The 'End' of the Co8 Modpack: What Does It Mean?

As you all know by now, the so-called 'final' edition of the Co8 modpack has been released. There is probably some confusion however about exactly what this means, so let's try to clear it up.

First of all, the word 'final' in relation to a numeric software release generally just means that that version is the real version, not a beta or a release candidate, but the real thing, intended for public consumption. There were final releases before, such as for v5 and v6, though the version 7 releases were essentially all betas leading up to version 8. This may not be entirely sensible, but it doesn't really matter. v8 is Co8's 'real' release.

Will there never be another modpack released, ever ever again?

There probably will be, but it will be the equivalent of a patch. In fact, unless and until we have a large enough data dump in fixes to justify another release of the entire modpack, any further releases will likely come in the form of patches, or add-ons for TFE-X purposes.

So, Co8 will continue to fix bugs?

Yes.

Will Co8 release brand new new content areas like Hickory Branch and Welkwood Bog?

Not likely. The intent of getting to this point with version 8 was to get all the existing stuff squared away - namely to move as much of our new content to what is now the second part of the game (after the fall of Zuggtmoy) so as not to unbalance the original game any longer, and to fix it all up as much as possible.

Then what major releases could there possibly be?

There are still some sizeable fixes in store, like bringing all the new content maps up to image quality standards. This will probably mean yet another graphic rebuild of Verbobonc eventually, as the existing art there is based on art of an irreversably higher compression level, which results in poorer image quality than we'd like. To correct that, it will have to be remade from the ground up, pretty much, though some elements are natively high-res. Graphics are large data size elements, so rather than release a 500MB patch, we would probably eventually release an updated modpack version with those improvements.

Will this be v9?

No. There will be no Co8 v9, only version 8.0.1s or 8.1.0s, etc.

What else?

I'd still like to flesh out Verbobonc a lot more with generally inconsequential NPCs, and as far as the graphics go again, my great hope is that a talented graphic artist comes along and volunteers to retexture many of the buildings so they look less like Hommlet/Nulb dopplegangers, or I take the time (and learn how) to do it myself. There will also be some new content, like gazra's Co8 Wizards mod, hopefully. But there will be no further major overhauls of the Hickory Branch variety, nor major new areas.

But what does it all mean??

In practical terms, there will no longer be two month incremental releases, for one thing.

Will the lights go out at Co8?

No, we're not going away.

~

Feel free to post any other questions you may have here.

 

Not necessarily. It depends on what files are altered in the patch.