Full release moved to Q3 2018

[Ny]

Dear Avorion players,

 

it's been six month since the game was released into Early Access and it's been an exciting and trying time. Thank you to everyone who's been with us since the beginning and welcome to all those who have joined us on the way. Avorion was originally scheduled to leave EA in the third quarter of this year. Unfortunately time flies, we have reached the third quarter and we can all agree that there is much more work to be done. The Alliance Update took longer than anticipated, the engine needs more work and there are balancing problems that need fixing - a big thanks to the community for pointing those out and sharing your insight.

 

Now, we could simply postpone the release date by a few months. However we want to be sure we can make the new date even if other unforeseen problems occur. We don't want to continue giving you an over optimistic estimation we'd have to adjust every time we hit a road block. That is why we have decided to move the full release of Avorion to Q3 2018. This will allow us to deliver you a high quality product containing all the features we initially planned and maybe some more.

 

We'll post the roadmap for upcoming updates in a few days, so stay tuned!

 

Thank you all for your support,

have fun!

 

---

[German version]

Veröffentlichung auf Q3 2018 verschoben

 

Liebe Avorion Spielerinnen und Spieler,

 

jetzt ist es schon sechs Monate her, dass Avorion in die Early Access Phase gestartet ist. In dieser Zeit ist viel passiert und wir danken allen, die uns von Anfang an begleitet haben und freuen uns über die vielen Neuzugänge. Eigentlich war der Plan Avorion im dritten Quartal dieses Jahres fertig zu stellen. Leider wird daraus nichts. Das Allianzen Update hat um einiges länger gedauert als geplant und auch in die Engine und das Balancing müssen wir noch mehr Arbeit stecken. An dieser Stelle ein großes Dankeschön an die Community für das viele Feedback.

 

Wir könnten die Veröffentlichung jetzt einfach ein paar Monate nach hinten schieben. Wir möchten aber  sicher sein, dass wir den nächsten Termin auch wirklich schaffen anstatt euch von einer überoptimistischen Einschätzung auf die nächste zu vertrösten wenn weitere unerwartete Probleme auftauchen. Darum planen wir jetzt Avorion im dritten Quartal 2018 zu veröffentlichen. Damit bleibt uns genug Zeit euch ein hochwertiges Produkt zu liefern, das alle geplanten Features enthält und vielleicht sogar ein paar mehr.

 

In ein paar Tagen posten wir die Roadmap mit den geplanten Updates für die nächste Zeit, also bleibt dabei!

 

Vielen Dank für eure Unterstützung

und viel Spaß!

 

[Devious]

Thank you for the heads up and coming insight into the development process,

this should settle some concerns about the timeline and viability of the game.

 

I think most of us still have high hopes for the game, now that you guys show interest into keeping us informed, surely renews that hope for the game to reach near its full potential.

 

Keep up the good work, we will be waiting patiently :)

 

 

[Dirtyredz]

Love the game, Looking forward to future imporvments to the engine, and the games modding api.

[Jack_Miron]

Great game, great developers.

[Hammelpilaw]

Thanks for the informations Ny. It's a great game, and I rudimentary understand how hard it is to make this possible with such a small team of developers. Thanks for all the work  :)

 

I'm excited to see the roadmap.

[OverthinkingThis]

As much as I love the game I was somewhat worried about it not having enough pushing power to break into any kind if scene if it was released now, so I'm glad this decision was reached and I hope it gives you guys some breathing room. High hopes and best of luck!

[Kostriktor]

Great game. take your time and keep it up !

[MetalX]

To be real here, I have done everything in this game that there is to do.  I am now literally just mapping the galaxy, going from system to system to system in an endless cycle, revealing everything.

 

And I don't need to tell you just how utterly boring this process is.  This will only last for so long.  Even if you were to release this game now, all the poor people that buy it will come to this point, as well.

 

If you were to ask me, which we will note that you have not, I would say that this game is ONLY about 20% complete.  And I say that because I just feel there should be so much more here, more story, more explanation, more "things", more of EVERYTHING.  Seriously, if I started over, in just the span of ONE day, if I tried really hard, I could make my run to the center of the galaxy and see pretty much all there is to see in this game.  Derelict repairable ships?  The so-called "story" missions, random pirate and Xsotan encounters, the Guardian...  Yep, that about sums it up.  Seriously, everything there is to do in this game can be summed up in just one sentence.

[Canute]

I would suggest not to mention a date for the final release. It is done when it is done, but sometimes it will be never done.

People allready playing and having fun.

 

Just mention a date for the next big update, so people can plan a vacation for that time ! :-)

 

[Jack_Miron]

 

When new update. I cant wait.

 

[Elvenwolf]

^^^ Give this dog... err user a cookie. Best reaction after reading OP and upcoming features.

[Hellatze]

Umm the should have more feature implemented and still incomplete. With slow development like this, i think the release pushed far to 2019 - 2020.

 

No offense, but core feature still need to polished. They are lacking a lot.

[Charless]

Take your time, the game has the potential to be amazing. Also once realeased will we still see things added to the game once in a while?

[Romual]

1. Game is playable right now as it is.

2. You keep adding lots of stuff in it.

3. The longer you keep it in development - the more stuff is added.

 

I say I'm really HAPPY that it will take longer - I can't imagine what can be added in this game after half a year.

[Uthael]

When the game reaches 1.0, it represents what it's meant to be. If players don't like it in that state, there's little chance of them coming back even after major patches.

 

Call that Q3 2018 version of the game a Beta.

 

Give it the 1.0 title when it's complete, not when your time limit expires.

 

Don't rush it! I don't want Avorion to fail like Robocraft or X:Rebirth.

[Kamo]

Yeah, don't rush it ! Avorion has an incredible potential and the Combat Update will also go slowly, as procedural generation will also be needed to arm NPC ships with the new coaxial weapons.

And then, there'll be a lot of content to add... and a lot of things to make changeable in the Lua API (things that currently are hardcoded but should be externalized and modifiable, such as parts of the shipmaking process, resource types and weapon rarities), as a lot of mods hit a solid wall in their development at the moment.

It's like Minecraft in that perpetual alpha/beta aspect: there is actually an almost infinite amount of things to add.

 

If you are limited in time by financial reasons, just rekickstart the game, some of us haven't backed yet and would throw money at the screen to finish what would be a future indie blockbuster.

 

This will allow us to deliver you a high quality product containing all the features we initially planned and maybe some more.

"More" will be adding content, therefore adding more players for the base and making them play longer. You'll have made the engine and basic content with it, but the true added value, the additional content that'll make the galaxy rich instead of, like MetalX said, "utterly boring", has to be made at least partially by you (even if the playerbase may come with mods to enrich it further).

More varied factions, more mysterious xsotan, and more cool and random events and opportunities await in a longer (or even boundless) cycle !

 

Addendum:

hire more crew for this game' date=' and we got all we need.[/quote']I guess they'll need a sergeant too. ^_^

[Hellatze]

When the game reaches 1.0, it represents what it's meant to be. If players don't like it in that state, there's little chance of them coming back even after major patches.

 

Call that Q3 2018 version of the game a Beta.

 

Give it the 1.0 title when it's complete, not when your time limit expires.

 

Don't rush it! I don't want Avorion to fail like Robocraft or X:Rebirth.

 

time is essence. its ok not to rush, but the powerful game, need a lot of crew to work with. i am ok with DLC as long they give the additional feature (aside from core feature, and giving additional lore to play.) for you to get funding in your game project.

 

hire more crew for this game, and we got all we need.

[Uthael]

(...) i am ok with DLC as long they give the additional feature (aside from core feature, and giving additional lore to play.) for you to get funding in your game project.(...)

I'm not ok with DLC! There are more than a few games I've stopped playing when they released their expansion/dlc.

 

(...)If you are limited in time by financial reasons, just rekickstart the game, some of us haven't backed yet and would throw money at the screen to finish what would be a future indie blockbuster.(...)

You can always buy more copies of the game. Do giveaways to get more players to play. Sell them to get some of your money back and let someone else afford the game for cheaper.

Either way, devs get the full price + players.

 

Or just sit on the bought keys.

[eduty]

Has anyone pitched a Patreon or other voluntary subscription based system? Not sure how the rest of the community feels, but I'd committ $10-$15 a month towards continued development to keep the project funded.

[Hellatze]

Has anyone pitched a Patreon or other voluntary subscription based system? Not sure how the rest of the community feels, but I'd committ $10-$15 a month towards continued development to keep the project funded.

 

as word of wisdom, save your money. and don't over hype, you doesn't know how the game ended up. it could be worse, it could be good.

 

and of course, no need to rush, but i hope we get the feature worth of its time, and max for EA games are 2 years top.

 

so time is essence.

[eduty]

Has anyone pitched a Patreon or other voluntary subscription based system? Not sure how the rest of the community feels, but I'd committ $10-$15 a month towards continued development to keep the project funded.

 

as word of wisdom, save your money. and don't over hype, you doesn't know how the game ended up. it could be worse, it could be good.

 

and of course, no need to rush, but i hope we get the feature worth of its time, and max for EA games are 2 years top.

 

so time is essence.

 

Not saying it's the end all be all view point, but my personal experience as an IT professional and developer is that software as a service is a superior business model to one-time retail sales - and it tends to be more fair for all involved parties.

 

You can only sell so many copies of an application, but a subscription is a dedicated revenue stream to continue improving the product.

 

If future updates ruin the experience, players can cancel subscriptions and take their money elsewhere.

[Hellatze]

Has anyone pitched a Patreon or other voluntary subscription based system? Not sure how the rest of the community feels, but I'd committ $10-$15 a month towards continued development to keep the project funded.

 

as word of wisdom, save your money. and don't over hype, you doesn't know how the game ended up. it could be worse, it could be good.

 

and of course, no need to rush, but i hope we get the feature worth of its time, and max for EA games are 2 years top.

 

so time is essence.

 

Not saying it's the end all be all view point, but my personal experience as an IT professional and developer is that software as a service is a superior business model to one-time retail sales - and it tends to be more fair for all involved parties.

 

You can only sell so many copies of an application, but a subscription is a dedicated revenue stream to continue improving the product.

 

If future updates ruin the experience, players can cancel subscriptions and take their money elsewhere.

 

you can cancel subsription, but your money will never come back. it will bite you later.

[Uthael]

I'd rather have microtransactions. Look at Warframe. You either pay or grind. And somehow it's fun either way. Also includes cosmetic options. Weather you pay or not.

 

Edit: But focus on features and bugfixes. Especially bug prevention long-term.

[Rinart73]

I'd rather have microtransactions. Look at Warframe. You either pay or grind.

A perfect way to ruin any game.

[Uthael]

I'd rather have microtransactions. Look at Warframe. You either pay or grind.

A perfect way to ruin any game.

Read on... I've said, in Warframe, I find it enjoyable. Disliked it in WoW, Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile though.

 

I've stopped playing WoW because of the recursive payments. PoE because you play it in Excel and web-auction after a while. GW2 because they started charging for expansions. Perfectly reasonable, but I wouldn't even have bought the game if I knew.

 

Given the options of:

- paying $30 for a full game

- paying $15 for the base game and $10 for the expansion

- paying $2 each month

 

I'd choose #1.