Looking at the pattern from Alpha 2, if that's anything to go by:
1. Number of bugs reported starts to drop as the unique ones start to fall away and duplicate ones are reported - that's the first step and shows that the catching of bugs in the current alpha is complete
2. Updates stop coming through. We are on 2.3 currently. I doubt we will see 2.4 as this now means that the build can be prepared in the background for 3.0
3. There were approximately 5 - 7 weeks of "outage" where no real info was available, very few "new" bugs reported and nothing to update
4. Then on the Saturday after a CHC release, the details of streams and the alpha date is released.
Remember: Content is being worked on constantly.. These new things haven't been started since the release of alpha 2, they have probably been in production since a much earlier stage and now need some time to build in to the current build, test it's compatibility and then optimise.
This next update seems to be the heftiest one to date: We are getting blueprints, elements of managements, coaster builder updates and presumably new rides / features / multiple trains / WATER / themes to test. So more time should be allowed to perfect this..
It was originally quoted that each alpha phase would be 6 - 8 weeks. So, the 8 weeks since alpha 2's launch is up TODAY (24th July). So we can't hold Frontier to a strict 8 week schedule. They also said that they are on track for a Q4 release, which can be any time after October 1st. We need the "short beta" release before that. So, an end of September alpha 3 is too late.
We are currently in the "quiet" period - and have been for 4 or 5 weeks. So, expect announcements within 3 weeks. This then places an alpha release around the end of August and a bank holiday for the UK (my GUESS is that it'll be released August 22nd) - Meaning that potentially more players get to test, play and report bugs than a conventional weekend.
1. Number of bugs reported starts to drop as the unique ones start to fall away and duplicate ones are reported - that's the first step and shows that the catching of bugs in the current alpha is complete
2. Updates stop coming through. We are on 2.3 currently. I doubt we will see 2.4 as this now means that the build can be prepared in the background for 3.0
3. There were approximately 5 - 7 weeks of "outage" where no real info was available, very few "new" bugs reported and nothing to update
4. Then on the Saturday after a CHC release, the details of streams and the alpha date is released.
Remember: Content is being worked on constantly.. These new things haven't been started since the release of alpha 2, they have probably been in production since a much earlier stage and now need some time to build in to the current build, test it's compatibility and then optimise.
This next update seems to be the heftiest one to date: We are getting blueprints, elements of managements, coaster builder updates and presumably new rides / features / multiple trains / WATER / themes to test. So more time should be allowed to perfect this..
It was originally quoted that each alpha phase would be 6 - 8 weeks. So, the 8 weeks since alpha 2's launch is up TODAY (24th July). So we can't hold Frontier to a strict 8 week schedule. They also said that they are on track for a Q4 release, which can be any time after October 1st. We need the "short beta" release before that. So, an end of September alpha 3 is too late.
We are currently in the "quiet" period - and have been for 4 or 5 weeks. So, expect announcements within 3 weeks. This then places an alpha release around the end of August and a bank holiday for the UK (my GUESS is that it'll be released August 22nd) - Meaning that potentially more players get to test, play and report bugs than a conventional weekend.
