Important BETA RELEASE DISCUSSION - DECEMBER 4TH (*ALL* beta discussion goes here. Other threads deleted)

Well, if you say so. Although I own't blame them if they can't release the full game by 2013.

 

Is there any expectation for when the press will get its glimpse?

 

The Definition of Beta


Two key words are highlighted in blue, feature complete. According to the roadmap, the party system is only 20% implemented, needing many core functions for it to be finished. Dungeon protection is only 30% completed, which if the mechanic behind being unable to break dungeon blocks until a specific item is destroyed. Server mechanics as a whole still need plenty of work, would you like a beta without multiplayer support? I think one of the selling points of this game is the fact that there's both cooperative multiplayer, as well as possibly competitive multiplayer. Under items, vehicles is only 40% done. Creature generation for humanoids is only 30% done, but I'm guessing that could fall under a content thing rather than a core mechanic. They did state they wanted the mathematically generated quests to be in the beta, and quest generation is only a mere 10% done. Interaction with NPCs is only 20% done, so there's still quite a few major functions and features that need to be fleshed out before the game can be considered "Feature Complete".

 

See I agree Spike.. I see huge holes in the game and am like, thats not beta ready they just added XYZ. Yet, they don't really seem to have a feature cutoff point for beta is what many people have brought up. Many things have been planned for after release, but they haven't really said what needs to be in the pot before they call it stew. So.. maybe Tiy can give an answer that does or go into a bit more depth.

 

It's a complex game, and I think Tiy needs more time to define the true borders of Starbound. I'm sure he;ll have the answer eventfully, if he hadn't have the answer already.

 

Anyway we can view this list? I think the apprehension among forum posters would be greatly eased.

EDIT: I honestly think people would rather see a Beta todo as opposed to a road map for the final game at this point.

 

if you have a todo list why don't you just post the todo list?
or is there some "to much of a spoiler" thing that factors in there

 

I'll put what I said in the last thread here too: I think there's this false notion in video games today that a beta is a pre-release demo when the actual purpose of releasing a beta is to receive feedback and squash bugs. Of course there are going to be some game-breaking bugs in the beta.

I think what's holding Chucklefish back from releasing the beta is that they're afraid people in the community are going to throw a hissy fit when the game isn't 100% playable. And frankly, they're probably right.

 

I think if it's in the beta at this point, for me, I don't consider it a spoiler. I'm going to see it in beta, I might as well read on the forums about it now till I get to play beta. Just how I see it.

 

They have posted that list in a rather extravagantly-detailed matter.

 

I know I'm not staff, and as such my answer should not be taken as a certainty, but a few days ago in the daily update they said they were working on getting everything playable without admin commands. They have also said that planet level scaling is not yet done. So there's two things at least to help answer your question.

 

Man, this thread should ease the rage a bit, hopefully. Tiy's great. Good at developing, and taking care of fans/PR at the same time.

 

Thanks Tiy. This will really help to keep discussion more organized. Having every other thread spouting the same "Gimmie Beta" and whining was getting to be a bit much. Giving people a singular place to post and have an actual discussion seems so much more constructive. You guys are doing great. Thanks for all your hard work.

 

The road map is for the release of the game, not the actual beta. Secondly it's not the detailed list that Tiy mentioned earlier in this post. The road map contains general areas not specifics.

 

Again, as I posted before, Beta has the definition of being feature complete, which means maybe not all content is there, but all of the main features and functions that make up the game engine is complete. Sure, may have some bugs, but its in a completed state, which generally refers to as what will be in the final release, Kish.

 

If its possible i think most followers of this game would like to see that list.
making a game this hype and then not giving us some way to speculate when we can play it is like pretending to throw a ball to a dog.

 

I have a feeling publishing the set to do list might cause as many problems as it solved. Any new feature in software has the potential to break previous features.

If we had a list of 10 things that needed doing, it's pretty easy to see the community weighing in on how difficult or not difficult or important or not important each task is. Then we get to the tenth feature, and on adding it it breaks 10 other things that need fixing.

Personally, I love how open the dev team has been about their process. The roadmap and daily updates are both great. It seems like asking for every last detail could just be time consuming and/or stressful though. (Both for the devs and some of the community)

example "omg...they only had one thing left to do and now the list has 20 more things on it...they're just stringing us along"

 

What I'm trying to say is that Tiy references a list with detail specifics of what needs to be completed. We're asking if we're able to see this list. Road map does not have these details on it.

I understand that all features should be complete for release, but we don't know what those features are. I'm asking if we can see the list of exact detailed features he has referenced.

 

All great points. Kudos for you.

With that being said, I feel like many of the forums are getting more hyped on the daily updates cause they leave so much room for speculation. When you go read the daily update and it states how much progress and items have been completed I find myself thinking 'surely there can't be much more left, right?' Then upon reading the recent posts of the night from other devs I realize I've lead myself to believe it was closer. Having a list (regardless of items being added in or taking time to be crossed off) would leave me to speculate on more tangible ground of how close the game is.