Shadow of the Emperor beta-testing

[MaBi]

Ok, it has been a lot of work but I finally have a working version of In the Shadow of the Emperor. Now I need your help to test the game, and in this case a lot more testing will be necessary because SoE is quite more complex than the other games I have implemented so far.
I'm not sure yet how to proceed with the beta-testing, so let's try this way: I will create passworded SoE games as needed, starting with very few and adding more depending on how they go. Whoever is willing to help in the testing can join, provided they satisfy the following requirements:
- good knowledge of the game (or willingness to learn the rules and carefully check them before reporting bugs);
- decent speed of play, possibly a few moves per day (on average, of course there can be some days when you are unable to play, or the whole weekend).

Please keep in mind that the main point here is not much playing the game but helping me in the test and debugging:
- it is entirely possible that a game can 'break' and I won't be able to fix it. If this bothers you don't join these games and just wait for the beta-testing phase to finish (well, this can always happen also for 'released' games, but the probabillity is greatly reduced).
- during the game you should pay close attention to the system behaviour and not give anyhting for granted (always check that score, money, power and all values are correct).

If you are still reading, the games will be titled 'Beta-testing game' and the password is kaiser. I will start with 2 games, one 4-player and one 2-player. Others will follow when I see these finish correctly. We'll need to test 3-player also, though I'm not sure the game works well with 3.
As always, please submit bug reports, suggestions and comments in the specific SoE forum I have created or directly to me.

Thank you to all volunteers :).
MaBi

[jmilum]

Very exciting news!!! I look forward to trying this out.

[jmilum]

Have there been any beta test games setup yet?

[MaBi]

Yes, I have already lost my first 2-player game :cry: .
A bit of patience, more games will follow, but I can't have too many games running until I'm confident that it's robust enought and I won't be swamped by bugs and issues.

[snowgoon88]

Okay, basically, I'm in. I've just recovered the (french) rules. So, I just have to wait for a password game to show up and join ? That's it?

[MaBi]

Yes, but as I said, in this early phase there will be very few games. Later, when the code will be more stable, I will need a lot more testing games to shake out the bugs occurring in unusual conditions (e.g. suppose in an electorate blue wins but he has no aristocrat suitable to become elector, but previous elector has to vacate the space and must be repositioned, but the region is full, except for the fact that there are two different knights that could be pushed away... SoE is full of this kind of things, easy to handle in face-to-face but a nightmare to implement, beta-testing this game will be a long and painful process :cry: ).

[mrbass]

Just when you get our hopes up you smash them down...hehe just kidding. I bought this game when you announced about 4 or 5 months ago that this might possibly be the game coming next. I still haven't played it but plan to break out the rules soon and hope to get face to face play soon.

[spearjr]

I've played ItSotE once, but I'm willing to reread the rules and help betatest. I understand that games probably won't get completely, or if they do, it could take a while to work out the kinks.

[sloehand]

I am coming to this late but I am very familiar with the rules to ItSotE and I am a producer for AOL. Would be more than happy to help out with testing.

[dilsonfilho]

I know well the rules (I possess the boardgame) and would be happy to help him.

[MaBi]

I have just created some new games, so if you want to help, join one!
Thank you all.

[arkibet]

Is there one that's finished we can peek in on? I would love to see how it looks... I read ekted's comments, and found his useful.

[ekted]

It seems you cannot view a game you are not in yet. It looks exactly like the boatf game. The board is a full scan. All the counters/cards are exact. The cities are 3d looking. Whenever it's your action, everything you can click on is highlighted. All what you'd expect from Mabi.

[mrbass]

[LudesFactor]

Any predictions when there will be some more games??