265 replies to this topic

[ReddKnight]

YAY more ppl that i might be able to kill, theres got to be somebody out there that sucks worse than i do at this lol, so yay to fresh meat, maybe ill be able to get a kill every now and then.

[RAM990]

Wow, I did not see this coming. I mean we all knew that OB would be soon, especially since it had been delayed, but so soon after such a major patch? Didn't you guys want us to test it first? I've been spending an increasing amount of time on the forums and there are a number of quite serious problems with the game such as client stability and gameplay mechanics that I feel really need ironing out first.

In my experience Open Beta represents a completely different mindset to testers/gamers. This is the first closed beta I've been a part of but I've taken part in many open betas and they've been far more polished that MWO currently is. Whilst OB is still beta, people coming on to an open beta expect a certain level of testing and fixing has already been done and MWO still has some fundamental problems and I'm not talking about superficial stuff like ECM doesn't work (or does it? is anyone sure?), it's more like the reports of CTD, dropping framerates, lag and poor hit recognition. When I've done open betas in the past it felt more like it was more to test things like infrastructure stress and balancing with the occasional bug when someone encounters a situation that's never happened before.

A guy earlier made a good point that anyone who is a hardcore MechWarrior/BattleTech fan is probably already here and these are the guys who will be your main player base and your main source of income over the years. I fear that with the current state of things new players will come in and see one style of gameplay, four maps and ten mechs and be bored within a week. Those reviews go out, those players stop playing/testing and what was the point?

That said I understand that there are real world constraints, in the end PGI are a business and as much as we all love MW/BT they're here to make money and I am certain that they will have very real pressures to produce and, more importantly, to be seen producing.

As so many others have said: listen to your community, we all want you guys to succeed and we only want what's best for the MW franchise. The game has so much potential and I like the fact you've gone down the realistic route rather than an arcade style of play and so I am eager to see what the future brings but for the time being maybe concentrate on fixing the current issues rather than rushing to the next stage.

[joker1974]

Only thing I like about OB is we now get to play for things to keep. Because I got tired of the whipes. Just hope new content and bug fixes are going to be substantial with every week's patch. You say you got 9 months of work lined up, so bring that content fast!

And 10's of thousands of Founders. Really? Most players (when we still had that user counter) I've seen online was 2500ish.

Edited by joker1974, 27 October 2012 - 12:02 AM.

[Icarium]

joker1974, on 26 October 2012 - 11:45 PM, said:

And 10's of thousands of Founders. Really? Most players (when we still had that user counter) I've seen online was 2500ish.

Also, there are people playing all over the world and guess what - time is not the same for everyone in the world, different time zones exist!

[joker1974]

Ok, thanks for explaining the world is round and has time zones.

[Icarium]

You're welcome

[Xelrah]

Delay open beta, due to negative opinions about the move, just to make it soon after 1 patch that introduced just a few minor things, of which some are broken.
And again that excuse that beta testers are tired. Yes some of us are tired, but of something completely different than what you state in the post.

Just out of curiousity: Is it PGI's decision to push open beta or IGP's?

[Freeride Forever]

IceSerpent, on 26 October 2012 - 05:57 PM, said:

Agreed 100%. I would also add a "target mech glows white like a mini sun and everything else gets real dark" bug to the list.
I understand that there might be other considerations (financial, etc.) that push you guys to go to open beta, but those 4 issues above should be top priority and IMHO need to be fixed ASAP - not by Nov 6th, but via emergency patches as soon as it's humanly possible.

Just my $0.02

Oh good, I thought that was supposed to be some new effect or something. Happened to me on Forest in the water while I was decimating a Gausscat (with extreme prejudice).

[Kaiser Soze]

Great post Russ. Thanks for this.

[Fotracul]

well, pgi is no valve software, when dota 2 went open beta was 10 times better than this game at this point, if it goes open beta in 2 days, i can expect that the DHS bugs, the mechlab bugs, and all the bugs that you guys added in the game in every new "patch" will not be fixed by monday

SO HAVE FUN IN OPEN BETA GUYS!

Edited by Sashulescu, 27 October 2012 - 12:19 AM.

[FR33JACK]

Way to go, Russ!
I'm completely with you, dude Let's bring the Legend to the masses!

PS. Thank you and the people with whom you started the whole idea of building and restoring the game that i've been waited almost 10 years, in the universe, which so much I like from my very childhood.

[Cochise]

Great news! I think she's ready to go open beta. I hope everyone keeps in mind that this doesn't mean it's finished, this just the next step in development and will give PGI the fuel needed to further develop the game.

Huzzah!

[Billygoat]

Does going Open Beta mean you guys will greatly expand your QA team (or actually hire one if you don't have a dedicated QA section right now)?

I promise I'm not saying this as a passive-agressive troll, it's a genuine question. The last few patches have the exact same feel that I have come to expect from engineers being allowed to be the only ones to check and test their own work. I really hope this is not the case (or won't continue to be the case) because, OMG, have you MET engineers?!

I can live with that in Closed Beta because we're (in theory) supposed to be testers, though that charade has been wearing pretty thin of late. But once the games goes live with Open Beta, "well it works on my machine" is not going to cut it as far as QA goes before pushing a patch. Once you hit Open Beta (regardless of "beta" still being in the name), we aren't testers anymore. We're players and customers.

I hope the dev team is really ready for this.

Edited by Billygoat, 27 October 2012 - 01:22 AM.

[JewBoy]

Needless data resets. Whats the point? What a slap in the face for the beta testers who didnt want to hand over cash for a buggy and grossly unfinished product. It seems like it is there just to coerce people in to spending more money to avoid the grind they all ready did.

[superbob]

Garth Erlam, on 26 October 2012 - 03:57 PM, said:

...

I must admit, Russ' way of saying "I know you won't like it, but we're doing it anyway" inspires some confidence in the venture. Obviously there must be factors the beta community doesn't know about, and PGI knows better when to go open beta.

As many before me mentioned in this thread, the core gameplay is still bugged (mostly laggy hit detection... You can't have a game about shooting things if its impossible to aim the shots), but I'm also sure that's no news to anyone at PGI.

I can only guess there's a schedule involved, some deadlines that were crossed a few times over and a lot of money this delay is costing someone each day the game is not in open beta yet.

[Sarlic]

Thank you!

Edited by Sarlic, 27 October 2012 - 01:44 AM.

[Shafar]

Question about the Premium Point;

• 2) I don’t think it’s fair that my Founders premium account should start at Open Beta - At an estimated Nov 13th patch all Founders will have their premium time reset once again (two free weeks of premium time!) and be given a “button” that allows Founders the opportunity to choose exactly when to start their premium time. It will not start counting down until you, the Founder, decide it is worth it.

If it possible to buy Premium time as a Founder after Nov. 13 without trigger the 3 Months Premium Founder Time? I plan Holliday and will trigger the Button on January if I am back. But I like to buy some Premium before to start with after Nov. 13,

Edited by Shafar, 27 October 2012 - 01:55 AM.

[Exinjeru]

I just think the game should be at least stabilized from the last time a patch broke the game before switching to open beta. For example right now we're going to open beta four days after a patch that broke the game for a lot of people. I hope there's an open beta patch that includes a lot of hotfixes.

[Slanski]

Good luck with the launch, but I implore you to completely redo the template of the MechLab. New players who do not know BattleTech lore will have too little information in a non intuitive interface to work with.

Forget your MechLab template for a second, look at vanilla products like the old MechFactory from Mechforce/Battleforce or any designer and then reimagine the flow and presentation. Relevant data should dominate the windows, not 3D objects or template frames.

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

joker1974, on 26 October 2012 - 11:45 PM, said:

And 10's of thousands of Founders. Really? Most players (when we still had that user counter) I've seen online was 2500ish.

$5.2 million earned through the founders program ... if every founder bought legendary, that's over 43,000 players ...

I've been one of the guys sitting on the sidelines, trolling the forums, and waiting for the game to become more complete before wading into the fray ... I, for one am very happy that I will be able to wait until the right moment to start my founder's bonus.