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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Starsector 0.6a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 553360 times)

silentstormpt

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #765 on: September 12, 2013, 10:12:20 AM »


Am I reading it correctly that there TWO systems in the .6 candidate?  I ask this in wondering if there's a technical issue to adding more systems and their interacting traffic or if you have only added one other system as POC?  Is it feasible that Lazy Wizard's (Correct me if I'm wrong!) procedural generation code can generate on runtime a unique sector?    Oh gods I hope so! :D

It's definitely possible to add more systems. You might run into issues with the savegame file size w/o turning on save compression, though. The reason there aren't more in 0.6a is there's not really that much to do with them as a player (yet!), so...


Thats why ive been working on a framework to add dynamic starsystems + mining + faction diplomacy + custom cargo types and possibly a economy based on demand and supply,

But its still a huge work in progress
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xenoargh

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #766 on: September 12, 2013, 10:17:50 AM »

You're only allowed one "paradigm" per year, Alex, and next time it needs to be something like, "I ported this to all the major consoles on my lunch break."  ;D

<disappears back to World of Crunch>
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BrickedKeyboard

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #767 on: September 12, 2013, 01:00:57 PM »

Alex, that sounds like about a month of work remaining.  Care to give at least a vague idea of how much time it has taken in the past to accomplish the amount of work you have left?  As in "greater than a week, greater than 2 weeks, greater than a month.."

That way I won't bother to refresh the page every day or get my hopes up if the patch release is not imminent.

Man, and I thought I was being pessimistic with my "greater than a month" post.

This delay is starting to be seriously irritating.  I've been checking this site out for months now, hoping for an update.  If, last November, you had posted "working on next update, won't be around til next September", I wouldn't have spent all this time refreshing the site.

Being slow to update isn't nearly as bad as it being hugely uncertain when you will get to play the game you've been reading about for months.
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #768 on: September 12, 2013, 01:06:48 PM »

Then you'd better find something to do. :P This is just an indie game with something like 5 people working on it.  I'm modeling for a variety of CoH mods to keep me busy, and there's also school for me eating up a good seven hours.
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icepick37

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #769 on: September 12, 2013, 01:17:30 PM »

When you can predict the future, maybe then it'll be okay to ask people to do so. Creative work is an inherently unknowable thing. You don't know how long it takes to make a widget until you sit down and do it.

That said, the long wait IS painful, haha. And Alex does try to keep it shorter than this usually.
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Kothar

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #770 on: September 12, 2013, 03:01:05 PM »

Man, and I thought I was being pessimistic with my "greater than a month" post.

This delay is starting to be seriously irritating.  I've been checking this site out for months now, hoping for an update.  If, last November, you had posted "working on next update, won't be around til next September", I wouldn't have spent all this time refreshing the site.

Being slow to update isn't nearly as bad as it being hugely uncertain when you will get to play the game you've been reading about for months.

You could just sign up for the mailing list, which only sends out emails when new versions are released...
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MShadowy

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #771 on: September 12, 2013, 03:32:29 PM »

Man, and I thought I was being pessimistic with my "greater than a month" post.

This delay is starting to be seriously irritating.  I've been checking this site out for months now, hoping for an update.  If, last November, you had posted "working on next update, won't be around til next September", I wouldn't have spent all this time refreshing the site.

Being slow to update isn't nearly as bad as it being hugely uncertain when you will get to play the game you've been reading about for months.

Well, considering what Alex said here (particularly the bolded bit):

Also, a lot of the time I'll be working on one feature while waiting on some assets/internal feedback for another, and when things are interleaved like that, it makes for pretty efficient progress but, unfortunately, less clear "this is releasable" points. So what happens is before a release there's a period where I've stopped adding features, and switch to playtesting while waiting on some assets (which, incidentally, is the phase 0.6a is in now.) For unstable builds, the time currently spent playtesting would basically be wasted. Unless you create a code branch, but that's a considerable pain to deal with, and, again, takes more time.

Indicates that you likely are being a bit pessimistic.  From the sounds of things the code is essentially done and at this point the game is waiting on some assets, which, by my guess, are probably graphical UI elements -- buttons, dialogue boxes and the like.  There is also a possibility, given the number of sounds needing to be replaced by Stark, that some of the assets could be sounds or music that are not yet in the final state.  However, if I am not very much mistaken, by my read 0.6 is likely very close to release.
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hairrorist

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #772 on: September 12, 2013, 07:28:29 PM »

"By my read..."
I don't think you really read it or understand development if you did.

He says they're doing some play testing while waiting for assets before work can resume.  That doesn't mean that anything is complete.

Even if it did mean what it doesn't mean, feature complete is FAR from release complete.  We have a good long wait to go if Alex keeps doing things right.  I hope he does, and I don't think there's any indication that he's going to veer toward sloppy.  I do worry that alpha access was granted far too early, and that giving these alpha builds the kind of spit shine that allows this kind of extremely early and frequent release structure may be bogging the process down.  In fact, I really don't see how it couldn't have a huge impact on development time especially for a one man studio.  I'm also concerned that the community might burn out before the game is even released!  I mean, it's looking like probably another 8 months to a year for the full design scope discussed--at least.

I don't mind the wait because I avoid doing much more than tinkering about with new releases.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2013, 07:30:58 PM by hairrorist »
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hairrorist

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #773 on: September 12, 2013, 07:29:46 PM »

I do also think that one blog update a month is not too much to ask, especially since most of us have already handed over money. 
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icepick37

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #774 on: September 12, 2013, 07:54:10 PM »

Even if there's nothing to post on? (genuinely curious)
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #775 on: September 12, 2013, 08:17:47 PM »

I don't know, MShadowy's interpretation sounds pretty reasonable to me :)
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MShadowy

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #776 on: September 12, 2013, 08:28:55 PM »

"By my read..."
I don't think you really read it or understand development if you did.

He says they're doing some play testing while waiting for assets before work can resume.  That doesn't mean that anything is complete.

Even if it did mean what it doesn't mean, feature complete is FAR from release complete.  We have a good long wait to go if Alex keeps doing things right.  I hope he does, and I don't think there's any indication that he's going to veer toward sloppy.  I do worry that alpha access was granted far too early, and that giving these alpha builds the kind of spit shine that allows this kind of extremely early and frequent release structure may be bogging the process down.  In fact, I really don't see how it couldn't have a huge impact on development time especially for a one man studio.  I'm also concerned that the community might burn out before the game is even released!  I mean, it's looking like probably another 8 months to a year for the full design scope discussed--at least.

I don't mind the wait because I avoid doing much more than tinkering about with new releases.

Gee, thanks for being an insulting ass while you're at it.  I especially like the way you belittled my reading comprehension.

In any case I went over his message again, just to see if I had made some error in my assessment.  Now, to be fair, there are limits to my knowledge and this shapes the conclusions I can make, and more importantly the inferences I'm likely to draw, but my assessment has not changed.  If Alex's word choice was quite deliberate, and given the content of the past few pages there is no reason to believe otherwise, then at the very least 0.6 is feature complete.  Hell, how else are we supposed to interpret this?  

"So what happens is before a release there's a period where I've stopped adding features, and switch to playtesting while waiting on some assets (which, incidentally, is the phase 0.6a is in now.)" (Emphasis Mine)

This sentence is explicitly descriptive of Starsectors current state.  0.6 IS Ceti Alpha Fi-- uh... feature complete.  Yeah, that's what I meant.  Moreover, this is not the only indication of this in that post.

Consider for a moment how he put it in the prior paragraph: "First of all, 0.6a hasn't been in a releasable state - even as an "unstable build" - until very recently, just because some critical UI elements weren't in place."  Now obviously this is indicating that things aren't stable yet, however it is a very odd way of putting it if, as you assert, these features are not sufficient for a release candidate.  There are certainly other wordings he could have used to indicate the completion of a critical element of the code base, but which would not raise hopes unduly, if it were not.  And yet... well, that's what he typed.  It is also quite consistent with his prior messages for the several pages, best summed up by this one liner:

It's pretty soon, guys :)

Seriously, he's been bombarding us with messages that the release is near -- probably not in a few days, but probably less than a month -- I'm not sure why you feel the need to be derogatory.

And Alex beat me to the punch, ehehehe.

Guess that means Ah Ween.

E:  Alright, maybe I should have held back on the wall o' text.  But frankly, after typing out a defense of my reasoning, at length, it kinda felt like waste not to post it.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2013, 09:03:17 PM by MShadowy »
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hairrorist

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #777 on: September 12, 2013, 09:21:25 PM »

I don't know, MShadowy's interpretation sounds pretty reasonable to me :)

Hurrah!

And Shadow, sorry if I came off badly.  I should have rephrased that first sentence as it tinged the whole note a bit acidic.  My bad.  I just get frustrated with folks building up unverified or speculative schedules and then getting bitter when those imaginary schedules are delayed.  It tends to happen for pay-to-alpha and this one feels like its going to be in the oven for a lot longer than most in the pay-to-alpha model, that is, unless Alex insists on his selfish demands for an extravagant lifestyle including both food and sleep.  These developers, they really have no shame.

I never meant to say that it -wasn't- releasing soon, I said that the statement made doesn't make a clear case for any interpretation and that feature complete and release ready are not one and the same.  It's not uncommon for products to spend longer between feature complete and release ready than from an idea into a feature complete prototype. :)

Regardless its good to hear that its coming soon!
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MShadowy

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #778 on: September 12, 2013, 09:29:53 PM »

It's alright, I realized I was coming off a bit hyperbolic as well, hence the Khan bit.

And I had to concede that feature complete not equaling release ready, and if nothing else part of me suspected that the issue may have emerged because I never said what I thought soon was, hence the qualifier.
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BHunterSEAL

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Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #779 on: September 12, 2013, 11:18:09 PM »

Can't we all just get along? Maybe this should get locked before we tear each other apart in an anticipatory frenzy for 0.6a...

Couldn't you have done that much homework before posting a rant?  ;)

Anyhow, welcome to the Forums.  We're usually nice :)

Appreciate the welcome but I've actually been around six months longer than you have ;) I keep up with the boards here but haven't felt I've had anything particularly meaningful to contribute.

And yes, was referring to Alex's clarifications in this thread. I hadn't realized that much of the incremental content was so interrelated. But I do stand by my point that more frequent releases will drive broader awareness and consequently sales... It occurred to me that, with the expanded campaign and modability, this release has the potential to kick off the game's commercial viability. Lots of opportunity for exposure to a wider audience than ever before, so I can completely understand desire to get as much in and polished as possible. This is about the time in the dev cycle when Mount & Blade blew up. 
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