but  at least they are honest.

They've been very consistent and adamant that the beta will not be extended and that the game will go live May 2.  The Open Beta is only a week (was originally supposed to be 2 weeks) but it has been in closed beta for a while.  They are aware the game isn't nearly as done as they'd like.

I think they are basically to the point where they either have to release or start thinking about closing up shop.  I don't expect the game to feel finished by the time is goes live based on my experience in open beta.  However, there is no box to buy, they offer a 14 day free trial, and are offering first 2 months for the price of 1.  So the price also reflects the level of completion of the product.  The first 75 days of play will cost $15 and you don't have to decide if you want to pay until 14 days into that time frame.

The open beta has had a ridiculous number of crashes and other problems.  However, they have made significant progress.  The open beta is basically functioning as a stress test.  The other features of the game are not getting exercised that much in open beta due to the server and client instability.  The main question is whether they can make enough progress to have a functioning if incomplete game at launch or within the 14 day free trial period.  I'm hoping they can, but only time will tell.

Ive played the Beta from the beginning,and i can say this game is no fun at all.

Just walking around and klich the Use Wrench/screwdriver button.

Its like Working,not playing.

Garrett Fuller, you are a tool.  And a broken one at that.  This game is one of the worst releases in terms of quality since AO.  I don't see how on Earth you could give this game any sort of positive spin.  For heavens sake, you could not really even find anyone to actually play with!   I just don't know what else to say.  Anyone that buys this game based on your 'Preview/Review' is going to be mighty pissed off at you.  Don your +10 vs. Flame shorts now.  Prepare for a toasting.

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Originally posted by Shoal
Garrett Fuller, you are a tool.  And a broken one at that.  This game is one of the worst releases in terms of quality since AO.  I don't see how on Earth you could give this game any sort of positive spin.  For heavens sake, you could not really even find anyone to actually play with!   I just don't know what else to say.  Anyone that buys this game based on your 'Preview/Review' is going to be mighty pissed off at you.  Don your +10 vs. Flame shorts now.  Prepare for a toasting.

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Please refrain from personal attacks.

However, I want to note, this was a preview and in a preview a month before launch, a game sometimes gets the benefit of the doubt as far as incompleteness goes. They get no such benefit of the doubt in a review. I have no idea how it will be scored in the end, but the preview looks largely at potential.

the only thing that made htme push the release to may 2nd was their investors. they are trying hard to make this game great, and it is. anyone trying to say otherwise ''just cuz it aint got no combat'' should be more openminded  for less mindnumbing games

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Originally posted by Dartillus
the only thing that made htme push the release to may 2nd was their investors. they are trying hard to make this game great, and it is. anyone trying to say otherwise ''just cuz it aint got no combat'' should be more openminded  for less mindnumbing games

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The game in it's current state is not great.  Even most of the people subscribing are doing so on the basis of giving them time to make it great.

Server crashes are still prevalent.  Some people have tons of client crashes, many to the point that they can barely login or play (myself included).  The crashes aren't due to outdated hardware either, they are mostly just random.  Some machines it's ok on and others it can't run.  I'm still getting NULL pointer reads from the client.  The client doesn't even notice if it loses connection to the server, although you can tell because everything freezes and it eventually crashes.

From what I've been able to see, the gameplay design is of dubious quality.  I've had trouble evaluating to all the crashes.  The main parts of the game play are:

- Repairs:  Hatches randomly break with 1-3 problems out of 5 possible breakage types (bio, mechanical, electronic, electrical, structural).  The damage is represented as a bar.  You use the appropriate tool for the damage type, wait a bit, and that damage will be repaired.  Once you finish a repair you get access points (AP).  Repairs currently have no effect on anything.  It's not that different from mob pops with click-to-kill combat and only 1 drop type.  There are a few tradeoff abilities that let you trade off one thing (like repair time) versus another (like repair quality).  Many of the things that you can trade off on aren't implemented yet.  The ones you can are repair time, tool stress, and inspiration drop rate.  Inspiration drops are like a one time little skill training boost.
- Production: Gather some materials and a blueprint and find a factory with the appropriate functions.  You need the appropriate skill and enough AP and then you just click to make it.  There are 3 basic materials which you buy with AP from a sharepoint.  The basic materials are stocked by the game.   Blueprints also come from the game for now.  For most useful items there is a whole tree of intermediate items you need to make.  Overall, it's like a lot of other crafting systems except that you need an appropriate factory.  There are already problems with resource hogging.  There is an AP cost for basic materials but it is fairly low and otherwise is a first-to-click system.  We are mostly stuck with whatever factories the game decided to default to since we can't admin yet.  There are 3 hardpoints that are player controlled due to GM intervention where they basically just gave control to a RP ring (guild).
- Administration: Not available during free trial period.  Colonists vote weekly on people to administrate hard points (places factories can be put).  There are administrative skills that are needed to mount things.  Basically, you select which factories and functions to mount on your hard point(s).  Can't really comment further since trial characters can't participate and everyone is still on free trial.
- Research: Planned but not yet implemented.  This is supposed to allow you to create blueprints.
- Roleplay: This game attracts a heavy RP element.  I've seen people post that they had fun sitting in one place RPing for 6 hours at a time.  To me this seems like a glorified chat room.

Claim = what they have now
- interactive stories = npc stories that allow for /yes, /no imput.  NPCs that sometimes race off fast enough that many people are unable to follow them.
- dynamic dialogue "communicate with both players and NPCs, using emotes and nuggets" = chat with players, enter emotes through text commands, NPCs respond to some emotes (mostly /whatsup, /yes, and /no).  I haven't interacted a whole lot with the NPCs yet.  The NPCs weren't even in game at launch though.
- believable NPCs "The advanced AI gives each NPC its own personality, motivations and goals." = not enough information to evaluate, the NPCs do have states of mind like "determined" and such that you can see when you target them
- "player actions decide in which direction the game evolves" = so far it looks like a statement that was closer to the truth is "player actions influence GMs when they decide which direction the game evolves"
- personalized characters "Create a unique character by fine-tuning appearence and initial skills." = select 1 of 5 hair types, sex, 1 of 3 build types, 1 of ~6 facial hair/<something else for female> settings, 1 of ~25 colors for head hair, facial har, clothing color.  Skills are not selected at all during character creation.  The skill tree is wide and shallow (6 levels).  From what I know about EVE it sounds very similiar.  There are four main areas with a number of subtrees.
- flexible skill system = flexible skill system :)
- 3D comic book style graphics = 3D comic book style graphics :)
- administration = see above, in game but not available during free trial unless blessed by GMs
- crafting = see above about production
- politics "Use the colony democratic system to put your ideas into action." = in game, but not available during free trial
- projects "Co-operate to complete large scale work projects." = so far seems to be centered around producing items, the production trees for items are pretty large
- repairs = see above
- research " Identify and cure diseases, and find more effective use for the ressources" = not implemented yet (they say it is partially implemented).
- rings = guilds
- trading = barter (AP are not tradeable but you can buy/sell for AP via the central computer)

I think the game has potential, but it also has a long way to go.  At the moment, whether it is playable or not depends randomly on what hardware you have, i.e. a fast machine guarantees nothing.  The gameplay I've seen so far has a very different skin on it, but many of the elements are familiar.

as i said, they were not prepared. they know they have problems and their fixing it. Runestone just has had a lot of bad luck. their sponsors pushed them to release the game ASAP, which in the end, left the game buggier. this leaves a lot of people with the feeling that they are paying to betatest it, buts its great fun!

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Originally posted by Dartillus
as i said, they were not prepared. they know they have problems and their fixing it. Runestone just has had a lot of bad luck. their sponsors pushed them to release the game ASAP, which in the end, left the game buggier. this leaves a lot of people with the feeling that they are paying to betatest it, buts its great fun!

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That's not bad luck, that's failure to plan.

I'm having loads of fun crashing on load up without even getting into the game.  I seem to be having more problems than most though.

I was in the 1 week stress test (most games do it for at least a month) also know as opebn beta.  From what I've read, the beta was very short too and the game shows it!  During the week, when the server was up, which was at best 20% of the time, it typcailly didn't stay up for more than 30 minutes and you were doing good if you got to play for more than 10 min. due to client crashes, etc.  When you did get logged in, the lag in the starting area was so bad that you could barely move.

Once you got away from the starting area, lag wasn't too bad and if you managed to find your way to LabSpace (the 3rd zone), there wasn't much lag at all.  With the limited play time, it was hard to get your skills up to do more than the basic repairs.  The graphics of the equipment were good and the ability to set waypoints for automatic pathing is a nice feature, as its easy to get lost in all the winding corridors.  It mainly uses PnC for movement, which I don't prefer and can be a real pain on a curved ramp.  WASD is also available, but doesn't work when there is lag and is not responsive when it does work.

The game is an interesting change from the typical 'hack and slash' MMO, but its needs at least another 2 months of development.  The developers are aware of this, but they were faced with either releasing it to get more development money or just cancelling the whole thing.  While the game has potential, I'm certainly not going to pay to help them finish beta-testing it.  I'll check back at the end of the month to see if its worth giving the free trail a shot, but I don't expect it to be release quality with all the promise features for quite a while.

In conclusion, I'd hoped to find a good inovative game to play, but found a struggling incomplete attempt at one.  If you'd like to try a good example of a non-combat game, A Tale in the Desert is a very solid game with a lot of unique features.  I played it for over 6 months until the crafting grind burned me out.  From what I saw of Seed, the repairing grind to advance skills and earn buying power could get tedious too.