All tiers in Beta?

Precisely, it is for testing and removing multiplayer would significantly impede that. And to be clear I don't think they would remove it either as that would make it out to be that very pre-release demo you mention.

A stress test still isn't really a beta, it's a stress test usually in the form of a demo form of the game. It is far different from what their in house QA are working with regards to beta testing.

Minecraft beta is the closest that gaming has seen of a real live beta test.

 

This. MP will surely be in the Beta.

The same could be said of Terraria, yet I've logged 220-ish hours in it over the past 3 months without ever even touching the multiplayer component.

It's up to personal style. For me, playing solo lets me enjoy things at my own pace, and not worry about what other people are doing. It tends to be a lot more challenging that way too, since you're often outnumbered and flanked.

That said, I'm going to try to play online more with this game. I really need to find a group, I've found PuGs in a game like this to be... Not good sometimes. It's better to find people that you can cooperate well with rather than hoping for the best. With my luck I'd end up paired with Sjin and Sips all the time. >_>

 

"I'm not sure you understand what a beta is." Come on, really? I just said, it's bug testing, and that's what a beta is. Sure multiplayer will be in it, after all it needs to be tested too, but the developers can exclude whatever they want from it. There are a lot of beta games that aren't "feature full."

 

Slender: The Arrival's beta also had one level in it

 

Even if it isn't feature complete when beta comes out, I'd be grateful for a medium of content. It isn't like this game is purely about looting/killing bosses for me, so just a couple of tiers will do me just fine until the later tiers become available. I think the exploration/building side of Starbound is something that definitely interests me the most.

I suppose if it's released with a few tiers it'd stop me from feeling the urge to rush the content, so the game will last a lot longer for me -- even if that might irk some people who like everything being avaiable when they begin the game, it does have its positives in my opinion. I wouldn't say that I'm one for sporadic minor updates either, but when you finish all the content on a game and newer content is steadily released across the next couple of weeks, it allows you to keep track of what's new and what's not; since this game will be trying to cater to every type of player out there, I imagine that a beta that isn't feature complete might be really appreciated by them, and it might prevent those who have a problem with rushing a game from spoiling it for themselves. I could be wrong though, I'm just trying to see the positive side whatever happens.

 

Yup.

They could release beta right now with only tier 1, multiplayer, and the crafting/building system we've seen all these streams on and i can safely say myself and my friends would all be very happy about it. Even if saves were wiped with almost every update, i'd still have all kinds of fun with it. I never expect my saves to be there in a beta, it's just how it is.

 

You have arrived at just my point "beta game" is not an appropriate label for 90% of the "betas" out there. Excluding content demonstrates that it isn't really a beta and really just a pre-release hype demo. Betas are for fully testing the almost final product to clean it up for official release and if you cut content then it can't be fully tested. Labeling anything and everything a "beta" destroys any and all meaning to the word when it already has a pretty clear definition that so many refuse to acknowledge.

 

Or we are experiencing the so called shift of meaning of the word "beta". It had happened before and it will happen again. Let's say the word 'gay'. It used to mean happy/cheerful. Now it means a homosexual person. Language keeps evolving and no matter how certain people dislike that, they cannot stop the process.

 

To be fair, just to developers in general, they only have three stages to call thing, pre-alpha, alpha, and beta, although I agree that current definitions state beta as feature complete, should they instead classify things more specifically? "Private 50% product alpha, Public 70% alpha, Almost to beta alpha" etc. Or should they just take an arbitrary greek letter that's not defined and say "Welp beta is defined so epsilon now comes between alpha and beta".

 

I think the best definition for beta would be : A stage of software development, during which said software, that is not necessarily being feature complete, is being tested by a wider user group

 

And I completely agree with you, my point was more directed to the people saying "it's not a true beta".

 

From Omni himself- When I read this, I thought that we might actually be getting beta a lot earlier than possible. Probably early October, considering they're already almost done with tier 2, or so they say. They've also said it's going to start going a lot faster. Obviously we have no idea how long it's actually going to take, but it's going to be much faster than a release with all the tiers available.

8. Do you believe releasing a beta as-is would be faster at finding and squashing bugs than a beta released upon "feature completion"

We're not waiting on feature completion as far as I'm aware. I'm pretty sure we're just going to get the first 3 tiers going.

 

Is the dilution of the meaning of the word really an evolution? Language is intended to convey a message or a meaning and as a word loses its meaning it ceases to be language and devolves to just sounds.

I'd actually argue that the full set of tiers isn't necessary be "feature complete" as the tiers are game content. To me feature complete implies the main game systems are in place for it to be a fully functional product. If having the final set of content was required to be "feature complete" then no game would qualify in the current world of patches, DLC, and expansion content. It's more important that the UI works, the saving and loading system doesn't lose data, the multiplayer properly syncs, the game doesn't randomly crash, and the core game systems are all functional to really qualify as complete.

 

It is. From the prescriptive point you have a point. However, descriptive approach suggests that language is what users make it to be (the principle of acceptability). In other words should a certain form of language be widespread enough (In case of the word beta it certainly seems to be) it is fully acceptable as a correct form or meaning. Language is a fluid thing and is not set in stone. Opposing the change won't do a thing. I've read in linguistic handbooks that at the beginning of 20th century the word Airplane was being opposed as being an unnecessary novelty. Fast forward 100 years and nobody opposes that. Furthermore even the word airplane is becoming archaic as most people are simply using the word plane.

 

As far as i was aware they were going to finish the game while Beta was released with 3 Tiers and 2 bosses. Thinks like Stretch Goal Achievements, Story-line, and Community based weapons were going to be added later. Multiplayer IS kind of a big deal to the game so i do believe that it will be in. Especially since they said that it is going to be Steam-friendly. In other words, friends on your list will be able to simply click on your name and join in with minimal effort.
This is what i was made to understand however and is by far 100% fact.

 

Was this not answered already.

 

Sorry, I didn't see the post.

 

It's ok happens in threads alot. An answer is reached then the conversation shifts then a new group of people come in and make theories on the answer that was already present but is probably buried by then.

 

Yeah, I get what you mean.