As a matter of fact I'm quite sure they often post when they are not so sure about what people think, that's sort of the main usefulness of the forum for the game developer.

And well, if there is nothing to add, why add anything?

Sorry, I'll leave it with that 

Exactly, they want to know what the community thinks.. and that includes if we happen to agree with them They can't just assume that a lack of posts signals agreement as it could just as easily mean a lack of interest entirely.

I would say lack of posts PROBABLY would indicate lack of interest. If it is something people love you will get cheers, and if not you will get jeers. Silence I think is the last thing they want!

Looking forward to playing on the "cloth" map. I like the idea of starting there and seeing the game build upon that when it moves closer to launch.

Since i've played games with ASCII I think i'll be fine anyway

The map is fine by me.

I'm game to playing cloth first.  I'm most interested, though, in getting my hands on the various builders.  I guess I never out-grew legos...

That's the second time legos have been brought up on these forums. I love legos!

/Off-topic

SCRUM, at least in Oregon, seems to be fairly typical at anything other than big companies. Clearly your experience with it is poor, but as something of a semi-expert on software development processes (17 years as an engineer and got my Masters focused on design and software process) I can pretty safely say that SCRUM as it's meant to be run is a really good way to manage a project with nebulous features. Game development fits that pretty well as features are thrown in and out as what is "fun" is figured out. 

Good companies find a process that fits their development. Good process is a tool and like any tool it only works if used properly, which only works if you have a good company. Bad companies corrupt and screw up every process. Sadly, bad companies are the norm.

ASCII!!!!   man, yeah we should not even have map, we should have all ASCI beyond the basic UI

@ could be a town

H is a hero
C is a channeler
c is a catapult
M a monster lair
m is a test generic monster
D is a dragon
d is a 'dude' generic unit
S is a war ship
s is a skeleton
N is a shard (node)
n is a naga
k is a knight unit
B is bear cavarly
b is a bugbear (fantastic creature)
Z is a zombie

We could upgrade from old games and do things like add underlines and bold.   Bold to show what is selected

(man, I'm going to go home and play Moria !  )

Don't forget to make the Beta pre-order available to PayPal users.

I believe it is availible to Paypal users but you can only use Paypal to pay for something no more than two weeks in advance of the payment being executed. Since you are changed only once you gain access to the beta you can only use Paypal to pre-order two weeks before the beta is launched. This is what a moderator on the Demigod forum told some users. If this is not the case I apologize for leading you astray.

On a seperate note. I am all for primative betas. The idea is to help the developers make a better game and not necesarily to have a great gaming experiance while doing it.

I will say, however, that I started doing SD betas with Sins of a Solar Empire and I have had a blast with every one since. Keep up the great work.

Awesome. I don't want graphics. I just finished an ADOM game (I died of course). Cloth is huge. Great. Gorgeous.

Graphics can come in later. Way better to focus on testing gameplay. :b:

Considering that I always play GalCivII in the icon view and have battle animations disabled... why would you even want to add more graphics then just the cloth map?

Besides the cloth map looks very pleasing to the eye (not the mess that CivIV is when zoomed out...) so I'm really looking forward to play the bare-bone beta.

In both Sins and GalCiv, I do all or almost all my actual playing at the icon-view level; I only zoom in when I want to see the pretty.    I say go for it.

SD isn't capable of delaying payment via pay-pal to a later date (arguments erupt on whether paypal isn't capable, or SD isn't set up, so I'm not touching that one -- SD insists the former) so they can't use paypal except at, and immediately after, the release of a beta.  During a (usually 2-week) window after opening a beta cycle (beta 1, beta 2, etc etc) SD allows people to get in 'instantly' -- you pay, you get in.  Otherwise, you have to wait for the next (at the moment, we're talking first elemental) beta cycle to start up and use that window.