Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => Blue Planet => Topic started by: Leeko on February 12, 2013, 09:41:47 am

Title: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Leeko on February 12, 2013, 09:41:47 am
Please PLEASE PLEASE do not hate me for this.

Okay, now, forgive my possible ignorance but as someone who is mostly a lurker except right after releases I am not on the up-and-up about any rumors, "open secrets", and pretty much anything that isn't in a sticky. So I have some questions to ask that I think are very important to put Tenebra and Acts IV and V in perspective.

How much work does Tenebra represent? Last I remember reading, Act IV was heavily in-progress and Act V was basically planned out but not started in earnest. So this begs the question, how long ago did Tenebra approach "gold" if that applies? This is important in my opinion as Act III being just completed a couple months ago would mean I can expect to wait another two or three years for more. On the other hand, it could have been done many months ago, which might mean considerably fewer months of anticipation ahead. :p

Don't get me wrong, either is TOTALLY fine. I have absolutely fallen in love with Blue Planet. I feel it's transcended the Freespace experience, while expertly synthesizing bits and pieces of :v-old: lore and Darius/whoever's own ideas about the unanswered mysteries of the FS universe. More time spent waiting patiently means more time for the mod to reach its full potential. I understand that real life often gets in the way, and I know that development continues on even if irregularly, so I'm not asking for a release date. I just want to know how things are going. I know expectations are dangerous, but something better than When It's Doneā„¢ would mean the world to me. Even something about the development timeline for the last couple of years would be nice to read.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Phantom Hoover on February 12, 2013, 10:56:02 am
Tenebra was, whilst mostly finished, not in a releasable state until shortly before its actual release.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: General Battuta on February 12, 2013, 11:06:07 am
Every major episode of progress on BP has occurred when at least one team member has had the ability to work on it full-time. Between Darius' kid and medical career and my PhD crap that doesn't happen as much as it used to.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: MatthTheGeek on February 12, 2013, 11:21:08 am
Tenebra was, whilst mostly finished, not in a releasable state until shortly before its actual release.
Wrong. Tenebra was definitely releasable when I joined the team back in September. Alterations have been made, however, all the way up until the last day before release.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: General Battuta on February 12, 2013, 11:24:35 am
Tenebra was, whilst mostly finished, not in a releasable state until shortly before its actual release.
Wrong. Tenebra was definitely releasable when I joined the team back in September. Alterations have been made, however, all the way up until the last day before release.

Nah, I disagree. It was at beta state for a long time but we would never have been happy releasing it in that condition. It was not releasable by our standards.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: CT27 on February 12, 2013, 02:14:18 pm
Every major episode of progress on BP has occurred when at least one team member has had the ability to work on it full-time. Between Darius' kid and medical career and my PhD crap that doesn't happen as much as it used to.


Good luck with that.  If I may ask, what's your PhD going to be in?
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Killer Whale on February 13, 2013, 06:44:33 am
Does that mean we get to call you Doctor-General Battuta?
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Leeko on February 13, 2013, 09:23:14 am
So, uh, seriously... how's Act IV coming along? :p
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Aesaar on February 13, 2013, 09:59:17 am
It's coming along.  If what you're looking for is an estimated release date, then I can tell you it will definitely be completed before 2020. :p
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: GrahamO on February 13, 2013, 03:27:23 pm
Having waited over 10 years for the last 3 books in a seven set series by one notorious bull*****er of an author I am less interested in the 'when', but more interested in the 'what' of the saga. There are too many, Parts, Acts, Stages mentioned all over the place for me to get a common grip on so what I understand we have to date is;

First Segment - Age of Aquarius (no chapters inside)

Second Segment - Blue Planet (three chapters issued, more to come)

Second segment, first chapter Chrysalis
Second segment, second chapter Apotheosis
Second segment, third chapter Tenebra
Second segment, fourth chapter - is there to beone ?
Second segment, fifth chapter is there to be one ?

Third segment - is there to be one ?
Fourth segment - is there to be one ?
Fifth segment - is there to be one ?
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: General Battuta on February 13, 2013, 03:32:12 pm
GRRM you absolute ****er

Anyway it should've been pretty simple in theory except we kept having to split **** up:

BP1
BP2
BP3

Then it got split into

BP1

BP2 part 1
BP2 part 2

BP3

Right now we've got

BP1
BP2 parts 1, 2, and 3 of 5

and BP2 parts 4 and 5 of 5, then BP3, waiting to be released.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: The E on February 13, 2013, 03:33:15 pm
There are three campaigns planned in the Blue Planet series. One, Age of Aquarius, has been released and is complete. The second one, War In Heaven, is Work-in-Progress and released episodically. We can do this since WiH is structured into 5 Acts, Chrysalis, Apotheosis, Tenebra, War in Heaven and Revenant.

The third part, dealing with the aftermath of War In Heaven and concluding the story, has no subtitle so far, and will not be started until after WiH is done; We do envision it to be a singular campaign without Act breaks.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: -Norbert- on February 14, 2013, 02:27:07 am
Will act 4 start wtih another cool "between-tro" cutscene-mission like WiH1 and Tenebra?
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Leeko on February 14, 2013, 11:33:49 pm
Maybe I should rename the thread "WiH Act IV Questions"
...
 :lol:

It's coming along.  If what you're looking for is an estimated release date, then I can tell you it will definitely be completed before 2020. :p
I'm not asking for a release date.

Not exactly anyway. I was just kind of wondering what stage of development it's at right now. I know Tenebra JUUUUUST came out... but I can't help myself. :nervous:

Blue Planet is like a bag of BLT Lays. It's CLEARLY the best flavor of Lays, perhaps the best potato crisp ever. But eating them is a bittersweet venture. So satisfying to partake in, yet afterward I inevitably long for more. Yeah okay maybe that's a weird metaphor.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: General Battuta on February 14, 2013, 11:40:08 pm
We have a couple missions pretty much content complete and at the late alpha stage, but there's a lot of work ahead.
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Leeko on February 15, 2013, 12:18:35 am
This rabid fanboi is satisfied. :D
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: Frak_Tastic on February 15, 2013, 12:59:31 am
Or you could call it Act IV: A New Hope  :lol:
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: James Razor on February 18, 2013, 05:35:01 pm
We have a couple missions pretty much content complete and at the late alpha stage, but there's a lot of work ahead.

Uhm... for me that sounds like ETA 2225 or something around that^^

Well, i just hope that Inferno will give me something to do in the mean time.

One the other side.... 10 years now for Inferno.... *sigh*

I going to end up in a clinic.... i am almost tempted to run around and yell *let me shoot stuff, let me shoot stuff* like holly did in JAD^^
Title: Re: BP Team: Overall Status Update?
Post by: MatthTheGeek on February 19, 2013, 02:42:52 am
(http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/8071/fs2open3617sse2bp201302a.png)

Pic related.