DCS 2.9.6 Delay

[Graphics]

 

05 July 2024

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, 

The next DCS update, version 2.9.6, has been delayed and is currently in heavy testing and bug fixing. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. It is very important for us to release updates with as few issues as possible and this extra time is genuinely required to deliver a quality product.

Our initial aim was to release this massive update on 26 June 2024 and the announcement was made in our 29 March 2024 Newsletter and 19 April 2024 Newsletter.

Despite the short timeframe for such a large release, we were confident we could do it based on past development experience. Indeed, we reached our internal goal and completed the roadmap that we set for ourselves and even added additional functionality to both the DCS: CH-47F and the DCS: Afghanistan map. However, some unforeseen events prevented us from meeting the schedule and we would like to share with you what caused the current delay.

As you may know, we generally release one new aircraft module or map per DCS update, rarely more. In general, it takes about a month between releases to prepare for the next one. Starting in May, we released products twice a month: DCS: Kola, DCS: F-4E Phantom II, and the DCS: OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. These were planned to be topped with DCS: Afghanistan, DCS: CH-47F, and Flaming Cliffs 2024 with each product having their own specific features requiring careful integration into DCS. This is on top of the new Air Boss station for DCS: Supercarrier, many new module features and bug fixes, as well as substantial improvements to the DCS core. We overestimated our capacity to meet the challenge we had set upon ourselves but we are hopeful that you will understand our decision. 

Here is the event timeline for the delayed DCS 2.9.6 update:

We announced the delay in the 21 June 2024 Newsletter. The decision to postpone the release was made based on 19 critical issues (stoppers) related to the DCS Core, Supercarrier, CH-47F, F-16C, F/A-18C, and F-4E. Normally, we have 5-8 stoppers a week prior to a release.

By 26 June 2024 the list of stoppers had increased to 25 related to the above products, in addition to DCS: AJS-37 Viggen, DCS: F-5E Tiger II, Flaming Cliffs 2024, and the new Launcher. By Tuesday, 2 July, a tremendous job had been accomplished by the team and most of the issues were resolved. Nevertheless, the decision was made that the DCS: CH-47F should have additional time for content preparation and more detailed testing.

Everything was moving smoothly when a new set of issues reared their heads. These were subsequently resolved on 3 July 2024 and we were poised to deliver the update together with the full list of fixes, improvements, and new products. However, by the morning of 4 July 2024 our QA team reported new stoppers related to AI aircraft in addition to a broken campaign and so the decision to further delay had to be made.

We know that this is a very eagerly awaited update and that it will provide a lot of new and great stuff for you, including a fix to the DCS: F-15E Strike Eagle radar. However, in good conscience we simply could not let the it go out as is. 

A new date will soon be announced on our Discord and other social media channels once we have very high confidence in it. We would like to thank you and the Community, our third party developers and especially Heatblur for their cooperation, rapid feedback, and updates on their aircraft.

The whole team at Eagle Dynamics apologise for the inconvenience and undertake to do their very best. 

Thank you again for your passion and support, 

Yours sincerely,

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Will the new date be announced here on your official forum as well, or only on social media?

[JD]

2 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Will the new date be announced here on your official forum as well, or only on social media?

Hope they won't announce new release date. We've got a really toxic community here. If there will be at least one more delay on this update, the sky is gonna fall.

[318_Bonzo]

Good decision. It's better to wait for a refined update than to cry that new bugs have appeared.

[Robi Hobby]

Please do not share Dates or other Information on external platforms such as Discord or Facebook. This is your Website! And this is where the Music plays and not on external platforms that do not belong to you. 

[YoYo]

Why on social media and Discord only?

[AeroGrappler]

Confident ED will update us when they have the information.  Thanks for the communication.  We'll get there.  In the mean time, go outside and spend time with your friends and family, lol

[Gierasimov]

6 minutes ago, YoYo said:

Why on social media and Discord only?

It will be heare as well as always: 

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/233848-patch-status/?do=findComment&comment=5472954

3 minutes ago, AeroGrappler said:

Confident ED will update us when they have the information.  Thanks for the communication.  We'll get there.  In the mean time, go outside and spend time with your friends and family, lol

Yep, absolutely, going out with my love tonight. Enjoy your life folks!

[Flash2]

Dear DCS Team,

I believe there is a vast community of users who, like myself, commend you for your transparency, your efforts to satisfy us, and the unparalleled results we enjoy. Considering the remarkable goals already achieved and the complexity of the project, a few delays are normal. You can count on our patient respect.

[YoYo]

52 minutes ago, Gierasimov said:

It will be heare as well as always: 

I know, probably yes, but they wrote clearly:

Quote

A new date will soon be announced on our Discord and other social media channels once we have very high confidence in it.

so that's why few pople are surprised .

For me Discord its a waste of time for scrooling and chat only. Good for possibly quick information, with lots of LOL, ROFL and WTF, thats all.

Edited July 5, 2024 by YoYo

[Victor3]

Thank you for the transparency and update. As a former Alpha and Beta tester for another major sim title, I know how frustrating it can be when, despite massive amounts of testing, bugs pop up at the last minute.

[stburr91]

49 minutes ago, Gierasimov said:

It will be heare as well as always: 

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/233848-patch-status/?do=findComment&comment=5472954

Yep, absolutely, going out with my love tonight. Enjoy your life folks!

 

Well, they didn't announce one of the delays on here, it was only on their discord. 

 

I'm glad to see they aren't announcing a new release date until they are sure they can make that date. 

[WOPR]

A late release is forgotten sooner than a bad release.  This is enough of an explanation for the delay.  It’s disappointing, but a delay is better than having to cope with an unusable release.  

[oseleton]

hace 2 horas, Graphics dijo:

 

05 July 2024

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, 

The next DCS update, version 2.9.6, has been delayed and is currently in heavy testing and bug fixing. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. It is very important for us to release updates with as few issues as possible and this extra time is genuinely required to deliver a quality product.

Our initial aim was to release this massive update on 26 June 2024 and the announcement was made in our 29 March 2024 Newsletter and 19 April 2024 Newsletter.

Despite the short timeframe for such a large release, we were confident we could do it based on past development experience. Indeed, we reached our internal goal and completed the roadmap that we set for ourselves and even added additional functionality to both the DCS: CH-47F and the DCS: Afghanistan map. However, some unforeseen events prevented us from meeting the schedule and we would like to share with you what caused the current delay.

As you may know, we generally release one new aircraft module or map per DCS update, rarely more. In general, it takes about a month between releases to prepare for the next one. Starting in May, we released products twice a month: DCS: Kola, DCS: F-4E Phantom II, and the DCS: OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. These were planned to be topped with DCS: Afghanistan, DCS: CH-47F, and Flaming Cliffs 2024 with each product having their own specific features requiring careful integration into DCS. This is on top of the new Air Boss station for DCS: Supercarrier, many new module features and bug fixes, as well as substantial improvements to the DCS core. We overestimated our capacity to meet the challenge we had set upon ourselves but we are hopeful that you will understand our decision. 

Here is the event timeline for the delayed DCS 2.9.6 update:

We announced the delay in the 21 June 2024 Newsletter. The decision to postpone the release was made based on 19 critical issues (stoppers) related to the DCS Core, Supercarrier, CH-47F, F-16C, F/A-18C, and F-4E. Normally, we have 5-8 stoppers a week prior to a release.

By 26 June 2024 the list of stoppers had increased to 25 related to the above products, in addition to DCS: AJS-37 Viggen, DCS: F-5E Tiger II, Flaming Cliffs 2024, and the new Launcher. By Tuesday, 2 July, a tremendous job had been accomplished by the team and most of the issues were resolved. Nevertheless, the decision was made that the DCS: CH-47F should have additional time for content preparation and more detailed testing.

Everything was moving smoothly when a new set of issues reared their heads. These were subsequently resolved on 3 July 2024 and we were poised to deliver the update together with the full list of fixes, improvements, and new products. However, by the morning of 4 July 2024 our QA team reported new stoppers related to AI aircraft in addition to a broken campaign and so the decision to further delay had to be made.

We know that this is a very eagerly awaited update and that it will provide a lot of new and great stuff for you, including a fix to the DCS: F-15E Strike Eagle radar. However, in good conscience we simply could not let the it go out as is. 

A new date will soon be announced on our Discord and other social media channels once we have very high confidence in it. We would like to thank you and the Community, our third party developers and especially Heatblur for their cooperation, rapid feedback, and updates on their aircraft.

The whole team at Eagle Dynamics apologise for the inconvenience and undertake to do their very best. 

Thank you again for your passion and support, 

Yours sincerely,

 

Let the team work for a performance of our beloved dcs

 

[virgo47]

As a SW developer myself, I don't necessarily agree with ED's priorities in some areas (longstanding bugs in older modules), but delaying a release...? No problem, I'll wait. Sure, I don't plan vacations according to their announced dates, maybe that's it. I understand people eagerly anticipating new things, e.g. the Hook or AF map but I don't understand the traffic (and the style of the traffic) that happens on this forum every time something is delayed or postponed.

I'm looking forward to the next patch, whenever it comes. Better late than sorry, indeed.

[primus_TR]

Take your time. 

[wilbur81]

Keep up the great work, team! 

[silverdevil]

news about the delay (and other news) is on the main DCS website. or just keep playing. eventually it will update.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/

[PLUTON]

Those who criticize are people who only know how to do that because they know nothing about serious and well-done work.
All the other understanding people know what it means to work hard and understand you, so DCS team do what you know how to do
(good work), we will appreciate each other.
Thank you.

[Archangel44]

ED should take the “Scotty” route on Star trek.

Tell Captain Kirk that it will take two days to get the warp engines back online, knowing that it will take 18 hours to get it done.

Commander Scott knows if all goes well, success can come sooner but knows that glitches can arise so he extends the time frame to accommodate these glitches.

Now, if he can get things running under the time frame, he’s a miracle worker, if not and he completes his task with his sublime timeframe, he kept his word.

ED optimistically puts in a time frame, particularly ignoring the glitches which causes these unwanted delays.

However, this is not Star Trek and people’s lives are not on the line but psychologically speaking, the results are the same. When one group sets a goal and date to reach this goal and falls short, people on the receiving end think about the same.

Just my humble take on things.

If you like or don’t like what I say, ask me if I care.

[MiGCap1]

No problem for me. Do good work, take Your time. And thank You for Your efforts!

[Leg2ion]

As per @MiGCap1 - take your time - get it right.  In the scheme of things with so many recent additions - what is a few weeks?

Your efforts very much appreciated.

[Peregrino]

I think is better that the patch was delayed, than released broken or decontented (F5E new fan here). Continue working as you need.

Edited July 5, 2024 by Peregrino

[Hammer_251]

  No sweat for the delay ED, you guys are great! DCS World are what my dreams are made of! I have just finished my training in the F-14A as close as I could per U.S. Navy procedures and I'm lovin" it! Nothing like a Case 3 in pitch darkness to get the adrenaline flowing!

Regards,

[=DROOPY=]

Not that I'm planning on purchasing anything coming in this update, or even know how to write code, but just wanted to say 'Thank you'!  for providing some background into the unforeseen issues. 

@NineLine @BIGNEWY

Thank you guys for all you do.

You have a difficult job being the ED Forum punching bags, all the while remaining positive and professional.

I'm absolutely *not* jealous of your tasks here.  Id rather eat crunchy dog poop than be a ED Forums moderator...