[Opinion] This game isn't ready for release....

[FrostPaw]

Like the title says I am dissapointed there will be no more patches. The last patch fixed some things and broke others. This is to be expected but the smart way to beta test a game is to patch things repeatedly until the bugs grow smaller and smaller and the balance issues are minor. Beta testing is a scale the more patches you apply the more feedback people give the lower down the scale the problems become. Some of the current bugs are not minor. More dissapointing is there are bugs that have been mentioned since the very beginning that are still apparent 3 patches later.

It just dosn't feel ready.

[mecha]

the beta isn't the release version

[FrostPaw]

No it isn't but why bother asking us to test a game if we arn't privvy to the changes you make before people will be buying it? Surely we are here to help improve the game for the buyers?

[Toast]

And it does rather sound like the open beta isn't the only QA they've got going on

(Actually, if you read the sticky at the top there's something like three levels of patching happening. Open beta's probably just for load testing, hardware compatibility and a bit of balance work. Heh, any beta stage which doesn't ask for previous experience etc on the signup form (or heaven forbid allocates the first places to those willing to pay - bitter? me?) is bound to be, shall we say, "beta lite")

[Stones]

We test to give the developers ideas of issues they can resolve in the final release. It makes little sense for them to keep spending effort on the beta version, which is from what I understand is not a 1:1 representation of the state of the final version.

[soqloopr]

i do think a patch should come out for us beta testers tat will fix the crash/freezing bug

cous there isnt much to test whith this going on

why bothere even letting the players play online if most people cant....

[Stones]

Valid point. If there are major issues that prevent the beta from working properly, they should probably be addressed. My point was simply that I'd rather have a polished final product than a perfectly functional beta with a late release.

[mecha]

Valid point. If there are major issues that prevent the beta from working properly, they should probably be addressed. My point was simply that I'd rather have a polished final product than a perfectly functional beta with a late release.

And that's exactly the logic we're following, we're probably going to patch early next week, at least that's the thinking right now.

[FrostPaw]

What makes anybody think between now and retail gold release all the bugs will be polished out if they havn't been already and now we can't test future patches? Because we won't get to test more patches the bug hunting will diminish not increase.

Fair enough at some point the game has to go gold but claiming its better to rush a game out to retail is a poor concept if you think that it will be just as polished as one that is tested to the final build.

[soqloopr]

And that's exactly the logic we're following, we're probably going to patch early next week, at least that's the thinking right now.

lets hope so, btw have you guys already found the problem with the crash/freezing bug?

btw what would be easy to do and better to test the AI for lots of players who dont wanto play online is to make servers dont need a second "real player" so you can play the bots on there skill (easy/normal/hard/insane)

becous the totureal is realy anoying withere "tips" (i know its meant to be that way, and im not against it) but i know it now and with the random square crashes its hard enough to try find bugs in there.

all im saying is multy player with bots only (host + bots) (kinda like skirmish) only here you dont need to do much.and you can change that back before retail version

and i (plus many othere players) dont like playing online to test the game and find bugs, with players who play to win and see this game just as a free catch

[DrDoom]

that is why they use people like use to testdrive the game

[Toast]

I think it's safe to assume they have an internal testing team for hardcore bugshooting. Apart from anything else, trying to do serious testing with a group as large as this beta is usually horrifically inefficient. Large betas are great for testing stability and varying hardware platforms and compiling buglists, and not great for clearing out buglists and sorting details. In my experience the best way to nail a bug is to have just as many people as are necessary to reproduce it, in direct communication with a developer who can update a test build as necessary. There simply isn't (IMO) the level of developer interaction in this segment of the beta to seriously work on detailed bugsquashing. Oh, and ten points to Relic for putting another patch in

[soqloopr]

can u imagen i didnt understood a word of that, but two thumbs for the patch.

i realy hope theyd find that crash/freez bug soon, i downloaded the latest driver and the crashed all are white screen-crashed instead of little squares (lol) and the freezing is even worse now

btw ork leman rus (lootes) il like an RC car SOOO SMALL (but thats a difrent story)

[DrDoom]

i am only in this part of the beta and what i have saw i must confess they (the devs) did their best (or the ones who came before us)