Attention Alpha Testers!

Stuff we think you need to know.

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Gobberwart
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Attention Alpha Testers!

Unread post by Gobberwart » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:15 pm

During the Alpha Testing phase of the game's development, we are focusing (for the main part) on developing and implementing the game's framework. That is, the code and mechanics that will provide the basis on which we can implement content. We're already quite a way down that track, and we have asked for more people to come on board, basically to double-check our handiwork and let us know if there are any major (or minor) flaws.

As an Alpha Tester, you should be aware of the following:

Limited Content

As I mentioned, we're focusing on the game's framework. Content will be coming along (very rapidly) once we've established that the framework is sound.

Incomplete Stuff

Some things are incomplete, missing, or implemented strangely. This is intentional, and is done because we're looking for feedback on it. For the most part, we won't implement anything in production until we've tested it thoroughly in dev, however some things just can't be tested with a small number of users, so we'll throw it out there for you to play with.

Updates

Updates may be made at any time of the day or night, depending on when I'm available and the updates are ready to roll. I will *attempt* to notify anyone who's logged on before pushing out updates, but this may not always be possible.

Actually, one of the things we're working on is a way to do the updates a bit more effectively (at the moment, the site is basically broken while updates take place, which isn't ideal, even if it is only for a few seconds/minutes).

Error/Bug Reporting

Sometimes things that may seem like bugs are intentional, but often they're just bugs and should be reported. If you spot a bug, please don't assume that we know about it and are working on it, because that may not be the case. Use the in-game "Report a Bug" link, or post in the "Bug Reports" forum here to let us know. Probably the latter is best, because then everyone knows that a particular bug has been reported.

Hacking

There is a fine line between "testing" and "hacking" and we hope you know the difference. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with trying to hack the game to some extent, provided you let us know, because we'd rather find out about potential security flaws BEFORE they become a huge issue.

If, on the other hand, you find an exploit and.. well, exploit it without telling us, you can expect to incur a measure of displeasure. To put it mildly (and in rhyme).
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