Information for New Wave of Beta Testers

[Killrob]

Hey guys!

As you all are certainly curious about the how and when of the beta test prior to demo release,
I thought I'd give you an update on the current status. A new patch was released yesterday
(Friday 2nd of March) containing 7 out of the 16 planned scenarios. Tomorrow, Sunday,
the remaining 9 scenarios will be added and pushed out for preliminary testing. Once done,
which probably will be either Monday or Tuesday, the results of the preliminary testing will be
pushed out in yet another new patch. If there are no huge flaws in this version: enter the new
wave of Beta Testers!

For this wave, 23 new people have been selected to partake in the testing process, you know
who you are by now. For all those who wanted a seat but did not get in this time: there will be
more opportunities soon! Keep contributing and your efforts will not go unnoticed.

For those who have been selected, as soon as the patch for play-testing all the scenarios is out,
which will probably be Wednesday, you will receive an email with the details on how to proceed.
Read the instructions carefully, you have been assigned an important task right from the start.

Looking forward to working with you in the beta!
/Killrob

[Killrob]

Update (March 5th): The patch with all the scenarios in it has been released and is
being tested for some preliminary balancing. It is looking good, and for now, I predict
that no additional patch iteration will be needed before we can take in the new testers.
This all points to Wednesday being the time you get going with the testing for yourself.


Big Update (March 7th): Some bad news for those who anticipated access to the beta
today. Indeed, the patch spoken of will get done today, but we decided on changing up
out tactics a bit. Let me explain: Currently the scenarios are poorly balanced, they do not
have a specific order, and the scenario presentation is sub-optimal at best.

The new wave of hand-picked testers is very valuable as a true test of game balance. If
we get you put in the beta now, we have no doubt that you would be able to get the
scenarios balanced pretty well, but whom do we then have to get the scenarios to
close to perfect balance? No one, is the answer, because the "new" testers by this point
won't be "new" any longer. So basically, we don't want to waste fresh faces on obviously
imbalanced scenarios.

The new plan is as follows: Today's patch will still be tested by the core testers only, and
so will the next few ones until probably this weekend. This will allow for a more polished
test version.

Zeussy: "Need to be happy with balanced scenarios before we bring them in, or it'll be
a waste for fresh faces."

Also, we plan to split the new wave of testers into two waves separated by 2-3 days,
allowing the first wave to polish the balance from good to very good, and the final wave
help it to get from very good to excellent.


Wave Update (March 7th):
Okay, so here it goes:

Wave 1:
7driv3r7
armandkat
Bigstank
BiotecVirus
DJ HI TEC
Harm
machalel
Muhler
Orbitstrider
Punkal
Zatotm

Wave 2:
Azurael
flobla
frenchy128
gnugfur
isocuda
oophus
oppositelock
PhillipM
serothis
SoNiKBooM
steven2805


Important Big Update (March 14th):

The first wave of new testers has been placed into the beta, but, we fucked up - which I have
to apologize for! Instead of choosing the above listed "Wave 1" candidates, the alphabetically
first 11 testers were chosen instead. I probably didn't give Zeussy of Daffyflyer clear enough
instruction on how the process should have worked. So now instead of the above mentioned
testers, the following have been put into wave 1:

New Wave 1:
7driv3r7
armandkat
Azurael
Bigstank
BiotecVirus
DJ HI TEC
flobla
frenchy128
gnugfur
Harm
isocuda
machalel


which leaves wave 2 with:

New Wave 2:
Muhler
oophus
oppositelock
Orbitstrider
PhillipM
Punkal
serothis
shavenewok
SoNiKBooM
smoocheese
steven2805
Zatotm

I'm very sorry for this, it wasn't planned this way. The next wave of testers will probably be
accepted into the beta by this weekend... it very much depends on the speed of the balancing
work the first wave does though.

I hope the ones who missed out due to this won't be too pissed off, and I hope the lucky ones
who got in instead will work their asses off to make you "new wave 2" guys get in as soon as
possible!


Progress Update (March 22th):

Things are going really well currently. There were a few balance and game breaking bugs that
needed fixing, which zeussy did in record speed. Now we have "balance locked" the version before
demo release, meaning that no more bugfixes affecting game balance will be implemented.
What is to do now is to work with what we have and make it as good as possible in the remaining
time before release. Currently we are right on track for that!

The current plan is to release as many bugfixes and UI improvements as possible at the end of
Daffyflyer's and zeussy's Saturday session. This patch will be quickly checked by the current
testing team, and if no major issues / new bugs are found, it is ready for the final wave of testers,
who then will have one week to polish the shit out of it.

After that week the version is locked before release, meaning that further bugfixes / balance
changes will be implemented only if really really necessary. This should set us up for release nicely.
It will be a lot of work, but it's looking bright right now, even though there still is a long To-Do list.

Cheers!
/Killrob

[SoNiKBooM]

Christmas eve as a child all over again for me

[Harm]

Can't wait for tomorrow!

[armandkat]

can't wait

[DJ HI TEC]

Oh man....I am not going to get much done on Wednesday...

[gnugfur]

Im out in the garage right now installing shims and going to get the rear wagon installed. Got home 13 hours ago, but i need to get this finished before automation comes sneaking.

[Snoman]

is it just me or has every one been hitting refresh for the last 9 hours 50 min?

[Muhler]

is it just me or has every one been hitting refresh for the last 9 hours 50 min?

I have no idea what youre talking about...

[Orbitstrider]

I would never hit refresh that much...


WHY WONT YOU REFRESH FASTER?!

[Punkal]

So glad i have been buying a house today i would be going crazy waiting for it to be released...

[machalel]

*refresh*

still not yet

[Killrob]

Haha the anticipation
If Zeussy manages to hammer out the version today, it will probably be more around the 12-13 GMT time (i.e. before they go to sleep). Also, I will have to quickly check it before you all can go live meddling with it. We don't want to have impossible scenarios in there. Just be patient for a bit longer, it is not far off.

[Punkal]

I had a feeling that would happen and i understand why. I guess it will be a Wednesday release for the guys in the states... I will probably stay up late to try to catch it before bed but i may just decide to have a early night and get up early tomorrow...

[Killrob]

It is definitely better to get going with a rested mind because once you get started, you probably won't quit until you got all the scenarios done with a decent score... that took me about two hours (also having to count engine starts and documenting my findings). So there is a bit of actual gameplay in there, yey!