Army Builder V3.2 Game Plan

[rob]

Greetings,

About two months ago, a number of you asked what was up next for Army Builder and when would it be released. It was the week before we left for GenCon, so I briefly outlined the situation and promised a more concrete response after Colen and I could spend some time mapping out a concrete plan. We mapped that out in late August and I was going to post the details.

Before I could do that, though, I got hit hard with a serious health problem. In a nutshell, I have acquired a severe, chronic neck condition that results in pinched nerves and/or numbness. It rendered me barely able to work during September. With extensive treatment, I've finally rebounded to about 50-60% of where I was at previously. Unfortunately, it's not likely that I'll rebound much further in the near term, but my fingers are still crossed.

Needless to say, this threw a major wrench in the AB 3.2 plan that we devised. So we re-convened and revised the plan. My health condition has resulted in me being waaayyyy behind in my role on our various commitments for Hero Lab, but Colen's tasks are largely wrapped up now. The original plan was for both of us to switch over to work on AB in November. At this point, either Colen can help me out with my Hero Lab stuff for another couple of months, working on portions of the code that he's not very familiar with, or he can switch over to work on AB while I wrap things up on Hero Lab at whatever pace I'm capable of. After giving it a lot of thought, we opted for the latter solution, since that will (a) be more efficient for us and (b) get something released sooner for AB 3.2.

So the good news is that work on AB 3.2 should be underway in the next few weeks. The key drawback of this approach is that some of the engine stuff that we wanted to add to AB 3.2 will not make its way into the release. This is because I'm the engine expert and I'm not going to be able to get started right away, nor will I be able to get stuff done as quickly as originally anticipated. We'll get the bulk of the UI improvements and refinements implemented in V3.2 and then follow it up with a separate release containing the engine changes at a later point. The timing for that follow up will depend substantively on my health and productivity, both of which are major points of uncertainty right now.

We'll post a summary of the key things we've got planned for the V3.2 release in the next few weeks. We still need to investigate a couple of items before we can confirm exactly what will be added. In the meantime, this should give everyone some certainty that V3.2 will be arriving relatively soon.

Thanks for your patience with everything. I'm confident you're all going to like the new stuff that we've got slated for inclusion in V3.2.

May the dice be with you....

-Rob

[MarkC]

Hi Rob

I hope you are recovering from your health issues.

I purchased Army Builder v3 in Feb 2005 and have been paying maintenance each year since. I'm due to pay maintenance again (at least the data file updates have stopped working) and I am asking myself is it worth renewing.

What is the current thinking on any patches/updates to Army Builder?

After the recent web site problems is the license update feature working?

Regards

Mark C

[rob]

Work on V3.2 is underway for AB. The target is a mid- to late-Spring release. With all the nasty surprises that have been happening, I completely dropped the ball on posting the list of stuff I promised. Sorry about that. I'm hoping the dust settles a bit this week and I can get that done by the weekend.

But we do have a list of stuff we're working on, and progress is being made.

If you choose to hold off on the license extension, you can always download data file updates via our website. There is a link to go directly to the pertinent web page under the Help menu.

[Team Tau]

Will their be a way to upgrade from V3.1c?

[Pilgrimdb]

I brought this issue to Rob's attention in July 2007. At that time I was assured that there would be an update "before the end of the year" and that if this wasn't achieved that "If the delay continues much longer, we'll need to address this in some way for users". Since then I have renewed my subscription and received ZERO updates. I feel that, whilst this is a very good program, the license system has merely punished those who were faithful enough to actually pay Rob and the team, leaving the others who did not pay for the ongoing updates to receive the same service for free. I would have thought that, failing to deliver the updates promised, that some kind of free extension (that would be four years for me) or a refund would be in order. It's just a shame that such a good product is made by a company that treats its customers with such contempt (and may I add, deals with them in a very legally compromising position concerning consumer affairs laws).

I challenge Rob to, on this forum, commit to what will be done for those who have paid their ongoing fees for no service in return.

[gilvagor]

Wow...such complaining from people. It never fails to amuse me how much people threaten legal action over such little money.

Anyways back on track with the original spirit of the thread. I hope that this update will have the inventory system implemented. I'm extremely looking forward to that part. If it only had that I would be so happy.

I love AB as does everyone that has bought it and paid for the subscription (and let me tell anyone that's complaining about paying for the subscription you have nothing to complain about unless your paying from a different currency (like Canadian to US).

[winged_human]

Rob,
I'm sorry to hear of the health problems that you have faced over the past year, my family and I will keep you in our prayers. I'd like to thank you personally for all the hard work you and your team have done on this program, and wish you all the best in your endeavors for it's continuance and growth. I am eagerly awaiting the new release for AB that you have summarized above, and look forward to it's changes and improvements.

Keep up the Great work guys!

[Team Tau]

Originally Posted by Pilgrimdb

I brought this issue to Rob's attention in July 2007. At that time I was assured that there would be an update "before the end of the year" and that if this wasn't achieved that "If the delay continues much longer, we'll need to address this in some way for users". Since then I have renewed my subscription and received ZERO updates. I feel that, whilst this is a very good program, the license system has merely punished those who were faithful enough to actually pay Rob and the team, leaving the others who did not pay for the ongoing updates to receive the same service for free. I would have thought that, failing to deliver the updates promised, that some kind of free extension (that would be four years for me) or a refund would be in order. It's just a shame that such a good product is made by a company that treats its customers with such contempt (and may I add, deals with them in a very legally compromising position concerning consumer affairs laws).

I challenge Rob to, on this forum, commit to what will be done for those who have paid their ongoing fees for no service in return.

Please do not smear Rob, as he was (is?) ill and wasn't able to get version 3.2 finished by the time he said he would.

I hope you are doing good Rob.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Team Tau

Will their be a way to upgrade from V3.1c?

V3.2 will be a standard product update. Consequently, anyone with an active license will be able to utilize it automatically.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Pilgrimdb

I challenge Rob to, on this forum, commit to what will be done for those who have paid their ongoing fees for no service in return.

Well, I'm not taking the bait and I'm not going to get all stressed out over your "challenge". I've spent the past 10 years working 80-100 hours per week (no joke) in an effort to make everyone happy that uses our range of products. In the end, I managed to work myself into a nasty health situation. I can't work those hours anymore and I can't afford to worry about doing my best to please everyone anymore.

Have we made some mistakes along the way? You betcha. But we've always done our best to put out a solid product. It's gratifying that most of our users recognize that and appreciate it. That's what has kept me going all this time. So thanks for that!!