Open Beta

mjnorred

I am not familiar with how the whole "Beta" thing works......will open beta transition into Neverwinter being released without interruption or will there be a period of "downtime" before the official release?

hydroman

I would think like a 2 hr patch or something. This is pretty much a soft launch not beta, sence there isnt a char reset. Prolly release some new classes or something for launch.

lyokira

Just cause there's no char reset does not mean it's not open beta.. I know there are some closed beta with no char resets.

martianmanraper

It's freaking live. Look at the Gamelist and the legend above it... Enough of this. Stop making excuses for the game. It's not OB; that just grants them a reprieve for any failings that might occur.

http://www.perfectworld.com/

mistriosu

There's a somewhat solid release-date for the next Race and class (Drow and Ranger/Warlock) for roughly a month from now. I expect that to either be "Launch" or "Test-launch"

startux

martianmanraper wrote: »

It's freaking live. Look at the Gamelist and the legend above it... Enough of this. Stop making excuses for the game. It's not OB; that just grants them a reprieve for any failings that might occur.

http://www.perfectworld.com/

Oh here we go lol. "Open beta, or not open beta that is the question". My personal opinion, its a just a label for a soft launch and for PR purposes (they can pull the servers down daily if they want to) and PWE website isn't as relevant as the Cryptic one, although the sooner they can get past this label the better . Although glad they're not giving into peoples 'demands' easily and doing what they think is right.

Anyone who has spent time around development knows the actual labelling isn't set in stone, indeed some go through pre-alpha's, betas and release candidates and something like RC3 (Release candidate 3) for example simply gets re-labelled as full release without additional code.

I wonder if they use scrum for their development efforts?

enderlin50

hydroman wrote: »

I would think like a 2 hr patch or something. This is pretty much a soft launch not beta, sence there isnt a char reset. Prolly release some new classes or something for launch.

I was thinking more like a 5hr+ downtime. Especially if it includes the class content update.

starkaos

Saying there is no wipes and using $ to purchase C-Store items means its not in beta anymore. Open Beta is merely an excuse. We are sorry that <insert major problem>, but it is open beta.

skylia120410

mistriosu wrote: »

There's a somewhat solid release-date for the next Race and class (Drow and Ranger/Warlock) for roughly a month from now. I expect that to either be "Launch" or "Test-launch"

I wouldn't mind some ranger type class the first ever class I played in an mmo was an archer on PWI I love my GWf don't me wrg. and now after a few years a gaming usually play a healer/support class but I would hands down probably swap to a ranger depending on how they make the class work. we will see I have char spot open just in case

terradraconis

martianmanraper wrote: »

It's freaking live. Look at the Gamelist and the legend above it... Enough of this. Stop making excuses for the game. It's not OB; that just grants them a reprieve for any failings that might occur.

http://www.perfectworld.com/

Oh stop with that stupid picture. All it proves is those posting it can't think.

mistriosu

There's some debate as to whether the "Ranger" will be the melee Ranger (dual wielding high mobility acrobat) or the archer Ranger (pewpewpew)
Personally I want Warlock first with a pact-blade option

terradraconis

mjnorred wrote: »

I am not familiar with how the whole "Beta" thing works......will open beta transition into Neverwinter being released without interruption or will there be a period of "downtime" before the official release?

The only period of downtime would be to bring up the official launch patch.

Now despite lots of people twisting themselves into knots so that they can claim that the game isn't in beta just so they can be smug and claim the game sucks... The game is in beta.

Basically the game mechanics and play structure are set. What is lacking is any depth in systems that badly need it. During the beta period that depth will get addressed and things will get expanded on.

For example currently there is 1 PVE mission path from 1st - 60th if you don't use the foundry. And at 60th the only thing to do is run dungeons over and over again or PvP. It is an area that likely will be addressed during the beta.

All of the weapon and armor models are pretty close to each other and generally in color are all blue-grey. This will get addressed.

In alpha there originally was more than 1 paragon path at level 30. Those will need to come back and be added.

While there are an adequate number of races and classes there is again a lack of depth compared to the 4E rules. And some basic 4E races and classes are missing. Ranger, bard, Paladin, Warlock are missing classes each which have 2 - 4 variants. And we are missing Dragonborn, Eladrin, and Halfling races. I expect all of these to get fleshed out a bit more before the game goes from 'beta' to 'live'.

The profession system clearly has some issues that need to be worked out with the order of tasks and what constitutes a rare versus non rare task.

Oh and there are only 2 PvP maps currently.

There are plenty of other areas where the basics are in the game but they lack depth that is needed to be considered a live system.

These things need to be fixed and up and running before the game goes from beta to live. But note it is all adding in more of what is already in game. Not adding massive new complex systems and that is why they went ahead with the open beta rather than going with a live launch. The game is frankly not ready for live launch but it is solid enough and functional enough to play. It just needs polishing and lots of stuff added to it.

starkaos

mistriosu wrote: »

Personally I want Warlock first with a pact-blade option

The opening cinematic (Siege of Neverwinter) has a Tiefling firing a fire ball from his sword. Not sure if it is a special ability of the sword or if the Tiefling was a Warlock with a pact-blade. The blade looked demonic with it having an eye.

starkaos

terradraconis wrote: »

The only period of downtime would be to bring up the official launch patch.

Now despite lots of people twisting themselves into knots so that they can claim that the game isn't in beta just so they can be smug and claim the game sucks... The game is in beta.

Basically the game mechanics and play structure are set. What is lacking is any depth in systems that badly need it. During the beta period that depth will get addressed and things will get expanded on.

For example currently there is 1 PVE mission path from 1st - 60th if you don't use the foundry. And at 60th the only thing to do is run dungeons over and over again or PvP. It is an area that likely will be addressed during the beta.

All of the weapon and armor models are pretty close to each other and generally in color are all blue-grey. This will get addressed.

In alpha there originally was more than 1 paragon path at level 30. Those will need to come back and be added.

While there are an adequate number of races and classes there is again a lack of depth compared to the 4E rules. And some basic 4E races and classes are missing. Ranger, bard, Paladin, Warlock are missing classes each which have 2 - 4 variants. And we are missing Dragonborn, Eladrin, and Halfling races. I expect all of these to get fleshed out a bit more before the game goes from 'beta' to 'live'.

The profession system clearly has some issues that need to be worked out with the order of tasks and what constitutes a rare versus non rare task.

Oh and there are only 2 PvP maps currently.

There are plenty of other areas where the basics are in the game but they lack depth that is needed to be considered a live system.

These things need to be fixed and up and running before the game goes from beta to live. But note it is all adding in more of what is already in game. Not adding massive new complex systems and that is why they went ahead with the open beta rather than going with a live launch. The game is frankly not ready for live launch but it is solid enough and functional enough to play. It just needs polishing and lots of stuff added to it.

Most of these features are what I consider to be when the game gets out of paid beta. It is a term I came up with which defines the time between when a Subscription Beta launches and when the game reaches the point it should of have been at launch. This period of time can last from months to years to reach. There are numerous MMOs that have gone into launch in a more incomplete state than Neverwinter currently is.

The main thing that proves this game is not in open beta is this game is making money from more than just preorders. Since all open betas that I am aware of in the past dealt with wiping all the characters at the end and people didn't pay anything to play or purchased a preorder to play. If PWE refunded all C-Store purchases and deactivated the C-Store, then this game would be in open beta. Not that I am advocating PWE to do something like this. The game is good enough for the first month of being live. Lots of changes needed, but that is to be expected with any MMO.

akikisaragi

It's open beta which basically allows them to do a ton of s**t that might be less acceptable when officially live like updates prime time all the time if they choose to do so etc...

mistriosu

starkaos wrote: »

The opening cinematic (Siege of Neverwinter) has a Tiefling firing a fire ball from his sword. Not sure if it is a special ability of the sword or if the Tiefling was a Warlock with a pact-blade. The blade looked demonic with it having an eye.

I'm hoping it was a warlock with a pact-blade. That way they can give it to us and be like "You should've known, it was in the trailer!"