Is it too soon to talk about the next backer build?

OK, somebody’s gotta toss it out there, so I’ll be that guy. I love the new content and am by no means unhappy to have backed this project. I’d back it again/some more in a heartbeat. At the same time, the campaign I played on BB5 was positively riddled with gamestopping bugs: tactical bugs, geosphere bugs, save game corruptions, the works. The last backer build, at least in my imagination, should be centered on game balance and strat/meta issues, not simply identifying the latest round of bugs that need stomping for the game to even function.

My take as a backer is, unless there is some sort of miracle, at least one more cycle of bug-stomping is warranted before a final balance testing build. How do you all feel? Do you foresee the game being ready to the standards you’d hoped for by December 3?1

Making another backer build means diverting resources from working on the game to creating, polishing and releasing the built. In unlikely case Devs want to get feedback on features yet to be implemented, then sure. Otherwise let them work on the game. It better for QA to test the final game, then test backer build 6.

There should only be another backer build if the devs want feedback on specific mechanics and/or help to find bugs. Otherwise focus should be on developing the final game.

Personally I don’t care whether there’s a release in 2019 or not, I’d rather the game development is complete than released at any given point in time.

the devs have said there won’t be another backer build before the launch in December

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Yes, they did say that as they were releasing this BB, and then we all smacked right up against a lot of bugs and balance issues. I didn’t have the impression they had a lot of playtest assets in house, so that’s why I thought it was sensible to raise the issue now.

Well, except the game now is a brutal maneuvering between pits and bumps, as well as a forced save-scumming justified by constant crashes … This cute game makes me constantly attack human colonies for minimal survival, instead of concentrated vivisection of Pandorans. I always cry when farm the Synedrion for their armor and technologies :frowning:
I mean, the priorities are very weirdy now. And if the fixing of this whole abyss of bugs before December looks like a realistic task… How to do this together with simultaneous global rebalancing, without a new build - I can’t imagine. Something will definitely be sacrificed in this case, and someone will certainly suffer. Nothing new, however))

This is the feeling I have: I worry that in the rush to get the game out by December 3, either too much will be sacrificed or too many bugs will be overlooked. Of course, it may be that these bugs are all easily fixed and the trick is to identify them. If that’s the case, I still feel that at least one more BB will be needed to identify them, since the coders apparently don’t have the time/resources to do it at the present pace.