Should updates be "postponed" to follow a schedule?

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Grievance about sudden mechanical change hasn't come about recently, so this might not be very topical.

However, one thing that becomes an increasing issue (to me, maybe others?) is now navigating the Announcement thread to understand the breadth and depth of mechanical change.

I wonder if Arelith would be best served (or better served) by aloting updates into a scheduled timeframe.

I.e. everyday 60 days, at the 1st of the month, there will be updates that are substantive in nature.

I'd argue QoL and bug fixes could still be done on an ad-hoc basis, but maybe Arelith would benefit from structure?

I'm not a contributor, but would that alleviate the burden or add to it? As a player would that create too long a drought, or create reassurances?

Or is this just totally unnecessary?

As Arelith becomes more and more complex, and with the talk of haks, my primary concern is players not understanding how to play NWN, but how to navigate 2 sets of rules and mechanics - the base NWN, and everything Arelith changes, adds, and removes.

Maybe regimented updates doesn't tackle that issue or help it, or maybe it addresses something else.

[BegoneThoth]

Ideally changes would just be added to the wiki as things change, so new players can just go there and see current info about things.

[Gods_Kill_People]

I feel that would put our contributors on a schedule, which they shouldn't be on to begin with, I am grateful for every and any update they offer whenever they offer it.

[susitsu]

Plus they don't want people to do things like save up greensteel gear or prep a legacy warlock wizard so you can actually wear a variety of cool outfits.

[Queen Titania]

It's also not a job for anyone. Pretty much a volunteer thing. Setting up a schedule kind of sets up deadlines.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

I interpret it less as,

"hey, it's 11 days til update time! make sure all your STUFF IS DONE."

and more,

"hey, so over the past 2 months, people have done a lot of work. let's put it all in a singular update, than spread it over 10 separate updates, warranting 10 separate posts, and even more feedback/questions/clarifications/stats/etc."

[One Two Three Five]

The problem you're trying to solve 1. isn't, 2. people on this forum will make a dozen threads about every update regardless. People on this forum will make threads about updates when there haven't been any, case in point this one, because we all like to see our own words typed out or something.

As far as I know, Arelith's dev/contributor team works on a sort of 'do what you like' basis, never treated as a job, and never forced into doing it a weird regimented way like this. And because of that, Arelith has the largest dev/contributor team in NWN, and pushes out more/better updates because of it. There's also the 'hey new stuff' aspect you'd be losing: I know several people who, having not played for however long, peek at the update thread and see the team is still active and decide to try something new.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

Making it so that they have to put everything together in one giant bundle requires more time and organizational effort than allowing them to just apply changes whenever and document.

I've some very limited experience in the toolset. Gathering up two months of updates and then applying them all and saving the module in the toolset to apply the changes at once would take FOREVER. As it is I'm pretty sure even small updates can take a while to compile (especially when dealing with a module as large and complex as Arelith).

PLUS; until said updates go live, there is no 100% surefire way of knowing that one update won't break the rest of them, or some other part of the module. If they apply two months of updates at one time it would probably be a lot more work to track down the problem should one arise.

[Black Wendigo]

I think that trying to put the devs on a timetable like that is a little too much like studio executives who don't know the realities of production trying to overschedule those who do. THe devs are not paid people who work for anyone, so I don't think it's fair to them to force that. Let them do things the way they need too I say, despite the pitfalls of that.

Honestly, I think that our grievances about our chars being "ruined" by changes has be blown way out of proportion and is not a real problem that needs a radical fix. Mind you I have been affected as much as anyone else by that (one of my current chars has been changed radically four times (!) in his existance so I understand whre the OP is coming from).

[Peppermint]

We don't submit updates in .erfs or build from the base module. Individual items are submitted in advance to a database and compiled on server. Collecting updates and pushing them all at once would be trivial. A touch of a button. (In fact, behind the scenes, that's how we already do it. We just don't hit that button on a scheduled basis. We hit it 'when we need to'.)

Would it be a good thing, though?

*shrugs*

I've worked on some servers that pushed updates exclusively on a weekly or a biweekly schedule (excluding hotfixes). It worked fine. Though I don't have qualms with Arelith's approach either, so long as releases are polished.

[DM Always This Late]

I think I could see this being benefitcial I guess.

Like major upadates are always applied at the end of the month. If the content isn't ready? No big deal it can fall into next months update while as mentioned, on the spot fixes and as needed updates are applied instantly.

I suppose this would create a more regular release period and you would not have updates sort of springing up mid week etc.

But I don't know how that would affect the contributors if at all? And does it have a benefit other then more regular timing?

I guess it really boils down to what the Devs etc want to do and how a system like that might affect their work style.

I could see the regularity becoming more important if the Arelith community grew larger. Consistancy would help create a feeling of general order and give people something to look forward to. (Like teases that the end of the month = some big changes) etc

[Twily]

Ill admit I dislike the idea.
If the devs are excited to release something they make, I don't feel they should have to sit there and wait for the end of the week/month/whatever is chosen...

I will admit it would be nice if this were done for large class changes only, so that players know what's coming and can prepare a bit in advance (getting out of dangerous areas, buying some gear that they'll need after the update is live ahead of time, etc), rather than suddenly having their character be terrible for seemingly no IC reason until they can get their stuff replaced; but I wouldn't say this is expected or owed to the players either.

However, I don't see a point to it for things like new areas, bug fixes, tweaks to recent updates if they're deemed an issue, etc

Edit:
In reply to Kirito's responce
I wouldn't want them to have to go through that much extra work, and I know I'd prefer bugfixes, new areas and the sort aren't delayed just for the sake of knowing other things in advance, especially so if the developers are excited to release new content they've made.

[Kirito]

With the way things currently work, the choice would be either - all changes INCL bug fixes would be per time period... or ad hoc as it is now.

You can't (without changing how things are done and starting to have different branches of the code) push bug fixes ad hoc and "major" changes on a schedule.