ninjabee.com

A collection of answers to questions mentioned above:

Q: Is Vista OK?
A: Yes! I would definitely like some of you playing on Vista. We have exactly one Vista machine here and haven't tested the game on it yet.

Q: Do you have to live in the USA?
A: No, in fact, that would be great to have some people playing from outside the U.S.

Q: The game beta is downloadble I hope?
A: Yes, we'll just give you a link to download it from some wahoo.com or ninjabee.com URL

Q: How many testers will you have?
A: Hmm... I'm not sure! We'd probably take 10 or so, but we've got less than half that many applications so far. We'll be testing with our own people as well, of course - I just want to get some outside people looking at the game, trying it on their own hardware, joining in a couple of networked games across long distances, etc.

Q: What are the minimum specs?
A: I'm not sure - that's one thing we still need to figure out. 3D video card of some sort required. Fairly old cards (like a GeForce 3 or 4) will probably work fine, but will run very slowly.

Q: Did you fix everything from the patched version?
A: I think so!

If you're interested, please be sure to e-mail me rather than announcing your interest in this thread - I'm using the e-mail address I posted above as the official list of interested candidates.

@Sunnycool: Yes, it sounds like you'll be an ideal candidate for testing! Send me an e-mail, if you haven't already.

@Zee: Great! Send me an e-mail, if you haven't already.

Awesome! I am sending the application rightaway! You guys definately need some Europeans to check this thing out. I am serious - networks and so on...

EDIT - Btw - how will the NDA thing work?

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Sent off an e-mail with my computer specs among some other things. It has the subject "Game Master 627 here from the Ninjabee forums ready to test Band of Bugs". I hope that isn't too informal

There is one particular bug I am curious about testing on the port. Three times now while playing multiplayer, I have frozen after choosing to move a Grunt and use Focus. I have no idea about what causes it or anything past that so it definitely needs testing. I'd like to see if it also crashes the port to the desktop. It also seems random, but it may just be a very specific chain of events that leads to it. Certain amount of spaces to move while Focusing at the end and so on.

Ah, I also meant to ask when the port will be ready enough for a beta testing stage? Or is it already there?

Well I sent mine in.
I was wondering if there was any other controller set ups besides mouse and keyboard. Can you play the game only with the mouse? Or use a controller or joystick?

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It's looking like our beta test crew will be the usual suspects (people in the credits for BoB already) plus a few new friends from the forums.



Yeah! By all means, use your knowledge of problems in BoB XBLA to check for issues in BoB PC.



It's quite close. In fact, it could go out now for testing, but John Salmond (who is doing most of the work on this) is fiddling with a few things like a chat window (since there's no microphone support on the PC).



I think you can play nearly the whole thing with just a mouse. There may be a few places that assume keyboard.

You can also plug in a USB Xbox 360 controller to your PC and play with the Xbox 360 controller.

I doubt other controllers will work well. Should we care about this? I could ask JSal about it.

If, as you test the game, you have any feedback at all on the PC specifics (how the UI was reworked, how input works, etc.) please feel free to share your comments with us! We're figuring out how the communication will work now...

I know a fair number of people who own USB 360 controllers for their PC, but don't use them due to setup issues. The analog triggers cause issues for a large number of XP games. If you don't know what you are doing then modifications in setup files alone is enough to frustrate the average player. Even then after modification and setting a threshold to trigger a pressed input using the actual trigger will trip up anti-cheating software for quite a few online games.

In Vista it seems to work with almost everything in default setups and I have downgraded my Airflo to second player use.

PS2 style Airflos, logitechs, and such without the analog triggers are much more common due to fewer setup issues. If gamepad support is something you guys really want as a primary form of play then supporting other gamepads is something to think about.

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That monkey is going to pay...

Isn't there a way to make forums that are hidden to everyone except the people allowed in. I bet you could make a Beta usergroup on here and set up a private forum for it.

Fixed your quotes in your post by the way. I know you frowned upon editing formatting, but it was harder to read. Just remember to put quotation marks around the names.




I plan on using my 360 controller part of the time as well. I guess I will see which one I like better.

In off-topic controller news, I tried my Guitar Hero guitar for BoB last night, and it won't stop rotating the camera. It would work in the game if only the camera would stay still.

I have a wired 360 controller that I have used mainly for emulators. I know that with those, pulling both triggers at once will make both of them cease to function. It has to be one or the other. I am not sure if this problem persists in other games like Halo 2 PC, though.

I also have a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 I used to use before the 360 controller. It is a PS2 style controller like dezombie mentioned above. If you want I can give that a try as well unless the game just won't be able to support it right now.

EDIT: Darn you AC! I was just going to fix his quotes after I wrote this!

Haha, sorry about the quotes, guys. I just posted it and ran away without checking how it looked.

It looks like we'll start by giving testers direct access to a bug database, which should work out really well. You'll be able to enter bugs, comment on other bugs, etc...

Private forums is also not a bad idea...

And how will the NDA thing work?

((Have you received my application?))

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I would help you guys out but my computer can just barely run minesweeper on max settings.

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Gamertag- Kaeporo
"One last drink and the bottle breaks, returning us to the dust from whence we came."

I just sent off an email, hopefully not too late.

Sorry, guys - I got sick and didn't go in to work today. I imagine we'll get started on this next week.

Wormetti: not too late.
Sunnycool: Yeah, I think we got your e-mail. The NDA thing is unclear at this point. I imagine most of you don't have easy access to a fax machine for faxing back signed stuff... I'm still checking into this. What do other game companies do for NDAs during beta tests?

Aw - not good with the sickness? Normal virus infection or something more serious? Either way - I hope you get better soon...illness always sucks...

On the NDA thing: It will be far from the most convenient method, but my dad can help me out, since he has a fax at work, but I am not sure his colegues would approve (not that they necessarily need to find out), and it won't be impossible, but if you guys don't have another way, I think I can arrange something with my dad...

Regular mail could work, but the shipment to and fro USA/Denmark would probably cost a bit too much, so a fax might be a better idea. Alternatively, something that I, personally, think will be easier for my dad, is if you guys could send me a PDF/scan of the NDA via e-mail, I sign it and then my dad can quickly fax it to you. It will be easier than a full-fledged fax correspondance.

That is if I am chosen for the job of course

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NinjaBee rocks.

I wish that other game companies, aka Midway, would allow people to beta test their games with the top players (or anyone other than that that they have in-house). All three of their non-arcade release Mortal Kombat games were found with some very serious problems that were ALL found within days of release by my friends and I. Particularly the last one, MK Armageddon, my friend and I discovered a very huge flaw with the new Air Kombat system that spanned more than half the roster in a few hours after we got the game home! He has since broken the game beyond anything anyone else has done.

Anyways, this is a great idea and I wish that I could be involved but, sadly, I do not have the time to commit.

Good luck guys!

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