Quote Originally Posted by Atoli View Post
Other games are able to do it.
And you make it sound as if we are 4 weeks away from release while it's more than half a year.
We have beta tests from September to January, that's 5 months - just to test server stability? No. I'm sure they don't want to repeat 1.0's faults of having a fixed release date with beta only weeks before it when nothing can be changed anymore. They planned in a lot of beta time so they can change and fix more than just "server stability".
if we are 4 weeks from beta, that's not enough time to make overhauls. You're thinking in terms of western companies. Japanese companies move at a snails pace. ESPECIALLY software teams. But i'm assuming SE follows a more traditional Japanese methodology of releasing/developing products. I could be off base.

Like i said. Beta would need to start today in order for changes to really be made and tested by the players.

it would take minimum 1 week for people to really get a feel for the new game/engine. combine this with downtimes, bug finding, etc. it gets bumped up to 2-3 weeks. for NA side (due to language barrier), the devs would likely wait 2-4 weeks for talks to open up, and discussions to be made. and they would compile a list of the top things players are talking about. so we're looking at two months before the devs even get a list of things we want. (please not this is different from things that are 'broken' and require emergency fixes ASAP)

it would take at least two months to develop the changes, test them, and then put them into the 'live' server. so there will be no real changes in beta. feed back will be taken, and a select few things will be implemented into actual launch. and most of this feedback will likely be from the JP players because feedback will be given back to devs in 'real time.' the feedback that will be taken the most seriously will be things that JP, NA, and EU players are all talking about. so between bug finding, emergency fixes, and hardware the devs aren't going to have a whole ton of time to look at content, which is what almost everyone here is wanting to take a look at.

most of the beta's you see from NA developers, the game is near complete. with some exceptions. the F&F beta for D3 began almost a year before launch. Having played in the F&F beta the game was terrible. it was far more polished when it was released, but there were still a few things that needed work.

So yes. some companies are able to do this, but that's because they are at a different stage. and most likely a lot of the changes being asked for are already in the works.


For FF the most important things are

1) New UI (must be used to play the game, so this will be tested automatically by playing the game)

2) New Engine (same as UI)

3) Hardware compatibility (New engine, new specs. aiming for lower tier machines, will be taken care of when selecting beta applicants)

4) Server stress testing (big complain is latency, so this will be looked at)

5) Presentation of content (so players aren't as lost when first entering the game)

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In 5-6 months that's about all you'll be able to look at. That's all they NEED to look at. SE is good at content. but the content will not be enjoyable if the UI is crap (like it was at 1.0 launch)

Everyone on the forums talks about content. the beta will not be about that. it will be about bugs, streamlining the engine/UI, and hardware testing. That being said Legacy members should not be given priority over anyone else IMO.