To Devs how much content can we expect in Beta?

[mani45]

I am curious to know that how much content we get to see in Beta before the final relaease?? I hope you guys do not mind sharing it with us

[plenilune]

Not too much, I hope.

[Sensuki]

A few maps.

[NWN_babaYaga]

Why asking what is in the beta if you can play it very soon, bored maybe? I dont get it.... i´m getting old and out of touch with to many people.... ehm gamers....

 

Maybe ask "Whats in the basket" :D

[Sensuki]

We'll know in four days.

[Karkarov]

Why asking what is in the beta if you can play it very soon, bored maybe? I dont get it.... i´m getting old and out of touch with to many people.... ehm gamers....

 

Maybe ask "Whats in the basket" :D

Two eggs, a loaf of bread, some cheddar cheese, an apple, and three taco's.

[Grand_Commander13]

Why asking what is in the beta if you can play it very soon, bored maybe? I dont get it.... i´m getting old and out of touch with to many people.... ehm gamers....

 

Why ask what the weather is going to be like if you're just going to find out tomorrow anyway? ... Just curious, I guess.

[Gromnir]

we will get more than nothing but less than you want. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[NWN_babaYaga]

whats in the basket.... eheh... that was an insider

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok7fOwdk2gc

 

but in case of asking about weather /beta... SUPERB comparison.

Edited August 10, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[Bryy]

we will get more than nothing but less than you want. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

I'm expecting far less than the WL2 beta - which is half the game. So basically, maybe I'm expecting 3-6 hours.

[Leferd]

Per Sawyer on his Tumblr:

 

...

 

"theovf22stuff said: Hey Josh, just another question. The Backer Beta will give you a clear impression of how players approach the early game content, providing the team with information on what can be modified, removed or introduced. Without that kind of information for the later parts of the game, and only a small team working on PoE, how do you balance it? How do you approach it?

 

Our Backer Beta actually targets mid/high levels (5th-8th). Due to testing our E3/press demo and a few hours past that, I think we have a pretty good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of various classes/attributes in the early game. As an example, I recently re-ordered the rogue’s starting abilities because Finishing Blow and Dirty Fighting, while nice, seemed much less fundamental than the combination of Crippling Strike and Sneak Attack at 1st level. We also know that there’s currently a bias against Resolve and Perception for characters who aren’t in the front line, so we’re thinking about ways to address that."

 

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/94343447161/hey-josh-just-another-question-the-backer-beta-will

Edited August 10, 2014 by Leferd

[AGX-17]

 

Why asking what is in the beta if you can play it very soon, bored maybe? I dont get it.... i´m getting old and out of touch with to many people.... ehm gamers....

 

Why ask what the weather is going to be like if you're just going to find out tomorrow anyway? ... Just curious, I guess.

 

Because you can prepare for the weather and not get rained on without an umbrella or sunburnt without sunscreen. Weather, after all, can be forecast with a high degree of accuracy in the short term.

 

If the beta contains a small fraction of the full game's content then it's probably not worth paying for if you're looking for a sizable amount of content.

Edited August 10, 2014 by AGX-17

[Lephys]

I'm expecting far less than the WL2 beta - which is half the game. So basically, maybe I'm expecting 3-6 hours.

I'm genuinely hoping for a beta setup in such a way as to be almost indescribable in terms of percentage of an actual playthrough.

 

I mean, I realize that abilities and mechanics and maybe even enemy info are going to be revealed if we play the beta build, but, it really needn't be the exact groupings/order/locations/etc. as in a narrative playthrough, I would think.

[Mangonel]

Given the story-heavy nature of the game, I would say its going to be the first few hours?

 

My assumption is on their end they'll be looking to have beta players flesh out bugs and maybe use some of the data they generate to do some mechanics/numbers tuning.

[Leferd]

The beta will only include sections of the game that are tangential to the main storyline plot, and will not be the opening areas. As Josh stated, your party will begin at around level 5 with room to grow to level 8.

[Sensuki]

Wouldn't be surprised if experience is bloated just so that level range can be tested. 

[plenilune]

Do we get to try out all classes?

[Prometheus]

Do we get to try out all classes?

Yes all classes/races are in the beta. You can create a character as in the complete game.

 

 

Will the beta have all classes, races, and ethnicities enabled?

 

Yes.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Prometheus

[talharbash]

I have a feeling the number of maps and content is still fluid as they test it out this week and decide how much to include.

 

I also have a feeling the game is not as complete as we should expect since technically they have until December to release.

[Prometheus]

I have a feeling the number of maps and content is still fluid as they test it out this week and decide how much to include.

They show the areas of the backer beta on the gamescom/gencon and also the dev team isn't complete this week, a few people from Obsidian(including Josh Sawyer) are at the Gamescom this week(13-17) and they are also at the gencon. So I doubt that they decide this week, what is in the beta and what is not in the beta.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Prometheus

[Lephys]

I don't know exactly how they're going to go about it, but they're trying to still keep the spoilers to a minimum, even for the beta experience. So, even if we're loaded into maps from the actual campaign (which, given the extensive nature of the creation of these environments, I'm sure we'll be in places from the actual game, and not just some beta-only areas or something), we probably won't simply be playing through a direct snippet of the actual game's story.

 

They might throw some actual quests our way (the more minor/optional ones), and/or even make up some quests (or strip them of spoil-y content), etc. And they'll probably give us some kind of opportunity to battle a lot, to test the combat and, dare I say, balancing. Probably a much greater opportunity than will exist at any point, ever, in the actual game.

 

Just my hypothesis.

[Marceror]

I haven't logged in here for a while, but I came by to ask precisely this question. Not seeing a dev response to this and a few other threads that likely could have been easily answered, I'm wondering if Obsidian has gone tight-lipped/silent on us?

 

Disappointing if so. inXile has managed to keep a reasonable amount of dev activity on their forum. Hopefully Obsidian will do likewise. After all, that was one of the stated benefits of going crowd-funded vs. publisher. Or has the introduction of Paradox to the picture resulted in less freedom in sharing?

 

At any rate, would be great to know if we'll be getting the full game to beta test, or just snippets. Since we are supposedly only 4 months away from launch, I would think we should be getting the better part of the game, because there's otherwise not going to be a whole lot of time to beta test the whole thing.

[Doppelschwert]

They said about 3-5 hours in the gamescom interview today, level range being LVL 5-8.

Question answered, quest peacefully resolved.

Now where is my quest exp?

[Marceror]

They said about 3-5 hours in the gamescom interview today, level range being LVL 5-8.

Question answered, quest peacefully resolved.

Now where is my quest exp?

 

Thanks for that confirm, and yikes! 3 - 5 hours only? I hope A LOT more content is planned for shortly thereafter. Again, if Winter 2014 is the release timeframe, that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for the beta testers to do their work.

 

At any rate, doesn't sound like I'll be scheduling any time off work for such a small appetizer.

[Doppelschwert]

I think you missed the point of the beta, or rather the term beta is missleading in this case.

It's not meant to playtest the game, only to playtest the mechanics and give the devs some feedback. They are also incorporating this feedback into which talents should be designed for class customization. The full game will be similiar in scope to baldurs gate 2, so there should be no worry about that. The demo is really only meant to showcase how the game plays - it only concerns a small optional part not relevant to the main quest. I doubt they will expand it at a later point.