This beta isnt about balance or gameplay. Its testing for these crashes,desyncs and connectivity you are having.  This is a REAL beta, and not just an online demo with everything working perfectly. If a.i are levelling 20x faster than you, then you just need to some practice I guess coz as it is a 3v1 is pretty easy (agaisnt a.i).

However, I do agree - this beta can be VERY frustrating, but we just have to accept this is what a real beta is. If you wanna avoid all this trouble it would be better to just wait for the release. All these balances and crashes can drive someone mad, but hopefully beta 3 will be out soon.

I'm going to say it whether you want to hear it or not. Your expectations for the beta were too high. Come back in a month.

You sound alot like i did a month ago, all excited to participate in this Beta Test but i was only left with the "Trying to Connect" screen day after day and then joining a game and getting unplayable lag or desyncs. Was i wrong to get frustrated after 2 weeks of trying to play a full online game and wasting hours a day starting at the game lobby? I found it particularly insulting when the developers referred to these frustrated people and myself as "newbie beta testers", saying for some reason i had no right to be frustrated for wasting weeks trying to connect to their broken test that they rushed out far too early. I paid my money to help test and support this game but it just lead to complete frustration at the game and immaturity of some Devs.

I spent alot of my time trying to test online, playing offline and making my formal suggestions on how to improve gameplay and also help test their command line connection method to try and solve some connection issues, but when a negative point came across a Dev or 2 in particular started crying and got defensive, so i pretty much took a few weeks off from wasting my time here and im chilling out until a stable build is released for me to get back to testing. If you are frustrated like i was i suggest you also take a time out period and wait until you are able to actually participate in the beta test the game that you paid your hard earned money on.

Did you also tell people that during Beta 1? Will you also tell people the exact same thing during Beta 3? Why should we not have some sort of expectations for Beta 2. This is not last September, the game is "supposed" to be released in a few short months so people expect that a combination program from 2 of the most respectable and accomplished game developers could produce a far more stable Beta 2 release. There is no point to get defensive on their behalf... this is their business and their job, and some people expected that the 2nd Beta would have actually been playable for them to do some sort of online testing of the gameplay and balancing.

Uh I've played plenty of games without desyncs - that only happens to me maybe 5% of the time. Getting a 3v3 or larger going is a bit of a task, but really, I haven't had nearly the horrible experience you guys are describing.

Yesterday we were sitting for 30 minutes with 5 players in lobby and 6 more trying to connect (we eventually went with a 2 v 3).

The frustration at this point is that you can get random 2 v 2 games pretty easily but you can't pick whom you play with, at all.  3 v 3 is still a very iffy proposition and just forget about 4 v 4 or 5 v 5.   

I think I'm going to take a break. 

I'll catch you guys in the next Beta.

True   I forgot to mention this was the third remake - It was probably an hour of trying, all told...

I"m sorry but the problem here is your expectations of what Beta 2 is.  Beta 1 was core engine, Beta 2 is network connectivity, and Beta 3 is gameplay.  So yes, you will be able to "Beta test the game with other players to balance and make Demigod a great game", it just won't happen until Beta 3 when, you know, the developers are at that stage in development.

I apologize in advance if anything I'm saying here sounds curt, but if you don't want to test issues related to, or have problems with, connectivity, then don't participate in phase of Beta that is specifically designated for that.  Wait until Beta 3 if you're only interested in play balancing and don't care to test networking issues - there's nothing wrong with that, beta testing network connectivity is not "fun", nor is it intended to be.

As others have said, this is a beta test.  The problem here is most companies use a beta test as nothing more than a sneak preview marketting tool.  That's not what this is, this is an actual beta.  Specifically, Beta 2 is focused on discovering, analyzing, and ultimately working through the issues which you are so frustrated about.

I tried to give you a +1 karma but the website doesn't seem to work in IE or firefox.  Maybe your +1 will karma will show up later.

Did Sins of Solar Empire use this same multiplayer network code?

I think this is Stardocks first time implementing their new multiplayer network.  If demigod used the old supcom multiplayer, gpgnet, we would have less issues.  Stardock will probably reuse this multiplayer network in their next game Elemental. 

sorry about the misunderstanding.  Unlike some companies, this beta isn't just a publicity attempt.  Its a beta.  There was once a time when betas were not something you showed to the public because it was incomplete.  It would be a nightmare to most companies to let their betas hit market.   Then certain strategy games and MMO started doing mostly finished betas and now people have this idea that a 'beta' is anything close to release.  A beta is just after the 'alpha' which usually doesn't even work.

If I had a dollar for how often I said "I wish this company would let me play what they have now, even though its not finished" I'd have a lot of money.  everybody should be happy you have the oppurtunity.

Stardock has no problems pushing back release dates for games they publish.  Look at Sins of a Solar Empire, both the original and it's expac Entrenchment.  Entrenchment is coming out Feb 25th, having been pushed back months based on beta feedback.

You say "the game is supposed to be released already", and you "expected it would be Beta 3", but you must realize that there are two choices to be made:

1. Push out a product that hasn't been tested/completed/bug fixed

2. Push back a release date to fix issues or add requested features.

Those are the realities.  I might wish that I could fly space ponies to work and that broccoli tasted like rainbows, but the reality is I'm commuting in a Honda and broccoli tastes like death warmed over.  I suppose I could make a post on the unjustness of the situation, but I'm not sure what the point would be.

TLDR version - Stardock has shown a willingness to hold onto a game until it's ready, and their past games have been great. Give them at least credit for that, and be patient.  I'm sure GPG/Stardock want the game out the door even more than you or I.

fair enough Heartsbane. i'm finding the waiting hard too.

maybe change the title to:

"release it now or the bunny gets it"

If all they really want us here for in Phase 2 is to try endlessly to connect to one another and test their poor network connectivity, then they really shouldn't be surprised that people are frustrated / disillusioned / unmotivated.

You can talk all you want about how "Betas are meant to be unfinished" and "the Betas you guys are thinking of are basically demos!" (which isn't really true at all...I've been in multiple PLAYABLE Alphas / Betas that underwent very significant changes based on player feedback).  The fact is, there's no point in us even testing this game if it's not reasonably playable by groups of people.  Might as well keep the testing internal if the game is at a state where a ) players can't consistently play with one another and b ) they aren't looking for player feedback on gameplay / mechanics anyway.

p.s. saying that most Betas these days are for publicity and are basically almost-finished demos is overlooking the fact that the majority of Betas for major releases last for months and have strictly enforced NDAs.

Sounds like some of you would have absolutely HATED the Sins of a Solar Empire beta.

Demigod has been extremely straight forward compared to Sins of a Solar Empire. We were making major gameplay changes right into Gamma.  

Sins of a Solar Empire, as in, the game that won more game of the year awards this past year than any other game.

Our beta process on our games is extremely rough. They are (as someone else put it) REAL betas.

The Elemental beta will be far rougher than the Demigod beta btw.