Not that I don't really hope it will be early spring, a more down to earth look at the situation would be that spring lasts until June 21st, so the beta could start both in springtime *and* in June

Stardock are based in Michigan. I'm pretty sure that for them, June is definitely still spring. They can get *frost* in late June. (I'm a North Florida native, and we whine about frost in March, which thankfully doesn't happen that often.)

I expect that there will be a beta or alpha build before the one given to the public, I mean there pretty much has to be.   So whatever build comes right before the 1st release would be what I expect is in question.   I'd expect that to be a few weeks before the June release, so like May?     If there is going to be more than one private beta, then maybe as early as April, right after Demigod's release and Frogboy and company are not pushing to make Demigod's smooth.

"Public beta" probably means that anyone who preorders gets in versus a "private beta" which would be the invite-only type.  Stardock doesn't seem to do the "come demo our game!!!11" type of beta at all.  And really, as some other people said, June is still Spring technically.  The summer Demigod beta started in early September IIRC, which is pretty late in summer.

Well, talking to a friend (who also pre-ordered) we're convinced that when the expected release date for 1.0 is on Impulse, the game will still be in beta, but no one will mind. 

Really, the betas are a great business decision from Stardock, and one that I think reduces piracy and increases sales.

Got pushed back due to Demigod testing (which is ALOT of fun, BTW), which really just means it'll be more robust when it's done.

I'm working on the Essence code ATM.

Perhaps...with several coders off helping wrap-up Demigod, I'm trying to devote as much time to coding as possible.

If you want, I can list my current tasks

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- Yes/no dialog when using essence

- When placing a city, make sure it's not too close to others (when you start a settlement, you're effectivly making a home for the wandering people of the world, so it's pointless to build in an area where everyone's 'come out of hiding').

- Implement city levels (settlements start as 'Outposts', grow as population reaches certain levels)
     - need 'cloth map' icons for different city levels
     - make sure stats update when a city reaches a new level (usable tiles, max population, income, etc)

- Population growth hooked to rations

- Buildings costing gold, balance 'build times' (some are 1 day, others 30 days....not cool)

- Why are starting settlements being created on dungeons?!?!?!

- Clear groundcover props when an improvement is finished.

- Icons showing up in the city 'resource' list.

- GroundcoverPropType XML data format created, read in to give artists more control over groundcover props

- Write a journal entry!!!

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Pretty dry stuff, but note the last one

Thanks for the update, Boogie, as well as a list of your current task list.  Very interesting!  You have quite the diverse task list.  Too bad devs need to be pulled from Elemental to work on Demigod (I was afraid of that!).

Not that you have time for it now, but I'm sure if you posted any of your tasks along the lines of "how should this work?", we'd be happy to help you brainstorm ideas.

oh darn, your right.  I got too excited and didn't examine the vowel on that preposition.

That would kinda suck, monster spawn from dungeon ON your city.  I'd want the game to interpret it as being created by the city so the monster was loyal to me now

Ugh, XML ? I understand it works, but XML is ugly. Besides, XML is like violence - if it doesn't work, you need more.

Please consider YAML instead. It's a lot cleaner and human friendly, and more powerful at the same time.

XML / YAML comparison:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-matters23.html

A nice description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaml

(I'm not trying to sound arrogant, really. I'm just suggesting what I see as an improvement improvement. I suspect you may also be planning to use XML for modding, and I'd rather see YAML. Elemental:WOM doesn't seem to be very far in development so hopefully it's not too late for this.)

Maybe someone tripped and spilled a bit of Dwarf Fortress spice into the Elemental soup.