Update wanted: Dead or alive

[Käpt'n Korky]

Most honourable @Legate of Mineta since the last Update skip was on September 7th, I wonder what happened to the update this week, expected for September 21st.

Could you tell us, why it is overdue or not happening?

[Legate of Mineta]

KK;

It's the normal break, I believe. They do three, and then a skip, except on holidays. I think that was the skip.

[Käpt'n Korky]

15 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

KK;

It's the normal break, I believe. They do three, and then a skip, except on holidays. I think that was the skip.

Then what was on Sep 7th? A holiday? Because the last five update dates were Update, Update, Skip, Update, Skip. That's one skip too many.

[Legate of Mineta]

The 3rd was, if I recall correctly? If I remember right.

[von_Lipstig]

Spoiler

Jul 6

Jul 14

-

Jul 27

Aug 4

Aug 11

-

Aug 24

Aug 31

-

Sep 14

-

?

>_<

[Legate of Mineta]

Yeah, I think the 9/7 one was due to the holiday. There's an Update queued for Friday, but it's not *the* Update.

[von_Lipstig]

Spoiler

 

Jul 6

Jul 14

-

Jul 27

Aug 4

Aug 11

-

Aug 24

Aug 31

-

Sep 14

-

--

Sep 28

Oct 5

Oct 12

-

(Oct 26)

Nov 2

Nov 9

Nov 16

-

Nov 30

Dec 7

?

???

 

[Legate of Mineta]

v_L;

Oh, after Christmas vacation- sorry about that.

Actually, the next Update is a minor Season's Greetings, but in January the normal pace will return.

[Misekato]

Just remembered that I backed this and thought I would check on the progress, but it looks like while some progress has been made, there is still a long way to go?

In terms of game assets, like art, speech and writing, that looks that's mostly complete (as it has been for a while), but in terms of the actual game engine/systems most of the progress was made on the battle engine, with work next being on the sortie system?

How many systems are there in total?

So far I only know of three. maybe four:

1. Battle system
2. Sortie system
3. Crafting
4. Reintegrating art, story etc (mashing it all up together)?

So in terms of the actual game backbone (or "back-end") the game is about 25% complete (assuming each module is 100% independent, as well as requiring equal amounts of work)? Or maybe work in module acts as a foundation in another module? Or maybe the battle system was the most complex so that overall progress is higher?

Also, as a side note - with the Kickstarter rewards, especially the physical ones - what is the likelihood that the cost of production would increase given the time since original planned shipping date (U.S. tariffs as wells as FX Rate movements etc etc). Is the money reserved (if any has been reserved) likely to still cover the cost of this stuff? 

[Legate of Mineta]

Misekato;

There are a number of systems, but only a few modules that we've left to work on: Sortie, Story, Leveling, Equipment and the Stores. It's going along at a good clip- nothing like the crawl after we first identified the issue, thank goodness. The modules definitely do not have equal work in them- battle was certainly the highest complexity.

Tariffs may be an issue for the plushies, but not the others as I understand it. I haven't heard any alarm from the Team about finishing them, though.

[Mignonette]

Hmm, why wasn't there an update last Friday? I thought we were back at weekly updates again after December was mostly devoid of it due to the major holidays? Or is on a 3-on-1-off schedule again?

[Legate of Mineta]

Mignonette;

Yep, it's back to 3 on, 1 off. Update is planned for this week, though.

[Mignonette]

Bumping this up again so I won't hang on to the recent update thread for something somewhat offtopic.

So, back in early November, we finally had a game-play video (2 versions of it, in fact!) of the battle mechanics. A thread on voting who will be in the next Fleet Problem was made, this video was going to be very similar to #1, just them in battle again as Legate mentioned in Update 122's forum thread. After the voting for FP#2 is closed on Nov 9th, Legate says it's now in production and to "expect it some time next month, *we think*" [italicization mine]. It's almost April 9th, a good 5 months since then and with barely a mention of it since.

Remember, this was supposed to be another video showing off the battle module again, but during night battle. BCS had said a few times that they wouldn't show a video of game-play unless that module was near finished and and close to be integrated. So, you can assume that the battle engine is finished enough to easily make another battle video.

What, exactly, are the statuses for the other modules if it takes this long to output another test battle on a nearly finished battle module? I can only hope that why this Fleet Problem is months late is because you guys are really cracking down on working on the other gameplay aspects and that the FP video fell to the wayside because it's not super high priority to be worked on. Why not tell us about those other gameplay aspects every now and then? How far along is the sortie module? the construction? the VN parts? Romancing? Fleet management? etc???

Anyway, that's my thoughts for the moment.

[Legate of Mineta]

Mignonette;

Actually, this evening seems to be a fine time.

Sortie is being polished for UI and some game logic, but it's not ready to be shown quite yet. As an example, an (amusing) bug in today's build is a ping-pong effect you can have in hunting down Morgana submarines. When a Fleet is defeated, and if they retreat into a Node held by the enemy, they're on dangerous ground. If they lose the battle at the Node they are retreating to, that Fleet is destroyed. Submarines, however, found a loophole in that logic because they often flee after their surprise attack. So, the current situation is that you can have these semi-immune Fleets of defeated Submarines just going wherever they please. And heaven help you if all your escorts are already sunk. We are coercing them to obey the rules.

In parallel to that, Leveling and Story Modules are Done, which probably gives you an idea about how well integrated Sortie is going to be when we show it off. These Modules are a little difficult to show off in isolation, although we've talked about doing a reveal on Story before Sortie. I don't know if that's going to work without a special set up, which we'd prefer to avoid.

That leaves Equipment/Crafting and the Store/Account Management after Sortie is Done. It's getting pretty frothy over on this side.

Your assumption about why we haven't produced another video is correct, though- we're knocking down issues and getting each Module production worthy.

Sorry to keep you waiting!

[Panay's Ghost]

9 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

So, the current situation is that you can have these semi-immune Fleets of defeated Submarines just going wherever they please. And heaven help you if all your escorts are already sunk. We are coercing them to obey the rules.

Yes, that's a terrible, horrible situation.  I volunteer to personally track them down for you and learn the secret of their techniques.  😜

[Legate of Mineta]

PG;

It's worsened because ammunition is a part of Equipment, so...they also have infinite torpedoes.

[DrYuriMom]

Panay right now

[TwoHeavens]

Infinite torps sounds good to me! Onward Gato!

[Käpt'n Korky]

Wolfsrudelzeit? Wolfsrudelzeit! Mit Paukenschlag? Mit Paukenschlag! *breathes heavy in German*

[TwoHeavens]

Someone bring our Kriegsmarine associate a paper bag please. 

[VBAMCharlie]

On 4/6/2019 at 7:42 PM, Legate of Mineta said:

Mignonette;

Actually, this evening seems to be a fine time.

Sortie is being polished for UI and some game logic, but it's not ready to be shown quite yet. As an example, an (amusing) bug in today's build is a ping-pong effect you can have in hunting down Morgana submarines. When a Fleet is defeated, and if they retreat into a Node held by the enemy, they're on dangerous ground. If they lose the battle at the Node they are retreating to, that Fleet is destroyed. Submarines, however, found a loophole in that logic because they often flee after their surprise attack. So, the current situation is that you can have these semi-immune Fleets of defeated Submarines just going wherever they please. And heaven help you if all your escorts are already sunk. We are coercing them to obey the rules.

In parallel to that, Leveling and Story Modules are Done, which probably gives you an idea about how well integrated Sortie is going to be when we show it off. These Modules are a little difficult to show off in isolation, although we've talked about doing a reveal on Story before Sortie. I don't know if that's going to work without a special set up, which we'd prefer to avoid.

That leaves Equipment/Crafting and the Store/Account Management after Sortie is Done. It's getting pretty frothy over on this side.

Your assumption about why we haven't produced another video is correct, though- we're knocking down issues and getting each Module production worthy.

Sorry to keep you waiting!

I'm a We Can Do It! level kickstarter backer and I've been getting by on the updates.  I've been increasingly frustrated at the lack of game play progress updates, so I finally broke down and checked out the forums to see if there was more news.  I *really* *really* appreciate this kind of information, and would respectfully ask that something like this be tacked on to the end of the official updates.  I don't want something half-baked rushed out, so I find it edifying to know what challenges are currently being dealt with.

 

Thanks!!!!

[Legate of Mineta]

VBAM;

It's a reasonable request- I'll bring it to the Team, but I think we can add on to the next Update.

Thanks, we heavily frequent the forums, but it's a useful reminder.

[VBAMCharlie]

👍 Awesome! Thanks.

[Mignonette]

I'm honestly think it's a drag for people to have to come to the forums and dig around to find out what's going on game-wise, since most of the recent updates is Belles chattering about in-universe stuff (or historical stuff like name-sakes and irl war service) . I mean a recent update was, well I would call it "frivolous", a small one that was just 2-3 Belles talking about a single sentence added on to a letter that was in an update over a year ago.

If BCS can at least give progress updates on the actual game itself in at least 1 update a month or 2, that would be great. Hell, I think that had been promised in the past too.

[Legate of Mineta]

Let that be the cadence. It is so ordered.