Warhammer Beta to close til December

[Aesgir]

Thought Guilds and Competition winners might wanna read this.

Warhammer Beta Update
By: James Nichols
08 Oct 2007 18:40:47 EST

Greetings all!

Recently, all WAR Beta participants received a letter stating our plan to end this phase of the closed beta test this Wednesday, October 10th. We periodically close Beta, our last closure being in March of this year, to focus on major improvements and polish. The next phase of Beta will reopen in early December with plenty of new and improved content, art and systems for our beta-testers.

We are very proud to have reached this point in development. Beta has been going very well and the testing community is extremely active. Excitement around the game continues to grow and the team is looking forward to enhancing many features already in the game as well as continuing to add new features to an already great game.

Based on player feedback, our own observations and our current schedule, we have set the following major development goals:

• Improve open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives with major enhancements.
• Provide players with even more options to customize their character both through their abilities and visual appearance.
• Continue to enhance Public Quests and the PQ System.
• Prepare the elves for their release into the world!

When the beta reopens, we look forward to welcoming back all of our current testers, as well as many new faces. Shortly after re-opening the doors, we will be inviting the first wave of guilds into the beta to really get things rolling.

Thank you!
- The Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Team

http://www.warhammerherald.com/news/news.php?newsid=78

(Not to steal Requiels thunder, but i assume this means GOA beta too.)
Oh and you have no idea how much i cheered at the mention of improvements on open field RvR, don't know what its like now, but i'll take anything that adds to non scenario RvR

 

[ferore]

So people go to all the effort of entering a competition, face weeks of delays in getting the beta after winning their slot, then eventually the beta gets shut down.

Good thing I never bothered entering it in the first place.

 

[IainC]

(Not to steal Requiels thunder, but i assume this means GOA beta too.)
Oh and you have no idea how much i cheered at the mention of improvements on open field RvR, don't know what its like now, but i'll take anything that adds to non scenario RvR

Yup, this does indeed include the European beta. The devs are going to take a holiday from making the beta work to actually crack on with the game and work through the mountain of feedback they've got from the testers.

So people go to all the effort of entering a competition, face weeks of delays in getting the beta after winning their slot, then eventually the beta gets shut down.

Good thing I never bothered entering it in the first place.

Well all the current beta testers will be straight back in once the servers reopen and they'll be able to give us some very useful feedback on whether the changes they've asked for and the suggestions they made have been done right. The beta testers were informed about this a few hours before it was publically announced and in the main they are very happy about it as they understand that this means that their input is being taken into account and that they truly are helping to shape the game.

 

[Aesgir]

Yup i take this to be a positive announcement, they've had feedback and know what they want to work on. I'm not on beta, so i can understand any frustration people might feel at this. But hey, whatever it takes to make the game how it should be

I'd rather have a fully working game with all the greatness we've been promised on launch, than be in a beta for something that the devs feel still need work and can't focus on.

 

[ferore]

Smells like delays are coming soon. They're hoping to release the game by Q1 2008 yet they're closing a beta down for 2 months this late on. By the time the game comes back up theres going to be just 3.5 months left before the expected release date.

I doubt they're going to hit the planned date. If they get delayed then it'll slip into autumn 2008 - who wants to release an MMORPG in spring/autumn?

 

[Whisperess]

Improve open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives with major enhancements.

That's just great news. Actually, best news I've heard in quite a while - refreshing.

 

[DavidH]

Sounds very nice. I'm one of those people as well who didn't make it in before the close, but I too feel that it had to be done. Like already mentioned, I'd rather see Requiel and the other guys on the team make this game gold. Afterall, they know that we're expecting a lot after playing Dark Age of Camelot for all those years.

 

[Twoeye]

when it reopens is the guild beta included then ?

 

[Flimgoblin]

when it reopens is the guild beta included then ?

Shortly after re-opening the doors, we will be inviting the first wave of guilds into the beta to really get things rolling.

Signs point to yes

 

[Bahumat]

We periodically close Beta, our last closure being in March of this year, to focus on major improvements and polish.

Those fucking Polish bastards always get extra special treatment!

*Applies for Polish Visa*

 

[svartalf]

Smells like delays are coming soon. They're hoping to release the game by Q1 2008 yet they're closing a beta down for 2 months this late on. By the time the game comes back up theres going to be just 3.5 months left before the expected release date.

I agree, it'll never be ready in time. I'm going with Q2 or 3 at this stage, plenty of time to try <cough> other games. I quite enjoyed the stress test of Pirates of the Burning Sea » Home

 

[Gahn]

So new Beta stage is: more content, open pvp, elphies and Guilds; we are looking in another 3 months at least of testing when Beta reopens.
They'll just have to do one of those 2 moves imo:
rush the game a bit and be out Q1.
Wait for Q4 and get the xmas wave.
I really don't think a launch is viable in Q2 or Q3 (late spring - summer ain't the best period for mmos subs historically?).

 

[Twoeye]

Signs point to yes

oops didnt read it good enough at me....cheers Flim

 

[kivik]

I'd rather see Requiel and the other guys on the team make this game gold. Afterall, they know that we're expecting a lot after playing Dark Age of Camelot for all those years.

To be quite frank, I don't expect a dog shit from Requiel and his clowns

 

[Gahn]

To be quite frank, I don't expect a dog shit from Requiel and his clowns

Since they can't do jackshit about the game also, bar testing it ^^

 

[Dervish]

IanC = can you answer me honestly on this one. Were the guild betas intended to be released already as in not so long after guild beta winners were announced? I realise the priority of guild code may have dropped as is likely with the demands of beta cycling but consider this: as much as the first guild beta "contest" was a great way to stimulate WAR amongst established guilds and to re-energise MMO's amongst disillusioned old MMO pros the big wait no updates and then this is largely now having quite the opposite effect. As a DAoC GM who "made it onto guild beta" I field endless queries about why no-one is actually in beta. A lot of these people are playing WoW or something else now as UK DAoC is dead and they don't avidly follow the WAR sites (fansites or official). The opinion amongst them is not good to say the least. As it stands it looks like the initial guild "contest" could have in fact been staged now by the CM's in readiness for December rather than getting all these peoples hopes up hence my first question. I've seen more than a few comments all over the fan forums that guild beta is essentially being reduced to a stress test pool. Please give me something a little more positive from yourself as an "official" source to give back to them. Maybe you could feed a little more positive spin on this back to the community in general?

Personally I want the best game ever and am happy to see all efforts being bent to this end but lots of people are, to say the least, mystified by closing beta for 2 months with a Q1 2008 release still the best guess and having "appeared" to have wasted the guild beta pool.

I realise this sounds negetive but I hope it is well formed and thoughtfully constructed and provides an opportunity to answer questions unasked by a great many other people.

/salute to you and EA Mythics hard work.

 

[Vasconcelos]

So new Beta stage is: more content, open pvp, elphies and Guilds; we are looking in another 3 months at least of testing when Beta reopens.
They'll just have to do one of those 2 moves imo:
rush the game a bit and be out Q1.
Wait for Q4 and get the xmas wave.
I really don't think a launch is viable in Q2 or Q3 (late spring - summer ain't the best period for mmos subs historically?).

If the game is actually that good i think it doesnt matter when u release it. Comes the summer you hook ppl on holydays with lotsa spare time, comes the spring you catch the average John Doe, comes the autumm you catch all the studs, etc...

Back on subject: right move from Mythic, appropiate response for all the feedback n suggestions they must have been swarmed with in this past months (as sum1 said, at least in the English beta, there have been a very very healthy, proactive n helpfull testing community). Even if it puts into risk the perception of the game, after all there will always be fanbois or doomday-nerds on the inet with their theories of the conspiration.

 

[Case]

Come on guys give Iain a break! It's bloody good of him to come and answer your questions no need to be rude

If they need 2 months to sort stuff out then great at least they`re going to the effort of doing so rather than just patching it up ready for release. Realistically as long as the game is good whether they release 2nd or 3rd quarter won`t make any difference it'll just be a slower burner a bit like Eve was which in terms of server stress would be a far better idea anyway. Remember the server issues in WoW when that came out? massive queues, lag server crashes ect ect.

At the end of the day if this is whats needed then great but lets at least show that the community is behind them getting it right rather than whining like a spoilt child.

 

[IainC]

Initially yes, the general plan was to get guilds in shortly after the sign up and after the invites went out. If we'd known back then that the guild beta invites weren't going out till December we'd either have held off with the signups or told people that at the time. It certainly wasn't deliberately designed to get people excited then leave them hanging for several months. When I and the other community guys were telling you 'soon' it was because that was the plan at that time.

Unfortunately situations change and plans need to be redrawn to suit. This beta closure was always in the pipeline but the guild beta was one of the things that kept being pushed back and re-prioritised. For guilds the shutdown is good news for you because it means the work that was needed to make the guild phase possible can now be done without any distractions from the live beta test.

 

[Dervish]

Thanks for your time as always Iain. I'll nudge my hungry lot towards your post.

 

[GReaper]

Will the first wave of guild beta invites be all those who have received invitations, or will it be just some of those guilds?

You've posted before saying that the invites won't be all at the same time, by the time December comes it'll be 8 months since the initial sign up. Are certain guilds going to be waiting until after Christmas before their guild members get invited, or is the plan to have all chosen guilds in active beta for December?

 

[IainC]

Will the first wave of guild beta invites be all those who have received invitations, or will it be just some of those guilds?

You've posted before saying that the invites won't be all at the same time, by the time December comes it'll be 8 months since the initial sign up. Are certain guilds going to be waiting until after Christmas before their guild members get invited, or is the plan to have all chosen guilds in active beta for December?

That I don't know at the moment I'm afraid. I suspect it will depend heavily on the way the game progresses during the downtime and the technical arrangements for when it reopens.

 

[ileks]

Nice to finally have some sort of ETA tbh, saves me checking forums/email so much

 

[Zandr]

bahhh what am I gooing to do now....hurry up december!!!

well come visit us in #war.europe fellow testers !

//

 

[Tallen]

Initially yes, the general plan was to get guilds in shortly after the sign up and after the invites went out. If we'd known back then that the guild beta invites weren't going out till December we'd either have held off with the signups or told people that at the time. It certainly wasn't deliberately designed to get people excited then leave them hanging for several months. When I and the other community guys were telling you 'soon' it was because that was the plan at that time.

Unfortunately situations change and plans need to be redrawn to suit. This beta closure was always in the pipeline but the guild beta was one of the things that kept being pushed back and re-prioritised. For guilds the shutdown is good news for you because it means the work that was needed to make the guild phase possible can now be done without any distractions from the live beta test.

Excellent move on the beta tbh, many games trudge on with betas that are riddled with bugs and never get a grip on things, the game ends-up being released bugged to hell and suffers hugely because of it.

Refreshing that Mythic obviously have control and not EA, nothing worse than a publisher pushing out an incomplete game on a financial basis rather than a development basis. Perhaps EA have learnt from their previous mistakes (/waves to SWG)?

 

[xxManiacxx]

These 2 months will give the devs the need time to work with all the feedback etc in "peace".

It is a good move and in the mean while the beta testers can themself write final reports about this beta phase and keep the discussion going on.

 

[WiZe^]

good stuff.

 

[vayasen]

Aye, its good that they can refocus imo.

Everyone screams 'i want beta' or 'i want to play now' but then complain when a game is released in (shall we say) poor state.


A project/ team that dosnt have shifting schedules and targets dosnt exist. What annoys potential customers (or in this case hardcore fans) is when no information is released.

Lets just not hope this extra time they have between now and guild betas are put to good use and makes a difference on what us, the gamers will experience.

 

[Fast]

Best move imo. Lots of work needed. I wont miss WAR for 2months in its current state.

 

[LordjOX]

Aya, t'is a good thing. Give it time to optimize with hardware and weed out all those bugs everyone reported.