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Dragon
Empires Beta Testing
Dear Loretta
Hi my name is Ted Carron I am the producer for the Dragon Empires project.
This email
is to thank you for registering with the project and tell you
approximately how we would like to involve you in the ongoing development
and testing of the game.
Your help
and the help of others like you who have shown an interest will be very
useful to us in ensuring that the finished product lives up to everyone's
expectations.
Our plan is
to keep you updated on the progress of the Dragon Empires as we go along.
You should recieve news letter at least once a month. We'll let you now
how things are going and what game features we're developing. We'll give
you some inside information from the team here and show you art and
screenshots for your opinions. You will be the first to read the history
behind the game's world and we are planning a competition just for pre
registered beta testers like yourself.
On our forum
we have been struck by the quantity of knowledge and creative ideas
expressed. So that we can benefit from this knowledge we are going to
issue a game play questionnaire to all pre registered beta testers asking
for input in a number of areas relating to the games development, this
should go out January 2002. Your replies to this will be very important in
helping to create the game you want. In the meantime please use the forums
to let us know your thoughts - there will be a special forum for you and
other members of the Beta Test team.
The initial
Beta test will be towards the middle of next year. As this time grows
nearer we will send out details of how the testing will go and what
mechanisms we will provide for your feedback.
To help keep
you informed and to gather information from you we are trying to recruit a
Community Liaison Manager. If you or anybody you know are interested in
this role - please go to the Codemasters Web site recruitment section
where the job is advertised.
With your
help we can ensure that Dragon Empires is the way you want it to be!
Thank You
Ted Carron
Date posted unknown Seeing as how
I signed up for this sometime in march I would say the beta has already
begun and is well under way. Looks like I found this one too late.
1/22/03
I got this back in October but have not had time for much posting. This bit
of news excited me because I thought I had signed up to late. just to find
out there is still hope. I hope this is good news for you as well. :) It
looks like they have found there Community Liason Mgr to boot.
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Dragon
Empires newsletter - 18th October 2002
Welcome to October's second newsletter. This is one
of the most exciting newsletters we have had to date and I'm sure
you will all find it interesting. This time around we have a new
movie to show you, an announcement on the date for beta as well as
a selection of brand new concepts just for you beta newsletter
people!
Beta
date announced
Our period of planning has come to an end and
we have currently determined that beta will start some
time in May 2003. While this is later than we had
originally planned it does mean we can bring you the
very best game possible.
New
Dragon Empires skyscape movie
Today we are pleased to show you a brief look
at the world of Fortitude. This movie shows you the
weather and climate effects you will see every day in
your travels. The skyscape video shows you how realistic
and detailed the world of Fortitude is. In coming months
we will release more videos which will show you other
elements of the world, including the characters,
monsters and cities of Fortitude. We hope you enjoy this
first taste in what will be a series of insights into
Dragon Empires!
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This
delay can, in part, be blamed on features we have added to the
game in direct response to feedback from the community. Some of
the features you will hear more about in coming months but others
you will see much sooner. We've added new and improved terrain
textures, built and created brand new character and monster models
and we are also due to spend some time in a motion capture studio
so we can provide the most realistic and natural movement for our
characters that we can.
We
have also added a quest system which originally wasn't part of the
design of Dragon Empires. However, community feedback has resulted
in us adding this feature to the game. As for other changes,
you'll hear more about them in coming months.
New
concept art
We have created a monkey empire concept art pack which
shows off designs for monkey empire buildings, some of which are
previously unreleased. If you want to have a look head to this
link and download the 1.5mb zipfile.
Limerick
competition winner!
Congratulations to Justin Elliot from New Zealand who won the
limerick competition. His winning entry is included here:
"There
once was a thief of great cunning
Whose exploits were beyond merely stunning
He amassed his great wealth
By the application of stealth
Backed up by no small skill in running"
Beta
tester numbers
We are getting close to our initial beta goal of
100,000 signed up beta testers. If your friends haven't signed up
yet then forward this newsletter to them quick and get them to
click here
to
make sure they have a good chance of getting in early.
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Continuing
on this note. This is the latest news from codemasters ......
Dragon
Empires newsletter - 17 January 2003
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As
the temperature plunges the work on Dragon Empires heats up! The object
placement tool is being tested, roads are spreading across the worlds
and armour is being slapped on characters. It's all coming together and
I'm the one who gets to show you! However, that won't be this
newsletter. Expect February and March to be quite interesting however.
Writer
appointed
We have appointed a writer to the team. Right now he is busy expanding
on the details given to us by Piers Anthony to make the world a rich and
intriguing one. We expect to be able to start releasing more and more
background information on Fortitude in the next 6 weeks. I know it has
been long awaited but I think it will be worth the wait.
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Developer chat
There will be Stratics House of Commons developer chats on
Monday the 27th at 8pm GMT and 8pm PST. This time around we will
be asking the questions. Over the course of the chat we will be
asking for your feedback on what you like in a quest system, in
dungeon design and in crafting systems. This will be your chance
to give us your thoughts and directly influence the game design!
To learn more about Stratics chats head to http://chat.stratics.com/.
On the night connect to irc.stratics.com #de-devchat to take
part. The chat will at times be moderated.
Clan avatars on the forums
Clans are now able to use their own clan logos on the forums.
Clans who want to have their avatars uploaded so they can use
them need to mail [email protected] with a 64x64 pixel JPG
of their logo. The logo will then be posted for selection within
5 working days.
Hot
news
- RPG vault posts Q&A
17 on the box art survey.
- Calistas awarded Spokesperson
of the Year in the 2002 RPG Vault awards.
- A Dragon
Empires Press Release was put out with new
screenshots.
- A "day in the life of" style dev
diary was completed by Calistas last Friday which
tracked what he worked on hour by hour.
Fan
site of the week
- Dragon Empires DarkCity -http://www.darkcity.net/php/html/index.php.
Dark and the team over at DarkCity run a great German language
site about Dragon Empires which is regularly updated. If you're
German, go check it out, if not, why not start learning, it
would be worth it!
Forum
post of the week
DrMadCat started a new thread about the use of
banners
during battle. and how they might be incorporated in
the game. It's an interesting idea and one worthy of much
discussion. |
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