No Joke: GOLD Thursday, 9/9 P.D.T

[sdrga]

I hope this does not raise the ire of the moderators. I made an honest effort to peruse the FAQ looking for information concerning Speculation on Gold and Release. I pride myself on being a law-abiding and constructive member of any online community I'm a part of, so let me know if this is inappropriate...

Assuming it's OK...

For those who do not frequent the .Com forums, I'll direct you to the following link which leads to the last couple of pages of our "Official Release Date Speculation Thread".

I'm more sure than I've ever been that Gold will come tomorrow (Thursday PDT). You'll have to judge for yourself. Specifically look for the posts by "tommh" in the thread linked below.

tommh is the "real deal", and exactly what he says he is, but again, that's just my opinion. I've watched his posts over time.

Feel free to disagree with this, but the question will be all settled by this time tomorrow, so type fast.

Here's the thread (look to the very bottom of that first page):


http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...t=441&stop=460

In addition, for those who don't know, they'll be a chat by the devs on Gamespy on Friday 2:30PM, PDT.

Here's proof of that from their GameSpy Insider newsletter screenshot, which one of our posters got a screen shot of:

img34.exs.cx/img34/9787/devchat.jpg

I'm not planning to join their little Insider deal, but someone will be sure to post a transcript as soon as possible after it concludes.

[Basileus]

im in no hurry but if its so thats great heh

[Jeanne d'arc]

Thats fast, u think they had any time to make some modifications to the full game? I think not.....

[Spino]

I believe it. One week to manufacture and box the game, another week to ship it to retailers for the 9/22 release date.

[Steppe Merc]

Jeanne, I doubt they would have fixed it any way. It's up to the modders to make it the best game it can and should be.
And this is excellent news if true!

[Sjakihata]

here's where the patch come in

[sdrga]

If you read between the lines on some of tommh's posts (linked above) you get the distinct impression that CA wasn't necessarily pleased with the demo as it was released, either.

I can't remember where I saw it, but it was someone I considered to fairly reliable, either an actual dev or someone like tommh, but the development on the game and the demo was on seperate tracks for about the last 2-3 months of development.

I'm a dev myself, although not in the game field, but the principle is the same: here is what was probably the approximate sequence of events:

1. A beta build is selected to be the basis for the demo.

2. That code is basically butchered to create a scripted subset of the actual game. It becomes its own development effort, usually with a much smaller staff, and usually not the most advanced developers, either: it's a demo.

3 The two pieces of software become progressively more different as time goes on. Which means....

There is no realistic way, without a lot of hassle, to just magically incorporate the changes made as the actual game progresses into the demo.

This would mean that there is 2-3 months of refinement plus additional refinement since the demo release that is not showing up in the demo.

The 2-3 months may be a total WAG, but there is no doubt that the above sequence had to occur that way. Maybe it was 4-6 months, I doubt any less than 2 months.

Why is this important? It totally blows away the argument that "the demo is what's going to be in the game". It simply cannot be true. From a development perspective it's, practically speaking, impossible.

Look to be very pleasantly surprised by the actual game since it's 2 - 6 months ahead of the demo.

[Patricius]

I hope that 9/9 is the gold date. We shall find out fairly soon.

[Colovion]

If you read between the lines on some of tommh's posts (linked above) you get the distinct impression that CA wasn't necessarily pleased with the demo, either.

by which I am very excited about.,.. particularly this quote in which he says:

They told me that many people didn't want to release the Demo at all, but marketing pressed for it to get the cover of CGW.

which makes me hope (perhaps foolheartedly) that the demo was really crappy compared to how the full game will be

*crosses fingers*

[Tamur]

...all about marketing. Those folks don't associate with devs much. I really don't know how they come up with it...probably something to do with reading entrails.

Haha! I KNEW it!

[Red Harvest]

He's close on the "entrails" comment. Problem is that they are reading their own entrails...think about it for a second...OK, hint: where is a typical marketing person's head typically to be found?

Oh, crap. I just realized my wife is in marketing now.

[discovery1]

Hmmm, possibly this is good news. Then again, they seem to be in a hurry, so they might release a sub-par product.

On the console side it has to do with localization for different TV scan rates (or at least thats part of it).

What? RTW on consoles?

[USMCNJ]

in a hurry? the game looked finished 12 month ago, they've been working on it for 4 years. I'm expecting a grade "A" product. (and i better get it, or..)

[sdrga]

Activision is in California. That's PDT and that'll be the source of the announcement.

PDT is 7 hours behind GMT. 19 hours behind New Zealand time. Sorry, those are the only international time zones I know. I may be off an hour or so.

I think the announcement will occur between 10AM - 1PM (just a guess) PDT which would be 5 - 8PM GMT or 5AM - 8AM Friday, New Zealand time.

Here's a good link to figure what time it is now in California: www.worldtimeserver.com/ use the list on the left and pick California.

One thing's for sure: whenever the announcement is made on Thursday PDT it'll be the same time everywhere: NOW

[Puzz3D]

Somebody monkeyed with the run speeds in the demo, and the result of that is I won't be buying the game when it's released. I'll wait and see what people who do buy the game have to say about the tactical battles because spending $50 (usd) to have the frustration of trying to co-ordinate 20 units that move too fast is not for me.

[English assassin]

Somebody monkeyed with the run speeds in the demo, and the result of that is I won't be buying the game when it's released. I'll wait and see what people who do buy the game have to say about the tactical battles because spending $50 (usd) to have the frustration of trying to co-ordinate 20 units that move too fast is not for me

Abso-bloomin-lutely. I find MTW slightly fast, but bearable. If RTW is any faster I won't bother: it'll just be another clickfest.

[The Wizard]

As I've said before, we'll see.



~Wiz

[RTKLamorak]

Somebody monkeyed with the run speeds in the demo, and the result of that is I won't be buying the game when it's released. I'll wait and see what people who do buy the game have to say about the tactical battles because spending $50 (usd) to have the frustration of trying to co-ordinate 20 units that move too fast is not for me.

Out of interest Yukki, do you kno the run/walking speeds of STW/MI compared to MTW and RTW? MI felt a LOT faster than MTW to me, MTW feeling to slow when i first played it but i did eventually get used to the pace. RTW is a definitely a lot faster than MTW for sure, but im not sure how much faster it is than MI?

[Orda Khan]

Out of interest Yukki, do you kno the run/walking speeds of STW/MI compared to MTW and RTW? MI felt a LOT faster than MTW to me, MTW feeling to slow when i first played it but i did eventually get used to the pace. RTW is a definitely a lot faster than MTW for sure, but im not sure how much faster it is than MI?

Infantry run and charge speed is faster than MI ... but Yuuki will know the numbers

.........Orda

[Patricius]

It is certainly not going gold today. Unsubstantiated claims about the game going gold or the release date are beyond annoying at this stage.

[sdrga]

Oh Ye Of Little Faith!!

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

Judging by the demo, the game isn't ready by a long shot...

[sdrga]

Well, I'd like to apologize in advance to this whole thread for starting this up. I really felt sure about what I was relaying over here on the Org. We've speculated over this (for fun) over at the .Com forums for the last month, mainly on the release date. Not going on "I heard from a friend of an uncle of a sister of a dev" but mainly on what previews, retailers, etc were saying. It's been a "preponderance of evidence" approach. I've never wavered from my prediction of a September 22ed US release and I still believe the Gold announcement will occur at least by close of business tomorrow.

"Tommh" has made posts, especially pre-demo posts that no one could know if they didn't have a reliable information conduit to the devs or testers. Until he began to post yesterday about the masters being done and the Gold announcement being imminent, I did not think of coming over here and posting anything. Tommh did tell us yesterday, and some of you above quoted, that the marketing people were kind of in their own little world concerning the Gold. I should have read that more carefully before I jumped the gun, and probably Tommh should have nuanced what he said as well.

That being said, he has posted today, about an hour ago.

When they announce Gold is a marketing decision but the masters are done. The game is going to ship on time. The rest is just hoopla.

I don't blame you for being skeptical, but I still consider him to be a reliable source. Also, the dev chat that I was sure we had nailed, has been postponed until the 15th. I take full responsibility for conveying what has turned out to be inaccurate information to this Forum.

Check out the last page of our speculation here:

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...t=501&stop=510

Gamespy updated announcement of the chat here:

http://www.gamespyarcade.com/events/...4.shtml?newtab

[Blodrast]

nah, don't worry about it, sdrga.
I'm also optimistic about the release date, and it's no big deal even if the rumours prove to be only that: rumours.
We're all kinda excited and jumpy and anxious and what not anyway, so it's cool.
I'd rather have unconfirmed news than no news at all, so thanks for sharing ;)
Meanwhile, the waiting resumes

[Lord Ovaat]

The game speed arguement is interesting. I don't play MTW online, nor do I intend to play RTW online. I do play other games online, however. I always found the speed a bit slow, and since the vast, vast majority of folks who buy this game will only play single player campaign, it might make it more interesting. I still adjust the battle speed to about 40% with the slider, and 100% when just relocating troops. I don't believe the developers base their wallets on the wishes, however viable, of multiplayer buyers. They go were the money is. They have to.

[JeromeGrasdyke]

It's been a "preponderance of evidence" approach. I've never wavered from my prediction of a September 22ed US release and I still believe the Gold announcement will occur at least by close of business tomorrow.

Unfortunately end-of-play on Friday has come and gone -- it should be abundantly clear to everyone with some sense that Activision's marketing department is not easily moved to announcements (I'm beginning to believe they like to sneak up on competitors). And in fact, there may not ever be a "gold" announcement as such now, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

But: if you go to GameSpot and you see those big opening-page ads, well, that doesn't come cheap. And there do seem to be an awful lot of mentions of the same dates around. And I'm sitting at home with a cold beer. So there's got to be something right with the world

[Patricius]

So it might never go gold in terms of a specific announcement, yet we would still be able to buy and play on 22nd September, 30 September, 1st October, whenever?

I still think that developers chats might be an occasion for a gold announcement or release date or even both.

That beer is well earned.

[Patricius]

That Tommh returned after his prediction was proven wrong does iseem to ndicate that he is not a hoaxer. I hope the next two or three weeks go very quickly.

[Stuie]

And in fact, there may not ever be a "gold" announcement as such now, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Considering all the speculation over at .com, that's pretty funny.

[crushinator]

thanks for the info jerome :)

enjoy that beer mate, it is well deserved