Can features of the bot be released to beta before the entire project goes beta?

[WhereIsMyMind]

Hi,

Just a thought. This would give the beta waiting horde something to pull apart and will get some code conversation going in areas that might not get all that much focus during a full project beta release.
Example would be (if) the stash handling was available to be released to beta.

WIMM

 

[Tormiasz]

Buddy's not EA or Ubisoft to let the people pay for garbage Alpha release.
People would complain that something is not working and pushedx would spend more time replying to the comments that working on the code itself.

From what I read, EB's root code is being rewritten/refactored to bring us performance improvements, that's why it takes so long.

 

[WhereIsMyMind]

I agree. And for a beta release I expect people to complain otherwise... why beta.


WIMM

 

[alcor75]

Guys, i'm sure pushedx will release a changelog before the beta go live.
From what i ear, there still some decision to to be made, but stuffs are coming pretty fast and he say he is exited by the improvement, so let cross our fingers and keep push the energy!

 

[krone6]

I agree. And for a beta release I expect people to complain otherwise... why beta.


WIMM

It would be nice but when you have reviewers (anyone) reviewing pre-alpha gameplay with the possibility of saying "Not enough content" as a con it makes the developers question if it's worth doing such stuff in the first place instead of just spending more time working on it.

 

[WhereIsMyMind]

Just to clarify, I am not saying pre-alpha code being released, only the features that are ready for beta. As per my example.
Yes, someone can complain that the 'beta feature(s)' releases don't have enough content but that feels to me a little risk vs a reward of a more engaged community playing with a beta feature.

WIMM

 

[pushedx]

Features aren't what hold the entire project back from going beta. In fact, we've never really fully supported any new game content at the time it was released when we pushed our first working beta. This is because we can always add features and extend the API afterwards, once all the core things are working. If we need to drop API support for things that change and aren't really that important, we certainly do, and have, and will look into re-adding them later.

So for example, say the expansion client stayed the exact same as the previous working client, but there was no support for Perandus league stuff in the bot. We'd simply have a beta that didn't support Perandus right away, as that's always been the case with new leagues. Ascendancy stuff is slightly different in that it affects the core game, so while the bot doesn't support doing it, it would be delayed if it wasn't able to correctly handle skipping those areas, which correctly, is a problem being solved.

When it comes to our setup, an API driven approach in which things are built up in a pyramid shape, if the foundation (API) is broken, then there's no possibility of doing a beta until that aspect of things is fixed. Dropping 95% of the current API to put out something that'd function worse than a pixel bot just isn't an option.