Goblin Squad Member
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As I've read in several places the Early Enrollment Beta is not so much a buggy beta but what I believe Ryan called an "internet Beta" meaning a version that has a very low bug count but is not feature complete.
So my question is:
Mr. Dancey, Mr. Cheney and/or Mr. Hammock, what is the feature list that is expected to be at the start of the Early Access period?
I am asking this question under the assumption that the answer, if one is provided, is not final and can change as time progresses.
Alternatively what do people thing would be a reasonable feature list to start with?
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Goblin Squad Member
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They have told us to expect a very basic game.
We may not see all the archetypes, or they probably will only have early abilities(no reason to have 2+ year out badges/skills in the game at launch)
We will not see all the base classes
Player structures may be static structures you click on and open a menu, not enter seamlessly and look around.
Settlements and Kingdoms will not be available
Hideouts will probably be there, or come in the first few months.
Since Inns and taverns are part of the KS rewards, they will probably be in the game.
There will be no RMT store, at least in the beginning(probably not until the last month or so), so training time will not be possible to buy with coin.
You will have to pay a subscription until OE.
A game with basic crafting and combat skills is all I'm expecting at launch, just enough for people to go clear a small dungeon and bring back the loot to their storage in one of the NPC settlements.
Early Enrollment is not for people that want to 'play' the game, it is for people who can handle beta testing, and want to help build the world and influence the game.
EE is a time to slowly roll out all the features and make sure they are working.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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This was the last I saw on their current plans for beta.
Day One of Early Enrollment will be a Minimum Viable Product
The objective is to release the game as fast as possible. The means that the game we release has to have the smallest specification possible. Because we're offering a service, not a product, we iterate on that specification constantly so that the scope of the game is always enlarging.
As a player you can select the point where you feel the game has enough features to meet your needs and that's when you can start playing. The people who go in on Day One are going to be playing a very basic game, but it will be playable, and it will be fun. But there will only be about 4,500-5,000 people so it doesn't have to be very big, or have a lot of features.
The next month, it gets more features, and gets a little bigger. A little more complex. And so on - forever.
We have a very good idea of what kinds of things need to be put on the priority list at the outset:
* All the races in the core rulebook
* All the roles from the core rulebookThe order those things are developed will be Crowdforged. That way the community has visibility on the plan and they can estimate (roughly) when the content they want should be ready for inclusion in the game.
Once the races and roles from the core book are in, we can start talking about things from outside the core book. That will be Crowdforged too - again with the transparency objective.
Once we're a little bit further along in getting the team hired and basic systems built, we'll be able to share our definition of the Minimum Viable Product with the community but it will be some months yet before we're ready to take that step.
Unless the skill training carries over from beta to release, charging a sub fee comes across as pretty lame unless that fee is very modest.
Unless the skill training carries over from beta to release, charging a sub fee comes across as pretty lame unless that fee is very modest.There is no character reset at the end of 'beta', it is not a 'beta' it is a 'building' phase.
Interesting ... very interesting.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Unless the skill training carries over from beta to release, charging a sub fee comes across as pretty lame unless that fee is very modest.There is no character reset at the end of 'beta', it is not a 'beta' it is a 'building' phase.
And I am going to build the hell out of it! :D
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yeah... you keep all your progress and have a pretty huge head start. Also as stated here you will be testing the functionality of the stuff that is implemented over the period and NOT the stability of the product. However, it still has the very very bitter taste of paying for testing someone else's software something that is usually a job aka something you get payed to do. But as also mentioned people are free to not start playing until it's out of beta.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yeah it seems succinct to say: It will be a delta during which the crowdforging will CONTINUE (we've already had a few polls for eg). Beta just seems to get people thinking in terms of bug-testing and wipes.
If I'm being smarmy, then the 1st item on the feature list will be:
1. Community ;)
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Goblin Squad Member
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To be fair, you can hold on to that time and use it after OE, far as I know.
I've got 4 months from just the crowdforging, and I'll probably try the first month. If I find it's a little too small for my particular taste, I'll just wait a few months to spend my other three. I think that's pretty fair.
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Goblin Squad Member
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To be fair, you can hold on to that time and use it after OE, far as I know.
I've got 4 months from just the crowdforging, and I'll probably try the first month. If I find it's a little too small for my particular taste, I'll just wait a few months to spend my other three. I think that's pretty fair.
I highly doubt you will be able to do this, you will probably get one code that activates your account credits you 4 months of game time, then gives you an alliance pack and player pack on the first character you create, and creates a destinies twin bond on the 2nd.
I highly doubt you will be able to do this, you will probably get one code that activates your account credits you 4 months of game time, then gives you an alliance pack and player pack on the first character you create, and creates a destinies twin bond on the 2nd.To be fair, you can hold on to that time and use it after OE, far as I know.
I've got 4 months from just the crowdforging, and I'll probably try the first month. If I find it's a little too small for my particular taste, I'll just wait a few months to spend my other three. I think that's pretty fair.
I don't know, if they are using a Plex like system, it would make sense to just give players how ever many Goblin Ears (or whatever GW is calling their version of Plex) they have game time for.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't know, if they are using a Plex like system, it would make sense to just give players how ever many Goblin Ears (or whatever GW is calling their version of Plex) they have game time for.I highly doubt you will be able to do this, you will probably get one code that activates your account credits you 4 months of game time, then gives you an alliance pack and player pack on the first character you create, and creates a destinies twin bond on the 2nd.To be fair, you can hold on to that time and use it after OE, far as I know.
I've got 4 months from just the crowdforging, and I'll probably try the first month. If I find it's a little too small for my particular taste, I'll just wait a few months to spend my other three. I think that's pretty fair.
Skill training packages are not the same as subscription time, subscriptions provide the ability to train skills, and additional benefits. The skill training packages you will be able to buy and sell once the RMT store opens, will only be skill training, not other benefits.
So GW would have to waste time creating a one time use item, that will never be used again, for a small number of players that probably shouldn't be playing EE if they aren't sure they can handle it.
It think it would be a better use of their time to have an 'defer to OE' option, so people the people that can't handle playing in EE, but pledged at that level, can open up spots for people who are better suited to play in the EE.
My guess is that when we create the accounts we will use for the game, GW will go in and add all of the goodies to our accounts. Otherwise the daily deals and addons will be a nightmare for us.
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Goblin Squad Member
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A plex equals 30 days of subscription time. It's other purpose is to buy ingame currency without going to some shady website as it can be sold ingame. So the are more uses for it then just the one you described above.
"People that can't handle playing in EE" wow, condescending much?
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I highly doubt you will be able to do this, you will probably get one code that activates your account credits you 4 months of game time, then gives you an alliance pack and player pack on the first character you create, and creates a destinies twin bond on the 2nd.To be fair, you can hold on to that time and use it after OE, far as I know.
I've got 4 months from just the crowdforging, and I'll probably try the first month. If I find it's a little too small for my particular taste, I'll just wait a few months to spend my other three. I think that's pretty fair.
I don't know this quote from Ryan sounds like you can use it whenever you want. (In reference to the pioneer level)
You get 4 months of subscription time. When you use it is up to you.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think it'd be that hard to do, frankly.
Also, there must be some way to distribute extra player packs/alliance packs, and hopefully all the other add ons. After all, some of the ones I'm getting I want on my second character, not my first (though I suppose I could just switch around which is first and which is second if that was the case).
And yeah, you do come off as a bit condescending Val. Afraid you'll start scaring off people willing to try the game, one of these days.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If people want to 'try the game' they should wait for OE. The MMO genera already has a low enough retention rate, and that doesn't need to be compounded in PFO by people who don't understand what they are getting into. The EE is a very important phase of the game, it is building the world, and I want as many people that can positively contribute to that in the EE.
Before the 2nd kickstarter, EE was set to be an a selective process. Now it is probably going to be a buy-in process, which worries me.
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That quote from Ryan doesn't say if it's a one shot package, or a four separate months, which is where the discussion started.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't know, if they are using a Plex like system, it would make sense to just give players how ever many Goblin Ears (or whatever GW is calling their version of Plex) they have game time for.
NO, not goblin ears! They will be Blank Adventurer's Journals! I called it first! D:< (Though I did rofl a bit inside at the thought of them being goblin ears... perhaps they could be a 0.00000000001% chance drop of a goblin mob...)
More to the point, I think RD means you can choose the start point of your four months, but cannot break them up and use them at your leisure.
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Goblin Squad Member
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They have told us to expect a very basic game.
We may not see all the archetypes, or they probably will only have early abilities(no reason to have 2+ year out badges/skills in the game at launch)
We will not see all the base classes
A game with basic crafting and combat skills is all I'm expecting at launch, just enough for people to go clear a small dungeon and bring back the loot to their storage in one of the NPC settlements.
Early Enrollment is not for people that want to 'play' the game, it is for people who can handle beta testing, and want to help build the world and influence the game.
EE is a time to slowly roll out all the features and make sure they are working.
While I agree with the unquoted portions of your post, I believe most of the quoted information from your post is contradictory to what was promissed during the kickstarter early on when too many people were bailing on the game at the thought of a paid beta.
The game was supposed to be relatively bug free, stable and ready for us to build the world, not beta test it.
There was supposed to be a limited number of races available, not base classes, or archetypes.
There was a warning that some skills, etc may change as the game develops and stuff gets balanced, but nothing about the skills not even existing.
Perhaps the next Blog should better enlighten us as to what the roll-out plan is really going to be before people get too far along because if EE hits and it is nothing more then a barely functional Paid Beta when people are expecting so much more the negative publicity will kill this game before it even launches.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Every time Ryan has chimed in with info on what will be in the starting game, I have been underwhelmed. Things like not being able to go into buildings, or not having all the archetypes.
Here's what the blog says to expect month 1:
Monsters, fighting, questing, even crafting and PvP around basic player-owned structures will be available when we begin Early Access.
We are half beta testing, we're not looking for bugs, but we are providing feedback to balance things out, we will probably seem more mechanical changes in EE, than you see in most betas.
I meant to say "core races" not "base classes. Not sure what I was thinking there.
The way I see it, the less they have in the starting game, the larger the player base will influence the release product.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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That quote from Ryan doesn't say if it's a one shot package, or a four separate months, which is where the discussion started.
Ehm...
If you are a Crowdforger, Crowdforger Buddy, Crowdforger Alpha or Crowdforger Guild backer you'll get several months of subscription time with your pledge. You can choose how and when to use that game time; you can use it immediately when you're granted access to the game, or you can wait and not start play until the game has reached Release, or you could use some time in Early Enrollment and some after Release. You'll be able to control when your subscription time is being used.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Dakcenturi
Almost to a complete answer. We know Ironvanguard can do what they planned. Now to clear the air we just need to know if we are using an account pause, or being given 4 separate months to activate when we choose.
One would assume they are 4 months attached to the one account and when you are not actively using one of those months the account is paused.
Remember you can also buy extra months.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Before the 2nd kickstarter, EE was set to be an a selective process. Now it is probably going to be a buy-in process, which worries me.
I remember reading it was either Lisa or Ryan that said there will be plenty more opportunities to get into Early Enrollment (or whatever it is) that don't involve buying in. They might still have to pay subscriptions like the rest of us, but at least you can come out of it with a character that isn't wiped. I'm also thinking there might be some other small benefits as well.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I remember seeing some mention of wanting 18,000 players phased in at 2000 new players a month. Something like that.
If so they will need more than just the KS people to reach that level of participation.
The original plan:
4500/month for 7 months, then 12,000/month for the next few years.