iVoid: An excellent point can be made that we could be a little more up to speed on providing updates, even if those updates are nothing more than "nothing to currently report, still no eta's at this time" so I do see the point behind having some clarification as to what's being done (or not done) in general.
But the fact of the matter is that most people, while intending well enough, don't seem to be able to genuinely present that in a way that doesn't somehow end up raising some sort of hackles somehow. So, when I get to come into the situation of being told that people are getting pissed and/or when members tell me they under the impression of being attacked for trying to present what should already be an obvious condition to people that should already know what the score is, there is inevitably going to be a defensive element.
As has already been pointed out, the MediaVPs are indeed massive. And the last two releases have been plagued with issues right out of the gates of Release, so pardon me if I just wanted to make sure that we didn't continue that streak for a 3rd time running. We also have the consideration to make of there being mods that have gotten broken through their own interpretation of how to properly use the MediaVPs (that isn't technically proper in the slightest) and wanting to make sure we've made best possible effort to prevent that, which also means making sure that we can do initial beta-style testing before release, since we cannot play all the mods ourselves. At the very least, being able to head's up folks on any potential breakages sounds to me like a great idea.
As for "interim" releases, as this is a community project, anybody could have collected together any combination of currently Released individual works and made a bolt-on "2013_ShipsPack.vp" and we'd have heartily endorsed it. May even well have helped more positively motivated progress, but seeing as how most of our lack of progress has come more from the vast majority of us being busy with Real Life issues more than anything else, maybe not.
Also, we very well know that the MediaVPs and the FSU's task is never going to be one that is ever "done", period end of statement. We'd already staged exactly when and where our cutoff was going to happen and focus on getting that work done and for the most part, it was. It just took a fair bit longer than anybody expected because it really is amazing at just how fast time can fly when you are incredibly busy.
So yes, when Bob and Phantom decide that they want to break out with their commentary, it's not the gist of what they are saying that is making it through, but how they've decided to present what they are saying that makes it come across in an entitled fashion that causes for the situational stress levels to rise, as has been witnessed.
So, to re-iterate: A Release is indeed being planned, and we are going to be putting the pieces together. An exact date is not yet set, but I'm rather hopeful that we can have something within the next month or two, possibly three at the outside. _I_ will provide more updates to that timetable when they are available.
