Pre orders!
Gun_Knight
Join Date: 2004-11-03 Member: 32618Members
Join Date: 2004-11-03 Member: 32618Members
Well, I was wondering if there was any way we could see the current numbers on the pre orders, or estimate; I mean if the numbers are good, im thinking that they should be displayed somewhere to show off a bit. Course if they aren't, the numbers can wait obviously, hehe....
But what would a good number be?
But what would a good number be?
Comments
But what would a good number be?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
True, but I'm sure if they were getting worried about the number of special edition buyers they'd probably stop selling it or at least take alpha out of the product details.
What is problem with too many alpha testers? Seriously I don't know.
I think that for technical reasons, more alpha testers is exactly what they need. How else will they be able to get at least some stress on the servers from real players ? Also it should weed out bugs and glitches much faster... wich is good :)
Perhaps have a core group that can test out key bug fixes before they are deployed to the masses for alpha / beta testing - from a few days to a week in advance then give it to the masses to use and abuse and report faults.
I have been involved with an MMO that utilises Mantis as a bug tracking system (I was a bug-tester for a short time till RL screwed me over for time to be involved).
When they have worked more on it, they will invite more people (this is usually where closed or open beta comes in). You can't just write a code that supports 1000 people from the start - you have to start small and work from there.
I'm not saying UW has to use this approach but this is what I'm used to see in the game developer scene and I recommend it.
When they have worked more on it, they will invite more people (this is usually where closed or open beta comes in). You can't just write a code that supports 1000 people from the start - you have to start small and work from there.
I'm not saying UW has to use this approach but this is what I'm used to see in the game developer scene and I recommend it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But what if there are 100 people who bought the special edition just to get into the alpha and then they only let 10 people into the alpha. That's not exactly fair to those who preordered the game for Alpha.
IMO if they only allow a hand full of people in the Alpha they should probably come forward with that now, or at least take the alpha part out of the special edition features.
IMO if they only allow a hand full of people in the Alpha they should probably come forward with that now, or at least take the alpha part out of the special edition features.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
My point exactly. I don't know how the alpha is going to play out, maybe it'll be ready for a couple of hundreds from the start after all.
Let's say they let in 100% who bought the special edition (I could imagine it's a lot), they are going to need a lot of dedicated servers if each server holds, let's say, 24 players each.
If they are generous enough, they will have dedicated servers in most regions (Europe, US, Australia and Asia).
I can only speculate on the numbers here, we have no idea how many have ordered the special edition but let's say 500 have ordered it, then they would need 20 or more servers and that's pretty damn expensive :P.
Hopefully they will have dedicated server software ready for us testers so we can start hosting community servers right away, otherwise I can't see how the numbers will fit <b>IF</b> there are several hundreds of alpha testers.
But as I said, we can only speculate here. We'll have to see for ourselves when the time comes. Maybe there aren't so many special edition buyers after all and they are closing the special edition when they've reached their planned limit and I then I would be worried in vain ^^!
Yes you are right. I think at first they figured the increased price would keep the majority of NS2 preorders away from the special black edition... Perhaps so they could have a forum just for the blackies to communicate and report bugs to the devs...
But now they see, or will soon see, they their "alpha" needs to be even beeetttterrrr... i.e. it can't be a "alpha" or beta... they have to bring it all the way up to release candidate!
Hopefully when the green berets get their chance that their will still be some bugs left to hose with a flamethrower (see that's a joke... i'm calling the kahara by the name "bugs"... i know some of you would miss that otherwise xD )
THEIR MIGHT NOT BE A WAY FOR PEOPLE TO HOST SERVERS FOR THE ALPHA ( the developers said they weren't sure if that would be possible... maybe so they can monitor the bug reports coming from the server ) ... in which case everyone is gonna be trying real hard to join a handful of servers. The ones that can't join will be Denial-Of-Service bombarding the servers with join-request-attempts and pings... their will be a lot of crashing servers to go around.
Your logic is sufficient for my critical decision-making processes and I accept that I will be unable to play the alpha. I would like to thank you for saving me the wasted time.
Now please tell me more about the special edition and black armor. Frankly, I've not seen you post enough about it recently. I feel that my briefly drawn parallel between armor color and human race may have initially inspired you and I would like to see your ideas further developed -- I think the real potential here has yet to be realized.
Your friend,
iron
On the other hand... It's entertaining to read, even if it seems like a person with almost a religious way of making "prophecies" about alhpa/beta launch + black armor. :P
Or they figured the majority of people would of been smart enough not to spend that much money without any hint of what the game was going to be like. FURTHERMORE TO UNDERSTAND THEY THEY ARE ACTING AS "SOFTWARE TESTERS" NOT "GAME PLAYERS" WHEN RUNNING THE ALPHA.
The whole idea of an exclusive-alpha-build is to keep the amount of people using it to a minimum so you can send them hot fixes so they can test if the bug was squashed. Obviously that whole practice is compromised if 400+ people are gonna get the alpha.
If they wanted every ###### person in the community, or 99% of them, to play the alpha, then you'd think the alpha would be extended to allow the minority that bought the standard issue access to the alpha... I mean if the whole concept of alpha bug testing has gone to hell then what's 20 more people gonna do.
It's not like every bug is going to be something caught with an exception report... some will be graphical and only by observing will a bug be detected.... maybe it will only occur on some hardware combinations... they will not be able to handle this workload when it comes in from so many people. Which means more bugs make it to the beta... and "final"...
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To bad they can't go back in time and do it again because this would of been the better way to do it:
only 1 type or preorder... green camoflauge + access to alpha + beta + tools.
a DONATE paypal button... you can donate however much you want and you get your black camouflage to indicate you donated.
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owell atleast ns1 will always work right... their's gonna be big siege-map parties in their while the alpha is busy crashing lol
A better-worded version of this statement will be all over the Alpha release, when it comes out, and if anyone is still confused at that point they will soon be set straight by all of the unfinished features and constant balance tweaks.
Since it won't be a fully finished game, not everyone who bought alpha access will be fooling around in it all the time. It's like you said, they want a game to play, and the NS2 alpha won't be that. So they'll go play TF2 and old school NS and other things, and as NS2 gets more and more complete, more and more of the people with access will come back to it and play it. Flay & Co. may even be able to gauge their own game's completion by what proportion of people with alpha access are playing it.
Also, I don't know how many people on this forum were around here in 2001, but remember the NSTR2? It was almost completely featureless- just marines with no arm animations, placeholder skulks, a barely functional commander mode and a couple half-completed maps. Since it was a half-life mod, it was of course free, and by that token <b>everyone in the world</b> had access. The forums were pretty well populated at that point but still only a minority of people actually played with it, since it was just an alpha. I predict a similar response this time around.
There are limits to this effect though, as a larger tester pool is harder to control. I still have faith in Flayra to control his tester pool for the most effective testing based on it's size.
I think you're mistaking the fact that the majority of pre-orders so far have been special edition with the fact that every person in the NS1 community bought NS2 special ed. The way I see it, people who have already pre-ordered are confident that the people who brought us NS1 will not mess up NS2. Most of those who haven't pre-ordered special ed probably didn't even bother pre-ordering at all. After all, as you said, those who aren't confident as to the quality of NS2 wouldn't spend money on it yet (not even for standard ed), and are simply waiting for the official release for their decision.
But yeah I really can't wait 'til we get access to these awesome dev tools =)
But yeah I really can't wait 'til we get access to these awesome dev tools =)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree. It would be cool to see what worlds / stories people can create with the map maker. Ofcourse their's always going to be complaints when a map looks more artistic and "real" then a simple NS1 "ns" or "co" deathmatch-map..
I just wonder how well the scripting aspect of NS2 is going to be supported by the tools... i mean we need loads of features like ways to test and debug scripts, syntax highlighting, etc... We need intellisense / autocomplete to support all the lua-visible glue functions for the engine. Tons of documentation for each of those functions. In short the creation of the dev tools, if full-featured, would be as hard, if not harder, to create then the game engine itself with tons of bugs!!!
Maybe they need to release a alpha for the dev tools lmao.
Perhaps have a core group that can test out key bug fixes before they are deployed to the masses for alpha / beta testing - from a few days to a week in advance then give it to the masses to use and abuse and report faults.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You want some players that are in alpha, and all paid the same amount to be allowed there, to be treated better, as a "Core Group Member", and then hand down any crap they don't want to the "Normal Members"?
I fancy you feel that you should be among this Elite Core Group of testers?
I fancy you feel that you should be among this Elite Core Group of testers?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
My thoughts exactly.
I fancy you feel that you should be among this Elite Core Group of testers?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No you read it wrong... he's suggesting a core group which to be a part of would only require being selected by the dev team... just because you were easy to make a paper airplane out of $40 to get your SE cdkey does not qualify you for being part of the "Elite Core Group of testers"... it doesn't qualify you for anything more then black camoflauge.
But it is curious because from the looks of things the "Alpha" will only be an exclusive beta for the bazillion random people that ordered that... it's not going to be where the alpha members can just write posts in the forum and expect to be really listened to... i mean you just wait for the game to automatically email out an exception report and go back to playing... that is what the alpha will be like to you. And then a week later the "beta" will be out for the 50 people that ordered the standard version.
The truth be told, if you preordered the game then you will be equally listened-to / ignored,... only to be fair it doesn't matter if you got the SE or Standard version.
How is the smart thing to do not to make as much money as possible?
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The whole idea of an exclusive-alpha-build is to keep the amount of people using it to a minimum so you can send them hot fixes so they can test if the bug was squashed. Obviously that whole practice is compromised if 400+ people are gonna get the alpha.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ever heard the phrase "many hands make light work"? They've said they have an automatic update system, so the build/ship process is exactly the same if they have one user versus 1000 users.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's not like every bug is going to be something caught with an exception report... some will be graphical and only by observing will a bug be detected.... maybe it will only occur on some hardware combinations... they will not be able to handle this workload when it comes in from so many people. Which means more bugs make it to the beta... and "final"...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So, they can't handle the bugs during the alpha, but they can somehow handle them when they are released? Ever heard of prioritizing bugs? A graphical bug that only happens on a tiny subset of players is not going to have the same priority as the skulk hovaring without flapping. All software ships with bugs. Eventually, everything below a certain priority is just ruled "fixed in next version", and we move on with the release
I don't really think having a subset of users do a pre-alpha will help in any way. What will help is if we have a public bug tracker, and hopefully a few people (forum moderators maybe?) who can do bug triage and handle the inevitable duplicate bugs that are opened. Honestly, I've seen this done both with a bug tracker and a forum in the past, and IMO the bug tracker works much much better, as it's designed for this.