Not too much in the way of details, but new factions and single-player campaign are confirmed!http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/sins-of-a-solar.htmlBloody hell.. patch 1.04 in a few days... patch 1.1 already started...And several of the major mod have not yet have the time to make modification for the 1.03...I think that the patch rate is to much high... that some modder will give up... have used a lot of time for create a mod and needd to adapt it each two week because of a patch who crash the mod...Is it not a better way to make patch only all 3 month ( for example )... patch will be bigger but modder will need to correct mod only one time each 3 month...Of maybe the devs can create a tool for convert mod from one version to the next one... this will be a great tool...Until the patch rate lower, i will never participate/help for a mod... i don't like when a lot of work become useless after only two week.... and saying two week, i am generous... the game is out end february... and begin april the patch number 4 is ready... the 3 previous one have make the mod created useless until modification... sure that these in a few day will be the same...Already because this, i have install again the game and upgrade to the patch 1.02... so i can use Uzii planet, bailknight graphic mod, Mars effect and distant star mod...
Two months to release 3 patches is perfectly reasonable, given that this is
just after release, so a higher number of patches is necessary (to fix all the bugs that couldn't be found pre-release due to insufficient userbase). Don't forget, 1.1 was released the instant the game was out, 1.02 came out not too long after that. You can ignore 1.0->1.1, and effectively 1.1->1.2 as well, giving you one "real" patch in the two months the game has been out, plus the new one due out "soon". (I've heard enough "in a few days" from both SD / IC that I won't count that patch out until I start downloading it). Oh, and 1.00 -> 1.04 can all be considered "minor" patches, mostly bugfixes to fix the stuff that was troublesome -- 1.1 is the first "content" patch with major feature changes. So its going to take a while before we reach it. A new network code is going to need to be tested to death, and who knows what
else is getting thrown in?
Additionally, let me point out that the conversion from 1.02 -> 1.03 consists of removing basically a
single line of code, and matching all the balance updates. If you keep halfway decent notes on your work, re-creating your files shouldn't take too long either -- its deciding what values to put in, and how to script something, that takes the most time, not implementation.
Oh, and if you ask around here, I bet you most people will prefer a more rapid turnaround on the patches. Its better than, for example, Crysis, which has had all of two patches in the last six months, neither of them very large.