when will the next preview come out, and when is this mod ready??

[novatech0]

wondering when will this mod be out, and is their new priewviews

[Recon]

They have already finished it and are now playing! They have refused to release it because of impatient people! Now they are torturing us with those excellent mouth dropping previews! That is atleast my theory

[Leesin]

The mod will be released when it's finished and I believe there will be a new preview soon.

[sumskilz]

They have already finished it and are now playing! They have refused to release it because of impatient people! Now they are torturing us with those excellent mouth dropping previews! That is atleast my theory

[novatech0]

well its a torturing wait for this exelent mod to come out

[chris7ian]

people keep asking when is it going to be done and they keep saying when it gets done. Which is reasonable because hard to predict how long something will take when people are doing this in their spare time. Maybe someone should ask percentage wise, how much needs to be finished and you might get a more helpful response.

[TMSKILZ]

What's the % DOT Mod team?

[Leesin]

I'm expecting the answer to be "100% whenever it's finished".

What difference does it really make, it's done when it's done, why waste time with percentages, it wouldn't matter if they told us a date of release, we will still be waiting for the mod until it is finished whether or not we know when that time will be. % are also useless, first release could be 90% finished but it doesn't mean it's coming out anytime soon.

All in all, I've waited patiently for a VERY long time and I don't mind, it will be released when it's ready to be released and it will be epic.

[Copperknickers II]

Well, i couldn't tell you what percentage. The project is always evolving, we don't have a set plan or checklist. We have been reining the project in and driving all the creativity away from debate and into the actual files recently though, but that means an awful lot of gathering and finalising. Nobody, not even Hross, knows exactly how much there is to put in DotS, and how much of it is done already.

Once the map is finished this month and we have all the factions, settlements and graphics implemented (hopefully by the end of February) then we go into alpha testing and adding more scripts, units and descriptions, and from alpha it is a short step to a functioning beta, and then we release a public beta.

Also, we have a new preview coming up circa Burn's Night.

[Subuatai de Bodemloze]

Copper, iz yer motha' maki-g u a Haggis?

[Copperknickers II]

Copper, iz yer motha' maki-g u a Haggis?

Aye, right enough . 25th's mah Birthday so it's, ah alwuys huv haggis oan mah Birthday dinnur.

[Vindahl]

I too look forward to this mod, but there is something inside me which tell me that it is Sagrada Família all over again... A work towards perfection, which might never be finished. Cause then there is still something that can be done better, and a little more and so on...
This might be one of the greatest projects in M2TW, but perhaps the project is a bit TOO ambitious, sorry to say this... Even for as excellent modders on this forum, there is limits... This is a "sparetime" project, so I fully understand why it can take so long...
This is no disrespect to the creators! I truely value their work...
But lets face reality... The longer time it takes, the less and less fans there will be of M2TW, new games will come, better games, better graphics, better technologies... When this mod is finished, the game might be more "out-to-date" than already...

And what is my point then? Besides sounding like an old pessimistic arse...
People keep asking for an ETA on this mod, and the creators and keep saying, when its done... There is easily a very bad mood between creators and some fans... Seems like communicating is falling apart here... So my plead, is to respect each other and see it from the other angle... Of course it is annoying to keep informing when it is done, but understand that some newcomers might not browse through 200 pages to find the latest post or thread... I also think that some might "give up" on the mod, wasted time waiting, nobody wants it, so they find other mods or games...
It is like you download a huge file... If you didnt have the % you would be very uncertain if this even is worth waiting for... And if the file is still on 1% after some hours, you just cancel it and forgets about it...

So please, dont make this mod your own grave, update the fans, make it visible that there is progress and that it is easy to see... Make a sticky or something... And have in mind that greatness stands for fall, look what happened to the Babel Tower! Dont soe more than you can reap, and dont make this a perpetual student, that will never be done... Would be a shame to all that beautiful work there has been on this mod...
And keep the tone on a friendly level, we all share the same fascination of M2TW, so why fight each other like dog and cat..
People keep asking for the progress, this is a Serious issue, and you should take it serious... People Need to know simply...

I look forward to the mod, best regards...
Peace

[Hengest]

Okay brief recap for you, although this will surely get lost in the crowd. These are estimations off the top of my head without doing any real checking, plus I have been away from the team for about a month and they have been working on their own intiative, so I haven't done a thorough check.

1: 500 totally new and historical units planned (made of vanilla resources, other mod units and our own new units)
coded less than 10%, but our own new units are being produced all the time (see 'Previews' sub forum -Sumskilz, Dome and Pacco)

2: Map progress
90% complete overall. Groundbreaking (literally) accuracy, all new unique features, rich detail and high strategic gameplay value

3: Campaign Script
75% of planned major scripts written. More ideas are being developed all the time and it is hard to keep up

4: Traits/ancillaries etc
We have a massive order list of traits. Ranging from family traits, ethnic traits, religious traits, sub-religious traits, personality traits, health traits... the list is massive, all to represent the realities of medieval life as we can think of it. There is no knowing where we are in this list unfortunately since the work is frantic and a lot to do. We need more coders, if you want to see the mod finished now- then learn to code and join up!

5: Tech tree
We have around 50% of our planned buildings coded. The trees we are using are extremely complex and you will have never have seen them before. The majority of the hard stuff is already done. Which makes the 50% seem in fact more like 80% to me. A good deal of our buildings are linked to scripts and traits and this has made things even more complicated. Things such as the full historical array of militarised orders such as the Templars, St.Lazarus, Amalfi etc are very exciting with all the options they give the player such as hospices and banks. We are very proud of Uanime5's work.

6: Music, screens and presentation artwork
We have more or less everything we need in place to overhaul the look and feel of the game. It is going to be a very new experience, raw, gritty and bloody. With no classical/film music everything has a very authentic medieval sound to it. We have also avoided romantic paintings from 1500 onwards, but have tried to use photography of actual medieval artwork. It will look and sound as much as the medieval world as we can make it.

7: Previews, faction intro movies
Our skinning team was burdened with making the faction intro movies which we intended to make for the game as well as for pre-release trailers but due to the massive pressure on the few guys we have to complete a roster of 500 units this is unrealistic. The move makers we have worked with so far have not delivered any goods, themselves not lightening the load of coding the units we have produced- and therefore requiring supervision from our skinning team (again slowing down the process). We need more adept and experienced film-makers basically. We have a general preview, probably another chapter in our dev blog series which will highlight the usual array of elements (listed above) by that you will be able to gain the quality and rate of production.

I hope this answers some of your questions and eases your expectations a little. We are hard at work and very excited by the speed and determination of everyone involved in our project. Despite my recent absence, I can personally say that the team is unstoppable and working at the best level they have done since we started. So things are looking very good. As I have repeated many times, when you start to see the map you can expect an early beta release shortly afterwards. Happy 2010 by the way...

[Walkman810i]

Thank you for letting us know Hross

[Sharrow]

Hross and Copperknickers II

Thanks for the update on progress. This MOD is developing into something that looks just fantastic. Keep up the good work!

Cheers

[Hilarion]

Thanks for the news!

[Aio]

Oh, yeah! Sounds more like it!
This surely did not get lost in the crowd!!!

[AntonM]

This is truly EPIC, cant wait to see your completed campaign map/settlements.

[Hengest]

Cheers, until then don't forget to check the IMG for regular updates
http://dots.axesgame.com/map/

[novatech0]

can u give us links to look at progress, do u have any links that show the progress??