Originally Posted by jlong05
OK. Let me try to explain some of the issues the DEV team has been encountering.
First. for the last 2 years the team has been largely 3 people(and really only 2). We recently added a new person in the last couple months bringing the effective team to 4 but mainly 3.
The release dates for JUST the Codex rules is this:
Codex: Space Wolves - 10/2009
Codex: Blood Angels - 4/2010
Codex: Dark Eldar - 11/2010
Codex: Grey Knights - 4/2011
Codex: Necrons - 11/2011
Codex: Chaos Space Marines - 10/2012
Codex: Dark Angels - 1/2013
Codex: Chaos Daemons - 3/2013
Codex: Tau Empire - 4/2013
Codex: Eldar - 6/2013
Codex: Eldar, Iyanden - 6/2013
Codex: Tau Empire, Farsight Enclaves - 7/2013
Codex: Chaos Space Marines, Black Legion - 9/2013
Codex: Space Marines - 9/2013
Codex: Space Marines, Sentinals of Terra - 10/2013
Codex: Space Marines, Clan Raukaan - 11/2013
Codex: Inquisition - 11/2013
Codex: Tyranids - 1/2014
Codex: Imperial Guard, Militarum Tempestus - 3/2014
Codex: Imperial Guard, Astra Militarum - 4/2014
Codex: Orks - 6/2014
Codex: Orks, Waaagh! Ghazghkull - 6/2014
This shows that last year there were 11 books released in the 12 months of the year, and so far this year there have already been 5 books released in the first 6 months.
Now, lets breakdown how that work is currently distributed:
Developer #1
Codex: Necrons - 11/2011
Developer #2
Codex: Dark Eldar - 11/2010
Codex: Chaos Daemons - 3/2013
Codex: Tau Empire - 4/2013
Codex: Eldar - 6/2013
Codex: Eldar, Iyanden - 6/2013
Codex: Tau Empire, Farsight Enclaves - 7/2013
Codex: Tyranids - 1/2014
Codex: Orks - 6/2014
Codex: Orks, Waaagh! Ghazghkull - 6/2014
Developer #3 (Also the lead person responsible for releases etc...)
Codex: Space Wolves - 10/2009
Codex: Blood Angels - 4/2010
Codex: Grey Knights - 4/2011
Codex: Chaos Space Marines - 10/2012
Codex: Dark Angels - 1/2013
Codex: Chaos Space Marines, Black Legion - 9/2013
Codex: Space Marines - 9/2013
Codex: Space Marines, Sentinals of Terra - 10/2013
Codex: Space Marines, Clan Raukaan - 11/2013
Codex: Inquisition - 11/2013
Developer #4
Codex: Imperial Guard, Militarum Tempestus - 3/2014
Codex: Imperial Guard, Astra Militarum - 4/2014
Now, this is just the Codex rules they work on. They are also responsible for all the additional updates, rules released, such as Imperial Armour, the various Christmas releases last year, FAQ updates, etc... And they still have normal jobs and normal lives.
Add to this, we have a SINGLE person doing internal testing, and he is AWESOME at it, but its still only 1 guy.
As you can see, the release schedule is not manageable for a team of 3 people to complete. As for other tools which exist, I cannot speak to how they complete their updates or how many people are involved in the effort or even how difficult it is to write for those tools, as I don't use them. I only know that AB is exceptionally complicated due to the nature of these files and the releases of rules by GW. It takes time, and we really have no effective solution for tracking updates as you have indicated. I know for the Tau Empire stuff, I originally created a Bug tracker to indicate the update was needed, but its not like I personally had time to update it with my progress either.
Now all that said, your exodus comment is still valid, and while you see it on the customer side, I am viewing it from the dev side. Which in your opinion is better? Quietly waiting for a release and being happy knowing that one will eventually come, but possibly losing the occasional consumer due to those delays, or verbally asking over and over and getting the developers upset, because they know they are behind and overwhelmed and no one will help, where they eventually say enough and stop doing the files completely? Then there are no file updates at all.
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