The Beauty of Numbers

posted on December 12th, 2009, 6:23 am

how does a ship get to vet status, and how do i get the miranda class, and galaxy refit?

posted on December 12th, 2009, 6:29 am

Sadly very difficult unless you wish to move to Stuttgart: hard to beta test from such a great distance (which such a weak connection) when the version changes half a dozen times a day or more 

Kiddies trying to get their hands on a build before it's ready aside, if the devs want additional testers, there are ways to get around that weak connection/distance hurdle. Which I'm sure the devs are already aware of... and you're just being polite while saying 'hold yer horses'.

I am curious what the dev team would find most helpful to the process (aside from having already donated)?

posted on December 12th, 2009, 7:41 am

To contribute and add to the community, to keep new ideas flowing so we can discuss and add them to the project and to be patient cause we know our relase times are long
The next patch is awaited, yep. As its the largest patch we did so far at least if looking at the gameplay changes, all those changes require a lot of time to be validated :9 but we are on a good track. At least all changes are done now

posted on December 12th, 2009, 8:06 am

Scimitar  ships of accessories may not be in the game ?

posted on December 12th, 2009, 8:27 am

I think the new interface is awesome, but I do have some concerns. I like adding the warp-in vessels to be build-able. Will the warp-in vessels contain build buttons to match the new interface? As far I know there not really needed, so I was wondering if they were included. 

Anything? 

posted on December 12th, 2009, 8:41 am

Reman ship will be ? (scimitar)

posted on December 12th, 2009, 9:57 am

I think the new interface is awesome, but I do have some concerns. I like adding the warp-in vessels to be build-able. Will the warp-in vessels contain build buttons to match the new interface? As far I know there not really needed, so I was wondering if they were included. 

They currently have buttons in this version, I'd expect they should have them in the new style. Some people might want to add them in, so leaving them out would make no sense.

how does a ship get to vet status, and how do i get the miranda class, and galaxy refit?

The Miranda Class isn't available ingame, but there should be an addon in the 'Modding' section of the Forum to add it in. If by Galaxy Refit, you mean the Venture refit, that isn't in this version of the game. The version uses the same Galaxy for veteran as the regular Galaxy.

posted on December 12th, 2009, 11:15 am

the build buttuns should be included, because the warpin-shipis are buildable with the mapobject "McKinley-Yard" (not really sure if spelled right

posted on December 12th, 2009, 4:06 pm

Reman ship will be ? (scimitar)

We have been informed that the Scimitar will not be included in Fleet Ops, if memory serves.

posted on December 12th, 2009, 4:56 pm

The Scimitar will be in FO as a map object, replete with a beautiful and deadly array of weapons. The Remans will be NPC.

Kiddies trying to get their hands on a build before it's ready aside, if the devs want additional testers, there are ways to get around that weak connection/distance hurdle. Which I'm sure the devs are already aware of... and you're just being polite while saying 'hold yer horses'.

I am curious what the dev team would find most helpful to the process (aside from having already donated)?

At the risk of opening up a large can of worms... So who would be picked then? - I think some of the key issues would be language, time barrier, ability to speak in person etc. Not to mention the actual skill of the beta testers in person. Fact is, the Dev team has been the beta testers since the mod was begun, and they seem to have a pretty good handle on it. True, it would be nice if we online players could add some feedback to the prepatch before patches were released, but sometimes I think it would cause more trouble than gain. As it is, balance is usually quite good - even despite the small set of "too strong" abilities, and it took the online gamers a rather long time to figure out these errors, but now they will be corrected in a balanced way. Can any of us claim to be really efficient at testing though? I think the Devs have found a way that works quite well and is seemingly efficient.

posted on December 13th, 2009, 12:22 am

I think there is some benefits too though, for one it would leave more time for the dev's to do other stuff. I don't think it would be to difficult... make a board just for testers where they can give feedback, and host the prepatch for the testers to download. 

posted on December 13th, 2009, 12:33 am

I think there is some benefits too though, for one it would leave more time for the dev's to do other stuff. I don't think it would be to difficult... make a board just for testers where they can give feedback, and host the prepatch for the testers to download. 

I don't think you understood me very well - the "patch" changes many times per day - keeping it constantly in sync for the testers would be a nightmare. And that still doesn't change the fact that real time communication is needed - and for that, time differences, language, and choice of beta tester would be needed. Seems like that would take a lot longer than the current method  .

posted on December 13th, 2009, 12:41 am

aye. we will continue to do beta tests befor major versions (as we did before the release of 3.0), but till then we will take the fun to squash these bugs with our own, bare hands >:D

posted on December 13th, 2009, 1:33 am

we will take the fun to squash these bugs with our own, bare hands >:D

Lol.  I love that you just said that

posted on December 13th, 2009, 2:24 am

At the risk of opening up a large can of worms... So who would be picked then?

Heh - you'll have to pardon my sarcasm in my previous posts Sometimes I mix it with real comments - doesn't come off well in text.


I don't think anyone not already involved in the testing should be allowed to touch the game before the devs mark it as finished. They have a design philosophy and vision for the game; anyone that does not already share that vision would hinder the development process. Beta testing only works if you get good feedback and my perception of people who ask to beta products is that they usually are doing it just to get their hand on the product sooner (or for free). And beta testing is not simple from a dev team perspective. Despite Xanto's good intentions, beta testing would more than likely sap up more of the devs time, not less (it has in every beta testing program that I have developed on).


None the less, I keep scratching my head on what would be helpful to the dev process of FO. Having done development for 10+ years, things that I can think of that would be helpful to a dev team might be tool-write (like an 'odf compiler') or research long shot ideas (like how to make replay work) or advertise or ... . Anything that doesn't require coordination from the dev team and it doesn't matter if it doesn't pan out (so that the dev team isn't stuck waiting for something), but something that might be useful if it does.  


Meh - I've too much energy, stay up too late and live in the wrong timezone . Gotta do something while hoping people hop online

Here's to eagerly and patiently waiting (for many things)