Early april Fools! oh you got us good Brad.....

^^^^

Wishfull thinking....

Well, seems like we have to wait another week. Actually I have nothing againts delays, but I do not really like the excuses you are using for them. I mean announcment? Cmon... How that can delay a release twice? Even when it is not on the same day? Just try to be a little bit more honest, thats all.

Yes, it's all lies. It's just how I roll.

Here's how it works: We don't get to just copy some files up onto a network drive for people to copy. The IT team has to take what we give them and put it up and there's a finite number of people for that.  Last week, those resources were dominated by Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity and Diplomacy.  This week, there's a big announcement/release with Impulse that is dominating the IT resources.  Since Elemental is a BETA and the specific week of its release is not considered critical, it gets easily bumped.  That will happen throughout the beta cycle.

On the bright-side, we get another week to polish and add features, so 1G is gonna' kinda' blow everyone's brains out their skulls!!!

(hopefully)

(...and hopefully not literally)

edit: And an IT thing, as the Frog has spoken.

Heh. I don't think so.  It'll just be slightly less painful. 

Er..I meen..nothing to see here people, just 1G. Move along

Thank you for your answer. I did not expect that. I know your company is not big enough, but I did not expect that people who do programing also do also marketing. Still, its only the beta and delays in this phase are quiete common. I just did not thought, that one announcement can delay things by one week or two. Not even SINS, because it is not the game which you were developing. Still I have to say, that I like how you develop your games, and also results, and you have my full support with this.

Good to see you with your priorities right and enjoying what you do.

I think BoogieBac deserves a raise.

*whispers to BoogieBac:  do you have my free copy of Elemental waiting for me?*

Bloody tease. 

It's the same IT team.  Game development teams (whether at Stardock, Ironclad, or Gas Powered Games) send their "stuff" to QA which then graduates to the servers to be distributed to the worldwide server network.  Whenever something "big" happens, lower priority items tend to get pushed.

Ok, I got it now, Thank you for explanation. You have got my support and money I just did not understood the reason for it. I do now. Hope the waiting will be worth it, and do not repeat yourself again... "It will not be fun"

I'm sure if you told your IT team about the rabid fanbase and our easy access to pitchforks and fire, they would be able to find a little more time in their day and squeeze a little more out of the servers for us, right?

On the upside, I'm glad to see Impulse and SoASE continuing to grow, and glad to see Frog and company stepping up to keep the waiting public informed. Thanks, guys!

 Yea the Sins update is a pretty big deal. Lots of tweaks to pirates and other improvements.  I've been trying to stop playing Sins -- but keep failing. 

IT budgets are directly proportional to top-line sales.  Mid-level managers and higher are very much aware of industry trends when it comes to companies' IT budgets as a % of sales.   The CIO gets to spend some of that on network upgrades, some on servers, some of it on software licensing, and some of it on compensation for the staff.  There can be a "fudge factor" involved, i.e. to justify why your company should be a higher or lower %.  The rabid fanbase in executive terms would be more like, "sensitivity of sales to the soundness of the IT infrastructure", or "ROI of increasing IT spending".   If IT was hourly, and manpower was truly the bottleneck, I'm sure a little extra incentive for them would be awesome, but it has to be justified to executives in terms of sales.  It's all about money.  Adding to the funness of the game means nothing, unless you can quantify that funness in terms of $$$.

I'm not sure about putting a cash value on increased fun, but I'm pretty sure the 'pitchforks and fire' can be quantified in terms of the replacement costs of damaged hardware and real estate, training costs for new hires to replace the deceased and injured, medical bills and lawsuit settlements for seriously injured employess, and advertising costs to reverse the bad PR of being attacked by an angry mob, but I think that may be taking things a little too seriously, right?

I'm disappointed at the delay, but it's still the beta, and at the end of the day it will still be intense not-fun toil whether it comes out this week or next, right? I just can't wait to try and bring down the bug-report server as I try every possible bizarre and conflicting combination of custom soverign and race traits.

I think the rabid fanbase for the game that is actually out needs to come before the one for the game that doesn't come out for another ~5ish months Because the Sins fans are liable to pick up the pitchforks if the pirates don't get balanced a little better

Having not played since before the last expansion, I have no idea what you're talking about. That reminds me, I need to go buy the last expansion. My credit card company thanks you!

Too bad you weren't using bumped in the good way.

Like hay look I just bumped this thread to the top!

Once you pick up Diplomacy, play a game with the pirates enabled. You'll understand really quick

I was going to make that joke but I decided against it.

Um, Hackbar, you do know where Stardock is located, right? Your "rabid fanbase" wouldn't make it ten feet before the guys with the pitchforks decide they'd rather be the guys with the fire, and the guys with the fire start wishing they'd picked something pointier to defend themselves with.

Except for those of us from Colorado. We'd laugh at all of the rabid fans who didn't think to be prepared. (I'm sure there are other states that would be prepared, but from personal experience, I know that everyone in Colorado is always prepared for almost any weather )

I've found that to be less of an issue... what with the AI kicking my but half the time because I'm too stupid (or is that proud...) to turn the difficulty down.