Infos on the Real game Direction? WHEN?!

[Dragonheart]

Yea it kinda would be too late. It would be way better for us to be able to give feedback on the classes from the beginning, but all we can do even when beta test starts is speculate on the Uldah and Limsa classes/jobs. They could be broken as hell and it would be too late to get any real fixes on them before launch, however Gridania classes they should have plenty of time to fix their brokendness, especially since they should have had some feedback on them in alpha. They must really like Gridania.

Also just 2 phases to test the other 2 regions and their content...
Testing and fixing bugs for 2 never seen region plus the classes in only 2 phases... Pretty strange..

[Uriahnool]

This is how ARR will arrive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ryPUJyQf6g

[Nadrojj]

Also just 2 phases to test the other 2 regions and their content...
Testing and fixing bugs for 2 never seen region plus the classes in only 2 phases... Pretty strange..

Nothing seems to please you. Every single post you have made has been a complaint. I really wonder if you know what goes into a game, and that our "beta" test is no where near a finished game, it's just us trying it out. Your latest complaint of only getting one area to start out playing in beta is just down right ridiculous.

The developers are going on a marketing campaign trip on the the 10th, expect information to flow starting around that time. The latest haiku contest ends the 14th, to which they are awarding beta keys for the game. I'm expecting beta to start anytime after that from the 15th to the 20th. I really hope it starts soon, reading most of the posts here is just getting old.

[Orophin]

It's actually only one phase to really test and provide feedbacks...
Wonder how much testing we can do just with phase 3 for the other classes.

Phase 4 is pretty much open beta, and demo for the PS3 players as YoshiP said. (He assumes PS3 players in beta will want to play the game instead of 'test'). Don't think it's good to have major bugs 'if any' in a demo imo. Demo supposed to be appealing and make players 'want' to play more and buy the finished product.

I guess time and players feedback in phase 3 will tell...

Well the good news is that character data will get imported into Phase 3, so at least people with multiple 50s will be able to test game balance fairly quickly.

[Sorel]

I do not quite understand how some are saying that testing content outside of Phase 1 is somehow not Beta testing. Phases 2, 3 and 4 are still during Beta ... the content will be there ... we will be able to test it and provide feedback. It's pretty straight forward and clear cut. The fact that you will not be able to carry over character data between any of the phases pretty much allows Producer/Director Yoshida to make sweeping adjustments to systems.

I've been through a few beta tests now, and if the developer is prepared, I have seen them make radical changes to the test environment inside of 24 hours. Naoki Yoshida does not strike me as an unprepared developer. I believe we will have enough time to test everything. And if we do not, Producer/Director Yoshida will postpone dates as necessary. We all know he's not afraid of doing that.

[Nadrojj]

I completely agree with you. I feel like for a lot of these people it's their first rodeo and have no idea what "beta" testing really involves.

[Reika]

I do not quite understand how some are saying that testing content outside of Phase 1 is somehow not Beta testing. Phases 2, 3 and 4 are still during Beta ... the content will be there ... we will be able to test it and provide feedback. It's pretty straight forward and clear cut. The fact that you will not be able to carry over character data between any of the phases pretty much allows Producer/Director Yoshida to make sweeping adjustments to systems.

I've been through a few beta tests now, and if the developer is prepared, I have seen them make radical changes to the test environment inside of 24 hours. Naoki Yoshida does not strike me as an unprepared developer. I believe we will have enough time to test everything. And if we do not, Producer/Director Yoshida will postpone dates as necessary. We all know he's not afraid of doing that.

Instantanious changes can bring about more brokendness. The problem is that the gridania area has had the entire alpha and the first 2 phases of beta for testing and fixes on 3 battle classes, one gather class, and 2 crafting classes. the other 5 battle classes, 6 crafting classes, and 2 gather classes have 2 phases of beta for testing and fixes, and the last 2 phases together have a shorter max duration.

I can only see an issue with that. Yoshida and team are hopefully prepared to be swarmed and work their asses off on P3 and 4 debug phases.

[Lurex]

Well i think that the zones / content will be the same of the alpha.. plus the FATE system...
Also, we are supposed to give feedback regarding the other classes in the final 2 phases... isn't that too late? *mumble mumble*

Same as Alpha, but + all playable races + F.A.T.E. system. At least that is how I understand it to be.

[Dragonheart]

Instantanious changes can bring about more brokendness. The problem is that the gridania area has had the entire alpha and the first 2 phases of beta for testing and fixes on 3 battle classes, one gather class, and 2 crafting classes. the other 5 battle classes, 6 crafting classes, and 2 gather classes have 2 phases of beta for testing and fixes, and the last 2 phases together have a shorter max duration.

I can only see an issue with that. Yoshida and team are hopefully prepared to be swarmed and work their asses off on P3 and 4 debug phases.

Simply this^ .

-3 phases just for 1 region (Gridania) and their classes,
-2 phases for 2 region and their classes...

@Nadrojj , believe me, i want this game to be succesfull, more than "anyone" :/

[Hulan]

Also just 2 phases to test the other 2 regions and their content...
Testing and fixing bugs for 2 never seen region plus the classes in only 2 phases... Pretty strange..

Well, if it's not ready it's not ready. They're not holding out on us just to spite us. 2 Phases to test 4 battle classes and 2 (to 5) regions is quite brief, but SE can't bend reality to their whims. If things turn out really badly, they may just extend the beta.

That being said, 9/10ths of the things we need to test in the beta can be tested in one region. Things like netcode, GUI, controls, general battle pacing; these are all things that can be tested in one region just as easily as 3. Plenty of games release with just in-house beta testing on huge swaths of the game, so as long as we do our job and review what we have available, it's no time to hit the panic button just yet.