[Windcatcher]

This whole discussion has made me revisit the idea of a closed beta and whether it's such a good thing. Cavedude and I worked it out informally, where he would host a server and I would send updates to his FTP site. The testing process has been somewhat spotty since it's been so informal, and perhaps we can do better. Do we want to try an open beta instead?

I'm open to suggestions (*especially* from devs), but here are my initial thoughts:

1. First, there MUST be a patcher. An open beta does us no good unless we can have some confidence that everyone is running the same version. Otherwise I foresee we'll be chasing our tails more often than not running down obsolete bugs. I know that Teppen was offering to write one -- but Cofruben already has one in the works (undergoing rewrite). I don't care either way, but if *the community* wants an open beta then a patcher is a prerequisite for it to be useful to those of us working on the client (who am I kidding -- at this point *I'm* the only one working on it...any Delphi devs out there?)

2. We'll need a server that's up all the time, and since the beta would be open it would be somewhat accountable to the community (I don't mean anything formal here, just pointing out that if it's down we would likely hear about it in short order on the forum). I can't provide this.

3. We'll have to decide on a server version, at least tentatively. That isn't too big a deal since SimpleClient supports several revisions between 0.5.5 and 0.6.0, but if we want to use something newer and/or want the beta server to evolve into a live one then we need to think it through a bit. SimpleClient requires a different netcode DLL to talk to 0.6.1 and newer servers, for instance, and I'll need help there if we want to take that route.

I've never run an open beta of anything before (and before this, a closed one either) so I'm definitely looking for guidance here. I don't consider SimpleClient all that robust yet, but it *is* a beta, after all, so it's one of those "use at your own risk" deals. In any case, I definitely *can't* manage this process as I'm swamped already as it is, but I do want this to get released to the general public at some point in a way that satisfies as many as possible. I'd especially like to hear from devs (current and former) as you probably know a lot more about managing a community project than I do.

EDIT: Since SimpleClient can talk to multiple server versions, there isn't anything saying that there has to be only one beta server, or even one beta server *version*...but the prospect makes me worry a bit about confusion among the player base. It's something else to discuss, I suppose.

I'm willing to discuss either here or on IRC, but I prefer it to be here since it's persistent and if there's one thing I've learned it's that it's best if the discussion be open. The agreement between Cavedude and I was worked out on IRC and, while we're well within our right to do that, it's led to confusion and some hard feelings that I'd just as soon avoid.