Public Beta

[Karawasa]

As of now, I am planning to release a public beta within a few weeks. I will provide more information near the time of its release. You can expect:

-New Towers

-New Creeps

-New Modes

I won't go into specifics here, I don't want to ruin the surprise. What I will say, is that the above changes are major. Thus, you can expect a much different game experience.

[ocmassreo]

can u make a changelog for details

if it s possible (when u post the release)

i hope test this soon ^^

good job to all the team for all this work

[Guest Warcryptic]

if u do, do it on beta post or something.

Its more fun for the not member to keep in suspicion what the changes excactly will be, like that the beta testers will get a extra, for helpingXD

[Guest GipFace]

I am against a public beta. 3.0 had ten betas which flooded B.Net, and even today, people are still hosting outdated versions.

Only a handful of people provided feedback on the public betas, anyway, and regular people *ahem* suck at the game.

Of course, someone does have to test very easy...

[Cisz]

If only people would know wht rc means..

Maybe there is a way to name the version in a way even a very dim person gets the point. Like a big label "UNFINISHED". Maybe in the pregame gfx, like a big "UNDER CONSTUCTION" sign.

GipFace - what do you think of that?

[Guest GipFace]

It's quite simple to make this "public". In the beginning, the host needs to type in a password or the game ends. Simple as that.

"THIS IS AN UNFINISHED BETA. PLEASE TYPE IN THE BETA PASSWORD IN 15 SECONDS OR THIS GAME WILL HALT."

Oh, and one other thing: This site's ETD3.0 map filename uses spaces, while the one at the other site used underscores. Please make the filename uniform so people don't have to download multiple but identical versions.

[Guest Sancdar]

I pretty much agree with GipFace for once - I'd rather not have untested abilities that aren't balanced well spread through b.net. There's a reason it's a beta and you have people sign up to be beta testers, you know.

[Guest mrchak]

I too am against a public beta this early in the process.

In the beginning, the host needs to type in a password or the game ends. Simple as that.

I am a big fan of the password idea, even for the non-public betas. Makes them just a little more secure and reduces the possibility that unfinished versions will spread through battle.net.

[Guest Warcryptic]

Untill a pass leaks, its quite simple then, someone makes an account here or anywere were the pass is found (wich will happen then in huge numbers of member because theyall want them) get the pass, en spread it trough the internet. Okay, everyone then knows its a beta, but theres still the chance that everyone plays it then because everyone has the pass.

Or you post a fake 1 and just pm the group members, that's only once and every new member wont get it.

[Guest GkJ-mo]

and there are some ppl out there cracking jassed maps for fun so theyd spoil the pass or remove the need to enter it.

id just say: no public beta, beta-team is allowed to test with close friends tho (no, close friend does not mean you played 1 AT-game with them in BNET, i mean real close as in you know each others real names)

[Karawasa]

I wasn't planning on releasing the public beta for a few weeks at the very least. The new content in Beta2 will need a couple of weeks at least to settle in and get a little more balanced. I was of course planning on modifying the loadscreen and the map preview image to make it clear that it is a beta. There would also be only one public beta.

My intent for doing the beta is to generate traffic (forums) and interest (in the game). The beta would give BNET players a chance to see what they can expect in the 4.0 version, so I would hope it would generate interest for the game. I would use the modified loadscreen/map preview image to make the site/forum address very clear. By doing these two things, we can grow this community, receive more feedback on the game, and give people something to look forward to.

If you still have concerns, please address them here.

[Guest mrchak]

I still think it's wayy too early for a public beta. When we're almost done, then's a good time for a public beta. Things are just getting started. Seems like jumping the gun.

[Karawasa]

That is a valid concern. We will see how things are going after Beta2 comes out.

[Guest Warcryptic]

Ok, making a public beta is good for getting more well known, but maybe if we wanna make it public soon do it this way. Make it a 30 lvl map or something for the public, so they can see the triple towers as well (not the ones after that i think but they have a small taste then. No pass, so they wont crack it ect ect. Thats the solve of the prob, they know its a beta (more like a demo but whatever XD). And they know that to come at 4.0 so they wanna see it.

[Guest mrchak]

I had a thought:

When it comes time for the public beta, if we want to prevent spreading of the beta version too far, is it possible to have an internal time-bomb in it? Like lets say it is released August 21st (for arguement sake) And we think the next public beta will be released a month later. is it possible to have some in-game code that will make the game not run after September 21? Anyone want to comment whether this is possible with triggers and/or JASS?

[Karawasa]

Don't think that is possible. By the way, there will only be one public beta.

[Guest Sancdar]

That isn't possible, and honestly I don't see the point of crippling the map beyond a password. Sure, it will leak a limited amount, but I honestly doubt anybody's going to waste time cracking it or the majority of people are going to remember the password - especially if the host makes sure to do it in observer chat or it's an innocuous phrase, like "good luck guys"

Come to think of it, that last one could be really frustrating

[holepercent]

i would say a public beta after most of the stuff has been tested and balanced by the beta testers first...

anyway, how many public players would actually give their feedback? most would just spread the message that ______ is imbalanced or the game is too difficult etc...

[Guest mrchak]

I agree - I feel like a lot of public players just have no interest in the development of the game ; those that do have most likely found the forum already. I'd be surprised if we get a lot of great feedback from Joe Average on Battlenet. The brains we got here on the development/beta teams are really where the value is.

[Guest Sancdar]

That's not necessarily true. I feel like all-money had been spreading around B.net before I'd ever seen it.

[Guest GipFace]

The brains we got here on the development/beta teams are really where the value is.

I am not really interested in spending many hours balancing the towers. Other people can do that and can do a better job than I would. Basically, I'm the type of TD player who will simply use the best towers at my disposal, and believe in the notion that some towers will always be worse than others.

What I am really interested in are optional gameplay mode tweaks. I made a list in the old forum, and I think that added custom switches would be a nice touch to all the hardcore players. It would also make game names easier, and it's not too difficult to implement. You could even have preset switches which combine a bunch of custom switches at once, like -r3mix in the LAME MP3 encoder.

Example difficulty preset switches:

-d0 or -noob

Very easy, big game hunter mode [all towers available] (-bgh)

-d1 or -ve

Very easy

-d2 or -e

Easy

-d3 or -n

Normal

-d4 or -h

Hard

-d5 or -h -allextreme

Hard extreme

-d6 or -vh

Very hard

-d7 or -pro

Very hard, samerandom, no cooldown timer (-nowait)

-d8

Very hard extreme, samerandom, no cooldown timer (-nowait)

-d9 or -nightmare

Very hard extreme, samerandom, no refund (-norefund), no cooldown timer (-nowait), slow efficacy reduced by 50% (-badslow), decoy [there is one unkillable unit that runs around the path which can cause the towers to shoot it] (-decoy)

EDIT: Changed suggested presets so that -d7 to -d9 all use -nowait. I believe -d7 should be the tournament standard, as -nowait rewards those who make offensive builds.

[Karawasa]

A lot of these are obsolete with the host being able to do them...

In regards to balance, I wouldn't discount yourself from beta testing so fast. You have a good understanding of the game, I'm sure you would be good at pointing out balance concerns by simply playing the betas.

[Guest GipFace]

The presets are easier to remember.

In the LAME MP3 encoder, --preset insane is the same as -b 320 (320kbps CBR), and -V2 = --alt-preset standard = --preset standard. Redundancy never hurt anyone.

DotA is popular enough that everyone recognizes what -apem is. I want it so that EleTD custom switches can be recognizable. When I host a game with "-vh sr" in the title, people bitch and whine about what that means. By going to a numerical difficulty standard, it should be a lot easier for casual players to pick and choose their games.

Plus, I'm not suggesting only presets, but other weird game switches that we could try (like decoy mode).

[Guest light3]

eletd is probably one of the most interesting and versatile tds I've played, keep up the great work !