Looking back at the development of EAW and the release date change from Nov 2005 to Feb 2006 I can say that the game got an extra and unplanned 4 months of full development and polishing. And they actually polish it a lot and probably still polish it now. I don't think the gold is ready - maybe later this month.

 

Not to mention that we also got a demo due to this delay in date release.

 

Even that the reason was $$ and the need to have a different release date than SWBF2 we are still very lucky ... how many games get so lucky ?

 

It's probably 1 in 100 times when we should thank the LEC marketing team.

Lol Cain. I don't think "Unplanned" is the right term. Most of the games have to put a delay of 3/4 monthes

And I'll add it would be a very bad idea to put Battlefront II and EaW at the same time

Lol Cain. I don't think "Unplanned" is the right term. Most of the games have to put a delay of 3/4 monthes

 

EAW has 1.5 years of development and some months before that. I could estimate that EAW got work from 2.0 - 2.5 years of labor.

 

Still the original release date was in Nov 2005 but due to SWBF2 they moved it 2006 so the game got a lot of extra time while other games are rushed on the markets.

Contract was signed in the end of october 2003. Then there is few monthes of pre-prod. So we can say that EaW wil have 2 years of developpement time which exactly the average time for video games

Yes - but I do know that this last extra 4 months were useed at good polishing.

How long does it take to wax and polish an Imperator Class Star Destroyer?

a lot more time than you think asthjey have to prepare code for every possible upgrade. also it wasnt just have been the ISD that was polished there was the possibility of the Venator still be in and a very buggy release would have been made upsetting us a lot like KOTOR2 did when it was released. however i dont mind them putting the release back to feb as it will give us a much better copy of the game. also they wouldn't have had the marketing in place for the November release.

:Slap: Thrawn889. It was a joke you ninny. Imagine 0-G troopers with a bottle of turtle wax in one hand and a cloth in another looking at the immense size of the ISD and saying to each other... Vader wanted it waxed and polished by when?

At that point you get the whole Star Destroyer's crew to suit up, otherwise it would never get done.

 

Now imagine painting it bright red!

Heh, there was actually a discussion about paint before. The sheer ammount of paint required to do that would be absolutely cost prohibitive. Besides, cold metalic grey is very fitting for a vehicle designed with as much psychological terror in mind as military superiority.

 

Anyway, I knocked this train offtrack, I suppose I should put it back on.

 

The things that have transpired in the "extra" time leads me to believe that the release date would have been pushed back reguardless of BattleFront II. I may be wrong and the issues they discovered in this extra time could have been things they just missed and would have had to fix in a patch anyway though.

And they actually polish it a lot and probably still polish it now.

 

Yep! another designer (Darth Torpid) and I have been playing like mad fiends, trying to find last minute bugs and polish the game.

Hey, Delphi. Do you need any help? I would be willing to sacrifice all of my spare time to help you out. Out of the goodness of my heart, of course. No compensation is required.

 

So, um, how do I get started?

We're fine with waiting, Delphi.

 

Although the Emperor is not as forgiving as we are.

So, um, how do I get started?

 

 

Well, the demo will be out in a week or two, so I'm looking forward to your thoughts both positive and negative.

Heh, I am sure that you are painfully aware by now, that you will get nothing less from the members of this board.

 

We are all very interested to see what you guys have cooked up.

 

One question though, do you think that this SP demo will give us enough to consider? You probably can't tell us whether the SP portion will be skirmish only, part of the SP campaign, or a small bit of galactic mode, but all three of those modes would offer very different gameplay and thus, very different information for us to consider.

Especially exciting is the multiplater aspect of the demo. I am ever so much looking forward to crushing my wife's puny Rebel fleet...

Sorry, Naja. No MP for the demo. Delphi confirmed this here:

http://swempireatwar.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1772

And they actually polish it a lot and probably still polish it now.

 

Yep! another designer (Darth Torpid) and I have been playing like mad fiends, trying to find last minute bugs and polish the game.

 

Hurrah, I wondered about that!

 

One of my questions for the impending session (which didn't get considered for the voting, for whatever reason), was whether all of this time has been taken up purely by overhauling the maps or if actual cleaning up of the game itself and the AI has simultaneously been taking place. Knowing this has really helped to raise my expectations of the mechanics and stability.

Yep! another designer (Darth Torpid) and I have been playing like mad fiends, trying to find last minute bugs and polish the game.

 

Darth Torpid has a problems registering here - until we manage to move on a more stabile server maybe you can help him since you are admin and can easly enable an inactive account.

 

Well, the demo will be out in a week or two, so I'm looking forward to your thoughts both positive and negative.

 

I will prepare the feedback forum especially for this. Do you think that then you will be able to give us any QA eaw docs to help in the fan testing ?

Sorry, Naja. No MP for the demo. Delphi confirmed this here:

http://swempireatwar.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1772

 

Well that's a shame. The lady's got another month to develop her RTS skills...

For a RTS a SP Demo is far better than a MP one. See the poll

 

Anyway who will really desire to help our friends and eaw in a more constructive and faster way besides petitions and all that mambo-jambo pls take a look at this:

 

http://swempireatwar.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1785

 

It is not final but I look foward to any help - I also hope that it will work and our efforts will matter and help eaw.