USer16,

There's some truth in your words and some catharsis to be had from reading them, but I think we can both agree it would be even more tragic if 1.5 never came out because Swolte's last ember of motivation was snuffed out after reading a negative post here. :P

I didn't want to hurt feelings of the development team but I just wanted to point out that what is taking place here for several years is wrong. And may be some decisions could be made to solve the situation.

I understand that you call this is "wrong" and indeed it is.
The devs team lost interest in upatch. Otherwise it is not possible to lay down the work on uptach for such a long time.
But life is busy sometimes and I believe in Swolte.
A "decision" was made in the past and you can believe me when I dare to say Swolte is not happy with that "decision" because this decision is that we release what we have and what we have is a upatch that never was completed in the way we want it.
And I dare to say that this fact (unfinished upatch) is the reason why it takes so long.
We have an unfinished product and we don´t like to release unfinished products but we also lost interest in completing it the way it should be completed to have a good final patch.
This is sad but the decision was made to release "what we have" and you can believe me and Swolte that this make us not really happy but it must be done one day - and I believe this day is much closer as if we try to complete it.

I for myself have a bunch of stuff that I would like to implement but I think it is to late and I don´t want to delay the upatch again and therefore I wanted to create an own patch or mod after upatch is released but I have abandoned AoWSM myself and the chance that I ever make this own mod is not that big.
I always was a giver of mad ideas (and the needed technical and graphic stuff) when we still was a devteam in upatch one and two.
Often this ideas where crushed by Swolte because he thought they where to mad or crude or to complex or hard to understand for the normal mapmakers or they simply where realized in another way already.
This sometimes leads to sadness in my case and ended in the the wish to make an own mod but I think I am not a good modder and I don´t have the true passion for modding.
Screwing switches, implementing stuff, reading English docs and learn to mod in general, exhausts me.
My strength is in creating graphics and mad ideas and in finding the ways to implement them. That is my passion and I can spend hours screwing on single pixels with a graphic tool or creating a sound for a creature.
I would need a guy like Swolte or Kirky or PawelS to make a mod.
But I drift off topic telling you personal shit about my ideas.

Lets hope for the best and you can believe me that even an unfinished upatch with no new maps attached (because in my case I need the true last version of upatch to finish my map) is a great new upatch.
Even when we will not see the goodies of MPE in upatch for example and not all the great stuff that could have been implemented it will be a nice one.
Maybe some will be disappointed with the upatch because they think in so many years we must have implemented an immense mass of new stuff.
We never was such a good team in upatch two as we was when we created the first upatch but nevertheless we was productive when we worked.

But it was always nice to work with the workbuild during the years and to work for the workbuild when I create new stuff for it and in the end it will be nice to work with the upatch when it is released.

I now realize the issue of this patch is that we wanted to include too many things in a single patch.. so many that the team cannot cover all of them from implementing new features to test running, bug fixing, etc...

It was understood that this patch is the last patch of the game so no one wants it to miss anything, but it was something we should have avoided. Had this patch been released a few years ago, the interest in the game could have been strong and who knew if another patch was possible.

Now that it's been too long, although I understand the team's feeling of not wanting to release something less than 100% satisfaction, it's probably better to wrap it up than dragging it on forever since it looks like that life's catching up on all of us.

[This message has been edited by naecO (edited 02-23-2016 @ 10:17 PM).]

I’ve been silent for quite awhile, so let me chime in here a bit – this is rough because I find myself torn , typically I cheer on (from a safe distance) all infighting (no wedding is a success without at least ONE fistfight at the reception, I always say) so I sort of want to congratulate those griping about the slow pace of progress on the new patch (Can it still be called new after all this time? Sure, lets do!) Please use more profanity though, this IS an election year after all.

The more fair part of me, however (yeah, there IS a fair part of me – it’s kind of easy to miss what with all the shameless cheating) wants to point out how easy it is to throw bombs from the sideline when you’re not part of the crew doing the work. I think a pre-requisite for complaining about no new patch should be uploading a map or mod to the site (I’d be a pretty merciless tyrant of a board admin, wait, aren’t they all?)

Anyway, I’m actually glad of the periodic “teaser” about patch progress/release dates (though, really, if you’re going to make empty promises you should at least tell me I’m pretty.) They show that someone is still thinking about things and provide hope that maybe someday this puppy will see the light of day (I want my big, angry, halfling chomping lobsters!!) and I can expose the world to my perverse sense of humor again (you should see the Hero Description I’ve got ready for ‘Fubarno’.)

In the meantime I'm looking forward to that "March" release (wink, wink!)

The needling helps!

I have set some time aside the upcoming week for v15. As mentioned, all the content is there and all it needs is a check for bugs, some compatibility tests, and a professional installer. Now, I made it sound easy but all these things are not trivial (with a slight risk for complications) and I am also dependent on others for getting this done.

I hate to reanimate dead here with false excitement but I'd say there's a 68% chance you'll have an adequately working 'patch' within the next 3 weeks.

We're going to make AoW great again!!

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 03-08-2016 @ 09:43 PM).]

Great news, I take those 68%. Thanks Swolte

Thank you very much Swolte (and assistants)!!

Yeah !
Thank you Swolte !

*dancing*

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


thanks devs

So far we're on schedule, folks!

I located the master folder, updated the files to the latest, and sent them to PawelS. He'll check them tomorrow for completion. We'll then have to do a compatibility check (w old maps, etc...) before we can put it all in an installer.

That's great news, thank you again for your time and effort.

Installer should be ready tomorrow. We'd still need to test it, though (may need to find myself a clean install). Man, I have been looking at some of the old pics in this thread and it is unbelievable what landscaping we can do now!

it feels like a dream. is this really happening? I'm so hiped!

I have been following this in several years now, hoping that some day it will happen...

Month after month just a quick look into the thread, if maybe there was some hope... and now there is! ;0)

Can´t wait now!! (I know, we have been waiting so many years, and now it´s maybe only weeks...!?)

So excited!!! ;0)

Yes, it surely does look like it is really happening very soon now. All the files are complete. The text for the installer is written. Engineerd actually just added a map for you guys so you can play and experience what this patch does right away. PawelS is wrapping up the installer for testing purposes.

If all goes to plan, I'll run a few experiments on it tomorrow and see what we find. Not expecting to find a lot of issues. Give it a few days and we're ready.


~ S

Something odd is going on, folks.

My old laptop, which contains all my AoW files, died just after I was able to update the v15 files. It simply won't start up anymore. This is the first time it's done that.

Then, when PawelS made the installer and checked for how many unit files we have added in v15 the number was... 6 6 6.

Looks like angels and demons are already at war over this release!


~ S

Dear all,

The patch is complete and appears to be working without any apparent errors. The installer needs a few modifications but those are minor and will be completed within the next hour.

We plan to release on SUNDAY the 27th. Why? Well... this will allow us to ship at least 3 maps that show off a bit more about the new patch. I assume not all of you are mapmakers. Currently we only have one completed map (by Enginerd) and it is a multiplayer. PawelS and I are both working on maps that are almost complete and one of them will be a single player.

Cheers,

~ S

GREAT NEWS, way to pull it together folks and get this thing finished! Thank you again for your efforts, it looks like it is going to be a very Happy Easter!!

Oh Greath News a long anticipated is done haha 666. the number of the Beast. how much patch is big? is it had some updates from the last unofficial 1.45 workbuild?, and is it got some changes with editor slots? because i got on 70% Pawels huge extended map in progress with last unofficial build 1.45? can't wait can u send a link for download i wanna make some small single player map at least before release ?

Let the battles Of the New era patch Begin!!!

Haha, where have you been? Check your email, man! (or send me one at my gmail if I got an old email address).

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 03-22-2016 @ 04:06 PM).]

I cheeked and send you mail.

when PawelS made the installer and checked for how many unit files we have added in v15 the number was... 6 6 6.

Actually it's the total number of unit ILB files used in the v1.5 resources, including the original files and those from v1.4. I checked that to make sure that we included all the needed files in the installer. The resulting number was so interesting that I informed Swolte about it at once

@BeastFeast: If the MMBEM project that I started long ago is ever finished and adapted for v1.5, that would be a really great map

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 03-23-2016 @ 12:54 PM).]

The random appearance of '666' worries me less, apocalypse-warning wise, than the fact that a promised upatch1.5 deadline seems likely to be met!

I'm thinking of moving to Australia just so Sunday get's to me sooner! (That's how it works, right?)

Great news that it is finally happening.

What about The Groll's map? As I understand he also had a map for the new patch?

as I understood he had a map in the works that he might upload after the patch is released. I may be wrong though.

We haven't heard from Groll after his latest outburst. Please inform us of any sightings.

I really hope that 68 can trump 666

less than 3h before March 27th ends, my hands are shaking...

Haha, my map is just done! Not a bad piece of work, I might say, though I suspect most players will be butchered. Anyway, we can release as soon as PawelS will make the final installer! Let's say, tomorrow! (its too late now, anyway)

It's ready, everyone! Check the other thread (decided to make a new thread as this one was getting a bit... heavy).

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 03-29-2016 @ 10:34 AM).]