BETA 2: - READ THIS!

The long twilight struggle..

from Demigod Forums

As promised, BETA 2 is going out today. Users who have pre-ordered it will soon have access to it as well.

That said, I want to make sure you guys are aware of some issues.  Real life (TM) has inserted itself into our beta process as Seattle (where GPG is located) is experiencing a bit of a snow storm which is reducing their manpower and there's a blizzard on the way to Michigan as well.

As a result, this beta is a lot rougher than we had intended it to be so let me walk you through some of the issues:

UPDATES

The internal build number of what you're getting is 825.  We will be updating it to 826 later today. That's right, there will be an update today.  There will also probably be an update tomorrow depending on the weather.

Build 825 does not filter out games in progress from the Internet Games list which, as you can imagine, means that trying to join those games would be futile resulting in an infinite wait to connect.  That's what 826 will correct.

BUGS

Don't bother reporting bugs for this build. There's a tonof them. We just didn't have time to put this through QA to nail down the zillions of bugs.  Here are some of the more serious ones:

  1. The list of Internet games is crashing the game for some people. This is pretty bad since you have to get to this screen to play (even single player against bots).  It's intermittant which means it won't always happen to you so you can keep trying.  It hasn't happened to me but it has happened CariElf a few times and it usually happens to Zoomba. 
  2. Because we've focused our attention on #1, we don't yet know just how good the multiplayer connectivity works. You'll note that there are no ports to open here.  As long as you aren't behind some nasty firewall, it is supposed to "just work".  Whether that is the case or not will be something we'll learn from you guys.
  3. There are numerous UI issues we're still working through.
BALANCE
Go ahead and report on balance issues.  This build has NOT been balanced.  Let me stress what that means: It won't be nearly as fun as we had hoped it would be because we didn't have time to set the numbers up.  
What does balance mean? Imagine Total Annihilation if building a solar plant took 1 minute instead of 5 seconds. That one change might have ruined all of TA.  Demigod has many of these kinds of things including:
  1. Stun.  Lots of times you will get stunned by other players. I personally found that very frustrating and we're working on balancing that.
  2. The power of the flags (which aren't labeled correctly yet). 
  3. The power/expense of citadel upgrades.
  4. The # of creeps you start out with.
  5. Whether you should start out with any flags captured or not.
  6. The effectiveness of items and artifacts and such.
Those are just a few things right now that can drive people crazy in the game.  We went through this with Sins of a Solar Empire when trying to figure out how powerful siege frigates should be.
OTHER SOURCES OF PAIN
We have not finished implementing our system of making sure people have the right versions and such.  It'll get straightened out shortly but it will likely result in some pain for this beta.
Getting games going with people on-line.  Painful in most release games, particularly painful here.  We're working on this.  Both teams are very familiar with this stuff so we will be working to resolve all those annoying multiplayer issues.
As the guy who helped pioneer com-napping and putting a flash tank to die into my opponent's vehicle plant and giving my opponents metal makers in TA, I can assure you that I'm all over working with GPG and the rest of Stardock to get code in for quitters and look for exploits. :)
Stay tuned

demigod
22,858 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

glad you released it now and will be patching :)

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Great information, thanks a bunch!

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

Plz continue to inform us of updates and what they do and we will tell u what we think of them.Thanks for getting us the beta before winter break even if it wont be all that good until we get the updates.

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

Thanks Frogboy

So I haven't tried it yet, can you join general chat lobby from inside a game lobby? 

If so, a quick workaround for invalid games-available list is just to say on general: "Ke5trel 1 v 1 is open" when you create a game and before the game starts just pop into general chat to say that it is closed.

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

Frogboy et al,

Last beta phase, there was an allowance of a few days to let people who pre-ordered that day (or up to 2-3 days following the start of that beta phase) entrance to the beta.  Is this true for this phase?  So if my brother wants to pre-order today or tomorrow, will he still get in as well as me (whopre-ordered mid-November)?

Also, I realize that there is an IRC channel which is a great place to get these questions answered.  However I am unable at my current locale to connect.  I wouldn't mind if someone asked for me in my stead!

Thank you very much.

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

Yeah, it's cool that you're releasing it along with the "we know there are bugs, watch out for these ones in particular..".  Way better approach to take than just keeping it locked away until it's flawless.

Probably still get plenty of people moaning about bugs/lag/whatnot, though.  You can't win either way, right?

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

Is each download going to be 1.09GB, or will it be incremental from now on?

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

Gah.  Entrenchment Beta or Demigod Beta?  The choices are going to kill me! 

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top

go for both :D i know i do B)

Reply #13 from Demigod Forums Top

Grr I'm annoyed I was downloading at a nice speed of over 350KB/s but now all the Americans have are finishing work and downloading also its dropped to a pathetic 170KB/s!!

But I'm soooo excited for when it finishes, currently on 66.2%.

Thanks for releasing Demigod as early as you could Frogboy!!

Reply #14 from Demigod Forums Top

Hey, better buggy than nothing.  I guess its a good stress test both from users and weather ^_^

Reply #15 from Demigod Forums Top

Last beta phase, there was an allowance of a few days to let people who pre-ordered that day (or up to 2-3 days following the start of that beta phase) entrance to the beta. Is this true for this phase? So if my brother wants to pre-order today or tomorrow, will he still get in as well as me (whopre-ordered mid-November)?

According to Kryo you or your brother have about a week to get in, Yuriken

Reply #16 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Ke5trel, reply 7
Thanks Frogboy

So I haven't tried it yet, can you join general chat lobby from inside a game lobby? 

If so, a quick workaround for invalid games-available list is just to say on general: "Ke5trel 1 v 1 is open" when you create a game and before the game starts just pop into general chat to say that it is closed.

 

Unfortunately, there's no chat lobby in this build.

Reply #17 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting landisaurus, reply 14
Hey, better buggy than nothing.  I guess its a good stress test both from users and weather

Oh I dunno. It's pretty buggy. We're working hard no it. The holidays are kind of a hard stop so we had to get this out.  There's so many pieces coming together so quickly.  I wish we had a few more days.

Reply #18 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 17
Oh I dunno. It's pretty buggy. We're working hard no it. The holidays are kind of a hard stop so we had to get this out.  There's so many pieces coming together so quickly.  I wish we had a few more days.

Ah, just as long as everyone keeps in mind that this is just a BETA, you'll be alright (and you will, right guys?). Thanks for the warning anyway. :thumbsup:

Reply #19 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Wahngrok, reply 18

Quoting Frogboy, reply 17Oh I dunno. It's pretty buggy. We're working hard no it. The holidays are kind of a hard stop so we had to get this out.  There's so many pieces coming together so quickly.  I wish we had a few more days.
Ah, just as long as everyone keeps in mind that this is just a BETA, you'll be alright (and you will, right guys?). Thanks for the warning anyway.

 

Never happens.  The word "beta" is forgotten as soon as the game boots up.  Then the whining commences....Or maybe it's the end of the day and I'm being cynical. :annoyed:

Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top

What does balance mean? Imagine Total Annihilation if building a solar plant took 1 minute instead of 5 seconds.

 

Yay for a Total Annihilation reference :)

About the Ingame Chat Client, is there an ETA or any rougly estimate for the chat client's implementation? I understand that the actual ingame balances and crashes are more important, but as a community this will be something that will allow us to establish more friends within the community much easier and thus making our community become much stronger.

Reply #21 from Demigod Forums Top

I got a LOG notepad pop up after the download, something about 2 modes.. they looked like different version numbers.
Both on something called "Silent Mode"
Anyways..
I run Demigod and no windows pop up!
In my taskmanager it says Demigod.exe but nothing is doing anything : (

I'm gonna restart my computer and see what happens.

It said the second Mode failed to be a success for me in the log, and something about verification..

Reply #22 from Demigod Forums Top

Hmmm we were promised a Beta that was a bit more balanced...I understand Beta 1 being like this but Beta 2 shud be more balanced :( Anyway thanks for updates..have to wait to january to try it :P

Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top

Just a quick question --- where DO bugs get reported...  I just got my first BSOD on Vista.... (ever).  ps.  I saved the minidump files, etc.

 

Reply #24 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting DalzK, reply 22
Hmmm we were promised a Beta that was a bit more balanced...I understand Beta 1 being like this but Beta 2 shud be more balanced Anyway thanks for updates..have to wait to january to try it

We lie a lot. Our therapist is working on that.

Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top

Hehe, should beta and balance even be in the same sentence... :)

 

Beta 2 is a blast, thanks for getting it out before xmas. Hope you all have a good Holiday.