Shown below is a table of release dates (let me know if I messed up on any of these dates):
Patch
Release Date
Days since previous patch
1.29.0b
4/10/2018
N/A
1.29.1
4/23/2018
13
1.29.2
5/3/2018
10
1.30.0
8/8/2018
97
1.30.2
11/18/2018
102
1.30.3
1/4/2019
47
1.30.4
1/14/2019
10
1.31.0
5/28/2019
134
1.31.1
6/10/2019
13
Based on the above table,
There were 120 days between the release of 1.29.0b and 1.30.0
There were 293 days between the release of 1.30.0 and 1.31.0
Pete mentioned that 1.31.0 was quite the behemoth of a patch and still did not have everything they wanted in it.
Based on all the above information (and assuming reforged beta is not a super behemoth like 1.31.0 was), we could reasonably expect the beta patch in the next 80 days (9/25/2019).
Since the reforged beta patch will likely be a super behemoth of a patch though, we may want to add another 60 or even 90 days to that (11/25/2019-12/25/2019).
TL;DR: Beta will probably be here late November or maybe just not at all considering why have a beta in late December if the release would be like in 5 days.
I appreciate all the effort gone into this, thanks for this.
Reforged beta though I think will depend more on where they are with the technical aspects more than the balance. The patches we’ve had indicate what their process is for balance updates, but the beta isn’t really about balance, it’s about how well the new art works and if there’s any flaws with the rest of the systems they’re implementing like online connectivity, AT finally working again or whatever it is that was breaking ROC that forced them to remove it entirely.
I think it’s the rocky transition to new systems (that also work with Classic War3) that is what’s causing the delays. That and possibly the new art assets needing to be optimized so that there aren’t any memory leaks and turning on raytrace shadows doesn’t destroy your graphics card.
I’m not surprised they’re spending more time on it, TBH. Traditionally speaking, Blizz Betas have been more like Playable Demos than Beta. But then again, these past few patch releases have been rocky, so I couldn’t imagine them wanting to release a beta that was anything less than actual patches…
I completely disagree. 1.29, 1.30, and 1.31 (a suite of editor changes and lua support which was delayed as the team tried really hard to get RoC to work with the patch), while having some balance changes in them, were focused primarily on new tech. Number tweaks are easy to implement whereas tech takes time. Based on the time delay of these patches, I strongly believe the majority of the work was tech.
I also know War3 reforged will have a heavy tech load as well with the work on integrating reforged with the modern battle.net client (not to mention getting RoC and AT to work).
But who knows, maybe I’m wrong. I’d love an earlier release (like next week would be AWESOME ). I doubt it though
). I doubt it though