I think we are about ready for a stable release.

[gurutar]

i'd like to see the "primitive age" tweaked to either not last as long or give a wider variety of loot before stable release. i'd prefer it be scrapped altogether but that won't happen.

 

i'm also guessing the linear loot progression is here to stay, so i'd like to see that be more variable before stable too.

 

i'm guessing a large amount of players are going to mod these two things out of their games anyway.

 

as far as bugs, they don't bother me much. if i see them i report them, eventually most will get ironed out. you can't iron out intended gameplay mechanics.

[Roland]

The game is still under development even after it goes stable. Loot tables have nothing whatsoever to do with the stability of the game so there is zero reason they would keep the game in experimental just for tinkering with loot or early game progression. 
 

If they feel that b180 is good enough for public release of an early access alpha, then when stable comes it could be this same build. You very well might be playing stable as we speak. 

[Roland]

44 minutes ago, gurutar said:

guessing the linear loot progression is here to stay,

No. Location based difficulty is planned. You will once again have all the best loot available to you from the beginning but it will be very difficult locations. So open a safe from a ruined remnant in the forest biome and you will get an orange primitive bow. Open a safe from a t3 poi in the wasteland and you might get a yellow Compound bow. 
 

Play things safe and it will be linear. Go outside the comfort zone and it won’t be. 

52 minutes ago, gurutar said:

you can't iron out intended gameplay mechanics.

Sure you can. There is an iron called Ravenhearst, an iron called Darkness Falls, an iron called True Survival, an iron called 0XP, etc. 

[gurutar]

3 hours ago, Roland said:

No. Location based difficulty is planned. You will once again have all the best loot available to you from the beginning but it will be very difficult locations. So open a safe from a ruined remnant in the forest biome and you will get an orange primitive bow. Open a safe from a t3 poi in the wasteland and you might get a yellow Compound bow. 
 

Play things safe and it will be linear. Go outside the comfort zone and it won’t be. 

will that be in the stable release or planned for a future alpha? i'd love to strap a dozen blunderbusses to my belt, craft a stack of med bandages and go plundering places way above my league.

[JCrook1028]

I expect 180 to go stable mon or tues myself.

[Roland]

38 minutes ago, gurutar said:

will that be in the stable release or planned for a future alpha? i'd love to strap a dozen blunderbusses to my belt, craft a stack of med bandages and go plundering places way above my league.

Giving POIs and biomes gamestage modifiers would most likely happen during map generation. That means requiring a restart on a new map to experience it— not to mention that if you want to see how such changes affect the game during the first week or two you would want to start over again anyway. 
 

All of that adds up to the feature not happening until a future alpha. Once stable hits they will only add safe fixes and changes that do not require a restart. 

[CrainBramp]

Have run every single experimental release of A19 up to, and including b180 with mods included: both a YT and a Twitch series, solid 60fps at 4K with an almost all urban Nitrogen map with Compopack43 on one and CompoPack44 on another.  No world wipes, no character losses, no buggy play.

 

Yep, your mileage may vary, but the game isn't broken by a long shot.