Hey folks, has there been any announcement as to when CU's beta will finally be released to backers? I know tons of people are dying to see what the game world and gameplay are really like. I know, I know, when it's ready. But is there any indication of when that will actually be? Google didn't have much to say about it.
Comments
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Unfortunately these past weeks they ran into some issues, so there hasn't even been an alpha test for a couple of weeks. But apparently some good came out of these issues. So we'll see.
I wouldn't be surprised to see beta this summer, but that's just my optimistic view based on what I've heard Mark say on the streams.
Played: EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-LOTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO-BDO
Waiting For: CU & Vanilla WoW
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer
FYI delays are very common in software development, and even more so in games –sometimes it turns out that a gameplay-mechanic isn't fun-to-play or important parts of the engine are not as flexible/fast/modular as they be thought to be. Nearly every game has one or more bigger delays in the course of its development, but the thing is, in case of a AAA-game you wont hear of those delays, because they are announced when development is (nearly) finished.
Also, in some cases great ideas are extremely complicated to implement in the right way, hence publisher – as it's their money funding the game – cut them out and "rush" the game, which sometimes help the developers to 'get their shit together' and make a great game in the end (and therefor those cuts are never heard of) or the game is a flop, in which case the community starts 'digging'.
If no one knew about Camelot Unchained till last month and all of a sudden they announced beta within 6 months, no one would say anything about the time it took.
I fully believe that the developers are working as hard as they can on this game. I also believe that they drastically underestimated the amount of time it would take to build an engine from scratch and develop the entire game. What other conclusions can you reasonably draw?
Considering how much things have been delayed, after giving the developers their money, it's not unreasonable for backers to be concerned or frustrated. I do believe the game will eventually be released, but if the development pace so far is any indication, it's a long way off. What CU has working in its benefit is that there are few new, decently funded MMOs in the works to challenge it when it does eventually release. For this type of experience, what else do we have to look forward to?
It's the case, but as you pointed out, they're late based on their own original pre-production estimate, rather than "objectively" late. Another comparable project (e.g. Darkfall, which was PvP centric, created by a team about the size of CSE, built their engine from scratch like CSE, etc.) took +10 years in total from the beginning of development to release. So 6-7 years to build something as complex as CU isn't extraordinary long or alarming. It really takes that long to create an innovative MMO with a relatively small team in the west. And it's even longer if the devs don't know what they're doing (fortunately, in our case, Mark is extremely exigent when it comes to hiring the finest developers).
Agreed on both counts. It's hard to know exactly if it was 100% genuine estimates or if they decided to put a date that seemed not too far away so they can reach the KS goal more easily. Only CSE knows I guess. What I know however is that I regularly tell people that I'll do X task in about an hour, and 2 hours later it's still not completed. Not because I'm lazy or I lied, rather because I'm optimistic and plans often don't go exactly as planned. It's even worse when I'm doing something for the first time since it's impossible to estimate accurately based on previous experiences. And it's exactly what happened to CSE: afaik they haven't built an engine previously for a MMO (WAR and DAoC used existent tech if I'm correct), nor built games with such complexity : 1,000 players battle may seem simple when we think about it, but it's actually the number one most complicated thing to pull off in a video game and nobody achieved it to this day the way CU envisions it. Server-side physics, real-time destruction of structures, moving islands, procedurally-generated environment (that looks good, not just bland boring repetitive trees and rocks), ability system with components, usage-based progression for skills, etc. Nobody created something as complex yet. So it was impossible to know during pre-production how long it would take imo. But they surely could have been less optimistic with their original estimates.
True, and I understand the backers who are frustrated and those who request refunds. And yea it's going to take a long while still. But it's not that bad imo because as you point out there's no real competitors, except maybe unannounced AAA titles but I doubt it. And also because the Betas are going to be a lot of fun in CU, so even if it takes a long time for release, I don't really care, as long as we can have fun sieging, PvPing, crafting, exploring, socializing, etc. during Betas. And it's about to start (edit: "the fun" is about to start, Beta idk, but Beta is just an appellation and "late Alpha" can be just as fun).
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
they released WAR with 2 out of 6 cities, and it became a circle zerg. let devs do their works, and be happy if it takes longer.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If I had to personally guess, I think beta will be sometime around November/December with a launch near Summer 2018. That's assuming there's no more issues that come up after new visual effects are added.
I understand people being upset they can't play it yet, but good things take time. At least with CU there's a legit reason for it taking longer than an Unreal Engine mod.
As a person who has built a thing or two due to many of my hobbies or past hobbies just about everytime i thought ehhh i'll be done in 20 mins and it will be cake,well 45 mins later and having to try something different clearly i was wrong lol
why people want fresh ambitious games and expect them fast i'll never understand,everytime i have doubted anything about CU i have seen something to show me this is why i gave you my money and i cant say that about any other crowd funded game.
People expected things much faster based on the developers' own publicized expectations, not out of thin air. That's where the frustration comes from. Take peoples' money, tell them that Beta 1 is expected in February of 2015, and still not have an answer as to when it's going to be 2.5 years later...Yeah, that's on them, not the backers.
My thoughts EXACTLY.
You're correct.... to a point. You will get a refund until such a time as there is a massive exodus. Why? If there was a similar decent to something like SC, you'd see them close it. Not only because it cuts into their bottom line, but because it could mean that they could lose their ability to perform credit card transactions in the future, or suffer severe penalties like jacked transaction rates. To this point people haven't fallen out of love with the project and still give the developer more slack than any other project, possibly, in the history of gaming so would that happen? Who knows. You brought up CoE as an example, but this game is actually further behind than CoE even is and yet no commentary on it whatsoever.
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
----------------
You have no no evidence that refunds would be cut off. None whatsoever. What is a FACT is that if you want your money back from CU you request it and get it.
What is a FACT is that COE does not allow refunds even after massive delays and inability to deliver product.
Thats a huge difference and it's a FACT not an opinion. You answered your own question about why one company catches shit for delays and the other catches much less. The other is that the CU developer actually apologizes for delays and shows humility and seems like a likable guy. The COE developer comes off as unlikable, arrogant, shit on his customers that dared to question his ridiculous timeline and never apologized but rather blamed customers and prospective employees for his year plus delay.
These are reasons why CU "gets a pass".
PS: This doesn't excuse MJ or CU for being so far behind. It's embarrassing. But it explains the different receptions the two games get.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Someone can offer an open refund policy as much as they like, but people backed this project for a reason, so it would take much more than years worth of delays to have them actually take money AWAY from the project they dreamed about having. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if many even forgot they backed it entirely, or are even waiting intently on it. Most will be satisfied to just sit and wait.
Anyway, the point is that you're hanging your hat on something that infomercials have used since..... fuck... the inception of infomercials in order to sell shitty products and dreams to consumers, but they know damn well you'll never actually do it.
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
----------------