BETA in 8 months or less.

[Irish. 4886]

The new Status Report has a time frame within it for those of you that missed it.

BETA in 8 months or less

 ..is what BI has planned. 

"At this point, there are two large releases scheduled for this year (0.62, 0.63/BETA)." - E.H.

https://dayz.com/blog/status-report-18-april-2017

 

:)

[Espa 711]

I was more looking for an ETA for .62's release, but they center all of their information around BETA.

I wonder, again, if this is because they're mostly done with .62 and are holding it till BETA isn't so far off, as to not give the players another long wait for update? 

[Irish. 4886]

19 hours ago, Espa said:

I was more looking for an ETA for .62's release, but they center all of their information around BETA.

I wonder, again, if this is because they're mostly done with .62 and are holding it till BETA isn't so far off, as to not give the players another long wait for update? 

Re-read the SR carefully.. your answer is in it. ;)

1. There are 2 "strike teams". One is large and working on 0.63. The other is a small team, that is working on 0.62 only. (this affects how long 0.62 will take)

2. EH states that "we have more to come in that department for follow-up/future updates as well" in regards to 0.62.

3. There are 2 major releases slated for this year. And potentially at least 2 more SR's before we see 0.62 (use of word update'S).. I would guess BI see's it, at least a month away. It seems like June, at the latest, would work nicely for BI if they are to keep their 0.63 plans.

(which if BETA were to magically hit some other early access market around xmas time.. well, holy hell.. big $ for BI)

Edited April 19, 2017 by Irish.
halp!

[JBURNS489 165]

I agree it is definitely exciting, but my biggest question is what exactly will BETA mean? I assume it means that all the feature backlogs will be implemented, because Alpha is for new features and Beta is for bug fixing right? In todays SR, they are saying it's possible that BETA may or may not have all the features. Is it really a Beta if they are still adding in features? It feels to me like they are going to get as close as they can to getting all the features implemented, then call it Beta, even if it really isn't. (Similar to how they released .61 to stable when it wasn't very stable at all in the last few days of 2016)

"While we may end up with a BETA candidate build that has a huge chunk of the content and gameplay systems backlog functional in it - it's just as possible that we'll end up with a smaller chunk of the backlog content and systems in that first BETA build" -Hicks on 4/18/17

As a matter of fact, even they don't have milestones for Beta. This seems a bit weird because the milestone should be ALL of the features implemented for Beta.

"As we get closer to these core components of DayZ's underlying technology being functional and usable in a multiplayer state, we can better gauge what the gameplay and content ingredients of the BETA milestone are." -Hicks 04/18/17

[Irish. 4886]

4 minutes ago, JBURNS489 said:

-snip-

Those backlogged systems and content, are functional. They will be added in, as quickly as possible to the BETA phase. Hicks says it may be a lot of them at first, and it may be just a few. 

 

They are stating very clearly what they plan, but the issue is.. you are looking at the definitions of terminology rather than looking at BI. For DayZ, 0.63 is not 1.0. But it is BETA. And its a huge step. 

What you want, it sounds like, is 1.0. That is final release.. but for BI, that is basically like the final BETA phase. Bugs will be present, everything will be present in the game, and things will get fixed over the next 4-5 years. Look at Arma as an example. 

1.0 will be what you are expecting of BETA, where all systems are present and the game only has bugs to fix before it is essentially "done".

[Sqeezorz 839]

We're talking about ~ 8 months. A relatively long time. I guess it is still a dynamic process in the Dev team. The '62 team will be rather finished with his part to join the '63 team. It's probably one thing as well it runs the '62 team (no FPS-blockers or other problems or simply loving detail work). It is therefore hard for the management to say WHEN the date is. They learned a lot and did not say anything better than something wrong. In any case, the '62 team will change from the '62 patch to the '63 after completing it and work with the detail work on the building structures. This will probably be necessary since at the moment still HardCode parts in the core program are missing (dynamics / time influence). It does not have to be so hot that the patch will appear the same after completion, a time window is planned. The variable "soon" has now got a value> 8 months.

 

That 63 will not be complete, because not all features are inserted. It may be multi-features, I mean in example not the complete kit set, or contaminated zones, or various new diseases, all vehicles. So can sound worse than it is.

 

[JBURNS489 165]

58 minutes ago, Irish. said:

Those backlogged systems and content, are functional. They will be added in, as quickly as possible to the BETA phase. Hicks says it may be a lot of them at first, and it may be just a few. 

 

They are stating very clearly what they plan, but the issue is.. you are looking at the definitions of terminology rather than looking at BI. For DayZ, 0.63 is not 1.0. But it is BETA. And its a huge step. 

What you want, it sounds like, is 1.0. That is final release.. but for BI, that is basically like the final BETA phase. Bugs will be present, everything will be present in the game, and things will get fixed over the next 4-5 years. Look at Arma as an example. 

1.0 will be what you are expecting of BETA, where all systems are present and the game only has bugs to fix before it is essentially "done".

So what is the difference between alpha and beta? From everything I have read from DayZ Devs, they claim alpha is for feature implementing and beta is for finding and fixing bugs with those features. A 1.0 release would be all features and most if not at all bugs squashed. This was their reasoning for not fixing current bugs, before they decided to create a new engine from the ground up. Because its alpha...so if in beta they are still implementing new features, what is the difference between beta and alpha? Im genuinely curious and im not trying to argue or be a troll. I have defended the game from random people i meet online and friends as well for a long time. I love DayZ, and only want whats best. What is their plan for beta that was clearly stated? All I saw was they plan on releasing beta this year. But no milestones or word about what beta will actually be

Edited April 18, 2017 by JBURNS489

[Irish. 4886]

Just now, JBURNS489 said:

So what is the difference between alpha and beta? From everything I have read from DayZ Devs, they claim alpha is for feature implementing and beta is for finding and fixing bugs with those features. A 1.0 release would be all features and most if not at all bugs squashed. This was their reasoning for not fixing current bugs, before they decided to create a new engine from the ground up. Because its alpha...so if in beta they are still implementing new features, what is the difference between beta and alpha? Im genuinely curious and im not trying to argue or be a troll. I have defended the game from random people i meet online and friends as well for a long time. I love DayZ, and only want whats best.

The terminology, for BI, is simply a milestone and it explains where their assets are currently placed.

Alpha is like 15% bug fixing, 85% content creation.

Beta is like 85% bug fixing, 15% content.. 

And 1.0 is like 95% bug fixing, and 5% content creation for future release.

At least that is what I have personally taken away from BI and past experiences with them... and that is more like an internal view of how BI looks at the stages of development, rather than some explanation of alpha/beta/etc..

[emuthreat 2837]

Let's just call .63 Soft BETA.  That will give the devs a bit more slack in terms of fleshing out the new systems.

I'm only expecting the first iterations of the new player controller and animation systems to be released in a very basic state to get bug bashed by us, and following that benchmark, we might expect to start seeing advanced crafting (basebuilding), medical, and automotive repair.

Remember how the new renderer was at first, with occlusion windows misconfigured all over the place?  I can only imagine what kinds of things we'll find when BI is still tuning the .63 tech.

[Gobbokirk 546]

23 minutes ago, emuthreat said:

Let's just call .63 Soft BETA.  That will give the devs a bit more slack in terms of fleshing out the new systems.

I'm only expecting the first iterations of the new player controller and animation systems to be released in a very basic state to get bug bashed by us, and following that benchmark, we might expect to start seeing advanced crafting (basebuilding), medical, and automotive repair.

Remember how the new renderer was at first, with occlusion windows misconfigured all over the place?  I can only imagine what kinds of things we'll find when BI is still tuning the .63 tech.

Should be plenty of bugs to file on EXP once 0.63 patch 1-xx starts trickling in yeah.
And so much more important to get it reported now that we're close to reporting on issues on new tech, not old legacy issues.

Can't wait :D

[Irish. 4886]

11 minutes ago, Gobbokirk said:

Should be plenty of bugs to file on EXP once 0.63 patch 1-xx starts trickling in yeah.
And so much more important to get it reported now that we're close to reporting on issues on new tech, not old legacy issues.

Can't wait :D

Same.. to me its like going from a lemming to a gopher. Instead of leaping off of cliffs for no reason, now I can search things out specifically to report.. in the hopes of helping make this game great. 

[[Gen]Adzic 241]

Only 8 months ey? I'm throtthing at the mouth.. like an infected. Mad to think a human being can go from a fertilized egg to a baby in virtually that amount of time.

[nuggit 246]

Thanks for posting this @Irish. I was wondering how many would miss this bit of info!

 

2 hours ago, JBURNS489 said:

So what is the difference between alpha and beta? From everything I have read from DayZ Devs, they claim alpha is for feature implementing and beta is for finding and fixing bugs with those features. A 1.0 release would be all features and most if not at all bugs squashed. This was their reasoning for not fixing current bugs, before they decided to create a new engine from the ground up. Because its alpha...so if in beta they are still implementing new features, what is the difference between beta and alpha? Im genuinely curious and im not trying to argue or be a troll. I have defended the game from random people i meet online and friends as well for a long time. I love DayZ, and only want whats best. What is their plan for beta that was clearly stated? All I saw was they plan on releasing beta this year. But no milestones or word about what beta will actually be

 

Basically beta for the devs (0.63) entails that the engine will be running on all newly made modules and no old legacy tech to rely on for working features. This will mean that not all features will be in and fully functional, however from their standpoint it is a huge milestone. Any new feature that will be implemented will be using newer tech fit for its purpose, not wrestled down to make it barely work with 100 band aids and then having to rewrite it again.

There is terms and definitions for the typical early access/alpha/beta phases and different developers do things at different stages depending on their workflow etc. Personally nailing down features into phases/deadlines is no good here, I wouldn't get caught up as to what happens in what stages as BI approach is a little different then other ea titles on steam. The main thing to take away from all these SR and info kicking around is that there is a big shift in the way enfusion engine runs and works. There will no longer be 2 versions of dayz, legacy code and all the other stuff the devs shudder at. There will be some new features, not sure how many and possibly a backlog of other stuff too. 

'Directly from the SR - BETA/0.63 will be a major change for the game as a whole. What does that mean in more concrete terms though?

All the new engine technology we have developed for DayZ, along with the content of the current game - all merged in and improved, as it has been refactored from functionality point, design-wise, and in terms of fidelity as well. Moreover, additional content and features that we couldn't properly implement on the legacy tech'

The main thing I take away from this, is that the devs can finally have a beer or two as they take a sigh of release! The hard work is nearly done and a new era is incoming :)

 

[Red_Ensign 990]

10 hours ago, Irish. said:

 

BETA in 8 months or less

 

you know by actually repeating this, you added about 6 years to the timeline.  way to go.  :-p

personally I'd be happy if they could just make the f'ing black head bug go away within 8 months.  instant death of immersion, that. :-/

Edited April 19, 2017 by Red_Ensign

[Red_Ensign 990]

7 hours ago, [Gen]Adzic said:

Only 8 months ey? I'm throtthing at the mouth.. like an infected...

*sneaks up behind you with a fire axe*

[scriptfactory 620]

BI has regularly abused the terminology used in the typical SDLC but this is almost ridiculous. If the end of alpha doesn't signify a feature freeze then it can't really be called a beta. It seems like just a marketing trick to placate the masses.

[Girth Brooks 568]

It's gonna take a while. New ARMA games will be using this engine, one of the many reasons it has taken so long to get things correct. I think they are moving at a good speed. 

[emuthreat 2837]

10 hours ago, scriptfactory said:

BI has regularly abused the terminology used in the typical SDLC but this is almost ridiculous. If the end of alpha doesn't signify a feature freeze then it can't really be called a beta. It seems like just a marketing trick to placate the masses.

I'd say they damn-well need some placating.  I'm sure you understand what developing a new engine concurrently to a pre-existing game entails.  So cut them some slack on the terminology.  Hell, most people should be happy that they are still working towards this goal.

[scriptfactory 620]

51 minutes ago, emuthreat said:

I'd say they damn-well need some placating.  I'm sure you understand what developing a new engine concurrently to a pre-existing game entails.  So cut them some slack on the terminology.  Hell, most people should be happy that they are still working towards this goal.

Yeah, man. I know I am hard on the dev. team sometimes. I really appreciate the work they are doing. Since Eugen stepped up I really feel like the project is moving forward in a positive direction. I was just concerned that the game engine itself would be missing key functionality at beta which is really nothing I should be concerned about. BI makes great modding platforms.

[sneakydude 480]

I'd be more happy with the game working flawless before beta. Such as MP lag issues, net codes. and all the engines working together before half of the stuff that was promised be added.

Beta can wait 2 more years all i am concerned. I just want the bugs we reported on properly fixed.

 

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

I wouldn't hold out for the game "working flawlessly before beta".  That simply isn't what Alpha is for from what I understand.

 

 

edit:  I just realized my tagline/status doesn't make sense now that my "ago" carries over.  Lame.  Fixed

Edited April 21, 2017 by sausagekingofchicago

[FlimFlamm 509]

As long as we get some aircraft and base-building, I'll have no anxiety!

[Spajdy912 0]

So it's the same thing we are being told for the last 4 years, isn't it? Beta this year. Beta next year. Beta this year for sure!

 

I'm sorry but I don't believe any of your lies anymore, Bohemia Interactive. And please don't forget to ban me like the hundreds of youtubers, streamers and players that express their opinion. After all, they are only your paying customers, nothing more.

 

Reaction to the post just right below me: sorry man, but this is not how development goes. But who knows, maybe by next year, we'll get FOUR new colors of shirst!!!

Edited April 22, 2017 by Spajdy912

[Luftpancake 94]

On 4/18/2017 at 3:48 PM, Irish. said:

The new Status Report has a time frame within it for those of you that missed it.

BETA in 8 months or less

 ..is what BI has planned. 

"At this point, there are two large releases scheduled for this year (0.62, 0.63/BETA)." - E.H.

https://dayz.com/blog/status-report-18-april-2017

 

:)

Eh, we'll see. Every time they set a date, something goes wrong. I'm not blaming them for that, it's just how development works. Just, try not to get your hopes up, people. 

[scriptfactory 620]

10 hours ago, billnyetherussianpie said:

I'm not blaming them for that, it's just how development works.

At my current job there are these project manager fuckers who are trying to get my developers to set due dates (deadlines) for all work tasks and hold them accountable when these dates are missed. The problem is, there are always unforeseen things that pop up over the course of a project. The more complex the task, the more likely it is that the due date will be total bullshit. I told the PMs that they should, instead, calculate lead times or development velocity based on work previously done and the complexity of the task. In this way we can generate a time range within which the work will probably be completed in rather than trusting our shitty human brains to guess dates randomly.

IMO, missed due dates are what happen when you treat programmers like factory workers instead of engineers. It makes me, personally, feel like a loser and (as a technical leader) like I have let down my fellow developers. I'm not saying this is happening for sure with DayZ. Just expressing my frustrations. :)