I really wasn't.  I did not research many of the new civilian techs.  I did not notice tech faults because I did not research them.  I wanted to try out the Titan.  I did not get very much time with the Advent, so of course I would not have noticed every little thing.  I did not even get to build a Discord.  Discordia?

You don't pay for the Beta, you pre-pay for the final release normaly planned for the summer ( or later )... being able to use the Beta is a bonus...

As the point of pre-ordering... it was better to pre-order with Stardock for several reasons... first, the 10$ discount for previous owner of Trinity/Diplomacy... Second reason is the insane change rate of Steam, the well know "1$ = 1 euro"... now, Rebellion have cost me 23.51 euro ( 29.95 $ )... when the game is released on Steam, if the discount apply, it will have cost me 29.95 euro ( 38.15$ )... without discount on steam, it will be 39.95 euro ( 50.89$ )... so, if i don't pre-order on Stardock store and waiting the Steam release, it is very possible that i will need to pay more that 2 time the price that i have pay with Stardock...

In your case, you have at least enjoy the discount since your are not new to sins... this is your "point" for pre-ordering it... for european customer, it spare us from the infamous 1$=1euro from steam...

By the way, i remember that when pre-order was started, Stardock was not yet sure that all people who have pre-order will have access to the Beta... being able to play the Beta is the extra cherry on the top of the cake... you have pay for the cake but the cherry is a bonus !!! 

Well, I was going to be testing out the new entity modifiers with the dev.exe and ConverData this week...

But noooooooooooo....apparently I will be going to class now and doing homework...what a pity, I might actually pass my classes and have to graduate on time....thanks a lot Stardock...

Technical question: How do you find out something like this? Does the ship info-card say that? If yes, how do you know, its really happening? 

@Ron Lugge and "waaah" post: If you look at my posts closely, you would see, i was not really throwing my toys out of pram, not because of any bugs, not because of this 0.75 faux-pas. Yes, i said it was IMHO a mistake to withdraw the 0.75 version, and i still think it was.  But how is stating something like that over-reaction and deserves your kind of "waaah" post?

And for the last time: no, there were no kind gestures from devs involved with this beta, its totally irrelevant that other company would withdraw my money, and you know why? Cause other company would NEVER get me to preorder anything from them just like that. I do not preorder games, unless there is some kind of incentive to do it, like access to beta or perhaps discount, or whatever else. How is that difficult to comprehend?

@Gormoth01: Totally agreed, basically, what i wanted to say. 

@Gormoth01

Think you are missing the point, at least MY point.  I don't think anyone is defending what was done initially.  They should not have released the content they did, that was a screw-up.

The issue is whether there is anything really to complain about with this Beta screw-up when it comes to the game itself.  Pointing out the mistake is moot.  First of all, only they were aware that a mistake was made...and they fixed it.  I'm sure they are looking (have looked) into why it happened and wish to prevent it.  But what's done is done, they had to fix it and to fix it they had to.  And quite frankly there were only two courses of action...pull it or leave it.  And pulling it is far smarter than leaving it.  Leaving it...just makes no sense, it would be essentially derailing the Beta for the sake of making a few entitle-boys (not sure what the inverse of a fan-boy is).

Sure there could have been a warning so that people could disable auto-updating to lock in their version.  But that would be essentially saying.  "Here is something that doesn't represent what we want you to have...but you can take it anyway."  That is a completely irresponsible stance to take as a company.  I have worked for companies that do this...and they pay for it in the long run. 

Well the employees do at least, and it annoys the crap of of anyone dealing directly with customers who complain about their sub-par purchase that they wanted despite the apparent understanding it was going to be sub-par.

Customers lie, they say they want something, use it, then get disappointed and blame the product / company.  The philosophy that the customer is always right is broken and leads to mediocrity.  A customer just won't have the vision that the creator of a product has.

Blizzard and Apple are good examples of companies that have the philosophy of: Make a great product and you will make your customer.  Although I think Apple has ridden the I-brand fan-boy wagon too hard, Jobs personality was strong enough to filter out what his customer will want from what his customers say they want.

Fan-boys? (lol *sigh* years ago maybe ), but no. 

It's just a pure and simple fact that I can not see how in the heck people are having problems with this Beta.  I can see my father having trouble and getting fed up, but anyone my age or younger?  I can only assume they have no experience with Steam, haven't held a job directly dealing with customers, have never heard of what happens during a game's development, or are just plain so self-entitled that they are blind to the fact that sometimes there are reasons beyond the small part of the world you see why things happen.  (eh more harsh sounding than I mean it to be)

I'm no fan-boy.  I just know that I spent 30$ on a game that I know I am going to get more enjoyment out of than any 60$ game that is likely to come out in the near future and I am supporting a company that historically, I believe, has had a great outlook on vision, design and customer relations.  As a bonus I get to tinker in Beta and provide feedback.  I enjoy troubleshooting, which was a large part of another job I've had.

@Timmaigh

Sorry but your complaints are not reflected in Gormoth01's post, just because someone has a viewpoint that is different than those who don't support yours...does not mean it supports yours.  I saw nothing about him complaining about getting ripped off.

There just is no room to complain, and this is @everyone.  If you don't want updates, disable them. If you want your money back, go get it.  If you pre-ordered for a discount, you got it...so I don't see a problem there.  If you pre-ordered to play the game early, well that just isn't going to happen and well I would assume that one would know what 'Beta' means by now.  If you don't want to Beta test, just wait till it's released.

Finally if you just want to complain for the sake of attention or trolling, just please don't. (I doubt you are, but some may.)

Agree with K-64 and dctrjons.

Did the company make a mistake in the early release? Yes

Did they apologize for the mistake?

Yes

Do they have a right to do this? Yes

Should we whine about it?

NO!

That made me laugh.  I worked in customer services for years. One of the first things you learn is the companies line is "The customer is always right" and the second thing you learn is that most customers are whiny, impatient and often unrealistic. It's not their fault, they just don't know any better, because they don't know how the process works. To put it bluntly, most people are too ignorant and too ready to fly off the handle.  And no amount of us explaining the process or the errors of their views is ever going to change anything.  And I like your new word for it.  Entitle-boys... I like it.  It makes sense.

You're absolutely right.  They did not buy the full beta.  They bought the "Full, Final, Release".  We are getting "access" to the beta as a bonus and to give us the opportunity find bugs to report for squashing.  Give our feedback on the progress of the game and any changes we might like to see.  Feedback the devs will take seriously and quite possibly make changes for the betterment of the game as a whole.  That is a huge bonus in the long run for us. 

@people complaining claiming they bought the beta.

Yes, you bought the game, good for you.  But don't delude yourself by saying that you bought it for the Beta.  You bought it because you wanted the game.  A game you knew you would play and enjoy.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Access to the Beta was just a bonus.  An incentive for paying for the game early.  But make no mistake.  You did not pay for the beta.  You paid for the final release.  As such, even though you are being given access to the beta, how much of that games features you are allowed access to in the beta at any given time is entirely at the discretion of the devs whether you like it or not.  They have a working plan and testing methodology that they have to stick to.  They have to stick to it in order to ensure that the game gets tested and debugged properly.  And no amount of complaining nor self-entitling "screw your plan, give me my game because I'm impatient" is ever going to change that.  I mean seriously, think about it.  The point of a beta test is to test various aspects of the game.  In order to thoroughly test these various elements of the game, you have to put the parts of the game you want to focus testing on to the forefront.  How do you do that.  You lock off the parts you don't want to get sidetracked by, again, because you are focusing on the other part.  That's what they're doing.  You want access to the beta test?  Well that's what you've been doing this whole time.  You have access.  Woohoo.  Congratulations, you got what you supposedly paid for.  You are testing the TEC in the beta test.  When they are ready to test another part of the game, you will be the first to know.  But don't think for a second that you have any right to dictate how nor when they do that.  So, are you still sure you bought the beta, or did you buy the final release and accept the beta as a bonus.  As you should be thinking of it.  Sure they made a mistake... It happens, get over it.  How many mistakes do you make at work or at home on a daily basis.  Big or small it doesn't matter.  It happens.  Nobodies perfect.

Personally, I'd rather they take all the time they need to get it done properly now rather than it get hurriedly released unfinished and broken (like many games these days) and hope with fingers crossed that issues will be fixed later, which may or may not happen, again as seen with many games these days (Stardock and Ironclads reputation not withstanding... You guys are generally pretty good at patching your games.).

Whao guys, let's not get bent out of shape about this. This is a Beta test. I guess Ironclad screwed up a little, yeah, but no self-respecting Beta test should be without dicking and screwing around.

And never forget: your only privilege as a Beta tester is to the 'report bug' button.

Yeah, but i was not really complaining about the game.

Otherwise, i am Vasari player myself, this was actually first time ever, i played Advent. At least so i think, i might have played for them perhaps once back in the days of Vanilla Sins, but i am not even sure about that, as i was completely baffled by their tech trees now.

BTW, can anyone of you, who plays Advent ad played this 0.75 beta, make a thread with bit of a introduction to them, what are their main must-have techs, you are bound to research perhaps every-time you play the game (you know. stuff like Enslaved Labor for Vasari) and then highlight their new subfaction-specific techs, and what exactly they do?

I mean for TEC Loyalist, its all clear, dual starbases, cheaper defenses, upgrades, early novaliths. For TEC Rebels, its mostly about that Truce Amogst Rogues, Pirate Mercenaries and that final Liberated something...something, to get you those free insurgent forces. For Vasari Loyalists, it was that Shipboard Labs/Stripped to the Core/Charybdis Dark Fleet stuff. But with Advent, i was totally out of depth, i only registered that "Culture directly from planets" stuff and Planet for Planet, which i had no idea, what exactly it does. Other than that, overall it seems, most of their new stuff is culture related and that is not my domain.

Thanks in advance to whoever, who tries to do this

I guess I'll bask in the collected outrage and hate because someone has to do it.  If it makes folks feel better to vent their frustration in my direction, I'll be the meat shield.

As I stated in the OP, it was not intended for this build to be made live as it was not ready for prime time. Beta 2 will begin once we've hammered out the issues we've found, so you guys won't have long to wait.

Well said Yarlen,

For the whiners:

LMAO -

I cannot believe we are still on this - it happened - big dookey - move along - nothing to see here.  WOW the whine patrol is in full effect.  Once I realized what happened I went back to testing the original beta -as we all should. 

Grab the pitchforks lads!

Joking aside hopefully soon means soon, as not all developers mean soon when they say soon. Also not a cruel an April Fool's day weekend thing as CN bringing back toonami for a weekend :/