The KGB Oracle Forums The KGB Great Hall of History (ARCHIVE) Darkfall Public Forum A History of "Beta is soon" Posts

I love it... here's a reply one of the DF fans posted under the recent update on the darkfall forums when one fan said that the devs are not leading us on with lies about beta.

The constant delays can look really bad, but if you choose to believe that they are sticking 100% to their company motto of "Never compromise" then you can see how they've been stuck in "final stages" for 3 years. My guess is that they "finish" a new dungeon, and so being the perfectionist they are, they do one last run through the dungeon to see if the spawns and artwork are all uber and well placed. But each time someone must be speaking up saying, "Hey guys, this place is nice but it could be better if we added this..." and so it is, for the past 3 years they've "finished" developing just about everything in the game, thus being honest when they say "in final stages" but they can't complete the final stage because they constantly find new little things to add.

But isn't that what "patches" are for during beta or even during final release? I guess we should expect a beta that is really well polished though...

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Teth
Uh, they have been saying this for years? In fact, they've been saying almost exactly this since I began following Darkfall, and that's closing in on four years now. It's been uttered far more consistently by the dev team than just about any other refrain.


8/3/03
Darkfall is entering closed beta testing in September this year. The closed beta is fully playable, with most core features implemented. We will be adding features and content during closed beta, while we gear up for the next beta stages.

9/30/03
Overall we're very happy with the progress, we don't have any serious problems, and we believe that we'll be able to deliver an advanced beta build for playtesting before long.

11/27/03
• The major game systems (physics, combat system, basic AI, spawns, etc.) are up and running and are currently being tweaked, tuned and optimized.
• The player interaction framework (user interface, skill system, spell system etc.) is implemented.
• The world is up and running and content is being added.
• The game art is approximately 80% complete for release and it's on schedule.
• We're tying up loose ends and making the connections between the various subsystems.
• We're in the process of implementing visual effects and improving the visual elements of the game.
• We're in the final stages of discussing server solutions with ISPs.
(In all fairness....)The delays we have been experiencing can be mostly attributed to the following:
1. We’ve raised the bar on ourselves several times during the last year:
There have been many improvements and additions to the game ranging from the graphics, to combat features, to game security features etc. We're making a better game than we set out to make.

2. The Darkfall game world is very large and it’s taking longer than anticipated getting all the content in. We're delivering a huge, and at the same time, a content rich and diverse game world.

3. We’re not cutting corners, or compromising the game in any way.

4. Timing issues. A very large number of elements need to come together perfectly before we move to the next phase. For example, external playtesting will start when every department is ready to benefit from it, and support it.

We're 24 people now working around the clock on Darkfall. While we've experienced a few setbacks, we're very happy with the progress of the game, and we are confident that it will meet and exceed everyone's expectations.

1/26/04
The preparations for community playtesting have already started on our end. We'll start a short registration and selection process soon. Findings from our new build will determine when the playtesting will begin.

2/27/04
We need you to update your Darkfall community message board account to reflect an active and monitored email account - if you have to. We need this information for the playtesting selection and notification process. We won't use your email address for anything else.

4/6/04
When is Beta?
Darkfall is currently in the final stages of internal beta testing. This means that the game is being tested in-house in preparation for public playtesting. A beta registration form will become available on this website soon.

5/3/04
We plan to release Darkfall within 2004.

7/9/04
We understand and we even share the community's impatience to a certain degree. We understand that you want to know specifics about the beta testing and the game launch. All we can say responsibly is that we can see light at the end of the tunnel and we'll let you know as soon as we know for sure. The fact that our planning has been off before makes us more cautious about getting into specifics. The beta forms have been ready for months and our tester evaluation is an ongoing process.

Here are the main areas of concentration in Darkfall development right now:

• We're putting a lot of resources into testing and refining the combat system and the actual PvP gameplay, doing our best to make combat fluid and as much fun as possible without making it too complicated.

• We're revising the conquest system that we weren't very happy with and we've come up with several ways to improve it. We'll leave it open for further adjustment during open beta testing.

• Races: Character models, armors, weapons, architecture are completed.
• Monsters: Completed.
• Worldbuilding: We're still working on the Alfar and Mirdain areas, the Ice and the Jungle continent.
• Dungeons: We're redoing some of them that turned out less than great.
• Skills and spells are about halfway done being implemented.

5/5/05
(Munka) I'm sure the biggest thing on the mind of the fans is when the beta is going to be held. Is the team nearing this stage or is there still a great deal to do before you can think about a beta?

Darkfall Team: We've been asked this question often and we know that this is on the mind of the fans, it's on our mind as well since there's nothing we would like more than have people playtesting the game.
We do have an internal milestone for the beta as the fans perceive it, and that's the state where the game can be playtested and fun could be had. We're nearing this stage. Other than that, we've been testing the game internally for quite some time now.

11/28/05
Jonric: What is Darkfall's current status, when do you expect it to launch, and how much has it evolved during its extended development period of more than four years?

Tasos Flambouras: We're preparing for beta testing as we speak; you can apply on this page of our website. It's a huge job, and we want it done right. The start of the beta is affected by multiple variables, and not just development ones. The same goes for Darkfall's launch date. Once we have a date that we're reasonably sure of, we'll announce it immediately. The additional time taken to work on the game was a decision made in an effort to make Darkfall directly competitive with the largest MMOG titles out there. Nobody is going to feel they've stepped down by switching to Darkfall, or play Darkfall as an alternative to their main game.

1/26/05
MMORPG.com: Darkfall was one of the most anticipated games on the MMO radar several years ago. Over time, a lack of information has led to whispers of vaporware or cancellation. Can you make a statement regarding the health of the production and what fans should expect in the weeks and months to come?
Tasos Flambouras: Darkfall is actually more anticipated than ever. Website traffic, community activity, messages, inquiries by press, fans, business, employment inquires etc. are some of the indicators. The response to our unpublicized clan beta invitation has been overwhelming. All this makes us very happy but it’s difficult to handle when we’re in full production and all our resources need to be in development. Our information stream as a result has been toned down considerably.
As for the board whisperers, they’re a reaction to a highly anticipated and ambitious game by an independent studio. ‘Whispers’ have proven in the past to have an agenda or two behind them, and whether it’s competition, attempts at forcing information, or manipulating an active community, we shouldn’t propagate them by rehashing them.
Our commitment to Darkfall is a given. We’re proud to report that we’re in the final stages of production. Our community can look forward to a lot of new Darkfall information and material, and of course, the chance to playtest the game.

5/9/06
By now you’re probably thinking, sounds like fun – When can I try it out? Unfortunately we can’t give you an answer to that just yet. Suffice it to say, a beta will probably happen at some point in fairly the near future. We’ll leave to you to decide if Darkfall was worth the wait.

6/30/06
Has the date for beta been finalized? If yes, will it be this year?
The date for beta isn't locked quite yet but our target date is this year. It's important to remember that we'll announce beta and launch dates as soon as we've locked them.
There are a few things to take into consideration regarding beta: Darkfall is a very special game full of unique features and innovations; it’s not just another MMORPG clone we're rushing to spit out. We're a small studio where every one of us does 20 things at the same time and we work the long hours. Some of our competition has twice as many animators alone as we have developers. We’ve been in full development for three years and we need to be very efficient in everything we do.
The point of having a beta test is to be able to run it properly and to get results from it that we can use make Darkfall better. So far we haven't had the time and resources to commit to running a public beta - without development suffering. However, we have been doing all w e can in taking steps to make it possible to test while finishing the game and make an open beta test available as soon as possible.
Now the reason we started taking clan beta applications so early was because we were considered launching a public beta last winter. Committing the resources to running it turned out to be too big a stretch in regards to its usefulness at that time, as opposed to continuing full steam on development.
When the beta is out, it’s going to be close to the full game, it’s going to allow us to test all systems, and we also believe it will be a much better playtesting experience than what we’ve been used to with MMO betas so far.

1/17/07
The beta development milestone was met early in December. Since then we've had a fully functional and stable beta build up on remote servers, which is being patched regularly. At the moment we're using part of this system to show the game to prospective partners, distributors, publishers, technology providers, etc. Our motivation here is to provide the best quality assurance, distribution, and service for the game and its players, so we consider this to be a very important phase for Darkfall.

We've already planned for self-publishing, but we need to know who's willing and able to do it better. We can’t announce a clear ETA on the first phase of the public testing yet, but we'll keep you posted on developments.

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Yeah, that's a bit eye opening to see the whole chronology laid out like that.

Well, we just have to hope for the best, I suppose.

They must have some serious funding from somewhere to continue going this long. It isn't cheap to have a development team coninuously on the clock, so whoever is bankrolling this must be looking at what they've got so far and is willing to continue throwing money at this project based on the progress they've made so far.

...The price one pays for staying true to one's goals and ideals without compromising to mainstream producers. A real pity that the only way most MMOs release in a somewhat timely fashion is to sell out half their original plans for the sake of sales and mainstay.

Well we all know that there in 2003 or so, they merged/got bought by Adventurine. Thets when they suddenly had some money, and they moved to Greece to make that money go further.

I have basically read it as "we realized we could be more sucessfull/do more" happeneing twice. Once, when the game was basically a skeleton of a game, IMO from what I can tell
DFO @ 2003/2004 would have been basically like early SB. Cool in its own way, yet incomplete, w/o much content.

In 2005, they were thinking of release, but realized game was starting to look very dated graphically, and was still missing things... like Mounts.

Now they revamped GFX, and have mounts, and more world content. Hopefully their gamble pays off, and the game is actually "good" when it comes. Not good as in "well, its good cause it works and its a fantasy type PvP game" but actually , really truly "good" as a game.

well one day soon until then gonna just turn on that /cry button im soooo bored