Tribes3(omfg it's not t3 it's just the NEXT game! whatever, stfu) open beta by UVA5?

I think it COULD be a possibility -- here are my reasons:

First I remeber thrax saying they have a release date already. And I'm not sure if I'm right on this, but I also think I he siad it could be out in less than 1 year from something. Or maybe they'd release the release date in less than a year, I dunno.

Next is the fact that the engine works (the game is working!) And they already have lots of stuff done I'm sure. So it's safe to say that some of the content is already there and ready for an online test.

Uvalan is THE Tribeslan -- it's pretty impressive in size and gives you your entire market in one room (ok there are others who do buy the games, but EVERYone who's ANYone goes to uvalan! ).

So I'm betting it's possible, but let's discuss if it's worth it for sierra.
Well, for one you can't make it exclusive -- you can make its release exclusive but there's no way it'll stay JUST in the lan, so once the test goes public, it's public till the game comes out.
This could be good and bad. It could be good b/c counterstirke is free and popular right? Well this is basically like putting out a nice demo before the game comes out (holy shit?! you mean they did that once!?). I dunno how popular you're going to get so unless the game totally rocks and kills people like a fucking ninja with a gun that shoots poison tipped swords, you may land yourself into some trouble. You don't want to release anything unfinished cuz it leaves a bad taste, and people won't buy it when it's on the shelves. Even if it is a test people are going to base their opinion of the final game on it, so it's not really worth it to relase something that crashes a lot or has shitty netcode. Also you have to bring out a -kick- -ass- map to keep people entertained for...I guess anywhere from 6-12 months. And even then when people get the full version they're probably not gonna wanna play that map anymore.

So yeah, I see all sorts of problems, and I guess the timming might be bad depending on the release date, but it's a thought for everyone. Who knows

didnt quake3 and UT2k3 have open betas (multi only 1 or 2 maps) before they got released? that would rawk at UVA5

If so, nobody will play T1 or T2 at UVA 5 =). From a marketing perspective, I can think of nothing better than a bunch of tribers lanning up to test a mature beta. If its not mature, don't do it (duh).

If they have demo avi tools then you've got a fucking goldmine for tribal propaganda.

"This is how a REAL competetion looks"

Hah.
If they can whip up a demo/beta/beta-demo-monstruosity that is anything like the T1 demo and distribute it properly, it's probably going to get a looooooooot of public attention.

The T1 demo was one of those few demos that you could play for 6 months and still enjoy playing the same 3 maps

pretty please

*Open* beta? lol.. you are a fuckin wacko. Sorry lucius, usually you bring the funny.. but this ideas is awful.

it would be open, we'd just play it at UVA5, and perhaps the launch of the beta would correspond with UVA5 starting. Or even if it was a brief stress test before the launch of the open beta. Who knows. I just want to be able to see "something" by then.

Locke355 said:

*Open* beta? lol.. you are a fuckin wacko. Sorry lucius, usually you bring the funny.. but this ideas is awful.

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Why? All of the Tribes-related closed betas have been problematic at best or outright disasters.

Classic was an open beta and has developed nicely. TR2 wasn't. One of the many reasons TR2 died was because it was buggy as hell and had a number of gameplay issues.

Edit: T2 was a closed beta and was the buggies pos ever.

I didn't read it but I would highly doubt the game is in any true playable form right now.

Yogi said:

I didn't read it but I would highly doubt the game is in any true playable form right now.

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Fortunately UVA5 isn't right now.

It's playable, just not in any sense that would satisfy people.

The engine is running, graphics are in, weapons work, skiing works, etc. But nothing is tuned and most of it is placeholder or just temporary to get a feel for things.

It's exactly where it should be for a game that will be released when it will.

Thrax and I are talking about what we could do at UVA5 - I'm not sure we'll be there, and if we are I'm not sure what we'll do there, but we're talking about it. I can pretty much assure you, though, that it won't be an open beta.

put a running demo in a hermetically sealed chamber and run it on loop. then watch people drool at it.

Menzo said:

Thrax and I are talking about what we could do at UVA5 - I'm not sure we'll be there, and if we are I'm not sure what we'll do there, but we're talking about it.

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You'd better be there!

Menzo said:

I can pretty much assure you, though, that it won't be an open beta.

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Will there BE an open beta, like Tribes 2 had, at all?

Flatscan said:

Why? All of the Tribes-related closed betas have been problematic at best or outright disasters.

Classic was an open beta and has developed nicely. TR2 wasn't. One of the many reasons TR2 died was because it was buggy as hell and had a number of gameplay issues.

Edit: T2 was a closed beta and was the buggies pos ever.

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lol.. nice logical fallacy.

I just saw the window break in my house. As it broke, a feather floated into my room from a doorway on the other side of the room. The feather MUST HAVE broken the window!

Havn't you read what thrax has been saying? From what I gather he'd much rather put out something along the lines of a q3test than run a closed secret NDA beta. Personally I'd rather see the test as well.

Really the point of a beta tester is to just find bugs, not make game play dicisions. They can find things that are unbalanced but 90% of the game rules should be done already and it doesn't make snese to go a thinker with them.

The being siad all you're really intersted in is finding the bugs, and the best way to do that is to have a huge group. Obviously anything that is open is going to have more people than closed, and you also save yourself a lot of time not having to bother with picking beta testers.

And a vast majority of open beta testers give either false feedback, or none whatsoever.

Beta can be to test whatever the company wants it to be. If it is bugs, then its bugs. If it is gameplay balance and what is fun, they can do that too. Having a large portion of open beta testers usually just complicates the issue, and can easily give a bad impression of a game to the general audience.

At any rate. Beta isnt uva5. That isn't even alpha from the sound of things. Setting up a few boxes and showing what is done is one thing, but an "open beta".. lol.

I still think we're going to see an open t3test and not a closed beta at some point down the road

Plasma said:

Will there BE an open beta, like Tribes 2 had, at all?

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No, there will not be an open beta like Tribes 2 had . There will be a real open beta once the game gets to the point where there should be an open beta and we need masses of people to stress the network back-end, play-balance, fine tune physics, nail exploits, and all that jazz.

Waaaaayyy before that a small select group of people will help us with very specific things, including everything from initial concepts on paper, all the way to game testing.

Don't bother asking. The answer is no.