Open beta or full version?

[Geoffrey S]

So the open beta is approaching. Obviously I'm rather looking forward to this, but I'm also curious as to how different it will be from the first complete version and I'm hoping team members can shed some light on this. Will there be areas of the mod which haven't been finished yet, or will it all be as polished as possible? How much time do you team members think there will be between releases? And would you advise downloading the open beta or waiting for the first complete release?

As an aside, any plans on magazine cover discs being used? All this is useful for me to know, since my internet connection isn't that great.

[Urnamma]

We are running this like software development. Our first full version will be reasonably complete and will need only patches.

[jerby]

thats nice..very nice.
and what about teh 'diference' between beta-full version?

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

In the software industry:

-Alpha: version to be internally tested for concept implementation

-Beta: version to be tested for gameplay testing and final tweaking

-Gold: final version to be released to the public (does not invalidate patches and updates)

[jerby]

In the software industry:

-Alpha: version to be internally tested for concept implementation

-Beta: version to be tested for gameplay testing and final tweaking

-Gold: final version to be released to the public (does not invalidate patches and updates)

so the beta is practically the full game?

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

so the beta is practically the full game?

It depends on the state of the beta.

[khelvan]

The beta will have:
- All our systems in place to be tested. Including governments, unit recruitment, scripting, traits, unit stats, the economic system and so on. These will not be balanced well, that is what the open beta is for.
- A good number of units, about as many unique units as vanilla had, if not more, and as few vanilla placeholders as possible. We'll have about 200 EB units, though that may not be enough to completely remove vanilla units from the game.
- Our map near completion.
- A good amount of graphics improvements, including various loading screens and such.
- Near complete improvements to starting provinces, names, family trees, and other things that can be improved through our historical research.

The beta will not have, that we want to have in the completed version:
- New music.
- New sounds (for the most part).
- Excellent game balance (as we define balance) through extensive testing.
- 500 completely new units.
- Various graphics improvements throughout the mod.

Basically, to be playable our mod needs all our systems in place and working together. So when you get the beta you'll get a working version of EB, without many units and polish that we expect the completed version to have.

[Big_John]

khelvan, of those 5 groups which you need for the beta, how much of it is already in place?

[khelvan]

The only things that aren't in place, as I have said before, are the government system and the unit recruitment which depends on it. As we work on those, other content is added in parallel, but those systems must be in place for a release to be playable.

[Big_John]

so EB still hasn't found a way around the complex limit that was hampering the government system?

[khelvan]

We're working on it, which is all I can tell you at the moment.

[Divinus Arma]

Has anybody sent a diplomat to the CA province to negotiate a teeny-tiny bit of help with that? Or would that be unthinkable? Or impossible? Or just plain silly? Etc....

[pezhetairoi]

...first and second options, I would say.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Aww. I wanted the beta and final versions to be very different, so I can have two Christmases...

How long do you reckon between beta and final, time wise? I know that is getting ahead of things, since you don't even know when the beta will be, but will there be a really really really really long period of time between the two? If not, I might wait for the final version instead of getting the beta, so my EB Christmas will be even better...

Delayed gratification and all that.

[Steppe Merc]

I'd suggest getting the beta.

[Wishazu]

Has anybody sent a diplomat to the CA province to negotiate a teeny-tiny bit of help with that? Or would that be unthinkable? Or impossible? Or just plain silly? Etc....

i dont think that CA is in any way particularly interested in helping modders, a recent post at the .com pretty much stated as much. i dont have a link handy but it was the one that mentioned the dozen strong community of modders, or words to that effect.

[khelvan]

Check the first few messages in our FAQ, I believe you'll find the quote you are referring to there.

[Geoffrey S]

Thanks for providing the information, it'll be very useful when it comes to deciding whether I'll download the beta or hold out for the full version.