Immediately, leaders of some of the stronger exploration and combat groups called for everyone to wait. Talking among themselves for a couple of minutes before speaking to the rest of the beta cohort. These experienced leaders had a simple offer to amalgamate everyone into several large groups. Their own groups forming upon them, and instructions to separate important combat skills. Left side groups or individuals with healing spell or skills. Right side groups or individuals with defensive melee skills. If both, healing takes precedence if groups or individuals have neither they stayed in the middle.
After a couple of minutes shuffling around people were sufficiently organised. The leaders waded among the left side and chatted finding out what healing spell or skills were available and split them between the seven groups as balanced as they could make them. Repeating the process with the defensive melee they then started discussing how to spread the remaining people. It was quickly decided anyone with a scouting or tracking skill would come forward and again they were as evenly distributed among the seven groups.
The remaining people were told to spread out but for groups to remain together so they could ensure even numbers and keep friends together.
It took a while counting up so many people in each of the seven groups, the leaders decided to make it easy and rotate selections starting with the lowest populous group. By doing this those seven groups had managed a near even split of the 2364 testers. All of this took almost an hour and a half however the results meant the teams were exceedingly balanced, main tanks, healing, scouting, melee damage and ranged damage, were expertly distributed. This would be a pure unique adventure none of them had experienced in this world to date, under experienced leadership everyone was pumped to have fun.
Upon looking at each other, these group leaders again discussed a plan of action. With such large numbers contained in these well-balanced teams, it was decided that the teams would spread out and 'search for trouble'. The first team headed out finally, tanks and damage melee in front healers to the back middle, some more melee at back, casters and ranged damage dealers in the middle. The gorge the team entered was wide enough for four abreast. The tanks that exited were gifted the first glimpse of this incredibly distant location. A blue sky with the odd puff of white cloud casually riding the breeze. A shallow decline opening out into a small clearing broken by a few sparse stunted trees and yellow dry, calf high clumps of grass interspersed with stones that had broken from the cliffs and rolled several tens of meters. The hill and clearing continued around 500m before the trees of the forest beyond began to impose themselves on the tank's vision, gradually growing thicker and taller.
The plan turned out to be really simple, the groups simply fanned out clockwise from the gorge to explore this new land. It took 10 minutes for the last of the seventh group be greeted by the vista. By then, the first group had vanished into the forest. Gradually the rest of the groups likewise disappeared under into the leaf mottled and, shadow realm. The gloom of the canopy enveloped the teams while the floating coloured shapes representing the physical forms of the devs watched the beta testers disappear.
“Well guys,” black circle spoke to the group, “who wants to follow which group?”
“Any of you know what's out here?” yellow square asked.
The silence bounced among the developers while they continued to look out at that forest.
“I guess that answers that,” black circle stated, “with such a short time between the map roulette and us getting out here I would hope no one took a peek.”
“I don't mind who I follow,” green L shape mentioned, as the rest floated around in silence, “let's just go I don't want to miss any action.”
“Alright, just go, one person per group and I'll bounce between them,” black circle instructed.
* * *
Scouts broke the forward terrain of the forest as the groups moved deeper, a few bird calls were heard yet birds were never seen. A rare sound of ground fauna moving into cover was noticed yet rarely more than a blur of overwhelming speed was sighted. The bulk of the groups were too numerous and noisy to possibly approach or surround these mysterious creatures.
Twenty minutes in and a report came via the beta forum of a rabbit warren discovery. Perhaps the creatures were just rabbits foraging along the floor of the forest and scurrying out of view from a new invader, their speed and ability to disappear was something else though.
Group six, who traveled from the gorge to the right, slowly angling away from the cliffs and deeper into the forest came across a large section of trees almost completely enshrouded in thick, heavy web of impressive strength. A scout touching the web was unable to detach from it without the assistance of another once the skin ripped off his hand. Group seven, angling more parallel to the cliffs to the right also caught an edge of this gigantic web complex potentially making it 2 to 3 km wide. The scout received some light healing while it was quickly decided to skirt around this area, both groups splitting to the left and right of it before resuming their general direction. The entire time the two groups noted that as they passed this massive communal web neither sighted a spider or other animals, the eerie silence change back to the more appreciated forest orchestra of bird calls once they were several minutes clear of the area.
An hour and a half into this forest the seven teams fanned out had all traversed around 9km of distance. It was 12:30pm so the message went out on the forum to break for lunch. The groups were still buoyed with the knowledge that this was the closing event for the beta. The conversation still maintained a buzz of excitement, what would they find out here, what awaited them after beta along with remembering moments of time spent in this world, funny and daunting reminisced with fondness. The beta had been a fairly simplistic challenge for the testers, the developers wanted to keep the launch fresh, even for them. The basic pretext of the game followed three ideals, survive, grow, explore. Keeping the live world fresh for the testers meant they had been exposed to an exceptionally small sample of flora and fauna despite covering several thousand kilometers of distance from the spawn point. The furthest reaching explorations had only just recently encroached upon the first humanoid species, goblins. They were the typical goblin trope, small, green, large eyes and ears, jagged teeth and sharp though not particularly long claw nails. The thing that was surprising had been the teamwork that these few goblin tribes had displayed. Working together to quickly take down a lone person, lead a small team into a trap or ambush. The scripting the goblins had was exceptional, utilising environment, time, timing, preparation and chance to their benefit. Several testers exploring those territories had been rewarded with free trips back to Spawn Point with some goblin assistance, of course. The daunting thing initially pertained to the number waking up back there with no knowledge of what happened. The goblins, exhibited excellent stealth, able to enter a camp en-mass and take out a group while they slept.
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Despite the small sample of mobs the testers had experienced, there had never been a supply issue. It would be fair to say at least one mob existed in every square kilometer of land was the absolute minimum the testers had experienced. Considering this, it was surprising that combined the seven groups had covered around 100 square kilometers and while there was plenty of evidence they were around nothing had been definitively identified. Unsurprisingly, the people experienced with exploring were feeling a weight of suspense bearing down on them. The jovial nature of earlier began to ebb after lunch, another hour of exploring with nothing but near glimpses gradually ratcheted up tension, people started complaining. They had expectations of a fun and entirely new experience not trouncing around in some forest with nothing to kill. This shit had got boring, they were here for excitement, what the fuck kind of crap event is this? Of course, the adage 'be careful what you wish for,' soon came into play.
* * *
CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
Group 3, scouting report, sounds of fighting coming from up ahead, it sounds fairly far away even with the forest absorbing the sound, heading in for a closer look.
>CONTACT (posted by Sasha Skorokhodov)
Stay cautious, do not be spotted. Group 3 will continue to move up. Leave a couple of guides for us.
At least groups 2 and 4 head our way, everyone else it's up to you.
Sasha shouted to the team around him, “OK everyone, there is some kind of fight happening up ahead. Our scouts are moving up for visual. We are moving to them fast. Stay in formation. We might be getting the fight we were looking for. Stay cool, you know your role, let's move.”
Moving at a steady jog the forward tanks encountered the two waiting scouts, they called out and waved to follow them on a slight angle to the way the group had been moving. Five minutes later another forum post arrived.
>>CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
First here, I have a visual, its a big humanoid mob, I still hear the fighting nearby.
When I delve one it I get, Ogre. These guys are huge, around 4m roughly.
>>>CONTACT (posted by Sasha Skorokhodov)
We are still incoming, anything else?
>>>>CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
The thing is, the Ogre came flying through the air and hit a tree over a hundred meters in front of me. Still no visual on what it was fighting... this guy is massive and dead.
Bit worried about getting much closer while it's raining these giants.
>>>>>CONTACT (posted by Sasha Skorokhodov)
Hurry up and check it out, we are getting close.
>>>>>>CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
Fine...
Another couple of minutes went by, the group led by the scouts slowed to a walk, everyone was shushed to quiet. With a group, this large with a lot of people not skilled in forest travel the group was not particularly successful. Sure they stopped talking but there was still scuffing of leaves and snapping fallen branches. Maybe with a group of 20, they could fake quiet enough to get by, with almost 350 people that just wasn't possible. Craig, eventually responded again.
>>>>>>>CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
OK, so there are a lot +40 Ogre fighting what is called a Plateasaur. The Ogres do not seem to be having much success against this thing, its big, gigantic big.
It was at this opportune time that Dev Blue T chimed in sounding very pleased, “You lot are sure in for a treat, have fun because we devs will.”
Sasha looked up toward the floating developer with a smile, whatever happened he intended to enjoy this experience and gain some insight into this far away land they were exploring for the first time. Finally getting close enough, combat could be heard while still moving as a large group. A screaming roar blasted through the forest.
>>>>>>>>CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
Oh DAMN!!! This Plateasaur is incredible, it just used magic. The Ogres are also using magic, btw.
>>>>>>>>>>CONTACT (posted by Craig Turson)
I am maybe 800m further up from the dead ogre, the battle has been moving away from there slowly. At the moment the Plateasaur is stopped though. I think it's doing some fast regen, the Ogres are beating on it but melee doesn't seem to do much. A few of the Ogre can launch fireballs, some others are running around healing the wounded. It's one tough bastard, and this fight is pretty wild.
Sasha took a look at the Ogre, from what he could see it looked out of proportion to a human, thick but stumpy legs massively bulky trunk, both cloaked in leathers and arms that were thick and longer than the legs. Grey skin, heavy brow ridges and incredibly robust overshot lower jaw with canines protruding. It was classic ogre accept this guy had no pudge, just pure muscle. From a glance it was hard to tell how he had died, there were no obvious wounds on his front. The Ogre, lying on its side, looked more asleep than anything, except for the not breathing part. Sasha shrugged, looking at the scout beside him, “nothing obvious to show why the big guy died.”
The scout gave a nod of the head and replied, “neck, impact with the tree probably.”
Sasha came around the other side and squatted down for a closer inspection, there was a distinct bulge where the vertebra appeared to have separated from an impact, it's neck was impressive, with a thickness equivalent to his own body. “I wonder how his stats compare to ours,” Sasha pondered.
“Seems like we are finding out shortly,” the scout replied.
Sasha nodded, looking toward the emanating sounds of battle, “let's go look.”