How goes the Progress for Y2?

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: So if the Editor is nearly complete, after which the game can be released, why is the number of courses in Y2 not fixed yet? or is the Editor being worked on simultaneously to Y2?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

Hmm? No, I am saying the Editor is *not* nearly complete.

If it were, then I would say Y2 is nearly done.

[Schwarzbart]

Isn't there then Beta and bug fixing for at last a quarter year remaining after the editor is done? (And not to forget the making of the import tool and testing this as well)

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

Well, true.

[Rhialto]

9 hours ago, Schwarzbart said:

Is Y2 already in some kind of playable status where "only" the text heavy parts like adventures, event , description and lores are missing?

9 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

It's in a playable status, but various pieces do not work as they should, or only work partially.

@Legate of Mineta: which pieces do not work as they should? And are the text-heavy portions present in the game yet?

[freespace2dotcom]

The importer is the last thing to be worked on, because it needs to know exactly how to convert data from Y1, which is only possible when everything in Y2 is already known.

Rhialto, you should know that a lot of of Y2's details are being kept secret from us. They don't want to give extra details away. Suffice to say, Y2 is playable. I imagine most of the work remaining on it, is filling out tables, and maybe some touching up of the artwork and UI. I expect editing of the writing continues as well. The text has got to be the easiest part of the game, (though due to the large amount of text calling it easy is surely an understatement)

The reason why they refuse to give out the class list is because in Y1 they cut out potions at the last second. They don't want to disappoint us by having to backtrack if that happens again for another class. 

[Legate of Mineta]

It's happened before. It may yet happen again. We'll see.

[Rhialto]

1 hour ago, Legate of Mineta said:

It's happened before. It may yet happen again. We'll see.

Would "it" be cutting a course from Y2?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

Yep.

[Rhialto]

Does the fact that kung-fu is not definitely excluded from or included within Y2 mean that Y2 still has much writing/games mechanics to be completed?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

Writing? No. Mechanics? Mmmm, still some.

[Schwarzbart]

If the team replace Kung Fu with Martial Arts then you not even need a Eastera for it because things like Pankration existed also in Europe.

[Rhialto]

Indeed, and Phillippe Marchant's being banned from the wrestling ring is probably because he prefers pankrationic fighting.

[Billy Von Bubba]

I'd be glad to just have a screenshot even if stuff changes.

I am more disappointed with the uncertainty than in the specifics. Additional tweaking can be done via DLC (see Stellaris). Academagia's text-based nature means that modifications should be far simpler than in a graphics heavy game. If classes are to be cut, why not have a "prep class" adventure chain for the class to be included in the next year.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Any progress to report over the past month?

And Hanako Games has release some portraits of characters for Magical Diaries: Wolf Hall over the past week. Could the Team do something with releasing even one portrait from Y2?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

I don't think the Team has any plans to share this month, but it is likely time to assemble questions again.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Will Y2 be out by the end of 2019? Barring some catastrophe?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

I really shouldn't comment on dates, or else the Team will grow angry.

[Schwarzbart]

@Rhialto the Legate already gave us some estimations about the release date in the past but they all turned out to be wrong by years. So its quite understandable that he no longer is willing to do so at last till a beta of the (nearly) finished year 2 is running.

[Billy Von Bubba]

I wonder if the issue is feature creep (common with complex projects) or having to re-invent the previous engine if major parts stopped being usable due to license or obsolescence issues.

One of the major ways to cope with either situation is to just enforce a pared down version with enough hooks for major updates. Given the digital distribution system, that seems quite doable.

Balancing is another possible issue and (given the previous removal of a planned class) sounds like a present concern. The thing is, trying too hard to balance a game can actually be wasted effort. The previous pattern of patches and DLCs make balancing by accretion a viable strategy. The inclusion of user-generated adventures and rewards is inherently going to change whatever balancing calculations are made at launch.A lot of that initial balancing can be achieved in a closed alpha or beta that allows the most obvious things to be mitigated. Later DLCs offer the ability to mitigate some of the later variance.

The next biggest cause for delay that I can think of is writing all the little bits of lore and keeping them consistent. That is a real challenge and disclosing it would risk getting the fan base emotionally invested in features. That said, the seeming lack of continuity can be explained by ... magic. And storylines explaining why some seemingly significant feature of year one is not visible now.

"But I saved the school from pirates five times! Why aren't you trusting me to go to the marketplace on my own?"

"You say that, Prof. Ayentyre said that, but do you want special treatment and all the doubts that come with it or to allow even Phillipe to be allowed near the Magical Snakes vendor?"

Change of faculty and bad record-keeping is another way to explain a seeming lack of respect for the adventures in year one.

[Schwarzbart]

Content and feature creep is for sure a issue at BCS. Just alone that they added nearly every player written content to year 1 via DLC  speaks volumes.

Edit: Also look at the number of free DLC, CP and updates they gave us … do you really think they did not come at the cost that while BCS made them year 2 development was at a hold? The main shortage BCS apparently have is their number of competent editors because they need to fix mistakes both in spelling & lore and then also have to enter everything into the game. Yes its exact the editor that also have the most to do for adding player written content or new content from their own writer to a DLC.

Edit2: But the content they added to year 1 with all the DLC and CP also gives the problem of how they continue it in year 2. When even the wand crafting adventure that is clearly finished with year 1 is requested by many player that it should have a continue in year 2 you easy can see the problem.

[isadorbg]

We may never know. All I know is that the game was judged to be a few months away from release 6 years ago and since then we are stuck in that window.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: 1. Would you kindly tell us what precisely remains to be done in Y2 and the importer?

2. How much progress has been done on Y2 over the past few months?

[Schwarzbart]

1. for the Importer they not even started to work on it.

[Rhialto]

On 6/15/2011 at 11:29 PM, Legate of Mineta said:

Yeah, the font size was probably the the first thing addressed in the Year 2 design, but some of these other points weren't too far behind it.

Have font sizes and other interface issues been dealt with for Y2?