Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dri]

Alright, last update was in January! JANUARY, thats 10 months ago - nearly a year! Its painfully obvious now why Alex hasn't tried for Steam Greenlight/Early Access and thats because he'd be utterly lambasted over the update speed. I realize this is a "major" update but it seems each update is going to be major, and what, we're just all gonna be cool with waiting another 10 months for the next, and the next, and the next? At this rate the game won't see release until 2016 or beyond - absurd. Its highly possible Alex will run out of his savings before then and be forced into part-time, oh god.

Now before all you White Knights start rushing to Alex's defense you need to realize that a fanbase that does nothing but praise the developers and tell them they can do no wrong and everything is just perfect are actually doing more harm than good. The development time for Starsector is slower than frozen molasses and needs changing - could hire a second programmer and pay him via Early Access sales. Hell, David has some coding chops hes exercising on Clockwork Empires... get him engaged!

[HELMUT]

Personally i'm okay to wait months to get a bug-free update with new features. On the other hand, a shorter update schedule would regularly break all the mods, that would be annoying.

I prefer when game devs take their time to get the things done cleanly. If the current game bore me, i just play another one in the meanwhile until the update.

[Alex]

All I can say is it takes as long as it takes. With an update this size, well, it just takes a long time to do everything and to playtest/balance things to a point where it's playable as a game rather than a jumble of features. I'd argue that the pace of development is actually pretty good; it's the interval since the last update that's the problem. And it is a problem, though I think it's the lesser of all evils as far as the options available. Sometimes, a set of features really needs to go together in order to "work".

The good news is that this update is veeerrry close to being ready. Just needs a bit more playtesting/tweaking, a few more graphics and sounds, and it'll be good to go.

[Verrius]

The developer's strategy seems to be few, but major updates. Each update thus far could easily have been considered worth the asking price, which is explained clearly on the preorder page. It is a $10.00 game right now, you bought a $10.00 game, you are playing a $10.00 game right now. When it is finished, it will be a $20.00 game. At that point new consumers better have a game that is as good as or better than other $20.00 PC games, which is a tall order these days considering how many good games are less than $20.00.

It is definitely frustrating having to wait, everyone can relate to this. But we can't forget that nobody wants this game to be finished and released more than the development team, which is basically 2-3 people, primarily Alex. They just want to make sure the game is the best it can possibly be when it is finally finished.

(It took me 7 minutes to type this? Whoops.)

[pigreko]

I mean, it is like the developers have any interest in delaying the releases. I can relate with you feelings DRI, I'm really frustrated by the wait. Yet, it is a so good game, and the developers are actually so much concerned with the quality of their product... I really cannot be raging about them making me wait for updates on a game on development.
Of course, should the game be released, I'm expecting bug fixes to take much less time to take place. I believe you bought the game as not completed, so relax, it is going to take its time.

[kazi]

I suppose I'm in both camps. The time between updates is, in fact, absurdly high. I can't name another game with a slower development cycle. It sometimes dark.revenant adds features faster than Alex does haha...

That said, every update is more polished than most games you find these days, and there's rarely any features I disagree with. The modding community adds a ton of content in between updates. I think I got my ten dollars worth out of this a long, long time ago. This game will be great when it's done (I'd say it's currently better than many full games). I just don't see that being anytime soon.

[bills6693]

For one thing, the last 'major' update was actually in September, so over a year ago (the two since then were smaller fixes). However, there are merits to both sides.

I do agree it is extremely frustrating. The major updates are so spread out, it could indeed be described as ridiculous and inexcusable if it were on a platform like Early Access. Furthermore, there are very few blog updates too, 8 since the last minor (January) update in 10 months including 2 part art update (so 6 'core' blog entries on mechanics). I think maybe part of alleviating people's frustration with the slow release cycle would be more frequent updates letting people know whats going on - perhaps monthly updates on mechanics like those done, with weekly updates on the other 3 weeks just on progress, what you've been doing etc. Nothing too long or time consuming but something just to let people know what is going on.

My hope, and I guess suggestion/recommendation from my own naïve position would be that all the core major mechanics - for example the trading etc that we are seeing in this update, and the other things that really require big systems working together to actually work at all, be added as soon as possible before worrying about balance and adding smaller features.

Once these major things are in, smaller additions can be integrated and balance work can be done with a much faster update cycle. Really this game is in alpha development, but it isn't treated like it at all, its treated like a full game with major updates. I don't think updates need to be bug quashed, balanced etc like they are, but rather should be frequent to allow feedback on how the game feels, followed by bug squashing when all mechanics are in and not going to introduce new bugs, and finally balanced.

I think another thing is the issue of mods. Personally I feel that during an early alpha period, mods should take a back seat. To me they mostly seem to be there because people are bored waiting for new updates. And keeping the update process slow for the sake of mods seems counter-intuitive and not something I personally support - but I'm just one voice.

[Dark.Revenant]

You do realize that Alex has effectively remade the entire campaign for this update (minus fleet management UI), right?  That takes time.

[silentstormpt]

The only change i dont understand is call it 0.65 and not 0.7, because the amount of changes almost "demands" a higher decimal number

[Gothars]

The good news is that this update is veeerrry close to being ready. Just needs a bit more playtesting/tweaking, a few more graphics and sounds, and it'll be good to go.

Gnihihi

[Ordanen]

I'm _glad_ Alex has the balls to delay things until he feels it's ready. Makes for a lot less drama if something does go wrong.

[FasterThanSleepyfish]

I agree with many opinions above!

Faster updates, however, might not be the best choice for Starsector. Personally, I find constant and/or periodic updates to draw the fun out of the game. Hype is what keeps me playing long after the initial euphoria of "freshly-baked" updates.

[ciago92]

The good news is that this update is veeerrry close to being ready. Just needs a bit more playtesting/tweaking, a few more graphics and sounds, and it'll be good to go.

Gnihihi

ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap but i have to studyyyyyyyy :-(

I'm _glad_ Alex has the guts to delay things until he feels it's ready. Makes for a lot less drama if something does go wrong.

agreed, I'm sure he's caught plenty of game-breaking/save-breaking/rage-inducing bugs at the last minute before release so as much as it sucks I'd rather wait for a great game than get to play a good game and watch as he patches it into a great game.

[Thaago]

While it is less exciting to not have frequent updates, I feel the amount of content added in this one is consistent with 10 months of (mostly) 1 person's work. So the progress is fine - we just don't see very much of it. In the meantime the game has been more stable and more playable than most "finished" products. It feels good on the player end to be constantly "plugged in" to the developer's implement/test loop, but I question whether its actually good for development.

[Erick Doe]

The actual development speed seems okay to me. Alex regularly lets us know what he's working on in the development patch notes and blog updates, so we can see exactly what we're getting and what we're waiting on. But like Alex admits, the number of updates that get released are few and far between. Personally I'm ok with that as well, since it allows modders to do their thing without having to constantly fix broken mods. It also allows players to enjoy their saved games longer.

In short, I prefer a few major updates over many smaller ones within the same timespan. It shouldn't make a difference on the overall development speed.