December 3 update from Constantine H. on IG MOO3 board

[Lee Johnson]

Only recently posted to the official forum:

http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=239733

Chantz Update 12/3
Hi Folks,

Just a quick update;

Still chugging through our regression testing; no comment on dates.

I have decided to let some of the beta testers post thier impressions of the game in a seperate thread; please do not ask them questions because they *will* not answer, just sit back, enjoy and absorb what they have to say. This is from their own mouths, unedited by me or any other precieved forces of evil. Cool?

You may recognize a few (well respected) names; our beta program consists of over 55 testers; 16 internal, 25 external via contest and the remainder hand picked by me and the QSI team. So please, don't get your chakoonies in an uproar if you see a MOD or brain trust member or someone you've know via the boards for 2 years post.

Thanks in advance. We're working hard to get this puppy wrapped up ASAP.

Best,
Constantine

[fatjoe79]

great news...if the testers are giving out info now, then gold is not far away...this week I bet...

[dulahan]

I'm actually thinking the opposite. That it isn't very close. Especially withthe "Few Weeks" comment Chantz made. Which is about the only thing we'll get even close to a tentative release date comment since the last uproar over delays. And even that no doubt a bit of a slip on his part.

To me it seems like this Beta Tester's can talk thing, and that we're gonna space them out over the next few weeks indicates we're looking at a little ways off yet. AKA, 3 weeks minimum. And they are using it as a way to placate the fans.

I'm actually thinking of staying away fro mthe the Apolyton and IG forums for a couple weeks. I've gotten too tied up into wanting this game out when it ruins what has been an otherwise great day to get this announcement and find myself refreshing the damned thing at work every couple minutes just to see if there is a gone Gold announcement on the Forums yet. Once a day to the QS Website to see if it is announced Gold. and once so. Then maybe I'll come back on. Something to sleep on at least. But I r3eally am obsessing over the game too much,

[Bane99]

Yep, sounds like we'll see it in January. They're going to try and pull a Diablo I bet. Glad I cancelled my pre-order. I'll probably pick it up when it has been out for a while and is on sale.

[Gooberman32]

I think its gonna make christmas it has to anyway to take advantage of sales.

[Master Marcus]

a few days before Christmas is not enough anyway for stimulating sales. Perhaps Feb 2003 ( one of my latest predicted release ) is not so unlogical after all, for a more polished game. IG, generally very strict about release deadlines, seems to be quite open-minded about MoO3's marketing. Unusual, like some have said recently, but promising in my mind: a great game is coming.

[Asmodean]

My local games shop told me today, that the release had been postponed to january. But he didn't specify whether me meant the European release, or just the release. (And my son was kinda cryin' real heavy, so I didn't have the energy to pursue the matter further)

Asmodean

[Gargantua]

Chantz is very irritating, what he means by "no comment on dates". Does it mean that bugs are so serious and so many of them, they have no idea when they will be able to fix them? Or he is just another irresponsible person who doesnt care about it? They cant polish a game during years, it gets old, more bugs appear due to new hardware/software etc. How many excuses he is going to come up with ? I bet there is another reason for all these delays, more real.

[SeanV]

No, I think the "no comment" routine on dates is there because he swore after the last flap that there would be no more announcements of dates on the official forums.

[Proteus_MST]

I don´t hope, they´ll postpone the release for a month or more just because of bugs in the Mutliplayer-Mode.
I think most of the fans (as myself) will be happy if they are able to just play the game in Single Player Mode.

So if it´s just MP, they should release the game with deactivated MP-Mode which placates most of the MOO-Fans all over the world and buys Quicksilver the time to do their bughunting on the MP-Mode.

[Alex-C]

As i said somewhere else, i agree totally, and have no interest in MP, but its likely that with all the effort QS put into the MP aspect of the game, they wanna get it right from the start. I would love them to release the game and just patch the MP, but it aint gonna happen. QS and IG, please prove me wrong

[vmxa1]

Not sure what it is worth, but Avault had a mention of Moo3 being in store 12/17 today.

[timorange]

Originally posted by Gargantua
Chantz is very irritating, what he means by "no comment on dates". Does it mean that bugs are so serious and so many of them, they have no idea when they will be able to fix them? Or he is just another irresponsible person who doesnt care about it? They cant polish a game during years, it gets old, more bugs appear due to new hardware/software etc. How many excuses he is going to come up with ? I bet there is another reason for all these delays, more real.

Did you read any of his posts AT ALL?

I know that you *must* know how complex and deep this game is...do you think that every time the testers get a build it takes only a few hours to find bugs?

Did you read *any* of his statements about how much Infogrames and Quicksilver care about this game and how they don't want people to get to turn 225 and have it crash without a save?

I'm just wondering when all this juvenile whining about grand conspiracies is going to end.

Jeez people, it's JUST A GAME. A GAME!!

[Randolph]

Originally posted by timorange
I'm just wondering when all this juvenile whining about grand conspiracies is going to end.

Jeez people, it's JUST A GAME. A GAME!!

Exactly what one would expect a conspirator to say

You're obviously in on it.

Remember, just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you...

[Xentax]

The game DOES have nice autosave features -- the default setting is every turn, but it also only keeps the most recent 5; you can change these settings as well.

That wouldn't have done much good if those autosaved games couldn't be reloaded, though, eh?

The people who are clamoring to just get the SP game out now, and patch MP later -- I see your point, and it's a valid one. But you have to realize that there'll be a lot of fallout if that happens -- anyone who releases a game with advertised features not working up to snuff has felt the heat, I'm sure. Whether or not that would be MORE fallout, I can't say, but I'm guessing IG feels that it would be more, and that's why they're taking the time to get it right first.

I'd guess a majority of MOO3 customers want it *mostly* or even *entirely* for the SP experience, unlike Starcraft or Diablo 2 for example, so I'd probably go the other way; but you have to admit that they're in a "darned" if they do and "darned" if they don't sort of situation.