As the title says, will there be a reset when the test is opened for new accounts and if so, what level of reset are we talking about? ie. faction, money, full?

Ya'rr.

The only problem with that is you're only going to have about a month to level up again, at which point there'll probably be another full reset at the time of release. A faction standing reset could be a good thing, if the faction system is drastically improved. But a full reset would be more of a nuisance than a help in testing.

actually arolte if they add all the new mission content then a full reset would be beneficial to the testing in order to place the most players possible testing all the new missions. Additionally since the devs have indicated that the majority of the equipment will be availible by level 5-6 with a larger emphasis placed on reputation and mission tree completion, a reputation reset would be almost the same as a full reset anyhow.

Either way the devs will do what they feel is best for the game.

but then again, if they change all that, they will still have all the new stress testers to try out all of the low level stuff.

I agree with Arolte on this one. Open Beta will bring enough testers in at zero to get a good picture of how the lower levels are doing. Leaving us at our current levels and standings will allow us to get around faster to potential problems as well as see the effects of stress at our levels and standings.

I really think, also, that murderous tendencies be put on hold for the stress test. We are testing the game's ability to handle stress...not the n00bs'. :-)

Except that murderous tendancies are going to be part of the final game, and therefore need to be tested just as much as mission balance. Especially since there hasn't been much fighting at all since the new universe.

I'm not advocating newb station nuking or hunting down buses in a tri-flare valk, but for piracy to be a fair part of the game it needs some testing too.

Agreed, Starfisher. My "murderous tendencies" does not include normal pirate activities but instead, griefing.

Ah.

Heh, might be a good chance to see if a player police guild would have a chance in the new universe.

You know, seeing as its failed so many times already :/

no police guild (for that matter no guild) will have a chance until there is ingame guild support that will allow a definite leader with the athority to take action against members of the guild who abuse/misuse their guild status or otherwise give the guild a bad name.

So whats the deal?

I think there should only be a faction reset for the open beta; and a full one of course for the final release.

Reasons: Anyone notice how tedious botting is? Now imagine 40-50 people trying to bot in the few sectors that house Drone I's and Drone II's *all at once*. It suddenly becomes futzing impossible. Let the new testers fight over the low level bots, and the current flock graze over the highter level ones.

I concur with Celkan.

Yes, I am 7/6/6/4 and still have to kill drone II's. They are hard enough that I have to dock sometimes, but dont have much hp so it is boring

Ok, the entire gameplay progression (leveling) is being changed around, so the existing stats won't have much meaning for very long. We're trying to remove the need and emphasis on long periods of boring botting. Because of this, I expect we probably *will* have a full reset, but I'm not sure of what we'll do at this juncture.

If there's a problem with new user density and botting, then that's also something we're going to want to address during this testing period. The whole point being to fix issues like that, if they exist. Otherwise, if we get a large influx of users who are actually *paying*, they're disappointed in our game and cease to play.

Again, character progression structure is being changed around a lot, so don't expect that you'll need to spend 200 hours botting to regain the sorts of equipment you have now. The current impetus is to reduce the need for Skill Level stuff to the point where the bulk of the 3.1 era ships are available after 4-5 hours of gameplay (level 5, roughly), and after that it'll mostly be advanced ships, variants and other equipment, most of which will be driven by faction standing.

Will it be the same for trading? I find trading for hours boring just to get a few levels. Can you change it so you get more trade XP the longer you continuously do a mission? You know how they say, "Thank you! We have more work for you if you're interested.", well can you give more XP the longer you follow that chain? Eventually it would end... oh, and high leveled traders should have more benefits. Longer routes and greater profits.

Would it be possible to increase the bot density, but decrease the range at which they'll attack, in newbie sectors? That'd help with the overcrowding problem, but keep them decently safe...

Edit: Oh yeah, and make sure the bots in said sectors don't communicate with each other...

It's easy to tweak bot density and attack-range and all those sorts of things. We just have to find values that work best. So.. continue making suggestions as we change things. But, of course, the Suggestions forum would be the best place for that.

Good answers, John. Thanks and keep us posted on the final decisions.

I dunno where you got these figures from, Incarnate. lvl5 took me about 800-1000 bots, and a lot more than 5 hours time.