Open Beta?

[szebus]

And again,

Here is the answer :

Originally Posted by Konstantin Fomenko

Beta testing will happen in 4 or 5 stages.

Closed Beta Stage 1 - we`ll begin by sending stripped down game client with updater tool and single-player skirmish to the first 50 testers. You`ll get a chance to play around with this for the first two weeks. During this phase we`ll be solving technical problems preventing people from starting the game, and other major crashes.

Closed Beta Stage 2 - will commence 2 weeks later. We`ll invite 50 additional testers, and send out a major update that will feature multiplayer skirmish mode. During stage 2 we`ll be fine tuning connectivity, chat and basics of player vs player gameplay. All 3 multilayer skirmish mods will be available, including team defense of huge capital fortresses.

Closed Beta Stage 3 - starts 3 weeks later. We might invite up to 100 additional testers (but this is unconfirmed.) We`ll send out another major update that will add MMORTS game mode with all early game content, including player vs player. But at this point we`ll disable singleplayer skirmish and multiplayer as we`ll need everyone playing MMORTS mode. We`ll do account reset every couple of days for the first 2 weeks. And once a week for the following 3 weeks.

Open Beta Stage 4 - comes 5 weeks later. From 500 to 1,000 additional testers will be invited, and only MMORTS will be featured. For the next 6 weeks we`ll be adding late game MMORTS content until Gold Master. There should be 2 or 3 server wipes.

Stress Test Stage 5 - is a good possibility once we hit Gold Master. We`ll invite up to 2,000 additional players to play MMORTS mode of the product for free for 2 weeks before the game becomes available in store. This will help us stress test the servers and hopefully we`ll get some players hooked. We might be able to allow Stage 5 player accounts to keep their progress once they upgrade to a full retail version.

Even closed beta hasn't started yet.

[welshie]

Yeh but hes saying. In an open beta, its like a download client anyone can download but this is saying it is again limited in numbers and people.

[Josh Warner]

Open beta can mean different things. With many games it will simply mean that the NDA is completely lifted, and their forums are opened up. It's still invite only. Not to say this is what we'll do, just clarifying.

[Darathor]

As Josh said above me, closed generally means that it's invite only with and NDA(however some games, like Starcraft 2, don't have an NDA for their closed beta). Open can still be invite only, but then bring a lifting of the NDA, allowing many screenshots, videos, and other information about the game to be spilled to those who don't have the beta.

I have another question relevant to beta, while the beta is going on, will their be a closed off beta forum that you have to have the beta to get into?

[Josh Warner]

Originally Posted by Darathor

As Josh said above me, closed generally means that it's invite only with and NDA(however some games, like Starcraft 2, don't have an NDA for their closed beta). Open can still be invite only, but then bring a lifting of the NDA, allowing many screenshots, videos, and other information about the game to be spilled to those who don't have the beta.

I have another question relevant to beta, while the beta is going on, will their be a closed off beta forum that you have to have the beta to get into?

We're discussing how we want to handle it exactly - but there will be some sort of beta forum yes so the testers can talk amongst themselves as well as provide direct feedback. Me I read every single post on these forums, and will carry that over to the beta forums.

[wills370]

Should be good can we have it a mimic of this forum split into diffrent sections sounds like the best way to go.

Also if we could ahave a mulitimedia section where players can make videos etc and then await authorisation by a dev to possibly show it to other people?

That could be ran like a weekly competition though so everyone has a theme to work by? Saves lots of random videos that way :P

[GPS51]

First there are 3 rounds of closed beta and the last 1 or 2 rounds will be open beta. So stick around for a while and behold and open beta...

[Noxeros]

What stage is it now?

[GPS51]

Pre stage 1. The worker bees at RWS are cleaning up everything to a point where we beta testers can give good feedback instead of telling them all the things that they already know need fixing.