I think it is safe to say we have all learned a lot over the last five years 
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I highly doubt itās a lack of desire which is holding up mac and linux compatability. After all, the not-so-secret test kinda proves theyāve at least thought about it.
Weāve also seen what happens when the team try to grind out features because they feel āobligatedā to include them, rather than because they think itās the best thing for the game at the time. c/f the Engineer and how it felt (and still kinda feels, TBH) bolted-on and not tied in meaningfully. If we had features like improved water, improved enemy AI and the in and out boxes before they tried to implement the engineer, Iām pretty confident weād have an engineer who builds actual mechanisms (pumps or conveyors or such) because it would have had most of the underlying tech to do those things in place already, and it wouldnāt be that much of a stretch to say āyou know what? If weāre nearly there we might as well go the whole way and add the thing everyone wants rather than just turrets and traps.ā
As far as I see it, nobody on the dev team are happy that the game canāt support mac or linux yet; but none of them can fix that right now either. Itās just too big of an issue for someone to pull a @malley and sneak it in as a bonus feature; so itās going to have to wait until the engineers, designers and quite possibly everyone else (after all, thereās probably going to need to be changes to UI tech, or rendering tech, or any number of other things which may well require re-working of existing content to fit into it) have cleared enough overhead to be able to dedicate the required massive chunk of time for it.
And yeah, unfortunately that means itās probably not in the foreseeable future; but that doesnāt mean itās off the table. After all, the foreseeable future is, like, 1-2 alphas, and thereās more than that planned for 2018 already.
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I confess my tone can be ratherā¦pointed lol. Something I definitely need to work on. I really donāt mean to come across in a negative way, though there are times I realize Iām likely to do just as much harm as good with a well intentioned post because of the tone. Iām 100% okay with beinā called out on it.
Now ya got me thinking about all of the amazing things the engineers could be doing lol. Honestly, I think thatās been the best part of the past year development wise. In going back to make these underlying systems to tie all the planned features together, they keep discovering new unintended ways to use the tech.
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Huh, thatās a pretty good example there with the Engineer!
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Define massive.
A port is not a feature. It affects the Windows version not a jot other than slowing progress.
What in effect is being said is that progress on the Windows version canāt be slowed (not stopped) so that a discreet group of backers can take part in the development process at all.
macOS/Linux pledgers have bravely sacrificed our ability to take part in the fun here for āthe good of the gameā. Apparently, we selflessly volunteered the money we thought would be spent on development work for macOS or Linux to the sorely underfunded Windows version.
Still, at least Team StoneHearthās brave, but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to port could fill in one of the DT weeks when other news is a bit slim 
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Certainly learned how to duck and weave 
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Good idea! Seconded.
Careful, youāre going into dangerous territory and might be shown the door like he who shall not be named 
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???
Go back and read the comment sdee made about the thousands and thousands of errors ā sure it might not be a ānew featureā in the traditional sense, but the workload is just as large. And if they were to stop work on new features while doing the port (which is actually the only realistic way to do any port ā trying to port a game while concurrently adding new stuff to it is a recipe for disaster), then itās only going to annoy the rest of the community as well since nobody will be getting new content for months while we wait for the port to be completed.
Iām familiar with the effort it takes to port a game built for Windows over to mac and linux from the dozens of other Early Access games Iāve followed which tried the same thing. In every case, it was a major operation ā even in those cases where the game had been built with compatability in mind from day 1.
The money that mac and linux users put into the game is going to exactly the same place that the money the windows users added in: getting a finished version of Stonehearth which then can actually be ported. Thereās no point trying to port the game halfway through, spending hundreds or thousands of work-hours on that job, getting it basically workingā¦ and then having to do the same thing multiple times every time major new features break compatability.
Iād very much like to see a DT on the efforts made in porting the game though, the remaining hurdles to be overcome and a bit of info on where that effort currently sits. Contrary to (seemingly) popular belief, most of us who back the devsā choice to finish the windows version first still want to see the game ported as soon as itās practical to do so.
The reality here is that the team chose this route because itās the fastest way to deliver a finished game to everyone. Itās not the fastest way to gratify the people who are waiting on a mac or linux version; but over the long term it leads to the most people being happiest the fastest. The alternative is to have everyone be unhappy most of the time, as development is constantly delayed while the team try to maintain three similar but separate versions of the same game; all of which are prone to breaking every time something is added.
So it comes down to a simple question: would you rather have one update per year for, like, 10 more years and have an incomplete game which struggles to stay afloat; or wait up to a couple of years for the complete game to be ported?
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I canāt see it making sense for the team to port to Mac NOW then have to constantly bugfix all the way through. Finishing the game THEN dealing with every single bug to present the full version of the game sounds reasonable. If you run a mac then you KNOW video game support is extremely limited. Better than a decade ago by a mile, but stillā¦
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There are plenty of projects that are running or have run concurrent development, like Universim, Chaos Reborn, Kerbal Space Program, Kingdoms and Castles, Phoenix Point, Make Sail and Pine to name but a few. It demonstrably does not end in disaster.
As I said, itās going to a port that most people can use, but some can not. That was the point of my post.
Thatās very generous of you allowing a port when it no longer effects you in any way 
You do realise youāve contradicted your first statement with your second? I agree, but I donāt see why Linux/macOS users should be sacrificed to faster progress on the Windows version.
I donāt accept either of these assertions. If people are unhappy now by the speed of development, theyāre unlikely to be made much more unhappy by the slowdown caused by the ports.
Your estimate for the slowdown is pure guesswork and exaggerated for effect presumably.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Windows
Rode the six hundred.
āForward, the Macnux Brigade!
Charge for the ports!ā he said.
Into the valley of Windows
Rode the six hundred.
āForward, the Macnux Brigade!ā
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Windows
Rode the six hundred.
XP to right of them,
7 to left of them,
10 in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Windows,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flashed all their debate bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Debating the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the C+ smoke
Right through the code they broke;
Alpha and beta
Reeled from the debate stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Massive (thatās thousands and thousands) apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Probably time to quit while Iām behind 
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haha epic @oldmacman 
I for one enjoy your relentless crusade! Stay strong and the wind will favour your ship in the endā¦ 
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There is no ādo or dieā on mac and linux support. Letting the topic rest for a week or a month doesnāt reduce the devsā desire or capability to create the port; if anything it gives them a chance to work on it in the background. I mean, think rationally about this ā porting to mac and linux opens up a significant market which directly results in more sales; it increases the gameās reputation and itās a solid achievement that the dev team can refer back to (individually and as a studio) in the future when they want to prove their competence i.e. pitch another game, look for other jobs, seek promotions or whatever. There is literally no good reason for them to want to not work on the port; and theyāve stated openly that the only reason they arenāt throwing more resources at it already is because itās not good for the game as a whole to take that road. Their experience, their intuition, and the experience and advice of their support-network of experienced developers all tells them that the best way to do it is get the first version stable and then work on the port.
This is the sort of classical āmountain out of a molehillā forum drama which has plagued so many Early Access/open development games Iāve supported over the years. Iām pretty confident of where this road leads, and Iām pretty confident that none of us actually want to end up there ā particularly not @oldmacman if he stops to think about the consequences of this line of action. At best, itās going to divide the community and alienate a part of it (which might otherwise have been very fun to hang out with); at worst it could outright damage the game.
Thereās no good reason to draw battle lines here. Thatās exactly the sort of thinking which leads to the charge of the light brigade ā taking a step back and assessing the larger goals is the best way to avoid a headlong charge into an un-win-able fight.
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More importantly. I still stand by the name āBuckbuckā instead of āPoyoā. Itās a mountain I have climbedā¦ And itās a mountain I will die on.
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A buckbuck, how dare you say that foul name. You are the most unreasonable person Iāve ever met. 
You Poyo-Hater, I wish you luck dieing on that mountain of yours.
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Yes, you were wondering correctly, this is fake and I didnāt mean it.
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You will pay for this transgression. ā¦
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Why havnāt i made a buckbuck mod yet? 
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