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View Full Version : Sign up for Empire of the Eclipse Beta Round 2!



Leedot
08-28-2011, 03:03 AM
Hi Everyone!

So we're finally ready to start round 2 of the Empire of the Eclipse Beta! The beta test will go live on Sept.3 but sign ups start today using the link below.

http://bit.ly/hgpm3E

There's been a ton of changes in this build which you can read about below.

Empire of the Eclipse Beta 2 change list


Battle reports are now sent to a players in game email after a battle has been completed.

Planet resource / unit cost rebalance

Build times have been adjusted

Terraformers now work properly.

An animation is now played over the planet during combat. (Full combat display is still pending.)

Combat has been completely revamped
planet defenses work properly.
stealth skills now affect combat.
fleet combat now works properly

Items that can't be built are now highlighted

Chat indicator animates when messages are waiting

The Number of unread emails is now displayed over the mail icon.

There is a separate tab for the tech you have currently qued to research.

You can now post screenshots to facebook / twitter by touching the screen with three or more fingers.

Client side optimization so detailed sector information is only sent when a player is specifically viewing a sector. (this should fix the lag problems Spart was having.)

Lots of small graphical fixes.

General texture memory optimizations.

The Planet Killers planet busting ability now works.

The technology Bio weapons now works properly.

Solar Core Taps are now functioning and behave as ships instead of orbitals.

Black holes now destroy ships when they enter their system if they do not posses hyper space physics.

There is now a limit of 1 Shipyard per planet. The build time of shipyards has also been increased to 24 hours.

Players who posses tech to build cruisers/battleships -and- orbital platforms / minefields will be able to perform a one way conversion to convert a cruiser to an orbital defense platform / minefield.

Non Capital class ships now do 1/4 damage to planets in addition to an increase in mining colonies base defenses being increased so to take a base mining colony you'll need either 1 Dreadnaught, 15 Battle ships, or 25 Battle cruisers.

A new tech, dubbed Advanced Materials Collection, will be required to gather / process Rare Ore. Players can still get Rare Ore by trading with other players.

Trade now works properly. The option to trade with other players will show up when you place a trade vessel in the orbit of another player's planet.

Ship / Orbital build costs have been adjusted so that lower end ships will not require Rare Ore but many of the high end ships / orbitals will.

We're introducing the concept of specialties. When the player starts the game they'll choose a specialty relating to one of the four tech trees. Players will still be able research technologies from any of the trees but each specialty has certain technologies and innate bonuses that only they will have access to. You'll notice that that Trade players have a significant advantage in their potential to collect Rare Ore which is in turn needed by every other specialty to complete their high end structures / ships so that forming partnerships with other players becomes a critical component to the mid and late game.


Specialties

Combat

Combat specialists gain access to Super Capital Construction.
Combat specialists gain access to Planet Busting.


Trade

Trade specialist gain a 10% increase in rare ore collection per rank of Advanced Materials Collection vs. the standard 3%
Trade specialists build ships and orbitals 10% faster.


Science

Science specialists research technologies 25% faster.
Science specialists gain access to Graviton physics.


We have also made a number of changes to the tech tree itself with the Fleet and Combat lines receiving the most changes.

Tech Tree changes
(if a tech is unlisted / unmentioned nothing has changed.)

Fleet Control
Tier 1

Fleet Maneuvering : +4% warp speed per rank for fleets. (was a T2 tech and is now replacing Basic Ship Handling)


Tier 2

Forward Fleet: Allows the creation of Cruisers. +2% damage to Cruisers and Battleships per rank.

Advanced Ship Handling : Improved ship agility. +4% defense to all ships per rank. (changed since a non warp speed bonus wasn't useful and +2% bonus to ships that aren't in fleets seemed a little weak / too limited in utility.)


Tier 3

Armed Command : Allows the creation of Battleships. + 4% per rank defense for Battleships, Cruisers, and Carriers.


Tier 4

Advanced Fleet Command: Allows the creation of Fleet HQ. A Fleet HQ allows all of a players ships within the same system to defend any other ships, planets, or orbitals in that system even if they're not in orbit of the same planet. Fleet HQ's give +5% defense, +5% defense, +2% attack to all ships in the same system as the fleet HQ per rank . (replaces shrapnel resistant shielding)


(Bonuses for Fleet HQ are currently working but ship grouping is not.)


Evasive Maneuvers: Fighters gain +10% chance to avoid damage from mines and +5% general defense per rank. (buffed to be more useful in general.)



Combat
Tier 1

Orbital Defenses: Only allows the construction of Energy Array platforms.

Offensive Initiative: No longer grants the ability to build Cruisers or bonuses to cruisers / battleships.


Tier 2

Advanced Orbital Defenses: Allows the construction of Missile defense platforms. +2% reduction orbital build time per rank +2% dmg increase time per rank (replaces mine emplacement.) note: These two changes go along with the change that that Energy Platforms be strong against light units and Missile Platforms are strong against capital class ships.

Strike fleet construction: No longer grants the ability to build Battleships / provides bonuses to battleships / cruisers.


Tier 6

Engines of Destruction - gives bonuses to capital class ships as well as super capital capital class ships. (this is so there's still a useful T6 Combat skill for non combat specialists since combat specialists are the only ones that get super caps.)


Trade Skills
Tier 1

Advanced Materials Collection : Allows mining colonies to process and refine Rare Ore. +3% production capacity per rank.


Tier 2

Mine Emplacement : Allows the creation of mine deployment drones. +5% damage per rank. Mine deployment drones are defenseless mine carriers that can be converted into a mine field.

Spartanius
08-28-2011, 02:33 PM
Count me in, thanks !

Trom
08-28-2011, 02:47 PM
It looks like a lot of progress was made, I can't wait to check this build out!

zarkwizard
08-28-2011, 03:41 PM
A side note: Lee made a slight error in the combat tree:

Combat
Tier 1
- Orbital Defenses: Only allows the construction of Energy Array platforms.

- Offensive Initiative: No longer grants the ability to build Cruisers or bonuses to cruisers / battleships.

Tier 2
- Advanced Orbital Defenses: Allows the construction of Missile defense platforms. +2% reduction orbital build time per rank +2% dmg increase time per rank (replaces mine emplacement.)
(note: These two changes go along with the change that that Energy Platforms be strong against light units and Missile Platforms are strong against capital class ships).

He had them backwards. (I have corrected it in his post.)

Livett
08-29-2011, 01:35 PM
That's a lot of work, well done guys. Look forward to the chance to get my teeth in to this.

lordxorn
08-30-2011, 03:36 AM
WOOT! Just registered devices on Testflight, hope I get in! =)

Lavenders2
08-30-2011, 08:25 AM
"Too late! You have missed beta sign up!"

Why????? Any chance the account I made many months ago for this will still work? I would really hate to miss out on beta... Again!!

zarkwizard
08-30-2011, 12:51 PM
"Too late! You have missed beta sign up!"

Why????? Any chance the account I made many months ago for this will still work? I would really hate to miss out on beta... Again!!

We filled up WAY faster than we expected. There will probably be some that applied this time that still won't make it in because we are going to run out of spots.

Lavenders2
08-30-2011, 08:45 PM
"Too late! You have missed beta sign up!"

Why????? Any chance the account I made many months ago for this will still work? I would really hate to miss out on beta... Again!!

We filled up WAY faster than we expected. There will probably be some that applied this time that still won't make it in because we are going to run out of spots.

Oh well.......:(

lordxorn
09-01-2011, 02:44 AM
So when will be know if we made it or not? Please tell me I made this one. =)

I am sure you could use another iPad tester. =P And if that build is not ready, I have an iPhone4.

fieryspoon
09-01-2011, 08:14 PM
will old beta accounts still be valid?

Leedot
09-01-2011, 08:41 PM
LX - If you made it into the beta you'll get an email when the build is ready for download.
Fiery - If you were active in the previous round of beta you're grandfathered into this round of beta.

roywall
09-01-2011, 10:41 PM
I check my email multiple times a day hoping that the invite will be there. Valor just doesn't cut it anymore. :p

Spartanius
09-02-2011, 12:44 AM
I am assuming I would/will be grandfathered in, but I also used the link to join the beta and made it through successfully. Will that mess anything up or does it just count for entering once? Should I not have used the link?

zarkwizard
09-02-2011, 11:15 AM
I am assuming I would/will be grandfathered in, but I also used the link to join the beta and made it through successfully. Will that mess anything up or does it just count for entering once? Should I not have used the link?

No it won't be an issue. Duplicate devices will be ignored, so if you had a device in the beta, and you registered the same device then it's not a problem. If your device changed since the last beta and you uploaded a new one that you would rather we use because you tossed the old one, sold it off, gave it to your child, or what not then you might want to let us know before this weekend so we can make sure we have the correct device in the list.

Spartanius
09-02-2011, 07:47 PM
Same old low memory Ipod touch 4th gen. What time will beta go live tomorrow?

zarkwizard
09-02-2011, 09:32 PM
Same old low memory Ipod touch 4th gen. What time will beta go live tomorrow?

Sometime in the afternoon PDT time. I would guess between 4-6pm PDT. Just running over some final checks before we push it out.

Spartanius
09-02-2011, 09:35 PM
Question: Before this beta one of the last things we talked about was re-implementing the warp trails or whatever they were called so you can see in what direction an enemy ship/fleet is headed. It doesn't look like this is being implemented? Also if it is to be implemented it would be great to know at what speed the enemy fleet is moving at to help with strategic planning.

ravenzachary
09-04-2011, 02:59 AM
Sometime in the afternoon PDT time. I would guess between 4-6pm PDT. Just running over some final checks before we push it out.

Is the plan to release the new beta tonight? I'm looking forward to it!

Spartanius
09-04-2011, 03:37 AM
was supposed to launch 2-4 hours ago. Any update?

My thinking:
Zarkwizard: "Hey guys, spart just posted on the forum....we totally forgot to implement the wake trails"
Leedot: "Oh crap! ok heres the plan. Ignore everything on the forums, get it implemented, and then launch 24 hours later and say we meant to say september 4th. They will totally go for that. It be much better if it looks like we accidentally hit "3" instead of "4" rather than accidentally forgot to implement wake trails after 3 months of not giving a release"
Zarkwizard: "True that...but spartanius just posted again saying you would say that..."

Cheerio
09-04-2011, 04:50 PM
it'll come when it comes guys, theres no rush imo

Leedot
09-04-2011, 08:21 PM
Hey everybody,

The new build is still coming but we ran into a few last minute bugs that came up, largely minor graphical sync issues that should be sorted out soon.

As for the 'wake trails' we're not really sure what you're talking about. I know that we had plans to add an orbital called the 'hyper space wake detector' that increases your visibility around a planet but that was moved to be a post launch item some time ago.

Spartanius
09-04-2011, 11:18 PM
Ok yes that's what I meant. I didn't realize it is postponed until post release :(

lordxorn
09-07-2011, 11:44 PM
So I am assuming that since Sept 3rd has come and gone, and we have signed up on Test Flight, and received no email we missed this beta yet again?

Spartanius
09-08-2011, 12:17 AM
So I am assuming that since Sept 3rd has come and gone, and we have signed up on Test Flight, and received no email we missed this beta yet again?

Nope, beta has not released yet and no email has been sent. Expect to see a post here soon letting us know why it isn't live yet and an estimated release date(probably saturday the 10th). If you don't get an email after that then you missed the beta.

lordxorn
09-08-2011, 04:40 AM
Nope, beta has not released yet and no email has been sent. Expect to see a post here soon letting us know why it isn't live yet and an estimated release date(probably saturday the 10th). If you don't get an email after that then you missed the beta.

Thanks for the unofficial update. =)

Spartanius
09-10-2011, 03:39 AM
So Lee, was I anywhere close to being right? Might we see the game by tomorrow sometime?

zarkwizard
09-10-2011, 06:44 PM
T - 2hrs... very soon now.

roywall
09-10-2011, 11:26 PM
:: obsessively checks email::

zarkwizard
09-11-2011, 01:44 AM
T - 2hrs... very soon now.

Incoming... :) Final build has been done for beta, and is in the process of being uploaded. Looking forward to the feed back.

As for time frames here is a development chart for time frame translations:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

roywall
09-11-2011, 02:22 AM
Incoming... :) Final build has been done for beta, and is in the process of being uploaded. Looking forward to the feed back.

As for time frames here is a development chart for time frame translations:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

Awesome!!! I cant wait. I've been wanting to get in on this for months!

:: refreshes inbox again::

:D

Spartanius
09-11-2011, 02:40 AM
Installing... *win* :)

lordxorn
09-11-2011, 07:27 AM
Very disappointed that I didn't get in this round after all the pleading, and just missing the first beta announcement to getting signed up with Testflight. =(

Leedot
09-11-2011, 09:47 AM
Sorry LX, we're really not trying to be stingy. As per Apple restrictions we're only allowed to issue a very limited number of provisioning profiles for testing purposes.

Andrew Outram
09-15-2011, 02:54 PM
I should really check this more often. Dang two BETA's missed! Any sly invite welcome!!

On a slightly different note, how long until the game goes public?