I may have explained this previously, but in case not, here you go ...
The "Nomicrons Update" (Nomad + Omicrons portmanteau) was begun by a developer back in late 2014. Yes, you saw that right, late 2014. This person decided to work off in a corner by himself, giving only tidbits of information to various people. As the dev team was shortstaffed back then (I wasn't even a member yet), no one complained too much because he posted cool screenshots and gave the appearance of work being done.
This developer ended up leaving the dev team after summer 2015, with his promised released dates long since passed by and not much actually finished work to show. I don't know specifically why he was unable to follow through, but that is neither here nor there at this point. The past is the past, after all, and we have learned from it and are working to ensure that no repeat occurrences happen. We're more open (amongst each other and to the community), more focused, and more determined.
Since then, bits of his work have been found, uncovered, debugged, pieced together, etc., and it has taken quite some time to do. In the fall of last year, another developer was assigned to complete this work, but fell short of the New Years' Update and yet another systems developer was put in charge of finishing it off. Real life, unfortunately for DGC, has been busy for them both. I know that it is indeed being worked on, however it will be done when it is done.
So why ... Nomicrons? Well, the original developer only carved out systems that were Nomad, Order, or Core related. The rest of the Omicrons were left largely untouched. Beginning last summer and continuing into the present, the story/systems planning group within the dev team has been working on churning out plans for updates with faction leaders and representatives for all of Sirius. Incidentally, two more Omicron related packages have been planned out and are currently being worked on: "Omicrons Cleanup" which deals more with the independent edgeworlds, and "Omegas + Hispania" which handles the Corsair, Outcast, and Omega systems.
So why ... separate? The change spreadsheets actually get to be quite long. Rather than making an incredibly big page with which to burn out our system developers, I've broken them into more manageable chunks. Albeit, some are of varying sizes, such as the "Omicrons Cleanup" which is only 19 items long, intended for our new trainee to do. To put that in perspective, at last count, there were roughly 400 individual changes planned for all of the 4.88 updates, and we're about halfway done.
Trust me, they are all doing their best and at the fastest rate they can manage. I share your disappointment that the Nomicrons Update has been stuck in limbo for a long time, but at least we now have the staff with the wherewithal to work on additional updates at the same time. And, to leave out the trademark logo on purpose, expect a decently large update soon.
(03-05-2016, 11:16 PM)Mephistoles Wrote: Does that mean that, in other words, Treewyrm was useless?
It could be better a joke.
He wasn't useless anyway. He created all these new nomads stuff by himself and dropped it out, then Alley tried to accomplify it, now we have Rabisu and Ishtar, also new nomadic effects, which are more than awesome.
The new Nomad ships and effects are terrible. Sure, they look pretty, but they are ridiculously bad in terms of gameplay. If you try to tell me otherwise, I will make sure I can never see anything you ever say ever again.
(03-05-2016, 11:43 PM)Mephistoles Wrote: The new Nomad ships and effects are terrible. Sure, they look pretty, but they are ridiculously bad in terms of gameplay. If you try to tell me otherwise, I will make sure I can never see anything you ever say ever again.
They are only bad because the ships that use them lack any other 'normal' effects.