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[Zarcon]

So in all seriousness, when are we looking at Alex? We're past early February now!

It has been said several times here and elsewhere that the current "possible" release time would be mid feb, not the start of feb. In all likelyhood I imagine polishing may push that back even thurther. However I would glad to be wrong. The test version may come out earlier who knows.

Well everyone knows that the 15th is the foreseen release date for the preview version of 0.5, duh.     lol.

Just 5 more days...

[Avan]

well, the preview release doesn't need any polish; it just needs the current modding stuff to be finalized so that modders can convert everything over, and bugs can be found and corrected in the final version.

I'm guessing its missing modding functionality that is holding up the preview release, since its not something that would affect the review.

[aerandir]

So in all seriousness, when are we looking at Alex? We're past early February now!

It has been said several times here and elsewhere that the current "possible" release time would be mid feb, not the start of feb. In all likelyhood I imagine polishing may push that back even thurther. However I would glad to be wrong. The test version may come out earlier who knows.

I'm sure it won't get pushed back any further, but it does raise interesting issues; people are paying for an alpha, and in the old days people expected bugs and crashes and so on. With customers becoming increasingly demanding, small devs like Alex obviously now feel pressured to present these incredibly polished experiences in alpha to avoid the negative publicity of people complaining about unfinished software...but of course by definition that's what an alpha is.

Personally I thought I was signing up to get basically playable, but buggy, builds every month or so, not flawless mini-releases with eight month gulfs between them, but obviously with the increasing opening up of alpha and beta software to the public, exactly what those terms mean is starting to shift.

Anyway that was a bit OT, I predict Tuesday afternoon for the release!  

[stardidi]

So in all seriousness, when are we looking at Alex? We're past early February now!

It has been said several times here and elsewhere that the current "possible" release time would be mid feb, not the start of feb. In all likelyhood I imagine polishing may push that back even thurther. However I would glad to be wrong. The test version may come out earlier who knows.

Well everyone knows that the 15th is the foreseen release date for the preview version of 0.5, duh.    lol.

Just 5 more days...

seems a legit date, enough time to polish some things or add the mod support
but i'm going to laugh if Alex is to release it on the 14 at 23:59

[Avan]

Well, I can understand the large time-lapse between .34a and .5a, as there is a difference between a buggy alpha release and a giant mass of code that can really only be used through a debugging interface (ie, to test each interface, each system, one by one, and then slowly knit them together)

For the preview release, I don't care about polish, I just want all the updated modding functionality to be in so I can convert stuff over. That is what the preview releases were for (originally at least), hence why I think it is what is holding them up. Polish is what would hold up the actual .5a release.

[Jerry]

It's getting to be time for another blog post soon methinks, Alex!

[Zarcon]

seems a legit date, enough time to polish some things
but i'm going to laugh if Alex is to release it on the 14 at 23:59

That would be pretty funny actually, lol!    

[Avan]

Actually, if the datafiles were not going to change between now and then, I would be fine with just having the data files before the preview release, since it would be merely a matter of copying the format

[SgtAlex86]

and i would be fine with playing the .5 right now... 
but for some reason world does not work that way q.q

[Alex]

Ok, guys - I come bearing official news. A parley with the forces besieging Fortress Fractal, if you will

Aiming for Tuesday for the release (SeaBee: my apologies. Zarcon: Hah! You were one day off. Unless it ends up being one day late. Would you rather be right or get it one day early? aerandir: right on!).


Modwise: actually, 0.35a mods will be compatible with the game. There are some new data fields, but it uses benign defaults if they are not found.

I'm sure it won't get pushed back any further, but it does raise interesting issues; people are paying for an alpha, and in the old days people expected bugs and crashes and so on. With customers becoming increasingly demanding, small devs like Alex obviously now feel pressured to present these incredibly polished experiences in alpha to avoid the negative publicity of people complaining about unfinished software...but of course by definition that's what an alpha is.

That's a very interesting point. I don't know that I'd call the alphas so far "incredibly polished" (thank you, though!), but I just want to make sure the releases are playable games in their own right. I personally wouldn't want to just run some tech demo every couple of weeks, and so that's not what I want to deliver. As you point out, the perception of quality is also a consideration. I just wouldn't say that it's the main reason.

Still, it's been *far* too long since the last release. That was due to some poor planning on my part, resulting in a change of direction (and the addition of the campaign mode!). Subsequent releases should be a lot more timely.

[stardidi]

Hey i was kinda right with my joke
Thanks for giving a date, now i don't have to check every hour if there has been a  update xD

[Zarcon]

Aiming for Tuesday for the release (SeaBee: my apologies. Zarcon: Hah! You were one day off. Unless it ends up being one day late. Would you rather be right or get it one day early? aerandir: right on!).

Lol!  I'll take it a day early sir.     I'd rather be having fun than being right without the pew pews.

[Icelom]

Ok, guys - I come bearing official news. A parley with the forces besieging Fortress Fractal, if you will

Aiming for Tuesday for the release (SeaBee: my apologies. Zarcon: Hah! You were one day off. Unless it ends up being one day late. Would you rather be right or get it one day early? aerandir: right on!).


Modwise: actually, 0.35a mods will be compatible with the game. There are some new data fields, but it uses benign defaults if they are not found.

I'm sure it won't get pushed back any further, but it does raise interesting issues; people are paying for an alpha, and in the old days people expected bugs and crashes and so on. With customers becoming increasingly demanding, small devs like Alex obviously now feel pressured to present these incredibly polished experiences in alpha to avoid the negative publicity of people complaining about unfinished software...but of course by definition that's what an alpha is.

That's a very interesting point. I don't know that I'd call the alphas so far "incredibly polished" (thank you, though!), but I just want to make sure the releases are playable games in their own right. I personally wouldn't want to just run some tech demo every couple of weeks, and so that's not what I want to deliver. As you point out, the perception of quality is also a consideration. I just wouldn't say that it's the main reason.

Still, it's been *far* too long since the last release. That was due to some poor planning on my part, resulting in a change of direction (and the addition of the campaign mode!). Subsequent releases should be a lot more timely.

YAY, but dont feel you have to get it to us by tuesday if something comes up, personaly or game wise.

[Nori]

What? Tuesday? That is a strange day to release it, since it is valentines day.... So yeah, I'll leave it at that.    Guess I'll have to wait until the 15th anyway.

[Zarcon]

What? Tuesday? That is a strange day to release it, since it is valentines day.... So yeah, I'll leave it at that.    Guess I'll have to wait until the 15th anyway.

I have forseeeeeeeen it.  lawl.