Character Wipe

[soulsurfsublime]

I was wondering if they will wipe our beta character progress and user names from the servers once beta has ended? I wasn't sure if there has been an official statement or not. I asked on twitter a few times and got no response. I am assuming that as in all beta's this will be the case.

[Dubious]

Closed beta always get wiped

we just have to wait and see what they decide to do with open beta
in other games, open beta only get wiped if they have to do major changes during the open beta testing..

[Kupo]

of course they should wipe, even open beta should be wiped. cant have people starting out with better certs than others when game launches

[Accuser]

of course they should wipe, even open beta should be wiped. cant have people starting out with better certs than others when game launches

Though I'm hoping Beta testers will be able to reserve character names at least ^_^

[NoDachi]

Beta characters, both closed and open are never saved for obvious reasons.

Everything is subject to change in beta so when it comes to release you need to start afresh.

[GreatMazinkaise]

Beta characters, both closed and open are never saved for obvious reasons.

Everything is subject to change in beta so when it comes to release you need to start afresh.

Well you say that, but other F2P games have gone from open to launch w/out wiping characters (T:A, for example).

[Ninjacalypse]

Beta characters, both closed and open are never saved for obvious reasons.

Everything is subject to change in beta so when it comes to release you need to start afresh.

Closed Betas are almost always wiped. Open Betas are almost always not wiped.

In fact, I've beta tested literally hundreds of games. In not a single Open Beta have I had a character wipe.

[BraavikStal]

I'm divided on this issue. I guess I would ultimately support wiping characters in both the closed and open beta's. Wouldn't exactly be fair if some people went really far in the beta and were OP when the game got released.

[Boomhowser]

when game goes live.. all players should be created equally in the eyes of the Lor.. um SOE :D

[Gore]

Being allowed to keep ones name would be nice though.

[DukeTerror]

Well the argument the Devs make is that more certs and battle rank does not make you a better than a new player. That would apply to why it wouldn't matter to wipe open beta players. There will likely be wipes during the beta, but the last week or so should be safe and worth letting beta testers keep. Especially if they start testing the store and players start buying things.

[ZaBa]

Wipe everything, but give beta testers a month's worth or so of free cert points in the bank as a thankyou.

[NoDachi]

Well the argument the Devs make is that more certs and battle rank does not make you a better than a new player. That would apply to why it wouldn't matter to wipe open beta players.

But what if in the beta you got an insane amount of exp for something trivial like hacking, or killing people with grenades or any arbitrary condition, and as a result make characters have been exp padded to silly levels?

The entire cert tree and process is subject to change anyway. You'll have to start afresh on the new and updated trees and exp system in the live game.

Wipe everything, but give beta testers a month's worth or so of free cert points in the bank as a thankyou.

Playing the game is thankyou enough.

[Accuser]

Technically, (last I heard) a fully certed character will be around 20% more potent than a brand new character. More importantly though, Beta testing is for testing, not jacking up stats for when the game goes live.

[NoDachi]

More importantly though, Beta testing is for testing, not jacking up stats for when the game goes live.

I think this is the most important reason we've all overlooked.

We're suppose to be testing, and that means putting certs in a variety of places, not min/maxing out characters ready for release.

[soulsurfsublime]

I appreciate all the responses. I too feel that beta stats and certs should be wiped. I was just wondering more for being able to keep your name. I figure since it's F2P that they may come in with some sort of deal with membership or something that allows a few days early access and to keep your name like The Secret World and other MMO's have been doing on release lately to create increased revenues.

[Ganymede]

The only game I have ever see not do a wipe from any stage of beta to live was Tribes ascend... Of course they were charging you money for upgrades during beta so how could they do a wipe? This is way to massive I would expect several wipes ecspecially when large patches come in to help stability.


And Higby/AGN team brought up Name reserves on the video the other day. It sounds like something they will investigate but is not confirmed.

[TAA]

of course they should wipe, even open beta should be wiped. cant have people starting out with better certs than others when game launches

I really dont think it matters.

Just remember this: no matter how many points you have, someone somewhere will always be willing to pay cash for a small army of Chinese guys to level up their character. You cannot compete with that, no matter how many precious little weeks of beta you got to play for.

[Hackx]

What it comes down to is if we will be testing the store with real money. If they give us "fake" Station Cash to test the store in beta then there's a good chance we will get wiped. However, if we spend real money on stuff, there is no way those purchases will be wiped.

I can see them wiping cert points, perhaps, but anything you have purchased would stay with you into release.

[OutlawSZ]

Why do I recall getting to keep my name out of ps1 beta. Or maybe it was a br15 rank. God its been so long...but we got to keep something..just cant be sure as to what anymore.

[Draz]

But what if in the beta you got an insane amount of exp for something trivial like hacking, or killing people with grenades or any arbitrary condition, and as a result make characters have been exp padded to silly levels?

The entire cert tree and process is subject to change anyway. You'll have to start afresh on the new and updated trees and exp system in the live game.


If there are major changes in the open beta then there will be a wipe. But typically when a game goes into open beta it is just in nearly finished promotional demo mode anyway.

[fb III IX ca IV]

Tribes: Ascend was more of a soft launch, even towards the end of closed beta, anyone who wanted to play could get their hands on a key.

[Reizod]

Well the argument the Devs make is that more certs and battle rank does not make you a better than a new player. That would apply to why it wouldn't matter to wipe open beta players. There will likely be wipes during the beta, but the last week or so should be safe and worth letting beta testers keep. Especially if they start testing the store and players start buying things.


From the interviews I've seen, it seems they are leaning more towards this ^^^

[Kezz]

It's a beta test. Expect wipes and reset during the process. Expect Cert points to be dished out like candy so we can try and minimax the system til it breaks. Expect to be required to try certain cert combinations, or have cert packages added to your (everyone's) characters for testing.

Expect it all to go away at the end.

[kaibutzu]

apb tribes tera c9 thats just a few i found on google but ye there has ben a lot more then that thats not wiped, guys remember this is not a p2p game

[Novice bot]

A lot of F2P have not wiped peoples progression in CBT/OBT, mainly because the cash shops have been open, and those who have purchased items would lose their money. I for one am willing to participate in trying the cash shop out by purchasing something, but I seriously wouldn't do it if I had my progression wiped at release.

Look at Dota 2 for example, they are actually selling closed beta invites, and that has been completely acceptable so far. Not to mention Tribes, even with all the exploits has kept peoples progression.

[Tsunami]

Tribes Ascend and APB:Reloaded did the same thing

[Hamma]

Smed confirmed today on Twitter there will be a wipe.

[Littleman]

Smed confirmed today on Twitter there will be a wipe.

In which phase? Closed beta, it makes sense. Open betas never really wipe with seldom few exceptions, one big one being any exploits that pushed players far in their game careers in a relatively short span of time. Being in "beta" that kind of problem is a free pass for a wipe, but in "release" that's a no-no.

Further, SOE can not, under any circumstances, order people to focus on precisely what they want people to play test. It just won't happen. What's the consequence for disobeying them? One loses their FREE account? Oh, shucks... just go make another one.

Open beta in an F2P is essentially synonymous with being released. If people show up to the open beta late, it's their balance problem, not SOE's. People will show up after release too, when many people already have plenty of certs and experience under their belt.

Long post made short: There would have to be a good reason to wipe everyone's open beta progress going into release if closed beta progress was wiped.

[SoUnreal]

of course they should wipe, even open beta should be wiped. cant have people starting out with better certs than others when game launches

What difference does it make if the game is balanced? Would you wipe everything every time there's an influx of new players?

[Geist]

The allocation of certs, resources and battle rank are often affected by bugs and exploits during the Betas. It only makes sense that they would wipe characters before they have to worry about people investing actual money into characters, thus making it impossible to wipe the characters again.

[Kipper]

They better wipe closed beta characters :)

Firstly because some people have unlocks that were granted at different times whilst others do not; and everyone should only have what they've bought or earned when the game starts.

Secondly because I've been testing the game for myself as well as SOE, I've not put much thought into allocating my certs and have spread them across multiple classes/vehicles to test. At the start of the real game, I'll probably want to cert up the classes I've enjoyed the most and intend to use the most.

Open beta is practically release anyway, so they won't wipe there. The only difference between open beta and full release most likely is that it won't be listed for download on steam etc, just via the client download on the main site. Most of the major changes will happen while its closed.