I am almost done with it. Should be available over the next few days. Still working on P.O.P.S. integration and testing and finalizing a lot of stuff, cleaning up the usual blue-sky messes, etc.

I would like a volunteer to test Linux builds with me. If anybody's interested (and has the time / motivation to do fairly serious tests) a free copy of the game is yours.

I'm just curious as to how successfull PURE is... any chance you'll tell your fans that you developed this with a free engine?

seriously though, PURE is pretty cool, just not enough for me to buy.

how will the test look like? Simply playing the game? Online, togther? I would like...

My website explains where the engine came from in some detail, both on the front page and in the Forum

Basically, yes. I need to make minor changes to the Missions, in order to make them compatible with Linux, and I need somebody to test the Missions, Skirmish and Pylon Wars. I need to make sure it's all running correctly under Linux, which I don't use, so I need somebody to be pretty thorough, and basically play through the campaigns and report bugs. I'm not all that concerned about online atm.

how about a beta period of polishing up the game balance?

The balance in the Demo's fairly good. Nobody played it online.

The current balance is probably shot to hell, but I can't see that really mattering, unless people start playing it online enough to actually find and identify the problems, which would justify the time spent.

I'm willing to listen to arguments, but basically I don't know whether the time I'd spend would pay off in terms of sales, vs. spending more time on the SP experience.

It'd pay off more in terms of reputation and talk talk chit chat that encourages sales.

IK has a good grasp of these things, you can just implement the 5 biggest changes of his chooses quickly and test what people say, if it doesnt work, roll back, if it does, then do more work on it.

I don't actually think that the MP balance will be all that important in terms of all that, tbh. The major story is the graphics overhaul (new particle system, new shaders, new projectile system, the list goes on and on), the new SP game, the new races and toys.

MP wasn't even a tertiary concern this time, I got to see the results of spending several months on balance polish, and it was utterly not worth doing, in terms of sales. People bought it for SP, so far as I've been able to determine.

That said... how's about this.

I'll release a stripped-down version, no launcher, no SP stuff, three maps (if you play this on maps that weren't built for it, it's totally pointless to tell me balance is screwed up, it's not made for DSD).

Oh, wait, that will save maybe 10 MB over just releasing a new Demo... and updating the game / Demo if serious problems are found and there are enough people really seriously wanting to play it MP to justify the time spent.

IOW, I'd rather just issue the Demo, and then patch stuff. Patches can be really small, and would fix both the Demo and the full game simultaneously. Making sense? There's no magical way to give people a small version of the game, or something, just to find out that MP is not balanced well atm (which I am absolutely sure it's not).

Sure, update the Demo.

Nonetheless, I agree with 1v0ry, we should test it and hash out balance. I did not buy a copy because I felt like we dropped the ball and I did not help like I should have with the earlier versions - remember how I tried to remind you not to release without the Linux or OS X versions - and because I've had limited time. Something radical has changed in my lifestyle and I may have time now. I would like to be involved in more than testing, but I'll settle for testing for now.

how many times have PURE been sold?

OK, I'll update the Demo, and we can go from there. If the balance is broken, I'll listen and try to fix it, within reason.

I was going to hold on a little longer before releasing any screens, but... meh, can't help it.

MetalStorm?

Btw. Im a Linux user. I could do some tests MP or SP.
GMT+1, I should be online the next 3 weeks from ~11 to 24.

Could you upload some of your screens to springinfo's screenie gallery?

Yes, I can do that. I will get back to you about this when I'm a little closer to release.

that looks fucking incredible.

you are a very, very talented artist

now if you would just team up with someone who understands game balance and design...

Can i ask who you think understands balance and design better than Argh or better than the rest of the spring community?

the orginal developers of AA, BA, XTA, S44, SWIW, KP, GRTS, EE

based purely on how playable and intelligent gameplay of said games are, I would say all of these demonstrate a good understanding of what makes rts gaming fun

So your saying that gameplay and design wise all those porjects outdid PURE cause of the sheer ability of the original gamemakers?
IMO that is a very simplistic assessment.
There is the initial design.
There is the testing.
There is the testers/players suggestions.
There is the amount of time the game has been tested and explored.

None of the projects you specified had an exact plan on how the balance and gameplay were gonna be from the beginning and none of them took such plan,implemented in detail,exactly as is,changed nothing,announced the project was complete and it was awesome after such a process.

I wont even mention *A that are just TA mods with completely random changes within the constraints of the Spring engine.
No planning just OTA Spring engine and a lot of game time.

Argh, I'm very impressed with your artistic ability. Can't wait to see it in action.