I should have written this over a month ago. :) I've been a little busy though.
So Drox Operative is in beta, what does that mean? Well to us beta basically means that we think the game is fun, stable, contains enough content, and it is relatively close to release. We still usually have lots of additions that we are planning at this point though.
Why do pre-orders and beta combined? We do this for a few reasons. First, this gives us a ton of awesome feedback that helps us make our games much better before the official release. Second, the flip side of the first reason is that our core gamers get to participate in the development of the game which is kind of cool. Third, our policy is to release our games when they are ready and having an influx of money at beta time makes this much more financially realistic. It also helps keep our focus on the game and not on a dwindling bank account. :)
If I have a problem, where do I report it? In general the best place is to post on our forums.
Where can I find my save games, screenshots, user config, or logs? It depends on your OS:
Vista/Win7 - C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\DroxOperative\User
XP - C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\DroxOperative\User
Mac - /Users/YOUR USER NAME/Library/Application Support/DroxOperative/User
Note: The AppData directory in Vista/Win7 is hidden by default.
Is there an email address I can mail a save game or comment to? Yes. You can find our email addresses on our contact page. You want to email support.
How much will change in the beta? Probably a lot.
Will the game radically change from the 0.900 version? A ton of stuff is going to change over the beta period, but the core fundamentals won't change. We are pretty sure if you liked the first version, you will love it when it is done.
How long will Drox be in beta? Usually we are in beta for a month or two, but this one is likely to be a good bit longer than that. Drox Operative is the biggest and most ambitious game we have created. Personally I also think it has the most potential. So we are going to take our time.
Does the 30 day money back guarantee still apply? Yes it does, especially since we don't have a demo.Will Drox have a demo? Yes, most definitely. The only reason why it doesn't have one right now is because it would be out of date almost instantly.
Do you really listen to feedback? Yes, I personally read and consider everything that gets posted to our forums and many external forum threads.
Will you make the change I suggest? That really depends on what the change is. There are a lot of reasons why we might not make a change that someone suggests: it's not feasible, it doesn't fit or works against the core gameplay, it will make it harder for new users, it has serious negative consequences that you might not have thought of, or it's just not a good idea. In our experience the last one is usually not the problem.
If I suggest something and you implement it, do I get credit? We try to credit who came up with an idea, who helped track down reproducible bug steps, or who finally convinced us to change something by noting it in our changes list. We don't guarantee anything though. We try our best to keep track of who suggested stuff. If you suggested something and it gets fixed and your name doesn't show up in the change list it's because everyone and their mom suggested the same thing, we had already planned the change, or because we accidentally lost track of you suggesting it.
I didn't get any feedback from the developers on my idea, does that mean they think it sucks? Not really. From a design and programming perspective, there is only 1 of us that can make the change. I'm not really outgoing and I'm really busy, so me not commenting on something doesn't necessarily mean anything.
You didn't fix my issue, do you not like me? Liking the person that suggests a change has very little to do with anything. We have made changes based on suggestions from the most annoying people on the planet and had to reject ideas from extremely nice people. It all boils down to what we feel makes the game better.
How often will patches come out? So far it has usually been a couple patches a week.
Everyone wants this change, doesn't that mean you have to change it? No it doesn't. Just because the majority want something doesn't mean they are right.
A suggestion was made and you did something similar but not the exact same idea, did you just want to be another cook in the kitchen? No, we don't really have a wasn't invented here problem. If we did it differently, we thought that was better in some way or just more feasible. We have no problem making exact changes suggested by external people.
