Poll: Early Access or Pre-Sale in December

[celestian]

Hold FGU release until 2020 for more polish BUT allow Closed beta backers to host players with free accounts at their table. This is, after all the basic environment in which the software is going to be used.

This is a great suggestion.

[FuzzyThall13]

I chose Option 4.

Keeping the beta "Closed" but open it up with the Demo for players of the current testers. Then have the "pre-purchasers" of the Ultimate License join in on the testing. Then when all (most) bugs are worked out bring in the rest of the riff-raff.

[Loucifer]

Option 3 is the best option IMO.

Every other software developer out there releases their projects too early and then has to hurriedly patch them up to stave off the bad reviews, whether its due to funding, publishers, or what have you, its a very annoying trend.

Lets have Smiteworks be a trendsetter as usual and release when ready, and not one minute before.

[Zeruel_Kagenie]

Something else

SW should not miss the opportunity to offer FGU as a presale for steam Christmas sales; It is a global event. Many consumers (especially steam users) wait for sales to make their purchases and many spend their games budget on those dates. If FGU would have a release date for January, February, or March of 2020, sales would not be so high because most consumers have already made expenses. Depending on their age and where they are, after Christmas, they already start thinking about school fees, university expenses, vacations and so on.

If SW is confident that FGU will be released before April, a pre-order in steam in a similar way to what happened in Kickstarter should happen. I don't know if steam can identify when a product was purchased to get a discount, but some presale packages can be: Upgrade Standard, Upgrade Ultimate, Newcomer Standard, Newcomer Ultimate. There may even be more packages when combined with ruleset bundles.

For those of us who were able to participate in the Kickstarter and obtained the Ultimate license, we should obtain the FGU demo as soon as possible to try the software in real game scenarios. For the rest of the Kickstarter users, maybe allow the same benefit of an ultimate user but only on weekends until FGU officially release? I think there was something similar in FGC with standard users one weekend not so long ago.

[Zacchaeus]

Hold FGU release until 2020 for more polish BUT allow Closed beta backers to host players with free accounts at their table. This is, after all the basic environment in which the software is going to be used.

This is going to be part of the Beta anyway.

[Kyler]

Do not release in current form!

Option 3 is the best choice no matter how long it takes.

There are significant issues that I'm not sure I can discuss here. As such, I can simply say, the current "FGC" version is great and has a "great" community.

From content standpoint, the currently available content is the best selling point. Smiteworks is second to none from a cost and availability perspective. This selling point is based on available licensing across gaming systems vs other vtt technology.

From a community standpoint, smiteworks is second to none. These people are awesome and work with the company to make all products better in addition to working with the community to expand member's knowledge and skill.

From a tech standpoint, FGC performs extremely well in comparison to FGU based on current tech. However, the UI is outdated and utilizes outdated tech. Though it performs well in the FGC state, it is still outdated.

At this point, I will simply state that FGC performs far better. Despite enhanced LOS functionality, there are no aspects of FGU that further the product to the point I would actually want to use it. As such, FGU would not benefit from early release. It would only result in poor reviews.

FGU would benefit most from a total UI upgrade using modern UI design and technology with the added benefit of LOS. The FGU map interface isn't in any way eye opening and the performance is terrible at this point.

[Romidar]

This delay along with the issue with running FGC on Catalina is really unfortunate; my group has been sort of on hold since half are using Macs and had to upgrade (work requirement).

Doesn’t help to release an unfinished product, so I guess waiting is the best option, but really hope it isn’t beyond January.

[dellanx]

Fully functional FGU above all please, full compatibility, etc, etc! Wish list: Speed, speed, and more speed, I leave how it is done to others more capable. Thanks!

[VinAlanson]

Releasing FGU too early with too many bugs will only cause a lot of negative reviews and that will harm your reputation.
Just keep everyone informed as to what is happening and that beta testing is going strong but more time is needed to iron out the bugs.

[Viktoria]

Alpha Testing for all please. Like star Citizen <3