Sorcerer King: Beyond Beta 5

 it's fine with me.

Although I don't think releasing them close together would canabalize sales. Each is a different game with a different audience.

If the delay benefits the game I'm all for it.

Don't really mind one way or the other.

Another thought. 

Isnt the summer the worst time for game sales?

By releasing it in July you could be setting it up for failure. Aren't the numbers soft as it is for SK?

Take your time, I say.

I'm just happy we're getting Beta 5 this week!  I can't wait to see all the changes.  You guys know what's best, so do as you will.  The game is super fun already, and will only get more excellent with a bit more time.

However, since you're here, I REALLY wish you would reconsider ranged combat, and not let it be unlimited range and able to shoot through obstacles.  That is the worst part of this game, FE and LH.  There is no place to hide from ranged.  At least make obstacles block shots.

Please.

Thank you, Froggy.  The game rocks, except for that.

I've invested in the game since when only the wizard was available to play. I'm interested in the best game possible that will be supported with DLCs and expansions for a long time. (say at least 3-5 years)

If marketing team can use their resources to improve game sales so that the game will be better supported in the long run then I'm all for that.

If time can be spent to improve cities and towers or another aspect that I'm not even aware of and it won't cost supported down the road then go for it. I've other games to play and we will also have a beta 6 to play too.

I think it's the first I've ever heard of such a bottleneck! 

I don't mind but then I'm personally on a sort of gaming hiatus.

If anyone's impatient, they could just play at the original release date, no? It'd virtually be v1.00 anyway.

Not so much about cannibalizing sales, though there is an issue there too.  Age of Wonders 3's expansion is scheduled to come out in mid April as well.

I don't see how a delay would harm the game.   Usually with Stardock EA games, the major things that don't come in until 1.0 release aren't things that impact the gameplay.   As long as content isn't intentionally held back that wasn't planned to be held back, I don't have a reason to care either way about the actual release date since I already have the game.

I know expansions were planned, maybe you can move the first expansion to be part of the regular release- especially if it was going to be horizontal in scope?

As long as you put out beta 5, I am happy.

So delay the game until you think it is ready for the world. We do not want to do another Elemental... :( 

While Beta 5 will certainly be glitchy, I think most people will agree tha tin a pinch, we could ship it by the end of next month without too much effort.   

The thing here is that we don't have enough people on the business side of things to get GalCiv III out the door AND get Servo and Ashes and Offworld all continuing forward without something giving.

Since Age of Wonders 3's expansion is coming out next month anyway, the request is that we push SK to July and use that extra time to do more polish, add in more game options, etc.

The nice thing about Beta 5 is that you'll get an idea of what 1.0 was originally going to be like (minus the bugs/glitches).  So then ideas to improve replyability, pacing, and just general long-term enjoyment can come in.

Take your time and focus on polishing the game and quashing any bugs. Has any EVER complained that a game was too polished and had too few bugs?

 Take your time although it already looks great!

I honestly think that for as good as a game can be on release day, it can always be improved.

So the way I see it from a player perspective, pushing back the game could only mean getting a better game in the end, so there's no reason to be against that idea since in the meantime the players can still play the early access version, which will already be close to a final version anyway.

What I am worried about is that as someone already pointed out before, I don't really see summer as a good time frame to sell a video game... less people playing, and those who are playing will have countless "old" titles to buy with the summer sales...

But what do I know about marketing anyways, if you guys think it's a good idea, just go for it, again as a player I surely won't complain about it.

Are you sure AoW3 is coming out mid-April? Last I heard it was shooting for March 31.

I can see the draw of pushing back with all the 4X games on the horizon. There's more coming out in the next couple months than I've ever seen. Age of Wonders 3 expansion, Star Ruler 2, StarDrive 2, GalCiv3, Stars Beyond Reach, and some others I'm forgetting. That's quite the list.

You'd likely be the only July release, but I worry that SK will get caught up in Early Access hell. People just might forget about it if you don't play your cards right. That being said, it's the fantasy 4X I anticipate the most. No matter when it officially goes to 1.0, it'll be damn good. So do what's best for sales and if marketing thinks July, then I think July will be enough time to knock it clean out of the park.

What would we see, other than game options, from now until July? Can we have more lieutenants and a rotation of them for each game? Maybe some more exciting city leveling stuff? 

If you use the time to improve-add more content and polish the game then YES

If not then you should also consider summer is generally bad for sales as many games before have shown

I don't think that there isn't enough room for 2 great 4x fantasy games.Sorcerer king is very different from AOW 3

avoiding AOW3 is probably a good call.   That's a game that is selling very well in the same genre.

More polished is always better.  The official release should be as flawless as possible.  Every post in the Support Forum should show a dev as the last reply.

Take your time.

I'm early access and I really don't have any opinion on the above specifically. 

The bigger issue for me, personally, is that Stardock does good/strong launches of all of your games, and none of them end up getting churned out half-done because everyone was busy on the more important release.  Since I've been pre-buying most of your stuff, this could be annoying.

So, I tend to like the "it's finished when it's finished" plan, there's plenty for me to play in the mean time..

hope this helps, cheers,

-tid242

EA from day one.

A bug free polished release is a successful release, and that is just what you need when dealing with steam.  Unless you cannot afford to pay the electricity bill then take your time.

These are the things why i have so much faith you guys. No hogwash, but straight and honest information and communication. 

Move it to July, there can only come good from it.

Besides Mr Frog, the world is not ready for SK just yet.

Early Access supporter from Day 1.  Already love SK, but I'm not bothered if it waits until later for official release.  Honestly, there is so much I like about it already, that anything that can help make it a success is great in my mind.

Let it grow, let it gro-o-ooow...