Roadmap is ambitious

[ULTRA]

Even the first update with two new sectors seems ahhhh implausible, not that I know what's going on behind the scenes. I'm currently operating on the assumption that all of this is going to take about 3 times as long as advertised and if it's any faster than that I'll be impressed.

[burger boy]

there's already more in-game than you can see.
-- the skill levels for example.

that said, we'll gladly wait longer if need be for everything to be ready.
-- when development is rushed, that's when things start going downhill.

looking forward to all the potential this game has.

[Necroscourge]

Yes and no. Right now a sector is based around one or two major progression points and some new enemy types. For the offices this is crafting the hackamathing and gathering a power cell. Expanding the map is not the hard part, it's generating all of the loot and other content.

Developers move at different paces. A lot of people are used to the "It's done when we say it's done" approach where even a obscure message is a call for celebration. This team seems fast, dedicated, and creative.

[ᔕIᑕᕼ]

I'm guessing a lot of the stuff is already close to finished or far enough in to production that it doesn't need to much more work to be done. It also seems like a lot of the groundwork has already been laid so that adding more content wouldn't be too hard.

Looking at the roadmap, it also looks like each update will be slightly smaller than the one before it. So, update 1 will be the largest and take the longest, but then update 2 will be slightly smaller but they'll take just as long to maybe iron out any additional things.

But update 2's sector might be as big as The Offices and Manufacturing combined, so could take just as long anyway.

Regardless, they didn't give a hard timeline to get to 1.0. They just said 8 - 12 months. That's quite a lot of wiggle room. The roadmap also states that it isn't set, and some things could change depending on feedback.

But it is nice to see an Early Access game with a thought out roadmap, with a dev team that seem to know what they're doing. And not just "we think we'll be in EA for a year, we can't say what our content updates will look like or when they'll happen."

[MechWarden]

I still think there is a more than good chance they miss their self imposed deadline. There is a lot to tweak and fix up in order to meet what I feel are the standards many other people would expect out of a game.

That said, I can't see it being in development hell for years and years. They have a plan and seem to know how to use it.

[Nyan]

Look at trailers. Half of it already done.

[Lucky_Star_Fan]

I choose to believe they can do it. Because I want to.

[MechWarden]

Half is already done?!
No, that is not half done. It is way more than half done.

If it isn't 80% done by now, I'd be disappointed.

The problem I see isn't so much the completion of the bulk of the game, its the refinement of what's there. It's the last bit that needs tweaking and polishing to make it feels right, turning the rough stock into a finished peice.

Much of the game's form and format is present, but much of it still feels sloppy to one degree or another or are simply placeholders.

One glaring example that comes to mind is weapon reloads. It works, but the way the animations are setup, it does not feel right. Reloading the pistol doesn't give the acknowledgement for the reload until the animation has completely finished. Interrupting it a quarter of a second near the end will result in having to reload all over again, unlike other games that has a more generous leeway on that. And let's not even talk about the mess reloading the military pump action shotgun.

Combat in general really needs work, as AI behavior and animations aren't quite right.

The skill system, while functioning pretty well, still needs some work, if not more added features.

And then a whole host of tweaks, changes, and game mechanic transparency so that someone starting up doesn't have to ask here or on Reddit on how to do some of the simplest things.

Long story short, the devs still have a lot of work to do.
But I'm sure they can do it... but maybe not on their hoped for time scale.