Uber: Why must you release before all the base features are in place?

I don't think the 'happy to wait' attitude is exclusive from the list of people who could expect kickstarter promotional material at launch, in fact, I'd say there might be a correlation there. Someone who was very interested during the kickstarter phase but hasn't kept up with the development of the game and how far it's come so quickly, or who may not know the rate at which Uber plans on adding content after the fact, may not be as forgiving at launch. They might expect all things mentioned or shown in the kickstarter to be present at launch such as gas giants, galactic war, a 40 player cap, split-window support, and the unit cannon. I'm sure some of those will be around at launch, but not all of them will be.
As an example, although he will often claim he is not a 'reviewer': Total Biscuit has voiced that he was (and presumably still is) excited for the release of PA, but did not want to play it before it was complete out of fear of player burnout (and to some extent because of his views on early access in general). I can almost guarantee that he will do a first impressions of PA at launch. Will he be fair to the game for what it is? Possibly, but he will likely have some expectations from the kickstarter, and I doubt he will review the game as a game still in development; he will review it as a final product. If something is not in the game 'yet', as far as many who are familiar with the kickstarter will be concerned, it means it is not in the game period. It unfortunately doesn't matter much if they're wrong two or three months down the line, the damage will have been done.

My only concern for this is publicity. I am fine with Uber focusing on polish in the near future, I can wait for these features, and I can wait for an official launch, but I don't want players to avoid the game because of bad publicity.

So what is the difference between a "water planet" and a normal planet with max water level? Rofl.

I think that's what he means by 'they can't be loaded in-game', as max water height is 60 right now.
(you can just find a seed with particularly low terrain to compensate for that though, just pointing out that you can't set max water level yet)

Unless you use a UI hack.

I think it is good the way it is, just needs polish before they release it.

Functionally not much. But in terms of gameplay Full on Water planets throw all kinds of wrenches into all the works, no longer can you just make do with just Naval Units, you now need 'proxies' for most structures as well and need to make sure that Metal placement/amount is awkward if Naval units have a different cost curve compared to land units.

All in all it's nothing insurmountable but it still requires effort to execute and can't exactly be half-assed either.

Mike

Not to mention no stargate travel to other planets via air and water. In order to expand to them via orbital, you must send your commander, as you can't pick up air or naval units by astraeus (AFAIK currently, although I have seen the AI's move air fabbers).

you can pick up air fabbers. Ship fabbers questionable. Used to be able to orbital fabbers, why in hell idk.

anyway, I hear review worry much too much. "reviews guns eat this game at launch and if they are wrong later the damage is already done".

if they are wrong a few months later, than the damage is wrong. Or more bluntly, the damage is retarded, and possibly so is the reviewer. I am starting to get the distinct impression anyone who can afford recording software can review things and nobody linches them if they are ever wrong as long as they don't pick a target protected by a titanfall size of fanboys.

I think it all boils to release soon, or after summer break. To release before they should have ready for shipping version now. Any delay now means they hit right in middle of dead season. So its better to chill out and release after summer.

You can pick up ship fabbers.
As for the rest of your post, wow. You're willing to call reviewers "retarded" for reviewing a game as-is, just because it will change in the future? They aren't going to re-review a game every month, and they aren't going to pretend features are in the game for the sake of future-proofing, especially if they have to take the developers' word for it. How else would they review it? Not at all? Because that would be pretty anti-consumer if you ask me.
It's not reasonable to expect reviewers to keep up with constant development, so the game should at least be ready for review at release. I'm not saying it won't be, but there are a few things that worry me about it.

"We made a deal with Nordic to sell a boxed version of the game. There are no contract terms giving them the right to dictate to us anything about ship timing." -metabolical

Kickstarter + stretch goals and anything Uber promised in the forums for release (unit cannon)

All of them?

They have all but confirmed that Gamma is the last phase before release. They have also confirmed all features they intend to add during Gamma. Put these 2 pieces of info together and anything missing is what will be absent at launch. Please prove me wrong.

Your post is a complaint, mine is a legitimate question...

We need to (and deserve to) hear it from them instead of speculating forum users and 3rd party websites...

I would have said the same thing about the unit cannon a month ago...

Not in the version I play (latest?). They use the earth biome template

Thanks for posting this Ace, I forgot about that

Even so, the community deserves an explanation at very least!

This will be common I think. A great point.

Nothing yet because they both use the same template. When it has it's own it can start to be unique.

So true!

How will history remember Uber?

Thanks for reiterating my point!

I also wrote you in private.

Here I just feel like saying, I'm with you with all the doubts. But we also have to admit that great passion is invested from the comminity and the devs alike in this game. It made me change my mind about what might come next. Why don't we just wait a little to see what is gonna happen in the next months?

You are bringing up Halflife 3 as an example of good game development? The current vaporware reigning champion?

Do you even know what point you are trying to make here?

This thread is getting very very silly.

Id be happy with the features promised by the kickstarter before the stretch goals, or there by a equivalent and polished amount.

Silly like every (aggressive) thread against uber what they're making bad and this and that...
We must work as a good community with uber to find bugs and solve them and helping with balancing and what features we like, but the development is in Uber's hand.
When we posting stuff like this, I'm meaning threads in the last few days, uber probably won't be so active anymore, because every thread will be a complaining-thread and this means the community is not productiv and helps to get the project furhter.
This could be a good discussion thread here, but this is moving away from the original again...

Value has had the same mentality for all of their games, I was specifically thinking about Half-Life 2 actually. The good will they bought over the years with the way they do things has afforded them the luxuries they now enjoy with Half-Life 3. Unlimited good will from the community even in the face of vaporware and no official confirmation of anything. Half-life 3 is an excellent example of the rewards Valve is reaping from that hard work and uncompromising attitude. The point I'm trying to make is that community good will is very valuable, and trading it away for faster revenues by launching early is very short sighted. It's like the difference between buying penny stocks and day trading.

I don't think Uber are trading away any goodwill here.

For your guidance, the Vanguards met with Neutrino and Brad last week on the back of the community frustration we've been seeing and we have a newsletter ready to go out. Just awaiting confirmation from Uber that the contents are acceptable and then it should be out today (hopefully). It should clear up a few things.

That sounds like a great news. Thanks. I'm really looking forward to read it.

And thanks to the ones like iron420 for keeping pushing for an even better game. They do because they care.