Good to know,

  Thanks very much for the answer TCores.

I'm hoping that now is a good time with Beta 1 seeming to be wrapping up shortly, that perhaps Beta 2 will accept a few more people into the mix.

Aye.

After TCore's answer, I went ahead and pre-ordered now.

In some respects I wish they'd take the money immediately (just makes it a bit easier to manage on my end) but I'm also rather respectful of the fact they don't.

So now tis just a matter of awaitin' the fateful day I recieve the eye-bleeding imminent warning via email. I think I've pretty much already consumed all the information available about Elemental to date.

Funny thing is, I heard about Elemental way back when it was first announced, and thought to myself, 'Sounds kinda nifty. I'll have to remember to check that out later'. Finally got around to it relatively recently, and found I'd somehow managed to miss a whole slew of info releases and chance to get in with the tech testing stages.

Ah well!

Indeed, been in a few tech alpha's before (for a few of the now older MMOs) so have a fair idea of what to expect in that regard. Call me a masochist, but I can typically garner some fun from that phase.

The problem for me is when it's supposedly in a gameplay testing phase, and we're still experiencing such issues. (i.e., shadowbane. )

But yes, I too love the character you'll be able to develop for your sovereign, race and units as a whole. Being able to develop MtG type cards for your sovereign and unit templates is just genious.

Have several friends keen on getting their hands on this now as well; albeit at a later beta phase or after release.

Yes.. Which is why I referred to experience in Alpha tests, rather than other betas. .. What's yer point?

I only received notification in the email. You'll have to turn on "show betas" or a similar setting in Impulse to see the Elemental download.

I just pre-ordered now thinking the beta access would be automatic and immediate. How long might I have to wait?

It's registered to your account properly, so make sure you have 'Show pre-release versions' turned on:

If it's turned on, and it's still not showing, try closing Impulse and running the following file:

http://sd.stardock.com/curthendzell/fix_registrations.reg

Make sure to follow the link in Internet Explorer, as other web browsers will not handle the file type correctly.  Once you follow the link, save the file and double click it to apply it.  Then relaunch Impulse.  You will need to re-login with your username/e-mail (either will work) and password.

Stardock has been re-opening the betas during each beta generation; i.e. beta 1, beta 2, beta 3. but not for beta 1-c, beta 3-a and the like.

So if things continue as they have been, i would guess you wont get in until beta 4

- Othello

It's still open. If you set prerelease versions to display and it's not showing up, please contact support@stardock.com. You may have some registration issue that they should be able to help with.

Alright, I'll do that. Thanks