What is the deal? EB's direction...

[fallen851]

Long ago, just before the release of 0.72 (and back when I was more civil, because I thought others would be...) I laid into the EB team for not having direction, not having goals, and biting off more they can chew, and that they might as well release the mod now.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=57433

Oddly enough, the mod was released just a short time after.

So now we have the same problem, but knowing that the mod is likely going to be released next month, it isn't an issue, but what is happening to the mod, again is still in question, and should be explored.

Let me illustrate:

Feb 06 Our next version is almost certainly going to be v0.8, based on the progress we have made. This will include at least 20 new units, and probably we'll be moving to RTW v1.5, if things continue to go well.

Feb 06 I'd look for Yuezhi to hang around a little longer. Even if there is another faction in the future, it won't happen overnight. It would take a while to get things in order (you can probably tell the Yuezhi were our newest faction anyway - as they had lots left undone).

May 06 I will say the thing better be ready before the summer is over though.

Now as we can see, 0.8 will not have the Yuezhi, it will have way more than 20 units, and lots of other changes, and it certainly didn't make a summer 06 release.

But it could have.

It seems to me that EB is moving in a direction where it is just throwing more and more cool stuff in because it can, and 0.8 has continually balloned which further delays the release. Again this goes back to my original post, long ago, where I compared EB to a car project that was under the "just $100 more syndrome" where someone sets a goal for their car, then when they have it apart, they realize over and over for just $100 more they can have this trick part, or that trick part, and thus their car never gets done. They strayed from their original goal, just like EB has.

Why not just set goals, meet those goals, then release? Then do it again? Why continually expand the goals of a release? Don't you see the problem with that?

If you define EB 0.8 as something, for instance it has 20 units, the 1.5 build, and so on, than that is what EB 0.8 is. The problem here is, the EB team doesn't even know what EB 0.8 is. EB 0.8 to the EB team is some vague thing, that includes a bunch of new units and a 1.5 build. Beyond that, little is known.

A successful buisness model, meets the goals it sets out to achieve, it doesn't continually change goals, but I hear talk about EB2, EB 0.9, and how great EB 0.8 is, when EB 0.8 isn't even out yet, or close to being polished...