Almost the time :D
 

9,120 Members (Steam group)

So I guess when it hits 10 grand, em' gonna post an anouncement and release it for open beta :D ?


From steam's page :

You are absolutely right, very very soon the open beta will start:)

for those of us who have pumped 25 cent per gallon gas, could someone please explain what that means? presumably it's a closed beta now so what exactly does open mean? can I then download the entire game for free? why the heck do you need 10,000 people in a beta!? why isn't the game just released? i just want to play the damn game yet it's been in this beta phase for the last year it seems. can someone please clarify this for me? however, the way it's going, by the time this game is out i won't care cuz i'll be playing MoW: Vietnam http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/images/icons/icon10.gif

Mack - I believe, but am not certain, that a closed Beta means it requires payment. I'm not sure if this payment then means you get the full-game by default too though..
They will then, as you say, be allowed to download the game and play it prior to the release date. I also think they are required or encouraged to be active on the DMS forums to assist with bug finding and squashing.

The reason why they were waiting for 10,000 was because they had hoped the reward of an open beta would encourage people to boost interest/awareness in the game - It seems to have worked.
I don't think joining the group to make the 10,000 actually required pre-ordering, it was just to show how many people are interested in having an open-beta.

Personally i would of thought it'd make more sense to just allow it to be an open-beta from the get go. The more people finding bugs for you the less chance of some game-breaking bug to appear on release day.
But of course then they would of missed out on the marketting opportunity.

Market opportunities are all around. Everytime one of my friends borrows money from me, he has to pay back double, I've often been accused of being in the mob. I would have had people pay to test the game if it was my decision.

Mack the game is not finished yet and there are still some things to do and bugs to fix. That's why we will start open-beta. You will be able to download the free game client with limited maps. 10000 is just a nice number and it also indicates that many people are interested in our game and starting open-beta won;t be useless.

ah, almost there...

What if someone steals the maps from the open-beta?

Won't it just be the same as 'stealing' maps from Red Tide? So long as they are not distributed, it won't be a deal.

But what if they are? I've seen material taken from Red Tide put into mods, like the T-38.

It has been said by the devs that models from Red Tide are OK - there is a 'Red Tide Units' mod available at the DMS Forum. Just the missions (and, presumably, the maps with them) are not distributable. I'm not sure what the penalty would be for distributing the maps and missions from Red Tide (if there even is an enforceable penalty), but I would assume the same criteria would apply here to the Open Beta of Assault Squad.

Well, you could be fined. Or exiled to Africa, or Siberia, or Turkmenistan or somewhere where there is nothing.

thanks to all but i still don't get it. you've got the popularity of the previous games yet it takes 10000 people before you decide if it's worth it to "open" it for yet (wait for it) further testing... the game not being polished is why you do beta testing but you guys have been freaking beta testing with 9+ thousand people for months and months yet the game's "not finished yet"? i apologize for being the curmudgeon here and, of course, i don't fully understand what it takes to produce a game but making 10000 people pay to test it for months and months and still not having a production product sounds, let's just say, weird to me...

Nike-it, could you please clarify something for me?

'download the free game client'

that means multiplayer doesn't it? i thought there was a SP component to this game. that won't be available in open beta?

I can't see your problem, to be honest. You (probably) don't know how many ppl are currently beta-testing this game in the closed phase and for how long. Acctually it's pretty awesome that the devs will ensure a open-beta phase, as this will minimize any chance of bugs being shipped with the retail version of the game. The only thing I'm wondering right now is, when (open) beta testing will actually start?

Yeah, it's pretty unprofessional of Digitalmindsoft not having the beta ready-for-release when the member count hit 9k. Sure, it may have been a Saturday evening, but tough luck. They said it would be released once the member-count reached 10k.

Anyway; it is going to be released in Wednesday.

Well thats DMS.

Two days wait is still acceptable.

But the excitement is huge. One guy wrote in the comments that he's not going to school coz of open beta release. :grin: That made me laugh. DMS will break his heart if they don't release it tomorrow.

Ok activated it on steam :D:D:D:D:

well sadly I think not much you can do about it except asking nicely the people to not use it anymore? Particularly mods have a lot of freedom in that part as long they dont make any money with their content. For the good and bad.