@jozef said in Whats the game engine?:
SpatialOS is more obscure. I've only found one MMO made with SpatialOS: Worlds Adrift. The steam reviews are 'mostly positive', but the game has lag problems.
That's not good news. Not having to waste previous dev time dealing with lags is exactly the reasons to opt for such a 3rd party platform in the first place.
What you just said is like saying "Alpha 1 is open beta," since Alpha 1 and so is all the other test phrases are open to everyone too. So, you wrong on that pint too.
Open beta is meaning that the beta phrase is FREE and open to everyone. All the testing phrase is open but not free. So, no there is no free open betas but you must pay which isn't even consider an open beta just buying in early on the game.
Regarding the alpha - I did not say "it's open" by the book, I said that it's not truly "closed" because there's no hard limit on how many people can get in (that only applies to the pre-alpha). Call it any way you like, it's neither open nor closed. Well, at least for the alpha phases it's similar to close because the price is too high for most people.
Regarding your claim about open beta being free - That may be the case for free to play games as well as subscription model but I have to disagree when it comes to pay once models. The way I see it you don't pay for the beta, you pay for the final game, and you also get beta 2 access without paying anything extra. In fact the final game is going to cost €30 while buying the game + beta 2 now costs €25 so the actual price of the beta access is €-5...
@truvidien88 said in Whats the game engine?:
I play a lot of MMO's so most likely not other than that I play a few Moba's but I've been playing the hell out of Dead by Daylight lately. Crowfall is the only one I know other than this that uses Unity that I would look into.
Unity is not just for MMOs. In fact most single player games use it as well.
@fibs said in Whats the game engine?:
They basically just need to "rent" some SpatialOS usage, set up the game rules and administrator tools, and do the client in Unity. I think all the leg work is done by SpatialOS
Yes, I though as much. If I understand correctly from Improbable's website they do allow you to set up your own servers instead of using their cloud services, which I believe is important because it's never wise to create a dependency on a 3rd party, which means that if they go bankrupt then your MMO is kaput as well.
I don't think you know what open beta means....
I think @FibS summarized it pretty well. The only thing I added is that I'd consider the last beta (aka beta 2) to be an open beta if -
By the time it launches it's still possible to join and start playing immediately.
Even for someone who joins beta 2 after it's live, the price is at most the price of the final release (i.e. it does not cost extra to join the last beta).
If you consider open beta to be something else then please join the discussion.
@nightcoder
open beta implies that there is no need to purchase any early access. open beta implies it's free and.. open to everyone.
Well the game (after release) is not going to be free either. According to the kickstarter it's gonna cost €30 (pay once). On the kickstarter you could have gotten it for €20, which also includes beta 2 access. The non-early-bird price was €25, which is probably the same as it's going to cost from now on on the website. If by the time the game enters beta 2 the game is still available on the website and costs no more than €30 and still includes the beta 2 access then how is it not open beta?
@fibs So basically it takes away the need to deal with the headache of the networking sides of the game, right?
@Truvidien88 You must have. Nearly half of all new PC games use Unity3D.
You should read literally anything about the game.
There is no open beta; the only way to play the game before release is to purchase a pre-release pack. You can also win a prealpha key through the Foundation but this will not give access to alpha or beta, or to the full game.
You just missed the Kickstarter, but these packs will return for purchase on the site shortly!
Terminology aside, open beta may very well be the case - note that there was no kickstarter tier that included the game on release but did not include at least beta 2 access, so right now everyone who's pledged has beta access. The devs also said that once the kickstarter is over, pre-purchase will be made available here on the website and the tiers will be the same, so, still everyone who pre-orders the game also gets at least beta 2 access. If it stays that way by the time that beta 2 actually begins then it's pretty much open beta even if you don't name it as such.
Actually right now I'd say that even the alphas are somewhat "open" because anyone could have (and probably soon will again be able to) join it by purchasing a high-tier on kickstarter or the website. Only the pre-alpha is truly "closed" in that sense.
That being said, the devs indeed never said there will be an open beta so things may be different from what we know now, e.g. it may not be possible to join a currently-running phase, for instance if alpha 1 is currently running you can only join alpha 2. Another possibility is that the devs decide to stop accepting new people to certain early phases (e.g. because of server load), but I guess that by the time of beta 2 it's a very serious problem if there are still issues like that.
Still let me remind you that even an open beta is still a beta - You get no warranty that everything will run smoothly and your progress may be wiped before the beta ends.
@specter I never truly understood what SpatialOS provides...
Seems that new purchases are temporarily unavailable as the kickstarter just ended but according to the devs it should soon be possible to purchase on the website. The packages are expected to be the same sans the early-bird packages, which only differ from "regular" packages by price (50€ difference). There's no kickstarter-exclusive stuff.
That being said, I suspect that things will chance eventually, e.g. alpha 1 keys may not be available for purchase after launch (this is just a guess though).
Will be there on Alpha 1!
Would anyone be interested in forming an Alpha 1 guild?
Pledged EB Immortal. See you at Alpha 1!
Right now all Kickstarter tiers that include the final game also include access to at least beta 2. Does it mean that beta 2 will be an open beta?
@lohen Yeah basically that's how development cycles go. In my company at least we treat alpha and beta very differently. Alpha is almost never given to customers and even if it does we explicitly say that it's not meant to be used for anything except testing, that it may even completely break and that we reserve the right to make any changes regardless of implications. When the product reaches beta however it's a different story - some customers may opt to use beta products and we typically regard them as usable and something that should not seriously break. It's also feature frozen, i.e. changes are mostly limited to bug fixing. The only difference between beta and release is that on beta we're not liable for any damages if it does break and it's up to the customer to decide whether that's acceptable.
@grofire אגב, יש לי הרגשה שבטא 2 (האחרונה) תהיה בטא פתוחה (כלומר כל אחד יכול להצטרף כאילו זה המשחק הסופי) מכיוון שכרגע אין שום פרס בקיקסטארטר שנותן את המשחק הסופי אבל לא את הבטא האחרונה.
And one other thing - even after a wipe there's still some advantage to testers since you know how the map looks, what's available where and what certain events are.
@lohen We should probably split the discussion into technology vs gameplay/fairness.
Technologically, once you go into beta phase you should at least attempt to avoid wiping as much as possible - that gives you a good indication of how difficult things are gonna be for you once you release.
Regarding fairness - well, it is as you said, somewhat unfair if people join when they have the opportunity and immediately encounter already developed characters that were retained from previous builds. On the other hand - as you said, as long as the game is not officially released we are considered testers so the devs are not committed to any fairness until release.
Given that - only a wipe before release is necessary, however even that may not be the case. According to the Kickstarter the game will cost €30 - But right now you can get it on KS for €20 - and it includes beta 2 access. According to some posts here even after KS ends it'll still be available for pre-order on the website (though the price will increase to €25). Right now every pre-order of the game includes at least beta 2 access, so either this will change at some point in the future - or the final beta 2 will actually become open beta (i.e. anyone can join just like the final release, the "beta" title only means "don't blame us if something breaks") - in which case it would actually make no sense to wipe before release, since there aren't many (or any) new players waiting at the door.
@lohen said in Stats / Characters retained from Beta / Alpha:
dude you have always hidden bugs
league of legends had last month a bug that crashed the whole server during a pro match
You don't have to lecture me, I work for the software industry 
(not the gaming industry though) and yes, it does happen that you find bugs after release (well considering the fact that you get Windows bug fixes every month...)
Still pre-release and post-release is a huge difference - A server crash is indeed bad but just try to imagine what would happen if LoL had to wipe all data right now. Release means you no longer have the luxury of wiping, that all updates must retain previous data. If it's still incredibly difficult by that time then you've done something wrong. To make sure it doesn't happen you should probably treat your last betas the same way. The last beta should probably be an RC anyway.
@jetah I'd personally be more inclined to open my wallet if it's presented as a donation to keep servers up and devs working, with some cosmetics benefits as a thank you gesture. Basically it's the same thing but the presentation shifts the focus to what's important and the true reason for paying.
@jetah As far as alpha goes that's to be expected since it's more of a debug sandbox than a full game. Beta should be a whole different story though - if you're in a situation that you need to introduce a game-breaking change in beta then you've done something horribly wrong.