Now that we've given you a first look at our plans for "RO Classic" we would like to fill the community in on what we have in the works for the coming months for RO2. First we would like to talk about how we'll be handling the PR and the development of the updates that we are working on. Traditionally we've worked like a typical game studio slaving away for months on a cool update which we would reveal to the press and the community close to the release date when it is almost finished. This is a great way to get press attention and spread news about the update to the broader gaming world. Unfortunately, it also has the side effect of the community not knowing what we are working on, and being unable to have their feedback incorporated into the update BEFORE the release. So with that in mind we've decided to do an experiment involving our community of Red Orchestra fans that will be a much more collaborative process of development and PR.
What this means is that first we are switching up to a very open PR style, pushing lots of information out for you and seeking feedback from you all, much as we did back in the Red Orchestra mod days. This is to make sure players are more aware of upcoming changes and means you get to see stuff while it is still work in progress (WIP). We'll also be running a Beta open to anyone that owns RO2 that we'll be using to push out these new features and improvements early on in the development process. We'll tell you what we have in mind, show it to you as it comes together and let you try it out early in development, so that we can get good feedback, when we still have time to react to it. Of course, showing you things that early means that they are definitely subject to change too - from your feedback and from our own. It also means you will get to see things in the beta that are very early in development and potentially incomplete. So don't be surprised if you jump into a map in the beta that isn't pretty, or try a new feature that isn't balanced or complete. You'll get to see that map or feature come together, and participate in the process.
So, here is the "big picture". We've got a big update coming for the game, with a lot of content. We'll fill you in on the details over the coming days. That will lead us pretty much straight up to all the pieces of that update being pushed into the open Beta, so that everyone can get a look and try them out, while they are still in development. Bug fixes, optimizations, and refinements will be brought over from the Beta to the live game as soon as they are ready. Major new features will be pulled together into that one big update for you. The key elements of the update include (and we'll push out lots of details on all these over the next few days):
* Multiplayer Campaign Mode
* We'll have a complete new map for you
* "RO Classic", that we've already talked about
* Major refinements to existing gameplay systems to improve the gameplay balance and fun as well as to incorporate player feedback (systems such as Lockdown, Player Damage, and more are being refined)
* And, of course, we'll continue fixing bugs that we (or you) find and making optimizations to the game
So, stay tuned over the next few days as we look to give you more detail on all of this! And watch for announcements as features roll out into the Beta for you to try out and feedback on.