Question on AHII Release

[Midnight]

Not counting the beta and the canned "2 weeks" answers, has there been any news from HTC on when AHII might be released in the MA?

In realistic terms, we (as a community) were expecting to be playing it on October 1st at the latest. Here we are 30 days later and only on beta release 2, which appears to have a long way to go on the development road.

Not having any information from HTC, one could postulate that AHII general release to the MA won't be for at least another 2 months. If so, fine, but it would be nice to hear something from HTC on this for various reasons that have been disscussed before ad nauseum.

[jodgi]

I somehow feel that we're in for a pleasant surprise. But I'm a totally unrealistically positive person

[Westy]

"In realistic terms, we (as a community) were expecting to be playing it on October 1st at the latest. "

 I really have no idea how you could have arrived at that conclusion for HTC has always said they would have AH-II as a BETA by the third quarter.  Not a finished product release.

Otherwise I'm interested in their answer to your question as to "when."  I'd like to also ask "what" features AH-II will have over AH-I.  Beyond the different and improved terrain and airplane graphics.

[Easyscor]

Midnight are you looking for a guess?
Because we know Hitech shouldn't answer and it cost nothing to guess, I'll guess mid February as the start in the MA.
Do I get a cookie if I'm right?

[ramzey]

SO far its looks like "not in this year",

but hell, who know except HTC crews?

[jonnyb]

Originally posted by Westy
"In realistic terms, we (as a community) were expecting to be playing it on October 1st at the latest. "

 I really have no idea how you could have arrived at that conclusion for HTC has always said they would have AH-II as a BETA by the third quarter.  Not a finished product release.

Otherwise I'm interested in their answer to your question as to "when."  I'd like to also ask "what" features AH-II will have over AH-I.  Beyond the different and improved terrain and airplane graphics.

Actually, I'm curious as to where you got your information from.  From postings on this BBS and interviews with gaming sites, AH2 was to be released Q3 of 2003.  It wasn't until Q3 was at an end that HTC announced the delay of AH2 and introduced us to the concept of the open beta, which incidentally didn't arrive until after Q3 had ended.

Please post something backing up your statement.

[Westy]

I got it from posts from con goers,  Pyro and HiTech. (and via Skuzzy online)  

http://216.91.192.19/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=97087

http://216.91.192.19/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76474

 Also "beta" was mentioned in the Wargamer interview with HiTech:

"WG: Great. Let's get right to the subject that everyone's dying to hear about, Aces High II: Tour of Duty. First, how's the development going? Do you think you'll meet your original goal of a 3rd quarter of 2003 roll-out?

DA: We're just a touch behind on it, but we'll still make the 3rd quarter. Things are rolling right along; we're starting to get into the "finishing stages. We did the demo at the [Aces High 2003 Convention], and people got to see that there's a lot done there. It's really just the things the users sees [visually] to finish up on. The guts of it are complete.

WG: So the core of the game play, the mission theater venue, that has been pretty much set in stone?

DA: That's pretty much designed, yeah. I haven't actually started coding the Tour of Duty, that is, the mission theater part of [Aces High II] yet. That coding will actually start, post shipping of the beta of Aces High: Classic. The reason for that is that the new engine just needs some time on it. I mean, it's a brand new graphics engine, and it hasn't been tested on a lot of platforms. You always run into weird idiosyncrasies and issues you have to catch. So it could be that we actually release Classic before Tour of Duty actually debuts. "


Perhaps I just didn't "read into" things more as others seem to have?

[jonnyb]

It seems that you were able to infer quite a bit from the evidence you provided.  The first link was Pyro's announcement at the end of Q3 (dated 9/25).  That is the thread I was referring to in my post, although I didn't link to it.

The second thread mentions an open beta, but nowhere mentions anything about Q3.  Hitech describes the major changes and the graphics engine testing, but states neither a release date for the final product, nor the dates an open beta was to be produced.

The interview with Wargamers clearly states that AH2 was on schedule to be released Q3.  It does not state that an open beta was to be released in lieu of AH2 in Q3.

HTC said throughout the year that AH2 was to be released Q3.  It wasn't until the very end (aka Pyro's post) that the delay was announced.

I don't think it is a question of "reading more into things".

[Maniac]

Christmas is in two months folks.

Dont get your panties in a knot djust yet...

[Adjuster]

Think of it in these terms

Its built but the paint job aint quite right yet it needs more polish.

If you have ever polished a car you know how long it takes to get it just right  not just shiny but see your face in it polished

I say we are painted but not polished

Shiny comes next

Then we get "in yer face" polished and its finished !  but only for so long cos you can always do better, buff a little longer (no pun intended) and it seems to shine more.
 
Thats what I like about  AH and HTC there's always someone who wants it to shine a little brighter

Anyway to coin a phrase "its finished when its finished"






Adjuster

[Midnight]

You see what's happening again?

As far as I am concerned right now, the AHII beta release is not much more than the "bone" screenshots we got over the past couple months after considerable community out cry.

A Beta release that has no playable features looses it's luster rather quickly, and I think another rash of "where is AHII" threads will be showing up very soon. The scraps of meat on the beta dish were more than the dry bone screen shots, but damnit man the community grows hungry.

[jodgi]

What are they to do?
If it isn't finished and they can't give it to us, what will make us happy?
What options, except the impossible, are we giving HTC to make us happy?

[Nilsen]

Im happy if it gets here in early january. Thats when my new pc will be ready for it

[Midnight]

Originally posted by jodgi
What are they to do?
If it isn't finished and they can't give it to us, what will make us happy?
What options, except the impossible, are we giving HTC to make us happy?

Honestly, I think it would be good to at least hear from them in some sort of informative manner. Not just short posts that say "morning wood" or "the weathman tells me it looks 50/50 for flying tomorrow" etc.

Maybe something that says how many vehicles have been completed, what some of the new gameplay features are going to be (if any), if they are still writing fresh code or in the process of final debug, and above all a new approximation of when the beta might be released to the MA.

We all know HTC is working hard to complete AHII. THe fanboys out there will reply with stuff like "I would rather they work on code than wasting time giving us news" and the nay-sayers will have a bunch of crap comments about how lame the graphics are and how stupid the new tracers look, etc.

So far, I think AHII beta looks pretty good, but at least on my system it appears there is a long way to go in artwork, special effects, sounds, vehicle conversions, terrain updates, etc.

[AKIron]

Unless there was a lot of completed work that was held back from the public beta, like planes, I think we've several months yet before AH2 replaces AH. They say patience is a virtue. Looks like we're all in for a little virtue.