But guys, does anyone seriously doubts that David Braben can deliver? They are sufficiently funded already. They are delivering excellence, and the alpha simply takes as long as it takes. The only thing you could do is to sacrifice quality to rush to release. Be glad they are spending the money to develop quality.
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They will definitely deliver something!
Emotionally, I *feel* they will deliver a good game. But someone who merely goes through life on feel alone will end up disappointed many times and also put themselves in some tricky positions!
We have to remember DB has not always covered himself in glory in the past. FFE was no doubt rushed out as a total mess to meet publisher deadlines. So no one here is asking they do a similar thing and compromise on quality to rush this out, but the simple fact is, when a project has poor comms (and I appreciate this can be viewed relatively) it is often the tip of the iceberg. When a project cannot even get the public interface right - the comms - it's nearly alway a signifier that other things are also wrong with a project. Most projects try their utmost to make sure that at the very least they present a calm and considered face to the outside world, even when all inside is utter mayhem; the swan paddling analogy.
So when we see a project clam up on reasons for significant delay (remember, few are asking for a new timeline here), it is prudent to at least consider the project may be experiencing equally significant problems. To just say to oneself, "it's DB, he made the original Elite 30 years ago, it'll be great", is blinkered. Until the game is installed and we can see for ourselves, it could always be a turkey. It's not like the gaming industry doesn't let us down on a regular basis.
Whilst there is no publisher pushing a deadline here, there is a pot of money doing the same thing. I am not sure how FD is staffed, but perhaps there are also freelance resources that have limited timespans to dedicate to the work, so the longer it goes on, the risk of not retaining resource or staying in budget gets higher. If the game is significantly delayed (if we were talking say 2015 release or later), it would be out of date upon release, in terms of engine etc. This would hurt sales, a lot of people these days simply don't want to play games that look dated upon release. There are so many great playing games out there that also look great, why settle for a valiant effort that looks a bit naff...
I don't know how much money they have but the KS £2m will not last long at all in alpha mode (fully resourced project team in all roles). People do say they have a lot more on top of this, however.
So yes, it's great to extend timelines to improve quality, no one would argue otherwise, so long as it's sustainable. But we've not even heard from FD that is why the timeline is extended. That's the crux of the argument for more comms; "just give us some rationale and we'll shut up!"
Closing this thread, which has at nearly all times been polite and well reasoned by both sides, would have been a perfect example of over-moderation. And someone would have merely opened a new thread for the same things. Maybe the OP opened the thread with a tone some people don't take to, but so what? - we are not tiny children. If we all went through life trying to silence those that spoke or behaved in ways we don't like, it'd be rather autocratic. We have no right in life to expect people to talk in terms we personally like or agree with.
