After lots of hard work over the past few months we have suffered a set back. Four days ago, as we were getting set to launch the alpha, we had some problems with the battlefile and while we were waiting to solve that, the computer that the SCAR code (spawner code, emplacement code, territory capture code, etc...) was blue-screened and crashed. This was not a "soft" crash, and after 3 days of frantic effort to save the code, it required a full format of the Hard drive.
The bad news of course, is that there will be no alpha or any playable build until that code is finished and we don't want to give a firm date on when that will be - It took 4 weeks to code it the first time with many rewrites required as our coder pioneered new features & implemented the OMG community & teams rough concepts - The thinking on this is done, but at the same time Cozmo has less time to work on it - We all wish him Godspeed on his recode, and in the meantime will continue work on the mod.
All is not lost however - This code comprises only 1 part of the systems we've spent the last 4 months building (The WarCP is done, the Battlefiles are done, the Unit files are done, Half the Doctrines are done, etc.) and while we wish this had not happened it gives us an interesting opportunity.... Instead of releasing the mod piecemeal as components were completed, we now have a 4-8 weeks of development time to get everything finished and working for the first release - Our hope is for a feature-complete release in January of 2009 (possibly before, it depends how long it takes to redo the SCAR) complete with Launcher, All 4 Factions & Doctrines for each, the features we've been talking about for months & some new ones too!
OMG is being built on the fundamental principle of community, and we hope that you'll stick around while we keep on building - keep commenting and keep screaming at me about why the .30cal is so much better than the MG42, because you know that we'll not only respond, but take your thoughts and opinions seriously into consideration. This mod is being built by 19 members of the EIR community and that is fucking unique. With the intention of keeping ya'll more informed on what's going on in the dev in a very real way we'll be starting up the OMG weekly update & actually sticking to the schedule this time... I can't promise every update will be long, especially over the holidays, but there will always be something by noon PST on Saturdays. Beyond that, we'll be continuing our method of doing most of our brainstorming & designing the doctrines in a public setting, either on the Forums or in public Ventrilo Channels, or both - Many of you have participated in these design meetings, and in that way had a profound impact on the design of the game. With each passing meeting OMG becomes more and more about the community its being designed by & for.
Thanks for your support over these last months, keep an eye out soon for a write-up on the British next week followed by some British/PE Doctrine drafts!
-The OMG Dev Team.
