Areas Requiring Attention for Early Access

[Daithi]

Hey - when the first phase of fixes is complete, I'll be moving on to preparing Vigilantes for Early Access. The hope is to release it around early - mid October. If we can't release by then, it's probably going to be too late to release it this year. While it's in good enough shape, it's important to concentrate on the most needful areas in the relatively small amount of time left in order to create the best impression. I'd be grateful if you could tell me what you think these areas are, so I can weigh them up, factor them into my list and make decicions what should be tackled first. On the flip side, less essential changes will be left until later in development.

[Nomad]

Stability.
Quite frankly, if I wasn't specifically playing to help find bugs, I would have quit this game by now in frustration.
The game can have quirks, but game-breaking bugs will get rage-reviews on Steam.

I think there's enough in there already that anything else that makes it in will be a bonus.
Being able to play through to some kind of conclusion would be nice... but not essential.

[Daithi]

Yeah, it's important. Do you think the stability is almost good enough at this point? I'm pretty much done with any additions for this update. Will move onto another round of bug fixes, then release V20, and fix anything game breaking in it.

[Nomad]

Assuming that the combat lock-up (enemy not releasing their turn) is fixed... then... probably.

I'm looking forward to playing the next version. Ask me again after I've run that for ten hours.  =)

Of course, once you go to Early Access and lots of other people are playing it, lots more crashes will be found. Thus is the nature of software programming.

[Daithi]

Will have to do more testing, but the basic issue seems to have been addressed. Cheers for keeping with the testing, it's massively improved stability. No way EA would have been possible at this point otherwise. The EA version 20 (or 21 if there are serious bugs with 20) will be one of the most important versions to date. I'll add in some console commands to get better items from the shop, so you can try out the new inventory.

One journalist tried it, and he only ran into one bug in 3 hours. That might be lucky, though. The problem with the last version locking was kinda lousy, as it was one issue causing multiple lock ups, frequently, and only appeared later on. Good to have it out of the way.

[ushas]

Latte to the party.

Stability.
Quite frankly, if I wasn't specifically playing to help find bugs, I would have quit this game by now in frustration.
The game can have quirks, but game-breaking bugs will get rage-reviews on Steam.

I would have thought that EA means stability unguaranteed. But you're most probably right on this.
Especially problematic during battles. There is no saving, which is great, but then any game stopper hits harder.

Stability definitely has gotten better over time, so that's a good sign. I'm more worried about recurrent issues. If you think me accidentally stumbling upon bugs right on the first turn in v19 was unfortunate, wait for the moment of release... It's inevitable. I think the game has reached complexity, when one may as well need different play-styles to be sure with debugging. Heh, what Nomad said before with less words needed.

I'll add in some console commands to get better items from the shop, so you can try out the new inventory.

Commands for Perk / Stat points could be useful for testing too.

[Daithi]

I noted something along these lines on the EA page, that unexpected issues may occur, and recommended only purchasing if you want to support the game. Not sure if should be typing this, but V20 seems to be much better on stability. I've been testing for quite a few hours, no show stoppers. No doubt there are some in there, but if they are a rare exception, should be good.

[Nomad]

Yeah, let Ushas and me take it for a spin and we'll let you know.  =P

[Daithi]

Sounds good. From my own play through, stability seems quite a lot better. Currently working on refreshing trailer. Holding off on releasing V20 until voice acting is complete.

@Ushas: I'm probably going to skip the run in background setting for V20. EA release is likely to be a (relatively) high interest time, and there's not enough time to figure out if making the change is going to cause a stability risk. Very likely I can add it in V21.

[ushas]

Yeah, let Ushas and me take it for a spin and we'll let you know.  =P

psst. Let's leave Daithi in a little bit naive mood. That's good for courage...
(in before, Nomad: "After half a year Mafia boss not releasing his turn" and ushas: "If you have 666 HP on midnight December 31 while overwatching...")

@Ushas: I'm probably going to skip the run in background setting for V20. EA release is likely to be a (relatively) high interest time, and there's not enough time to figure out if making the change is going to cause a stability risk. Very likely I can add it in V21.

Not sure what that entails now, but trusting your consideration. In case it's related to the black-out, yeah, linux players are more benevolent (ugh betraying my own). However, thought you wanted to add at least edge scrolling toggle for mouse. As it's well know workaround for wandering camera bug of Unity games.