Going for Gold: The Rationale

[Stalker0]

This "going for gold" crap is crap.....name me ONE mod, where development has ceased that has a thriving, growing community.....

Questdog brings up a fair point that I'm sure other people share. And as the discussion around a Gold Version continues, I'm sure the thoughts will come up again. I can only speak for myself, but this why I see the need for a Gold Version.


First, just because we get a Gold Version doesn't mean mod development will stop. Now...it could stop if G and the developers wanted to, but it doesn't have to.

The Gold Version to me is a key milestone, not just a good version of the mod....but a polished version. That polish is the important note here. The mod right now....is a bit rough. There are bugs (a major happiness bug G literally just found for example), UI areas that are inaccurate, civilopedia entries that need updating etc. Further, its not the most new player friendly right now...so a guide to new players is a good thing to develop. Beyond that, there are mechanics that have not been stable long enough to know if they are truly balanced. The naval promotions as one example are still new, but right now we are so focused on flanking and happiness that we may be missing some issues there.

All of these things are problems because the mod is constantly changing and evolving. And if you let it, it always will, there is always more work to do.

All software should come to a version that is "finished", aka a version that is polished and ready to give to the client. That becomes your official version. Its the version we put in Steam Works, its the version we promote on Reddit, its the version that when new players asks questions we all know what answer to give, as opposed to having to remember which change log we are looking at. Most importantly, if G or the developers did want to stop...its the version that we could all feel is complete. That the mod didn't "suddenly stop" but "came to a wonderful conclusion".

Now that doesn't mean a VP 2.0 could not be developed, but my hope would be only after a good amount of time. We could continue to have new betas, but I personally would want that away from the general area. The general area should then promote VP 1.0 Gold, questions about gold, feedback about gold, etc. Then a secondary forum would continue debating away on new changes and ideas. But the official version would not be touched until a lot of good time was spent, and then you could have a Gold 1.5 or 2.0 or what have you.

So those are my personal thoughts on the topic.

 

[SpankmyMetroid]

I don’t want to speak for the devs, but to me the point of gold is not to make a perfect product. As you said, it’s a sisyphean task. It’s to make it as clean and accessible to new players as possible and get the word out so people know it’s a complete package out there. Put it up on the workshop, advertise on the subreddit, etc. Gaming journals have wrote about VP before but there’s no point in writing an article about every small patch we get, but a major milestone release will get attention as well. The more players we bring in, the healthier the project will be in the long term, from increased feedback and even more word of mouth. Maybe we can even influence Firaxis that their community has a desire for complexity and chellenge in Civ, and they’ll apply it to their own games...

My biggest suggestion is to keep a release date a healthy distance AFTER the the new Civ 6 expansion, at least 3 or 4 months. We don’t want to threaten them by diverting attention from their sales, and we’ll get more of a general interest if hype for the expansion has been given time to simmer down.

 

[Enginseer]

No, Gold basically means we can put it on Steam Workshop without suddenly having people screaming WTF THIS IS IMBALANCED WHY ISNT THIS WORKING. There are still a lot of bugs, translations(if we somehow have the support for it) to do so, and support we have to still develop.

Gold is also the scene where modmods no longer have to update after every version because of some bimonthly changes.

 

[Kim Dong Un]

The fact is that it will be done when it's done. We will know when it is done, but it's clearly not done, so relax. There are still quite a few loose ends to tie up. I've dealt with mods in lots of other games and communities, and it's just the nature of it all. There's no sense in trying to rush something when it's making it's way down the final inspection line. What's another year or two in the grand scheme of things, when this is a project that has been running strong for over half a decade?

Obviously it's not the time for major changes or additions, but if there are still relatively simple tweaks and ideas that arise and can be implemented for the betterment of VP, then we should keep the train moving until the conductor tells us we're coming to a stop.