I suppose this thread serves as a reminder that no matter what the devs do, there's always that someone who doesn't like it

I think, it's a good move to announce the date and also deliver the update on time.
This should help for future releases.

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

Didn't watch any videos since I don't care for hype or spoilers.

The trailer is only a short cartoon cinematic which depicts what Valheim is all about, in a nutshell, and neither mentions. nor depicts any new features... It contains no spoilers, that I could see.

as long as we're in ea, we're the play testers. the roadmap is the longview, best guess of when things planned to be in game are likely to be added. if they're giving a hard date for something, it's saying "we're pretty darn close to having this ready and can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that we can push this out in x days"... but again don't expect a finished or polished product. that's not what we're doing here. also totally check out the trailer. devs have stated they are not giving away details bc the game is about exploration & discovery and they don't want to spoil that by listing anything the update contains. they brought in an animation studio to put together a little cartoon, and it's honestly pretty cool.

Yeah they probably finished doing what work they need to do for now. Just waiting to maybe add finishing touches, possibly play test a bit & ensure things are running smoothly when it gets released.

Having to change a road map is totally different from giving a fixed date 3 weeks out from a single update. Road maps are based on predictions and as such are liable to change once work has begun on individual elements and more is known. They have been working on the heath and home update for a while now and as they've given a firm date for its release they have highly likely got it to a play tested stage where it can launch and they are using the remaining time for spit and polish and, as you have mentioned, to drum up marketing for it and get as many of the original player base back and playing again.

Originally posted by Happy:

Yeah they probably finished doing what work they need to do for now. Just waiting to maybe add finishing touches, possibly play test a bit & ensure things are running smoothly when it gets released.

Pretty much spot on =)

Originally posted by Irongate Smiffe:

Originally posted by Happy:

Yeah they probably finished doing what work they need to do for now. Just waiting to maybe add finishing touches, possibly play test a bit & ensure things are running smoothly when it gets released.

Pretty much spot on =)

I guess what bothers me, if this is the only reason, is that even if you feel it is ready to ship out you won't release it until that date.

Giving a firm date has an equal chance of holding up the delivery rather than just putting it out whenever you feel it is ready.

edit add - and thanks for replying ! You folks are doing great work!

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

Originally posted by Irongate Smiffe:

Pretty much spot on =)

I guess what bothers me, if this is the only reason, is that even if you feel it is ready to ship out you won't release it until that date.

Giving a firm date has an equal chance of holding up the delivery rather than just putting it out whenever you feel it is ready.

There are always i's to dot and t's to cross when doing releases (even for an EA from a small indy).

And, if it is anything like when I'm preparing releases for the company I work in, there are always a few small, last minute issues that crop up that would be nice to sort out before release (but aren't always blockers for the release)...

Also - given that they've just taken some new staff on, this is a perfect time to bring them up to speed, and get them set up for bug fixing post-release (which is, in my experience, a good way to get people acquainted with a code-base without too much risk).

Also, it looks bad when a dev serially flies by the seats of their pants and goes, "Oh I dunno, it'll be out when it's out, we'll see, stay tuned," rather than giving solid dates for things, which in turn shows structure and intention. Carving out a chunk of time for QA (after which release is certain) after you've completed the requirements for an update is a reasonable and professional thing to do.

They gave a firm date because they are in a place to confidently give one. They are probably also a bit sick of the variations of "are we there yet?" every five minutes on the forums because they hadn't given a firm date.

I really don't understand trying to spin giving a solid date into a negative thing.

Originally posted by Weaver:

They gave a firm date because they are in a place to confidently give one. They are probably also a bit sick of the variations of "are we there yet?" every five minutes on the forums because they hadn't given a firm date.

I really don't understand trying to spin giving a solid date into a negative thing.

Well I am not.

I was just stating my personal opinion on the matter and was seeking others viewpoints on it.

My concerns are slight and certainly not anything to be building up to be anything more than that.

I do worry a bit that in the worst case scenario something may pop up that makes it go past that date and then some people will flip out over it. <not me, I have stated i would be fine if they released later than Q3 ha ha>

Given the current climate I thought to give a date would be the last thing they really want to do.

As for other replies..
@Anarchist Jurisdictor
AAA "professional" devs are kind of the last ones I want to support so trying to emulate their behavior is not really a selling point to me. Although your point about setting aside time for QA is indeed reasonable. I just feel flexibility should be left in the devs hands rather than a fixed date in the best situation of it being ready already.

@MrFroglin
I prefer to say dot the T's and cross the eyes but yeah.
Very good point I had not considered at all was the gearing up of new folks for the bug fixing. Thanks for that.

Let's just hope it all goes smoothly! Have a great day!

My thought is: start crying once they didn‘t deliver on 16th.

Its a date literally 3 weeks out dude. You think they'd post the date 3 WEEKS FROM NOW if it wasn't ready? Obviously the update is ready and they're just working on the finishing touches. I really don't see how or why anyone on this planet would complain about a date being given. It's literally just a normal, common sense thing to do that every developer does.

I think that if they have given us a date release, it is because they have already finished the update or it is almost finished