2.01 Coder Diary available at the Matrix site

[berto]

Also, before jumping into play, if one tweaks the generated scenario with editors, any randomly generated scenario will quickly improve.

That is a most excellent suggestion!

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Exciting stuff, only the other day I was thinking how great this game is, after what 15 years.

But I'll make myself unpopular by saying I don't understand Matrix's strategy with all this. Here we have a 15+ year old game being patched. Whenever it was we bought (or re-bought) the thing, we've all had our money's worth. If I were Matrix I'd say right, here's an enduring game ripe for a new version, new interface etc. Let's put big resource into rewriting the code, release it as a new version (JTCS II/III or whatever) and charge people for the new product.

Of course a free patch is nice, but I don't mind paying a fair price for a product I use. I must have had hundreds of hours out if it just this year. And perhaps a fundamental rewrite might have made the whole upgrade process easier rather than multiple patches.

Anyway just my personal 2p worth. Really looking forward to 2.01 and beyond....

No, not so easy, practically speaking well nigh impossible.

telemann:/games/matrix/cs/devel # find "Campaign Series" -type f -print | wc -l
760

telemann:/games/matrix/cs/devel # find "Campaign Series" -type f -exec cat {} \; | wc -l
162483

760 files with over 160,000 lines of code. Any "fundamental rewrite" would require at least one full-time programmer years to accomplish. Redoing the graphics would require so much more. Then there's the issue of a thoroughgoing code rewrite introducing how many bugs? So add in personnel and time for QA testing.

There's little prospect of Matrix/Slitherine recouping their investment.

No, the current development model is working fine. I won't second guess M/S' marketing.