282 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

With the August 7th date quickly approaching, we wanted to give you guys a quick update on some important points of note. We have noticed some wide-ranging discussion on the forums as to what exactly will be happening on August 7th, and we are pleased to share the official rollout plans. Firstly, it's important to reiterate that the standard retail ALPHA/BETA definitions do not necessarily apply to online Free to Play (F2P) games. MechWarrior Online will always be in development, which means exciting new features and content will roll out frequently. As you know, we have yet to announce hard dates for Open Beta or our official Live date. Our goal has always been to achieve Open Beta status before the end of summer. What will happen on August 7th? Great question! All Founder's Program members will be granted access to all of their Founder's perks and rewards. So basically:

• Beta access (granted with any Founder's program)
• Founder's Tag (granted instantly)
• Premium account^*
• In-game currency^**
• Founder's Mechs for Elite and Legendary Founders
• The Founders Program "Credits" and "In Game Currency / MC" are ready for you to spend at will. Important: You will be refunded the entire amount each time we patch the game during Closed Beta & once again when we commence the Open Beta.

Once all Founder's Members are in the Open Beta, your premium account bonuses will be treated as "live" and any MC used will be permanently spent. Please Note: ^* The premium account grants you 50% more XP and C-Bills. Even though you will get those benefits while the duration of Closed Beta, the REAL clock will only begin at Open Beta where there will be a final reset of all accounts so everyone starts at the same level. ^** In game currency will be reset and re-injected at every reset until Open Beta. This means you can experiment and spend it all with no worries as it will be given back to you on the final reset of Open Beta. How long will the Founder's Program be on sale? Due to recent overwhelming demand, the Founder's Program will continue to be made available beyond August 7th. Cut-off timing for the Founder's Program offer will be announced at a later date. The game is currently in Closed Beta, what does this mean?

• Ancillary features are done.
• New features are being added.
• New content is added on a regular basis.
• Access to MechWarrior Online is by invitation only.
• All purchases are tracked and will be credited to a player's account when Open Beta starts. (Example: If you purchase 5,000 MC during Closed Beta, your account will be credited with 5,000 MC once Open Beta begins.)
• Data is reset regularly.
• Balance and tuning are extensive and regular.
• Lots of bugs.

Once we announce we are in Open Beta (Date TBD), what will change?

• The game is 95% stable.
• New features are still being added.
• New content is added on a regular basis.
• Final data reset.
• Balance and tuning are still happening regularly in response to scaling up the user base.

As mentioned above, terms like "Release" or "Live" are hard to determine with a Free to Play game like MechWarrior Online, however you may consider the game "Live" when:

• The game is stable.
• New features are grouped into more formal releases.
• New content is added on a regular basis.
• Unrestricted public access to the game.
• Ongoing tuning and minor bug fixing.

We hope this clarifies things a little more and gives you a bit more information on the different milestones we are trying to achieve. Until next time, happy gaming!

[Walter Soebchak]

Thanks for the update!

[Adridos]

InnerSphereNews, on 06 August 2012 - 12:00 PM, said:

Until next time, happy gaming!

"Thank you very much"...

Still no word about whatever they will once again start inviting people to the beta.

[Harvey Batchall Kerensky at Law]

Great update! Thanks!

[Sunny0]

Thanks for the update looking forward to it. Founder mechs INCOME!!! ;D

Cheers,

Law

[Tuffnerd]

Looking good!

[thegentlemangeek]

Freaking pumped for this. I assume we still can't stream this then, correct?

[ManDaisy]

So we can still spend MC anyway we want and get a fresh reset open beta? Resets as in everything is clean, no skills, mechs , no money spent, etc?

Edited by ManDaisy, 06 August 2012 - 12:07 PM.

[Evgeny Bear]

Which creates a question in my Mind:

After open beta has been started, and "release" is official, will there be another wipe/softwipe?

[Wun]

Thats the best explanation of a release cycle I've seen from a game dev. Great info!

[Ens]

ManDaisy, on 06 August 2012 - 12:07 PM, said:

So we can still spend MC anyway we want and get a fresh reset open beta? Resets as in everything is clean, no skills, mechs , no money spent, etc?

no, it was probably a joke...

[Stickjock]

So... when's Open Beta start??!!??

JUST KIDDING!!...

Thanks for the update!!... woohooo!!

[Arteste]

Excellent. I now know EXACTLY what to expect. Thanks!

[Ayumi Silverfops]

Hopefully this will help clear up some confusion surrounding how things will be rolled out on August 7th and cut down on the "But what about...." that seem to be popping up. Will be interesting to see when the floodgates open to see how new folks not familiar with Battletech and/or Mechwarrior react and how quickly they get up to speed with the game.

[0d1n]

I have a few questions.

You're saying the founders program is being extended, how long? After playing closed beta I'm on the fence about upgrading to Legendary status and I'd like a solid date I have to decide by. I was originally going to make that decision today but this announcement gives me a little leeway and I'd like to know just how much.

If premium accounts begin in Open Beta, as does currency becoming non-refundable, what happens when the game goes to release or has to be hard or soft wiped? Will all that premium account time/currency have been wasted?

[Shadowfist]

Awesome clarification.

[Jaxom08]

it all sounds great and thank you for explaining it all very clearly!

[Shadowfist]

0d1n, on 06 August 2012 - 12:14 PM, said:

If premium accounts begin in Open Beta, as does currency becoming non-refundable, what happens when the game goes to release or has to be hard or soft wiped? Will all that premium account time/currency have been wasted?

I'm 99.99% sure that open beta will directly transition in to release w/o a wipe. (This is how games like Tribes Ascend have handled it.)

So basically ,you actually start playing LIKE it's release come open beta.. just expect a few weird bugs here and there and some tweaking of stats before it's announced as "Done".

[Perguru]

No , there will not be a "reset" after Open Beta starts as Dev's stated :

"Once all Founder's Members are in the Open Beta, your premium account bonuses will be treated as "live" and any MC used will be permanently spent."

[Jefferyfish]

Thanks for the clarity PGI team. This helps out greatly. Sure, there are more questions. But this post reminds me that you are listening and want your community to be happy. Cheers to you all.