An appeal for sooner rather than later (Or hurry up)

[Revan The Great]

Dear Roma Surrectum team and fanbase,

I have been an avid fan of this mod for quite some time now, almost since it was first released. And today I am going to say something that I've been wanting to say for a very long time now, ever since even before v1.5 .

Please hurry up and release v2.0. No more of this '10 million things that will happen before RS2 is released'-crap. I've been waiting two years for any faction East of Greece to be even half playable. As stands now I can really only stand playing Rome, Carthage, or the Greek City-states. All of the Diadochi powers are startlingly bland and vanilla, or with crappy units like the 'Elite Pikemen' with dark, Egyptian skin in Epirus' service. Hell, the Phalanx pikemen have 'dinner plate'-sized shields that vanilla was so infamous for. Macedon, Seleucids, Armenia, Egypt, Parthia, Pontus, are all basically unplayable when you compare them to the amount of work and mechanics sunk into, say, the Romans, or the Greek City-states. This is especially true given all the pretty previews we've been seeing of all the new units planned for RS2.

I know this sounds peevish, and people don't like being rushed along on their way. I also know that the RS team has had to deal with challenges along the way towards final release of RS2, and I realize that this post will make me virtually no friends here. I've just been wanting to get it off my chest since last summer, when I was pulling my hair out because the you still hadn't released a patch with the new units for Eastern factions. My exact, spoken out-loud reaction to the release of 1.5c was 'You ****heads! I don't want prettier terrain, I want a decent Macedonian Army.' Yeah, I know that's quite the self-centered and, well, lame reaction. But come on guys...you're like Bonnie from Family Guy. Either have the baby or don't, just make up your mind already!

Sorry for the mostly negative nature of this post - I promise that I do really like this mod, and enjoy it quite a bit, I've just gotten tired of playing the same couple factions over and over again. Thanks for the opportunity to finally vent my frustrations that I know many people must share, even if they don't say it as overtly as I do.

My final recommendation: If you don't plan on releasing RS2 this month, or even early March then at least give us a patch including the new unit rosters planned for RS2 please.

[swhunter]

There's more work in this than you realize. No.... more than we realized.
Tone alone worked I think 2 weeks alone to get one unit right.
Then he displays it before the team, and we give our opinions on it.
We have hundreds of units redone, painstaking environment changes correctly finished.
and a good amount of previews of the work.
I think that speaks for itself.
Not to add the time taken from our families, work, and vacations.
We don't get paid for this, and do it out of kindness.
I been here for 2 years, and researched information on Sparta along with Kervanos, Greek everything you can think of. looking for bugs, and helping with the beta testers, along with others. and we have testers looking this work over and over and over.
Plus added many many other surprises.
Believe me we want this out more than you ever will know.
But we want it right, and the best job we can humanly do.
It's coming out very soon.

[Abreas]

Sometimes when I check the forum I get the "Hurry it up" feeling, but it's easy to get that feeling when you're not the one working on it and all you are doing is waiting, more exactly, for something you really really want.

There are people working on this, as said above, for free on their own time ect. Just try and relax and find something else to keep you occupied until it comes out. I have Mass Effect 2, I'm sure there's something else you can do to pass the time : make it a little easier

[tone]

Yeah, I don't think anyone wants this released more than the team members. You cannot even imagine how much work this has been, more than I could even have imagined. There has been SOOOOO much work, and yes I'm really surprised we've not released yet - I thought we were near a year ago, but hadn't taken into account things like unit descriptions, buildings descriptions, the need to get a working Roman rebellion and all the scripting requirements, building icons, a challenging but fun economy (important one, this). At this stage last year, I hadn't even dreamt of doing work on the battlemap environment - things were as they are in RS1.6, which we decided to release (without any real major extra work for the team) as a stop gap. So yeah, the goals have continued to shift as we've been working, but we are very nearly there, thank goodness.

At the moment we're chasing down a few errors, finalising balance and sorting the last graphics bits. Feedback generally from beta testers is good - quite a few are saying it's the best game they've ever played, which is an encouragement.

It's likely that there will be some fixes and updates once we release, however.

[Inhuman One]

It might be a small comfort, but it might help to play games that feature the same era.

Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Titan Quest, Spartan total warrior or such might help a bit.

And you can always watch movies of the era such as Gladiator, Ben-Hur, Spartacus, etc which might do an even better job at getting you into the spirit of the time.

[apple]

I find this rather offensive even tough I understand your frustration.
We as a team want to release this as much if not even more than you and the rest of the fans want to.

But look from our perspective. If we released a buggy game, full of flaws to the fans RS 2 isn't going to better received than ETW and that is nothing we would like to experience.
Some of the members have worked on RS 2 for more than 2 years and they deserve the chance to release the best game they can.

Also remember that you can help RS to come out faster by applying for beta testing.

[dvk901]

I know it has to be frustrating to wait for something to be released. And I know that a couple other major mods engendered a lot of 'hype' and were NEVER released in years past. I think we deserve credit as a team for staying together and encouraging each other to finish this. We've had a number of people disappear, and even one of our key members died....but we have in each case picked up the pieces and continued to slug away at this.

The reason RS1.6 got 'upgraded' to it's current state was because it didn't involve, really, any extra work or delay of RSII. The environment in RS1.6 was already done, and was going to be used in RSII until Tone decided to make it even better. That's our prerogative, and in effect our goal to make RTW the best it has ever been in terms of every dimension we were capable of changing. There are a lot of things I WISH we could've done, but we just have neither the time or the know-how right now. Our trait system, for example, was going to be majorly revamped. But we're struggling here since Calvin's demise. Still, we keep slugging away at finishing...and many of us have had to do and learn things we never did before.

So all I can say is: "Have patience". We're doing the best we can.

[Binshuy]

well....if RS 2 is released with bugs and glitches RS fans would be frustrated instead of the incomplete game rather than the long wait. i choose to wait instead xD

[Imperator Romano]

I have been silently visiting this forum for the past year and half, posting only every now and then after I finally registered. I visited the forum every morning hoping for a sticky release thread that said: ROMA SURRECTUM II but to my dissapointment it hasn't happened.

However, I would rather have a fully functional, stable and complete game released first rather than have the game released tomorrow and then the 2.05b, 2.0875c or 2.0132 to the fifth power patches released afterwards.

Some of you people need to remember that this is a FREE mod to which a lot of people are dedicating their FREE time for our enjoyment so what they could do is, don't work on it anymore and they would call it a day. So instead of hurrying the team and putting more unnecessary pressure on them, why don't you calm the frack down and patiently wait for it like the rest of us. Grab a number, get in line and wait for your name to be called.

[Ioannes Tzimiskes]

Waiting isn´t problem for me, but I would say, that it´d be great, if you´ll be able inform us more often about the progress of development.

[tone]

Waiting isn´t problem for me, but I would say, that it´d be great, if you´ll be able inform us more often about the progress of development.

If you have a look, you'll see I've generally been doing just that.
Anyway it won't be long before you're able to make your own progress reports on RS2.

[Danigol of South America]

Im still haveing fun playing 1.6 so i wont ask for more!! Once again good job development team!

[tone]

Oh, and just to say that we're putting together the Roman auxiliary preview...after that the Roman legionary one.

[Phillieas_Caesar]

I for one would like to say I would rather play the buggy version than a non buggy version. I mean not having randoms CTD's is SOOOOOOOOO boring. Thats why E:TW 1.0 is my favorite game.

Sarcasm aside, please take your time with this. I've been waiting 2 years anyway, a few more weeks or a couple of months is nothing. It will come out eventually. Hopefully I at least beat Mass Effect 2 once by then.

[aja5191]

I'm coming back, just to say that every hour that the Dev team puts into the game gives you probably 30 hours of playability and replayability.

So be thankful. Please.

[Squid]

I'll only say a couple of things. First if the current version of RS, in which all the units, except maybe a half dozen, have been reskinned, with all new never seen before terrain and oodles of other goodies is not good enough for you then no matter what we put into RS2 and no matter when we release it you will never be happy. Second your lack of patience is not going to speed things up and you complaining in fact could well have the opposite effect, the people working on mod are volunteers and telling them they aren't working hard enough or fast enough or that what they've produced and given to you of their own free will isn't good enough is more likely to make them quit working on it then complete their work faster. Third, I don't care how impatient you are do not bypass the censor in your title again.

[Durakkon]

The only thing that worries me reading these boards I've got the impression that the majority of the inner circle of people here associated with the mod or friends of creators have a beta of RS II and are content playing it w/o further development....


This community is very small, and dedicated. The majority of us are all history buffs, with a huge interest in this time period. Since this is a free game why not open development up a little? Why not public outsource some of the info you've requested in the past such as descriptions, unit cards...My frustration comes more from not being able to help, I feel like information is guarded so carefully here.

I think alot of people here would love to help you guys, they just dont know how.

[dvk901]

The only thing that worries me reading these boards I've got the impression that the majority of the inner circle of people here associated with the mod or friends of creators have a beta of RS II and are content playing it w/o further development....


This community is very small, and dedicated. The majority of us are all history buffs, with a huge interest in this time period. Since this is a free game why not open development up a little? Why not public outsource some of the info you've requested in the past such as descriptions, unit cards...My frustration comes more from not being able to help, I feel like information is guarded so carefully here.

I think alot of people here would love to help you guys, they just dont know how.

You have no idea the PRAISE I\we heap on any Beta tester who gives us good decent reports with screenshots and a ton of information, and good insight. It has been the lack of input from people we allowed to Beta test that has greatly hampered things. Some just took the Beta and ran away!! So you can understand that we are leery of just handing it out to everyone. We might as well release it and be done with it.

Also, I have repeatedly asked people for barracks descriptions of some of our faction\culture specific barracks, new descriptions for core buildings, etc. etc....and basically I get or have gotten very little. So one by one I try to do them all myself...doing some research, finding something that's appropriate, and putting it in. These are the kinds of details I want DONE....but we (some of us) often feel like the hen who asked for help to make bread. No one wants to pick the grain. No one wants to grind it to flour. No one wants to knead the dough. No one wants to help bake the bread. BUT EVERYONE WANTS TO EAT IT!!!!

[Octavius-Augustus]

You have no idea the PRAISE I\we heap on any Beta tester who gives us good decent reports with screenshots and a ton of information, and good insight. It has been the lack of input from people we allowed to Beta test that has greatly hampered things. Some just took the Beta and ran away!! So you can understand that we are leery of just handing it out to everyone. We might as well release it and be done with it.

Also, I have repeatedly asked people for barracks descriptions of some of our faction\culture specific barracks, new descriptions for core buildings, etc. etc....and basically I get or have gotten very little. So one by one I try to do them all myself...doing some research, finding something that's appropriate, and putting it in. These are the kinds of details I want DONE....but we (some of us) often feel like the hen who asked for help to make bread. No one wants to pick the grain. No one wants to grind it to flour. No one wants to knead the dough. No one wants to help bake the bread. BUT EVERYONE WANTS TO EAT IT!!!!

Some just stole the beta?? What kind of a man have you got to be?! Anyway, great post, dvk, I hope the greatness of the project once it's released will balance out moments of hardship for you and the other modders.

About this thread.. I just don't get it. The valuable time that the devs used up even posting here, if used properly, could have sped up the release, even by minutes!

[Kallides]

Well why don't you join RS Fanatics(we are not developers but we try to help) and help us with descriptions(click my signature). We have already completed the last of unit descriptions for RS2 and now we have building descriptions to deal with so you are more then welcome to help out. Or apply for beta testing.


P.S. I do agree though why not make RS2 an open betta?