Opinions on bumping the launch into August

[Chaoticlusts]

So first off I'm really really looking forward too the launch as I imagine most of us are, but I also want the launch to go well. Gameplay wise it doesn't make too much of a difference for those of us playing EA since post-launch patches are basically guaranteed to be a thing going on Klei's history but there's a bigger picture here.  I think most here would agree that Klei deserve a great launch for this game with all the work they've put in and how much damn fun it is but also on a more selfish note ultimately post-launch support for any game is limited by financials, if there isn't enough sales/the player-base isn't big enough it becomes harder and harder to keep paid employees pumping out extra content for it, whether it's in the shape of free content patches or paid DLC releases.

With all that in mind the current state of the game doesn't seem like it's going to be ready for a polished release in the next week, at least not from what I've seen.  We still have major crash bugs and even assuming those will get hotfixed there's the remaining problem of lots of big mechanics changes having been implemented in the past few weeks that are taking quite a bit of effort to balance.  Some of those changes have been rolled back like self-planting wild seeds but others are obviously a direction Klei wants to take the game such as increased difficulty with heat management.  I quite like the added difficulty from the changes but it's also clear that it's really thrown the balance out for the moment and any balance changes implemented over this week aren't going to get much play-testing before launch not to mention that any follow up balance tweaks applied will basically have to be in the final launch along with some crossed fingers.

Now obviously no launch is perfect, every game has bugs and every game has balance problems but it looks IMO like even just a couple more weeks fiddling with the numbers on finalised mechanics would benefit the game enormously.  There's just so many systems in ONI that major changes are really complicated and between different asteroids, new biomes, huge heat changes, loads of new food sources and more there's been quite a lot to test/balance. There's also a few systems that were in need of some tweaks that seem to have remained untouched, presumably because there's only so much you want to change at once, the biggest standouts there being disease and ranching (old critter balance that is) although at this point those seem best left to post release.  It's a great game regardless and provided the current major bugs like save game issues get ironed out I imagine it'll be really well received at launch but the gains it makes weekly atm seem a shame to waste.

Anyway was just wondering what others opinions were

[lunazone]

Personally, I just don't really think the game is ready to launch within the next two weeks. Hopefully, I'm wrong though, and Klei has it under control.

[Skrivener]

I'll go with Klei's call. It's in a much more solid state already but there's plenty of core polish and balance that ONI could benefit from before official release.

[Maxposting]

I mean this is klei, they delay stuff like 25%-40% of the time, I'm pretty sure they like know when it's ready and if it should be delayed.

[Chaoticlusts]

3 hours ago, __IvoCZE__ said:

I mean this is klei, they delay stuff like 25%-40% of the time, I'm pretty sure they like know when it's ready and if it should be delayed.

Agreed.  But the testing branch is out there so players can give feedback, plus I'm curious ^_^