Newsletter suggests that we are not close to launch.

[vermu]

This sentence does not look good in the newsletter. "For now, let’s take a look back on some the big changes coming up, starting with Crime and Punishment," That sentence suggest that next week we look at engineers or planets or vice versa. So that sentence alone indicates late or mid March launch.

 

[Henri]

soon

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

This sentence does not look good in the newsletter. "For now, let’s take a look back on some the big changes coming up, starting with Crime and Punishment," That sentence suggest that next week we look at engineers or planets or vice versa. So that sentence alone indicates late or mid March launch.

I personally don't see it as bad thing. More time to clean all major bugs, do more AI, feature passes. There's no rush. This is huge release.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

isn't that last week's newsletter?

 

[JohnRoberts]

Release will be second half of March.

 

[Iskariot]

This sentence does not look good in the newsletter. "For now, let’s take a look back on some the big changes coming up, starting with Crime and Punishment," That sentence suggest that next week we look at engineers or planets or vice versa. So that sentence alone indicates late or mid March launch.

Many of the changes are fundamental and should be implemented with care.
FDev should take the time they need. I am perfectly fine with that.

 

[ebbrell]

totally...200% agreed.. let them do what they need. no rush.

and we need to give them time to add the external lights indicator.... and the internal lights dimmer switch

 

[Darth Ender]

the problem is, they're going to make a ton of additional changes that span from bugfixes to feature changes _AFTER_ the beta test.

This is why everyone knows ED's beta test periods are a joke. The entire point is to test the product before release. You completely miss the entire point of a beta test when you go and make additional changes after the final beta test.

 

[OfftheRails]

You completely miss the entire point of a beta test UNLESS you go and make additional changes after the final beta test.

ftfy.

 

[ErichZann]

the problem is, they're going to make a ton of additional changes that span from bugfixes to feature changes _AFTER_ the beta test.

This is why everyone knows ED's beta test periods are a joke. The entire point is to test the product before release. You completely miss the entire point of a beta test when you go and make additional changes after the final beta test.

Pretty much this. they will also build in a ton of new annoying bugs and then not fix them until 3.1 likely. I don't understand their approach, and I don't think it's a good one. let people test the final version before you move to live servers, simple..

And to everyone saying "this is a huge release"... well not really, what's huge about this patch? 2.0 was much more of a huge release wasn't it? the whole engineers thing should have been nailed down now, except maybe adjusting some numbers. crime and punishment is something, that's true. otherwise, well, for sure not one of the bigger releases.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

the problem is, they're going to make a ton of additional changes that span from bugfixes to feature changes _AFTER_ the beta test.

This is why everyone knows ED's beta test periods are a joke. The entire point is to test the product before release. You completely miss the entire point of a beta test when you go and make additional changes after the final beta test.

Guys we are NOT professional beta testers FD have their own beta testers, we just test the bits they want us to

 

[Sweet&Dandy]

I have no issues with ..its ready when it's ready, but some idea of when, how, who, where and why is what we crave! Lol... Frontier just aren't that kind of company though... Mr B is far too English for the hype train and would rather drink tea and fix it before launching and hyping.

It's so rationally infuriating! Lol

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

the problem is, they're going to make a ton of additional changes that span from bugfixes to feature changes _AFTER_ the beta test.

This is why everyone knows ED's beta test periods are a joke. The entire point is to test the product before release. You completely miss the entire point of a beta test when you go and make additional changes after the final beta test.

Actually, I'm going to give them some points for how they're handling this release. Normally they have a Beta, it finishes, and 3 days - week later it goes live, often without any of the things fixed that were discovered to be broken in the Beta. This time we had a Beta, it's done, and now they're working on polishing it up based on the feedback/testing. So that is an improvement.

A bigger improvement would have been to not shut the Beta down, at least not completely. Maybe shut it down for a week or two while they put major changes in, then bring it back up again for us to continue testing, see if it all (or mostly checks out) and then release it to live.


Personally, I'm conflicted on this release - normally I would want them to take as much time as they need to polish it up. But in this case, I'm very, VERY eager for the new mat/data inventory system. Also going through Chieftain withdrawal...

Still, I'd say the way they are handling this release is better than what they did with 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4.

 

[CMDR Jayce MacLeod]

If history is any indicator, I'd say we have until the summer until we see a release. Fdev takes twice as long as they say. 2.0 to 2.4 lasted 2 years as opposed to the year planned. No worries, I have plenty to do until then and still have a lot of fun playing Elite. It will come whenever it comes, and I do look forward to it.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I haven't seen last newsletter linked yet. Any care to share?

If history is any indicator, I'd say we have until the summer until we see a release. Fdev takes twice as long as they say. 2.0 to 2.4 lasted 2 years as opposed to the year planned. No worries, I have plenty to do until then and still have a lot of fun playing Elite. It will come whenever it comes, and I do look forward to it.

Not really. 2.4 beta end and release was 3 weeks imho. Not very useful to speculate that way.

 

[krylite]

I'd doubt it'd be as long as horizons. I think a major reason it dragged out longer was unforeseen extra challenges due to the ps4 port. Everytime they had a beta, the section update release was soon after as in no more than a month. It was the time that dragged before a 2.x beta announcement and its testing period, not the time after a beta until section release. Also, this is just chapter 1 as there are supposed to be a few more chapters to the end of this year of Beyond.

 

[Stealthie]

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

If history is any indicator, I'd say we have until the summer until we see a release. Fdev takes twice as long as they say. 2.0 to 2.4 lasted 2 years as opposed to the year planned. No worries, I have plenty to do until then and still have a lot of fun playing Elite. It will come whenever it comes, and I do look forward to it.

Yes announced release dates are usually vague from FD. This is good as it means when they release it, they are fairly sure it will work.

Some early releases done to meet a prescribed date had all sorts of problems.

FD have learnt and now only give a date when they are damn(oops strong language!) sure they can meet it.

So if Beta feedback was anything to go by, they might have several issues to resolve. Once those are done, we'll get working release. There may be issues, but it will at least work.

Patience

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

Guys we are NOT professional beta testers FD have their own beta testers, we just test the bits they want us to

I thought Beta testing WAS by a user base! In this case, ALL the user base, but at least by a select group of the final target customer.
By that definition, there is no such thing as professional Beta testers.

 

[PiLhEaD]

I just want to remind everyone of the 'we have only seen a vertical slice' commentary repeated with endless optimism towards the end of original beta.

By this I'm trying to say that what we saw at the end of this beta will be what we get when 3.0 eventually goes live. Whether you think that a good or a bad thing, it is just a thing.