Campaign Alpha Testers

Gratuitous Forum Gratuitous Space Battles
1

I need a few people to test the alpha version of the GSB campaign game.
To qualify you must

  1. Be a direct buyer of the game (ie: from positech)
  2. Have actually bought the game :smiley:
  3. Be fairly computer-savvy. In other words if I ask you to send me a zipped up folder of debug stuff, or to know if you can reliably provide steps to reproduce an error, that will make sense to you.
  4. Have an internet connection on your gaming PC (campaign requires it)
  5. Be prepared to send me constructive feedback on what the campaign is like, both from a fun and a reliability/ performance POV.
  6. Be understanding of the fact that alpha releases are buggy, and not polished.

If you fit the bill, email me at cliff@positech.co.uk
I don’t need many testers, so don’t be surprised if I don’t reply. Sorry!

2

/sigh
Maybe once GSB is released via steam you’ll have a beta version us mac folks can demo!

3

D’oh. Five out of six, but I did buy the game off Steam.

4

Yeah, if playing it off steam was OK i could play this on a school comp :confused:

5

YEA Alpha campaign this is somehting I’ll try to get into.

6

I have at least ten times as many as I need now :smiley: I’ll send out some emails over the next few days with early builds.

7

Will there be a wider beta test after the alpha test? For pre-purchasers, as with the original game?

I’m hoping for a Wing Commander: Armada simplicity to the campaign game. A simplistic strategic facilitator of interesting and fun tactical battles. Minimal chores of clicking ‘Build Granary’, ‘Change Taxes’ and ‘Research quantum quantisers’. Star Wars: Empire At War did a good job of having a simplistic, yet fun, strategic campaign mode.

Don’t forget to tout that this is probably the first ‘Massively Singleplayer’ game created. Then every reviewer will comment on it and some people will buy the game just to see the concept in action.

8

Spore was already a massively singleplayer game.

9

What? No acknowledgement of my hard work? (joking - the opportunity was reward enough :))

For those of you who don’t know, which is everybody, the reason I disappeared from playing the NECs and DuelDowns has been because I have been testing the campaign!!

Since 21 Sep 2010 until now I have been diligently testing the campaign. Last night I stayed up way too late trying to reproduce a bug.

Now that there will be other testers and that knowledge is public, all I want to say about it is:

You’re all in for a treat. I think the campaign is awesome. My one prediction about the campaign is true (at least to me), it will be interesting to see how that plays out for the rest of you. I can’t say enough positive things about the campaign, it may not be all the things you expect, but it is good GSB.

And, at first, it will kick your but. Fleet design and ship design is radically altered. Good luck, have fun, and I will see your fleets…and hopefully smash them!

And lastly, Thank you Cliff! For the opportunity to add my 2 cents, and to expose the bugs I have (or hope I have helped to)!!

10

Lol I guess I missed the application date.

Then again given campaign is single player there isn’t much point in having me complain about balance issues anyway.

Lol that’s already outside of expectation. Good to know that it’s significantly harder than the original missions.

11

“Spore was already a massively singleplayer game.”

Ah yes, the entirely forgettable Spore game. I forgot about that. I remember now that the game was in news reports saying how it was heavily pirated. It suffered a class action lawsuit over its DRM.

12

Despite its numerous short comings, the marketers behind that game did an amazing job. However, it was only after I bought it that I discovered the draconian DRM EA stamped into it. Boooooo! Thank goodness GSB wasn’t like that. I actually purchased a couple copies once I found out it was an indie developer that put it together. And yes, for the lucky few that made the alpha testing list: I’m envious. Go ahead Ramcat rub it in! :slight_smile:

13

rumcat gets to rub it in the faces of the alpha testers. Development testing, lucky dog! (Yes, aware of the irony of my statement)

14

Although I would love to help out in any way regarding suggestions and feature ideas and so forth, I don’t envy the testers, and don’t relish the thought of picking something apart for bugs. Therefore, I thank the alpha/beta testers for their contributions to the overall project but will gladly wait patiently for the actual release.

I wish everyone the best of luck. Remember: the only good bug is a dead bug! :slight_smile:

15

RamCat is right in that the campaign changes your design philosophy. In no way can you get away with your ‘anti-tribe-with plasma’ designs any more. Now you need more generic designs, that can fight whoever attacks next. The race of an opponent at a specific system may be fixed, but as you push forwards, the fleet that conquers world A, suddenly comes under attack from planet B, which could be a different species.
It should be interesting :smiley:

16

You mean Rad Gun? But Order don’t use plasma… Only plasma spams I seen are Tribes.

17

If any alpha testers would like to compare notes, please contact me.

18

Just wondering if all the beta testers have recived there builds? I sent a e-mail and got nothing in return yet. So I’m wondering if they have all been sent out and I just missed out. Or if there is delay in getting them out. And like a noob I forgot to say my fourm name in the e-mail >.<

Lonestar

19

as much as this appeals to me (ok,right,its ripping my flesh from the inside out)… i will wait for the final version just so i can dr00l more :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Will we have to pay for the campaign mode?
And if we do, how much will it be?
Also, would you do the whole “On sell now for those who can’t buy full price” again?