**UPDATE**
I have enough people to test now, I will post another update next week. I will also make an announcement once the testing has actually started.
So I’ve been back to work on the actual gameplay side of things. I’m currently working on getting character generation to 100% completeness (class questions, all the UI working properly, custom class generation). After that I have to complete the Quest system.
Anyway, due to reverse engineering efforts, the “Pure Mode” will be really close to the original (source port close) – with the addition of fixing game breaking bugs. To that end I plan on having a small closed testing period, with just the Pure Mode enabled, in the next couple of weeks. The goal will be to a)make sure it works on a sampling of computers, b) make sure that there aren’t any critical bugs that make it into the broader release (game doesn’t start, black screen, crashes, etc.) and c) make sure the game is fully playable (even beatable if you’re fast enough to get through before the testing period ends).
While this testing is being done, I’ll finish up other elements needed for the Beta release (settings and options, remaining high-end terrain work, etc.). The full Beta release will be available to everyone, of course.
So I’ll probably enlist about 8 people from here for this initial phase, which will start in a couple of weeks. Just post in the forum thread with this same name. Make sure you are willing to test, accept that this may be buggy and understand that only the Pure Mode will work (i.e. no fancy graphics, no advanced terrain, etc.). If you are interested, just post a response in the forum thread with system specs (you can PM me the specs if you aren’t comfortable posting them publicly). Also this is only DaggerXL, though there will be similar tests for the other big releases as well.