How far is it?
Panigg
Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58212Members
Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58212Members
I've been mainly trolling the offtopics the past few months and am eagerly awaiting NS2. With the release date being shoved back to sometime in 2010 (I hope), do you guys have any news?
Having somewhat weekly tool updates is pretty nice, but I wouldn't mind seeing a new teaser trailer soonish.
So, any of you forum guys know anything?
Having somewhat weekly tool updates is pretty nice, but I wouldn't mind seeing a new teaser trailer soonish.
So, any of you forum guys know anything?
Comments
from like, here >|---------------------------------------|here being somewhere in the middle, with updates coming along|---------------------------------------|< to like, here.
I think I'm pretty accurate.
We promise to update you soon tm, with soon being before the end of time. Maybe.
We promise to update you soon tm, with soon being before the end of time. Maybe.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sounds about right :)
Yeah, you're right. Rushed games tend to fall into the category of suck. But still, getting a couple of new screens or something would be dope.
But then again, the more time they spend on those things, the longer it'll take. ^^
<!--quoteo(post=1747937:date=Jan 19 2010, 08:58 AM:name=Panigg)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Panigg @ Jan 19 2010, 08:58 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1747937"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah, you're right. Rushed games tend to fall into the category of suck. But still, getting a couple of new screens or something would be dope.
But then again, the more time they spend on those things, the longer it'll take. ^^<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
We're not rushing <i>THE GAME</i>, but <i>THE ALPHA</i>. Learn the difference.
The alpha could be a very unpolished game, but the important thing is that it works.
Burn the heretic :D
There you have it. What we all know.
Yeah, I kind of got it without the picture, but thanks for the effort!
I think this is exactly it. People are starting to get extremely restless with a game they've been waiting for, for years and years, and have paid money upfront for, only to have 1 screenshot to show for it and tools so far. Even just an odd in-game screenshot or 2, and (if were lucky) a short in-game video, would settle 80% of the people who are restless.
Can't polish a multiplayer game without having people play it over and over to find exploits, bugs, errors, etc.
The alpha could be a very unpolished game, but the important thing is that it works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The problem is the standard "you only get one first impression".
If the alpha launch isn't stable the forum will fill up with "OMG TEH SUX" and "STFU NOOB IT'S ALPHA!", neither of which are good. I suspect that at least part of their delay is that they expected the SE orders to not be in the volume that they were, thus making them rethink what could be released as Alpha and one could be released as Beta.
To most people "Beta" means free trial. If you are still doing serious testing/changes in beta, there are going to be problems in the PR front.
Also, I know some one is going to want to respond with "but we know it is alpha, so the whiners are just idiots". The problem is that the whiners are loud, they are what people will see about the game.
Oh and also, what happened to "When it's done"?
UWE is a small team after all and does not have the luxary of wast internal bugscreening, since it'd take to long and they'd hardly smash enough bugs that way. So they offer the Alpha to pre-orders to get a vastly larger testing force. However it would be very unwise for them same as any large mainstream devoloper to release a half-cocked alpha. UWE is after all in the business of making money with their "first" mainstream retail title and I for one want them to do so. I sure want them to be able to grow so we can see more kick-ass games from them in the future.
So in simple logic, a poorly prepared alpha release now, no matter how much we may want it, is a bad move by UWE. Ask yourself that unless you are a very devout fan of NS, would you be more Hyped or less Hyped for NS2 if you got an alpha that is barely playable due to no optimisation, rough netcode. The playing experience would hardly be satisfactory and it would basically only be menial labor to iron out bugs.
Suppose someone new to NS looks over the pre-order page and orders it thinking it might be cool to test the game. He gets his early barely playable alpha and meh, he cancels his pre-order -> one lost customer.
Ok I think I might have lost my red thread here but I hope most of you get the gist of it.
So finishing argument, early or pre-alpha might work for mods but it will not quite do so for a company trying to impress people to buy their hard worked product.
Very few if any retail games normally offer their games for sale before they have an alpha build ready.
from like, here >|---------------------------------------|here being somewhere in the middle, with updates coming along|--------------<b><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->-<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></b>--------------<b><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->-<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></b>-----<b><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->-<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></b>------|< to like, here.
I think I'm pretty accurate.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You missed some dashes. I've highlighted them for you. ;)
"There's doing it right, and there is doing it right now."
We all know which we would prefer.
Hell YEAH! I want to run in it, it doenst matter if i just get the marine model and can walk a way in one map, or if i can see at least my maps in the real game! I payed for it to see it.
<!--quoteo(post=1748260:date=Jan 20 2010, 06:35 PM:name=Cruor)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cruor @ Jan 20 2010, 06:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1748260"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The playing experience would hardly be satisfactory and it would basically only be menial labor to iron out bugs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This depends on what you expect from an alpha.
<!--quoteo(post=1748260:date=Jan 20 2010, 06:35 PM:name=Cruor)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cruor @ Jan 20 2010, 06:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1748260"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Suppose someone new to NS looks over the pre-order page and orders it thinking it might be cool to test the game. He gets his early barely playable alpha and meh, he cancels his pre-order -> one lost customer.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i dont care about other customers and their relationship on ns2, im not married with ns2 and i dont care about the devs, i just like the game and preordered that, if anybody arent able to read, that alpha state isnt a playable state -> rtfm again.
<!--quoteo(post=1748260:date=Jan 20 2010, 06:35 PM:name=Cruor)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cruor @ Jan 20 2010, 06:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1748260"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So finishing argument, early or pre-alpha might work for mods but it will not quite do so for a company trying to impress people to buy their hard worked product.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
doesnt matter, its too late to change things. They offered the alpha version and i want to have it.
Oh, hi Tephra again!
The alpha could be a very unpolished game, but the important thing is that it works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Er, why?
If you mean 'get the game into an operational state as soon as possible' that just means 'develop the game'.
If you mean 'hack together something and release a crappy unfinished version for people to play because we're impatient and which will be used as the judge of how crappy the final version will be' then why one earth would anybody want to do that?
<!--quoteo(post=1748424:date=Jan 21 2010, 04:25 PM:name=zex)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (zex @ Jan 21 2010, 04:25 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1748424"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->to get all the gameplay elements functional and ensure that all the mechanics are fun.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rushing is when you do something quickly and leave stuff out or incomplete. If you do everything thoroughly then you can't rush it.
Alpha: not feature complete, but the basics are here to see the obvious problems
Beta: feature complete, but buggy
RC (release candidate): feature complete and could be released, but usualy has a few bugs left that will be corrected before final.
So alpha might very well be a version where there are no guns and you can just use the different alien classes + marines and go into commander mode to see if the level is rendered correctly. In the beta you can have multiplayer matches
Alpha: not feature complete, but the basics are here to see the obvious problems
Beta: feature complete, but buggy
RC (release candidate): feature complete and could be released, but usualy has a few bugs left that will be corrected before final.
So alpha might very well be a version where there are no guns and you can just use the different alien classes + marines and go into commander mode to see if the level is rendered correctly. In the beta you can have multiplayer matches<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly.
And maybe they've been working to release a beta instead, who knows.
No, like you said, an Alpha will have the basics. So just for example you would be able to play a multiplayer match but with only 1 gun and no tech upgrades or something. And the level/characters would have no textures. The point is to test the gameplay, that's the only thing that's sufficient and necessary for an Alpha.