FROM BEACHHEAD......
Our first January build is going to have a massive amount of bug fixes and functionality tweaks. It should address a lot of small problems the Community has been having. This is a build we have been itching to push live, but as best practice, you don't push a big build like this Live during a holiday break because we want the full team around to support it.
To be totally clear: this first January build will not have Clan Operations.
Clan Operations are something we intend to roll out soon. It's our highest feature priority next to other Clan and Operation enhancements that are underway. A lot of this prioritization has been based on community feedback.
I don't know if you had a chance to see the massive Clan Operations thread (it got a little bit heated, but there's good information in there). One of the things I revealed is that there are a number of interconnected systems that go into Clan Operations. For example, there is a front-end web component that the community will use to see the feature, there is backend statistical tracking, there are automatic processes that sort and award winners, there are administrative tools, etc. I'm painting a picture here of a pretty complicated system.
Presently we are wrapping up work to link all of these components together into their final feature. The individual components are tested as they are worked on, and then tested as they are joined together, and then "real world" tested as a user would interact with them. Our testers are part of a special group that regular users can't see, this lets them test the Operations in the "real world" without disrupting your experience with (potentially) buggy features.
When Clan Operations enter this final "real world" testing stage, we will be sure to let you guys know. At that point, we'll be able to project a release timeframe with a good degree of confidence. It's still possible we'll hit a showstopper issue at that point, but we're going to try to be open with you about that as well.
Our priority order for Clans is as follows:
1.1. Clan Operations
2.2. Clan enhancements (miscellaneous features to help everyone organize better especially Clan leaders)
3.3. Clan Challenges
