SAS: In to the Lion's Den ... "soon"

[Keganator]

As one of the origial possibilities for competitors for Infiltration, I thought people might be interested that SAS will actually and finally (but may be) out before the new year. I'm very skeptical, but will be happy to give it a shot. I feel for their community members...those guys have been waiting for SAS longer than even the Infiltrationers had to wait for 2.9 ... and that's saying something. Here's some details about it:

This past weekend the pre-release version of SAS was released to test for any last minute bugs and minor content fixes. There's going to be a few more days of testing on this version and then a new full install will be assembled that will be the beta 1 release candidate. The actual release date hasn't been set yet but it should be within the next few weeks and absolutely this year. We're still sorting out public servers in a different countries and lining up mirror sites to host the release. Once all those items are finalized we can set a firm date.

As the news title states more player models have arrived to bolster the SAS side. The OpFor side will be somewhat short handed for beta 1 but don't worry they will have a new assortement of models and skins coming up after the beta 1 release so you'll have more choices for them.

You can find all that information (and screenies that look...okay) here: http://www.sas.jolt.co.uk/?page=&action=show&id=6422

I'll probably download it when it comes out and try it...but I don't know how much I'll care for it. Infiltration has runed me as far as FPS's are concerned

[spm1138]

Didn't one of the team come and show screenies in here?

Weren't the ejection ports on the left of the guns?

[Freon]

SAS soon? lol heared the same one about Duke Nukem

[jaymian]

How can a game that has never been released even have a community?

[OICW]

Originally Posted by spm1138

Didn't one of the team come and show screenies in here?

Weren't the ejection ports on the left of the guns?

Yup, their excuse was that it'd take too much effort to correct it for the first release, or something like that

I must be dense, but wouldn't it have been easier to model the selector switches and ejection ports on the correct side in the first place?

[spm1138]

They probably did it because the guns look more "interesting" the wrong way round. Which really tells me everything I need to know about SAS:ITLD.

[Crowze]

Why do I get the feeling it's going to be Tactical Ops for UT2003?

[fist_mlrs]

why di i get the feeling you are whining about something you haven't even seen yet?

[Crowze]

I never said TO is bad, and I never said SAS will be bad. I was just implying that it won't be inf-like realism. IMHO. Besides, we need something to talk about in these long winter evenings .

[fist_mlrs]

well, evil winter evenings they are

but off cource there won't be inf-like realism, since it is called sas:itld, not inf:itld. realism alone doesn't affect the entertainment factor all that much to make it the primary factor to judge it though

[Keganator]

Originally Posted by jaymian

How can a game that has never been released even have a community?

People anticipating a game can make the community. People who have experienced games simmilar to it, and are looking forward to the features. Some might say the same about Infiltration 2.9's waiting community...2.86 had been long ignored by most people, and no one knew when it would come out. We stuck around anyway, though

I must be dense, but wouldn't it have been easier to model the selector switches and ejection ports on the correct side in the first place?

No. That would imply they have emplyed people for quality assurance. On another note, why don't they just invert the model? if they did it backwards, most rendering programs allow you to swap coordinates and that kind of thing...

[JaFO]

oh come on. We all know that mod-teams of these days have the same 'release now/patch later'-attitude of their corporate brethren (sp?).
Add to this the infamous "it is only a beta/demo" and one can be sure that the first release will be buggy crap that never should have been released.

Anyway ... let's hope this team waits a few months instead of trying to push their first release out of the door before the end of this year.

[das_ben]

Originally Posted by JaFO

We all know that mod-teams of these days have the same 'release now/patch later'-attitude of their corporate brethren.

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks like that around here, but as long as I didn't pay anything for the product and the bugs aren't major showstoppers, I don't mind. Downloading fixes is so easy these days, it's not a big deal to get a 10MB upgrade some weeks after a 200MB mod download. *shrugs*

[-Snakebite-]

Release now patch later is fine for mods, gives them a lot of beta testers. If you don't like it, wait until they hit final.

[Phuzzybear]

Ill try it out. At least its on the UT2003 engine.

[yurch]

Originally Posted by JaFO

oh come on. We all know that mod-teams of these days have the same 'release now/patch later'-attitude of their corporate brethren (sp?).
Add to this the infamous "it is only a beta/demo" and one can be sure that the first release will be buggy crap that never should have been released.

It's possible this is best for a mod, as you get your game out there and can make developmental changes based on what your fanbase thinks quickly. There's no better way to addict your fans than the thrill of development and "fast satisfaction" of having thier ideas heard and implemented.

[JaFO]

There's nothing more annoying than downloading a new mod .... only to find that I have to download a fix for item X later (like Deathball).
Hell ... all it leads to is endless tweaking (or nerfing) of existing features while the basics are left to rot.

I want to play the damned thing without having to search the 'official' site for the update of the week, which in the end only kills the game just to please the loudmouthed fanboys that are too damned stubborn to adapt.

Less patching & more content.

Never mind that no software ever achieves a 'final' release ... unless the mod-team is tired of the eternal fix/update/patch-cycle.

[Major_Error]

Didn't one of the team come and show screenies in here?

I posted some of the shots from the SAS site a while ago. But Im not part of the SAS team anymore. For more then a year or so I left the team cause I couldnt fit it in my personal life schedule anymore.

But I must say the team has done a nice job in switching from UT to UT2003 in just under a year time under new leadership.

Weren't the ejection ports on the left of the guns?

From what I have seen on planetunreal news, it looks like they have been skinning the other side of the weapons as well.

Im downloading the public release version now, lets give them a fair chance and try it out.

[-Snakebite-]

Originally Posted by JaFO

There's nothing more annoying than downloading a new mod .... only to find that I have to download a fix for item X later (like Deathball).
Hell ... all it leads to is endless tweaking (or nerfing) of existing features while the basics are left to rot.

Nerfing is a word that should be banned, everyone has come to associate it with making something weak. The reason people make it 'weak', gameplay inbalance.

Mods should release a beta build as soon as they have a version they are confident with, give it a resonable amount of testing and let the players find the bugs. Mod teams do this for fun, not for a living. If you dont like the way a mod team runs a project, ignore the mod until your ready to play it.
You go work on a game and test bugs, no matter how long internal test teams work on it there are going to be bugs on release, gameplay inbalances and so on. Even with the huge amount of time spent testing Inf, the community found bugs and exploits soon after release.

[spm1138]

In response to moaning about "Nerfing" Someone from the Firearms team said something like "Asking us to balance the mod without 'nerfing' is like asking us to drive across town making only left turns".

lets give them a fair chance and try it out

Fair chance? Eh?