Where did the alpha branch and roadmap go?

[Stratattack]

Been picking up the game again, mods saving this wreck. Anyways, when i played in 1.2. something, they were talking about an alpha branch and they had a great roadmap that didnt make us guess or wonder if they did more than drink coffee at work. Where did these 2 things go?

Nowadays it seems like the beta branch is quite polished, why not have an alpha branch to actually find bugs? Maybe you wouldnt have to spend so much time on bugfixing then in the future

 

[Maelstrom8]

I do not know about the "alpha branch" but as for a roadmap.

Here is TW's official roadmap from what I know:

Statement regarding Plans for Singleplayer and Engine III

Warriors of Calradia, It is time to share another update on some of our current singleplayer and engine related priorities with you. Just like before, stability and performance will continue to be a top priority for us. Beyond that, you will find some of our other goals listed below. Please...

forums.taleworlds.com

https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/statement-regarding-plans-for-mp-vol-5.439403/

Here is a roadmap made by the community:

Community Feedback-based EARLY ACCESS ROADMAP - ready for you, Taleworlds!

Taleworlds said "we will use community feedback to bring the game to the level our community expects." But the game still has major problems which buyers complained about since launch two years ago. So: This is a collection of community feedback, to show our expectations, and track if...

forums.taleworlds.com

 

[Antaeus]

Nowadays it seems like the beta branch is quite polished, why not have an alpha branch to actually find bugs? Maybe you wouldnt have to spend so much time on bugfixing then in the future

In development terms, an alpha stage should be pretty raw. The game is well beyond that point (negative S#!t-posts aside).

You'd expect beta iterations to be increasingly polished the closer the game gets to full release. The beta branch that is at 1.6.1 which is to actually find bugs and a main branch at 1.6.0 which is the official stable version. (Just right click/properties on steam to choose your version).

Now that the game is stable, it feels very much like we're at value-added feature and quality of life additions with only a handful of major features to be added.

 

[Princeps Senatus]

The alpha branch doesn't refer to an alpha version of the game. Rather, at one point TW said that there would be three branches of the game available:

1. The main, up-to-date polished branch (default)
2. A beta branch for testing purposes that would later get pushed to the main branch (currently the beta branch)
3. A much less stable alpha branch with the latest changes that would later get pushed to the beta branch

They never actually set up an alpha branch (or call it development channel, if you want) for public use, though.

 

[julijs]

They never actually set up an alpha branch (or call it development channel, if you want) for public use, though.

I could've swore they did only a handful of open patches of the alpha branch, but then it disappeared in obscurity. I completely forgot that it was a thing until now.

 

[Antaeus]

I could've swore they did only a handful of open patches of the alpha branch, but then it disappeared in obscurity. I completely forgot that it was a thing until now.

I'm pretty sure there are still closed branches that are iterations ahead of the beta and stable branches...