticed with my friends (who play casual rts games) will try completely different things to a well knowedglable RTS player.

Example, I would try stuff like flanking or bunkering down, while a casual my just charge the enemy ranks with everything at once, which could persent path finding bugs and what not.

I not include the casual player base would be a grave mistake, as the mostly play for fun rather than the whole balance and mechanics of the game.

[LoneWolf666]

Of course, we're talking about a mass market here. Beta should cover people with different tastes, OSs, different language versions of OSs, people with AMD or Intel, ATI or NVidia or whatever, different age groups even, experienced players, pros and newbies, pretty much everyone, as long as he's interested in games. It's, unfortunately, impossible, but I'm sure Relic has a good idea where to look. ;)

[retroholyfire]

can we get a BIGSign saying "Very excited Beta volunteers here relic!"

[Tesla]

make it big enough that is viewable from space, or atleast from relic studios

[Alliance]

I doubt they'll see it in vancouver, since there is this thing called the curve of the earth, so unless you live in the U.S. or relic has a hidden space station, it would be easier to just nag uber. :D

[Tesla]

w00t relic fanboys revelution, everyone grab your dow's :D