Board Thread:Ace Combat 7/@comment-1824272-20160307171051/@comment-25467429-20160401172554

I think there is a misconception that development is linear, when in fact it can be anything but. It is full of blips and bumps, and yes, even moments of breakout where a ton can get finished in a short amount of time. Depending on the size of the story, recording dialogue could take a lot of time or barely any at all. Even without a given character's name they can start recording other dialogue or scenes if they wanted. And this isn't a blockbuster game where they're going to be hiring a bunch of famous actors or anything, so that should give them a lot more wiggle room in terms of scheduling.

Meanwhile, this shoudln't be impeding the work the team working on the plane modeling, or maps and levels, or general game engine, or VR integration. These folks should be working independent of the script to some degree, aside from needing to know what kind of places they need to make for the maps (a moutainous region, an open field, a dense city, farmland, etc.), or what characters will look like. This should have been communicated some time ago if they really are nearly done with the script. In all honesty, not having a name for the player character is nearly inconsequential in the larger scheme of things.

The hard part comes with pulling all the pieces together. It's when it all comes together at the Alpha stage and you realize that the story doesn't quite make the sort of sense you were expecting, or that the progression through missions is bad, or some host of features simply don't work. Then you have to go back and rework that all over - a script change could mean a change in mission layout, or having to change enemiese on various maps; it can be hugely disruptive. That's a huge risk considering the incorporation of the VR aspect that they're doing for the first time. Then of course is the beta phase where you should be reduced to ironing out minor bugs, but of course you can end up with the same problems you've had in the alpha phase.

My general point is, we can only rely on the facts of what has been said and proven true. They said they were 20% done in December. We have no idea what that 20% was. I think most folks woulid think a completed script could meet that 20% threshold, but unless they've made no progress on that in 3 months, it's doubtful. So, that 20% could represent almost any combination of elements. If it included work on complex and key components, then it would allow for accelerated progress after the fact. Going from 20% to a quality product at 100% in less than a year is certainly a difficult task, but it's by no means impossible, or even improbable, even for a team as small as theirs. And it is from their own source, albeit routed somewhat uncommonly, that we have the deadline for end of 2016. They could always come back later and say they had to push it back, but right now there's no reason not to think that they will be launching a 'finished" product by the end of the year.