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How far along is the game's development?
I saw that, not long ago, the game's launch date was pushed back from 2018 to 2019. Of course, it was less than a year ago that it was pushed back from 2017 to 2018:
https://massivelyop.com/2017/11/16/crowfall-delays-soft-launch-until-2018/
And that wasn't the first delay, either. Their Kickstarter ran in 2015 with an expected launch in 2016:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crowfall/crowfall-throne-war-pc-mmo/
So while they're saying it's less than two years to launch, that's what they've been saying since they announced the game. As a measure of when the game will actually launch, the official guidance is useless.
On the other hand, while the Kickstarter had six tiers of when backers would be allowed into the game, they've allowed all of them into the game. So players can have a look at the game for themselves and see how it's shaping up, and that can give some idea of how close to launch it is.
So my question is, what is the current state of the game? How far along is it? Yes, yes, pre-alpha, I know. But different developers can use a given word to mean wildly different things. See the fracas over the "soft launch", for example.
Are all of the major features implemented in the game? Or are there major features that are still obvious placeholders or even completely missing? How about features that are implemented, but no one is happy with them and they're getting a major rework? Portions of the game that are in, polished, and ready to go? At what point will they be willing to call it alpha testing rather than pre-alpha? And have they said that that is imminent, or does it still seem far off?
What I'd really like to know is the date of the soft launch. But I know that that's a dumb thing to ask for because it's unknowable. Still, there are surely backers who have had a chance to play the game and know far more than I do. And likely even some fans of the game, which is why I ask.
https://massivelyop.com/2017/11/16/crowfall-delays-soft-launch-until-2018/
And that wasn't the first delay, either. Their Kickstarter ran in 2015 with an expected launch in 2016:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crowfall/crowfall-throne-war-pc-mmo/
So while they're saying it's less than two years to launch, that's what they've been saying since they announced the game. As a measure of when the game will actually launch, the official guidance is useless.
On the other hand, while the Kickstarter had six tiers of when backers would be allowed into the game, they've allowed all of them into the game. So players can have a look at the game for themselves and see how it's shaping up, and that can give some idea of how close to launch it is.
So my question is, what is the current state of the game? How far along is it? Yes, yes, pre-alpha, I know. But different developers can use a given word to mean wildly different things. See the fracas over the "soft launch", for example.
Are all of the major features implemented in the game? Or are there major features that are still obvious placeholders or even completely missing? How about features that are implemented, but no one is happy with them and they're getting a major rework? Portions of the game that are in, polished, and ready to go? At what point will they be willing to call it alpha testing rather than pre-alpha? And have they said that that is imminent, or does it still seem far off?
What I'd really like to know is the date of the soft launch. But I know that that's a dumb thing to ask for because it's unknowable. Still, there are surely backers who have had a chance to play the game and know far more than I do. And likely even some fans of the game, which is why I ask.
Comments
Combat has gone through many iterations since Hunger Dome. I'm sure they will continue to balance and polish it, and I'm sure they will review the available disciplines, adding, removing or changing them as necessary, but for the most part, the tech is done. Harvesting has gotten it's "2nd pass" which changed it from F to Interact to more action based, including disciplines, active abilities and additional stats.
Crafting is still awaiting a revamp. The UI is changing significantly with what they are calling Projects. Instead of having a different recipe for each subcomponent and making the player jump around between recipes, the UI will include everything to make the final item on one screen. They've also talked in the latest Q&A about changes that will be coming to experimentation, and we have yet to see what disciplines will be available, so there are a lot of changes coming to crafting.
As of right now, we still have to get 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9 to live before we reach Alpha. They may add more milestones to that if things get pushed back or they decide they need more content to shore up a particular part of the game. They want the game to be mostly feature complete when they get to Alpha.
We are still missing stuff like thralls, caravans, win conditions, alternate rulesets, shared storage, guild tools. The chat system has been redone in 5.7, but they plan to build on it in the future. We know they are adding the new Stoneborn style beachheads and the Sentinels, which will be pseudo quest givers (more like tasks associated with overall PvP objectives than traditional MMO quests as a way to give some direction to players who want/need it). They plan to enable player controlled vendors in campaigns, but we don't know yet how those will be implemented.
There are probably other things that they are thinking about to flesh out the worlds that weren't in the original design and they haven't told us about yet. So, bottom line, it's going to take some time yet, but they are making good progress. I would expect 5.9 to be live by the end of the year and then the soft launch to occur some time in 2019.
Great summary. I'm personally hoping it's not until mid-year next year. Give them plenty of time to polish and triple-check everything before they are a go for launch. It's so incredibly important to make a great first impression in this over-saturated market; fuck a timeline....do it right or don't do it at all.
Great summary indeed; I first auto-clicked "insightful" (because his posts always are) and then simply had to change it to awesome, upon reading.
Speaking of time, they will certainly delay and polish as long as money allows them to - it is the real limit, and not fan or media pressure because of broken "deadlines".
This was the first report in which 5.9 was part of the alpha deliverable. It's possible that they will need to add a 5.10, 5.11 or more before they are ready for alpha.
In a previous report, they said "Alpha will contain almost all our remaining game systems, including the core loops". So it's possible that some content won't be in yet when alpha begins, but the majority should be there.
I'm sure it's all very fluid at this point and they are adjusting the plan as necessary. Based on the information we have right now, I expect alpha to begin by the end of the year, but if they need further milestones beyond 5.9, that will obviously push the date out. We know the world will be getting much larger in 5.8, but we don't have a complete feature list for the milestone. As they reveal more in the coming weeks, we'll have a better idea of what's left to be implemented (that we know about).
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