Posted By Snipehunter at 4:57 PM - Tue Aug 14 2018

(...)Caspian, as head of the company, plays a role in just about everything. Some folks also donated their spare time to the event(...)

As for Caspian, I understand that he is wearing many hats, but as such he is working on map generation as well. So every hour he spent on the game is one hour less spent on map generation and the game. As for spare time, it's a little tricky to understand that, when the game is that far behind in it's development schedule, spare time couldn't be spent better on different topics. Please don't get me me wrong, but that's an impression one could get when reading what is going on.

Posted By Logain at 9:17 PM - Wed Aug 15 2018

Posted By Snipehunter at 4:57 PM - Tue Aug 14 2018

(...)Caspian, as head of the company, plays a role in just about everything. Some folks also donated their spare time to the event(...)

As for Caspian, I understand that he is wearing many hats, but as such he is working on map generation as well. So every hour he spent on the game is one hour less spent on map generation and the game. As for spare time, it's a little tricky to understand that, when the game is that far behind in it's development schedule, spare time couldn't be spent better on different topics. Please don't get me me wrong, but that's an impression one could get when reading what is going on.

How many more times does someone have to point out that the "development schedule" most people are referring to is not the anticipated completion date, but commencement date for development?

With that in mind, you will actually find that SBS is actually on-schedule and even if they are falling behind a little, a development schedule is an estimation, it is NOT written in stone.

As with any project in life, not just limited to game or software development, there are always delays at some stage. Sometimes developers manage to catch up, often they do not. It is the nature of things because no one has a crystal ball to see in to the future and foresee absolutely every conceivable variable that may impact on time.

There are also a myriad of reasons why an schedule may be abruptly altered on the fly without notice, either in anticipation of a previously unanticipated situation, or in reaction to one, especially when previously unknown information becomes available.

Posted By HajimeSaito at 4:06 PM - Wed Aug 15 2018

(...)How many more times does someone have to point out that the "development schedule" most people are referring to is not the anticipated completion date, but commencement date for development?(...)

I was not talking about that 'schedule', but about their first 'release date schedule' of 2017 on their Kickstarter page FAQ and in Q&As.

Posted By HajimeSaito at 4:06 PM - Wed Aug 15 2018

(...) a development schedule is an estimation, it is NOT written in stone (...) there are always delays at some stage. Sometimes developers m,manage to catch up, often they do not(...)

Yes, I would never claim otherwise. I understand that, and I am not arguing that. But it is easier to catch up when you focus on the minimal viable product instead of a side-game.

Yea, I feel a few people do not understand this type of work mentality.

I am a General Manager, I schedule myself the hours I am allotted to be at work. Doing work stuffs, making sure that the business is flowing for the day, and working on upper management task. But, I also work on non-scheduled time to do extra things. I work on areas that I believe need improvement that I would not normally have time for if I was a scheduled part of the team that day.

So I schedule myself 50 hours a week. And I work 70 hours a week. This is the difference between working at a job and running a business.

I know some of you team members are more devoted about making paper star charts, others in creating maps, others in answering our problems on the forum and you do a good job. I really would appreciate if you all introduced yourself a bit better and what you are doing or why not a "who is doing what introduction" or a "who's who" presentation chart.

Like Snipehunter "hey, I created the star maps but I'm also the biggest forum troll" :D

I also like the idea of making plagues etc to test some biomes/races to decide about abilities but maybe announce it as being "vital" to the players and not like a kind of "what"s this about" or we will all end up as leeches and vampires and undead.

Posted By Logain at 12:28 AM - Thu Aug 16 2018

I was not talking about that 'schedule', but about their first 'release date schedule' of 2017 on their Kickstarter page FAQ and in Q&As.

Now I know you are trolling, for only a troll would quote a date on KS as fact. Cause if you aren't trolling there is only one option left.

This is an official date release post on the game not so long ago.

July-September 2017 – Version 3 Update of the Official Website (updated graphics, UI design and new front-end)

October-December 2017 – ElyriaMUD Release

January-April 2018 – Alpha 1 Release – Server Selection

May-August 2018 – Settlement / Domain Selection – KoE (Kingdoms of Elyria)

September-December 2018 – Design Experiences – Alpha 2 Release

January-June 2019 – Beta 1 Release – Prologue Release – CoE Adventure Toolkit – Exposition Begins

July-December 2019 – Beta 2 Release – Stress Test (available to any paid account) – Official Launch

Posted By Kaith at 01:12 AM - Fri Aug 17 2018

This is an official date release post on the game not so long ago.

July-September 2017 – Version 3 Update of the Official Website (updated graphics, UI design and new front-end)

October-December 2017 – ElyriaMUD Release

January-April 2018 – Alpha 1 Release – Server Selection

May-August 2018 – Settlement / Domain Selection – KoE (Kingdoms of Elyria)

September-December 2018 – Design Experiences – Alpha 2 Release

January-June 2019 – Beta 1 Release – Prologue Release – CoE Adventure Toolkit – Exposition Begins

July-December 2019 – Beta 2 Release – Stress Test (available to any paid account) – Official Launch

Oh my god, that was never an official release date. That was when they would be starting to work on things.

But even if it was, shit happens. Is there a game company out there where shit doesn't happen? And everything runs completely smooth the whole time?

People really need to move on from any dates said. Things will get released when they are ready. Or do people want some NMS event? Where people can't wait for things to be ready.

Kaith, where are you getting this information? Can you link to the post? AFAIK there has never been any official release date schedule available. Only periods of time that SBS anticipates starting work on a project.

@Kaith

The portion of the timeline that was conveniently left out...

To that end, below is an approximate schedule - not of when we expect the work to be complete - but when we expect to be under active development toward a particular deliverable or milestone. Providing a timeline in this format allows us to have an open, transparent, candid conversation about what and when we're working on something, while still giving us the freedom to make changes sprint-to-sprint and change the dates of our internal milestones to suit our development needs.

Source

I think we are fighting a losing battle guys (and girls).

People never let the facts get in the way of an ill-conceived opinion, especially when they have their own agenda or an axe to grind!

I would hardly say it's a losing battle. Though there's a lot of variance in where people are read up to (and what they do and don't read on the topics they do research), most of the community seems to be on the same page.

Kaith, the very post you quoted from also has a rather lengthy explanation of several things related to the development process, one of which being the cone of uncertainty. Lacking the ability to quote it directly (though the section I'm referring to is literally right under the timeline you referenced in the original post), the long and short of it is that it gets easier to predict exactly when something will be finished when you're close to finishing it, and harder to predict the longer/more work there is before finishing.

The dates you posted were a tentative estimate based on what knowledge and progress the team had made at the time, and of course part of the uncertainty of early development is that things will change, take more or less time than estimated, and generally not behave in as orderly a fashion as any observer would like. That said, the work's being done pretty fast for an indie development team. Particularly one that's going to self-publish. Each stage of development is taking the time it does to finish because it has to. They care about the quality of the end product, which is more than a lot of developers in the market can say at present.

Posted By HajimeSaito at 1:12 PM - Thu Aug 16 2018

I think we are fighting a losing battle guys (and girls).

People never let the facts get in the way of an ill-conceived opinion, especially when they have their own agenda or an axe to grind!

The point is not to force the person to admit that they are wrong, but to ensure that people new to the community, who might read this thread, do not get the wrong idea about this game and its developers.

I think the posts above have done a pretty good job of that.