questions on preorder

[dasherk]

Hello,

I'm bran new to this forum and I have a few questions to toss out there:

I'm basically trying to decide if/when to pull the trigger on getting a preorder for this; right now, I'm trying to weigh if I should wait for the Steam pre-release, or even wait for Metacritic and similar to weigh in. I'm hoping these questions will steer me, and maybe others who stumble on this post in the right direction.

1) I loved the demo, how different is the current pre-release?
2) I'm not afraid of bugs, alphas, etc... but how 'playable' is the current version, beyond what's seen in the demo?
3) Now that this game is greenlit, any word on steam keys becoming available to preorders prior to steam release?

4) How often are builds released, are there 'channels' like a nightly, stable, etc?
5) I'm satisfied with the how KSP is at the moment, should I expect something similar with Automation or no?
6) I've searched through a lot of threads, I don't think I see this or.... I've forgotten, but where are the business gameplay mechanics at?

7) (please try and keep this unbiased) How much fun is everyone having with this? Is this something you tinker with now and then, or are you all sleep deprived and snoozing at work the next day?
8) Final question for this budding community: how active have the devs been in posting here, and responding to feedback? How long do you think Automation will be around with these guys?

Anyways, sorry for the barrage. I'm sure I'll stumble across answers to these questions as I keep perusing these forums, so sorry for the redundant questions.


Thanks for everyone's time,
Dasherk

[Daffyflyer]

Well, lets start with 8) - Hi! Developer here, we post a bunch

1) It's the same but with more engine types, more scenarios, more car bodies etc. and will continue to receive more content until it's eventually an entire game.
2) The release is like, 98% bug free, there are a few bugs here and there but we try and polish out as many as possible in closed beta before public releases. Sometimes (like right now) there is an optional Open Beta client, which is maybe 85% bug free.

3) Steam keys for existing preorders should be possible, they'd be given out at the same time as we go on steam early access (probably still a few months away)

4) Major updates every few months, depending on what we're working on. We release things in big chunks, usually with a major new feature and minimal bugs.
5) Yeah, fairly similar to how KSP was a bit earlier on. Pretty polished but lacking some of the major game mechanics of the finished product. Still hours of fun in it though.

6) Business mechanics still just live in our heads and some design docs. They're the next thing we start on when car design is done.

7) As a dev it's hard to say. I don't play much because I play games for a BREAK from Automation work! I can confirm that I've had quite a few people complain that now they've found automation they're going to fail a bunch of courses due to distraction, so I'd say a fair few people find it pretty compelling


Hope that answers your questions.