Hi bugsblake ! I am relatively new here...around here since a few years...and I know/use and appreciate your models..and the models of many other modders and fans that were here since the early days of outerra. So I can fully understand your disappointment...I guess as it was looking very promising from the beginning you and many others (probably all of you) expected to get something more and more quickly .. Nevertheless I suggest you to reconsider partly your disappointment for the following reasons:
1) you actually peeked in the forum at a moment which is very close to the next release..which I am sure will be a BIG ONE...(see quote from cameni below...but its going to be probably much more than that)
2) for tools: actually besides the model import and scenery editor that you well know a VERY POWERFUL tool is there since a long time...which is the outerra API documentend on github...I used it to create lots of special effects, and actually some mods that allow limited gameplay, ..so if you're willing to dive into programming we actually have already enough tools to start making some really cool "limited" gameplay mods
3) I am confident that "the game" is now closer than ever ...as my understanding is that devs finally now have more financial freedom to care about it (thanks also to money from Titan collaboration) ...and they do care for sure.... it seems to me they're now "fully" going to focus on that ...and of course I agree with you that those of us who bought the tech-demo should get the game for free once its out...on steam or wherever.
So here is the latest update (from a few weeks back from cameni here on the forum) . So I hope to still see you around here sometimes and getting once more involved in mods, possibly using more of the already available tools of outerra
...and another suggestion: peek in again in no more than a few months for a really BIG UPDATE. (final comment: just don't expect that you get a "thing" like Unity....we have bought the "tech demo" and will get all its updates and sooner or later for free "a game"...not full access to all the stuff that makes up an engine...I think that should be clear...at least this is what I understand from devs posts..and for me its perfectly OK)
Ok guys, sorry for the lack of updates. Things went even more quiet than usual in the second half of 2019, thanks to a couple of things happening.
First a large, long term project we participated on ended, technically successful but with no subsequent big deals materializing. That participation cost us a lot of time and resources, and while the funds from it allowed us to continue working on and enhancing the engine and the world data it needs, it didn't fruit into what we hoped for - a situation that would allow usexpanding and freeing our hands to focus on our own game development plans, in addition to the work that continuously needs to go into the engine itself.
Still, the outcomes of the project were useful in bringing several things into OT, that would be otherwise much harder to come by, for example the 10m imagery and forest mask data, worth >$100k.
Subsequently, a few of the old devs also felt exhaustion from the complex and neverending effort of building the world engine, and left in pursuit of easier targets.
***
But ultimately all these things led to positive changes.
We've updated our licensing deals with our existing partners. It means that you can (possibly) expect to see entertainment games and/or simulators based on the OT engine in the future, but the deal also includes measures to make our licensees less dependent on us and considerably lower the amount of support we have to provide. We still need to support and develop the engine and the world, but we now have a lot more space for our own development on top of the engine.
Also very importantly, the working atmosphere in our rejuvenated team is also a lot brighter now.
***
So, what's coming? New x64-only release is around the corner, with new Earth8 datasets including imagery and forest data and global buildings, 3D trees (wip species coverage), global weather, cloud shadows, scriptable scenery objects, character stuff etc.
At the moment we are still fixing some glaring bugs and preparing servers to handle the new data. There's also a plan to release the full data as a DLC on Steam for people who do not want to have the data downloaded progressively, but the whole package for reduced resolution data (40m color, 20m tree map) is currently ~160GB (10m full data package would be around 500GB).
Anteworld stays to be a sandbox game for enthusiasts, but like I said we've now got much more time to work on our game stuff, and a better aligned team as well.
At last, I thank you all for your unbelievable patience 
TLDR: We are still alive and stubbornly working on the thing.
Author
Topic: Previous version: 17.1.0.11105 (32-bit) (Read 248725 times)