You do realise that doing a project like that requires you to have a bunch of zombie models and then you need to ask a couple of friends over for a survivalist game.

Actually no mine was going a completely different way, with a bunch of tanks, and a HUGE (2 ft long) Godzilla....

Pictures or it didn't happen!

It hasn't happened... yet

... or a bunch of South Park models and a giant Barbara Streisand.

*ahem* and now back to your regular program schedule.

(yay, I have now achieved COGnitude)

Grats on your Cognatiousness

Denny, I know you got a lot happening, but can we get this out shortly? Please? Pretty please?

Yes boss! I'm trying but I'm still clearing my plate for the next round of production.

Hopefully you'll see this over the next couple weeks and sorry for the delay.

Excellent - been waiting on this before embarking on NecroBlock.

No rush, no rush. I definitely don't want this to come out any time soon, as that would mean I'd have to buy Necroblocks and construct those too. And my wife would go haywire on me starting yet another cardstock project. Just don't do it, for the sake of my social life.

I see the necroclock is net on the list after hl-300, Podtel and Traffic, so does that mean I can get a clock/dice tower soon?

Yes, for a given value of "soon"

Well, the WIP meter only indicates where a project currently is in development, it doesn't measure time. It's updated when it hits a milestone, but there is no predictable interval between milestones.

Pre-production: The project has started, ideas are being fleshed out, an outline or flow is being developed.

Prototyping: Any new elements needed are being developed and proofed.

In Production: Things are happening. Texturing, layout, etc.

Beta Testing: Self-explanatory.

Wrap-Up: Promos, store assets, getting it ready for release.

Ready to Release: Ready to go and queued for the next release window.

(You can see those statuses when you hover the mouse pointer over the cogs.)

No two projects are identical, and the amount of time spent in each phase is variable. It could be hours, days, weeks, or months. One project might clear all of those milestones in less than a week while another might make it to a certain step quickly and then "hang" at one milestone for a long time.

What you see on the WIP meter is just where a project currently is in its life cycle. Nothing more, nothing less.

Is that a new feature, the hover over for status? If so it is awesome, if not I wish I had know about it earlier and it is still awesome.

No, it's been there all along.

Ooo...nice. It states that it's currently in wrap up.

Look, you lot made me buy Necroblock just to get the most out of this release (and so far I've assembled one unit and have printed stuff to cover about 4 units more - almost, since I ran out of ink and had to order for more), so... how much does the wrap-up phase usually take (see how I cunningly phrased the question so it would be rather difficult to answer with a mere 'soon' or 'soon-ish')?

As I said earlier, there is no predictable time interval for each milestone. It varies from product to product and depends on many factors.

We're not bolting together thousands of mechanically identical widgets on a factory floor here. Artsy stuff is simply more unpredictable and harder to quantify. I'm not trying to be a weasel here, I'm just giving it to you straight. That very uncertainty is exactly why the WIP meter is structured by milestone rather than specific chunks of time.

That's why you hear "soon" used so much around here. We literally don't know until it's done.

So, its like baking cookies, then?

Nah. With cookies, you can at least guess that it takes about X minutes at 350 degrees or whatever, plus or minus equipment/regional variances. We can't even do that with the stuff we produce, all we can do is say "Okay, we just reached this milestone or that milestone" all the way up until it's done.

Part of the issue is we don't actually have a corporate workflow or one playbook that everybody follows. Everybody does things differently in ways they've come up with all on their own, so a guesstimate that works for one artist likely won't even work for another artist. On top of that, some things are quicker to do than others, and not always in ways that make sense either.

Bottom line, there's just no nice, predictable, scientific way to quantify any of it. Stuff is done when it's done.

But, if we sent cookies, would it help?

Only cookie-cutter sets would work out nicely as far as time goes, and we all know that WWG doesn't do cookie cutter sets...

It seems to me that every company uses cookie-cutters at times, some more than others. If you already have the geometry for something it is efficient to just reskin the object or add on to it.

Templates are another matter. Sometimes, especially with templates that constrain almost everything in a set, it can make those sets absolutely boring!

I meant to play up the pun more...

As for geometry being the same, WWG does seem to do this, but it also seems as though new geometry comes with many releases. When I said cookie-cutter I was actually meaning textures being very similar/almost the same...which doesn't really happen around here.

So we won't be seeing a TLX gingerbread house?

There are some designers that have a pallet of textures they use regularly, but that is fine when the theme of your models almost require it (military, etc,). As for WWG ... they do what they do. They also cover a much larger range of themes.

I think it is prudent to keep a texture library ... good textures deserve reuse down the line. You never know ... another layer or two added to an old texture and you could save alot of work for yourself.

Anyway, I get what you meant. I was just adding some thoughts about cookie cutters

I might pick this up just for the dice tower aspect, not to mention it's beautiful.

I am going to get the Roll Arena as it is just to cool, but I still want my 40k super dupper cool dice tower of Doom. Can we get a sooner soon

For a relatively simple product, this has been in the making for rather a long time now. Has there been significant revamps due to feedback or have you been just too busy with other releases?

Currently, there's just a couple of minor holdups with instructions and cutting files, I believe. I've poked the relevant artists and we might see some movement there in the near term.

My apologies for the delay. It's just one of those things that happens sometimes.

that looks awesome. I have a question though. what figure is that from mageknight? anybody know?