It takes time and money to "certify" an official patch release. With a beta patch you can just crack out some fixes and release it with the warning it's "as is". After a certain point there is no more money or (official) time to spend on a game and it's considered done, but sometimes people work on them in their spare time and that work turns into beta patches.
As I said earlier in the thread it is not a matter of "Shall we make an official patch or just let it sit in beta forever?", it's "I finished my main tasks and had some spare time to work on HttT last night so I'll release it as a beta patch". If you somehow convinced Johan not to use beta patches anymore the result wouldn't be more official patches, you'd have the same official patches and then that would be it. Beta patches are considered entirely "Bonus material", not a step towards another official patch. If you can't or won't install them, or never even hear about them because you don't use the forum, that is up to you, you still have the official releases. You can argue people should only release games with no bugs, or every game should be patched forever until it's perfect if you like, but it simply isn't possible.
I appreciate the response, but you guys are being penny-wise and pound-foolish. You have some seriously involved veterans on this thread telling you that they don't play beta patches, people who I can identify as being pretty serious fans, if not outright fanboys, telling you they don't like this policy. And your official explanation is a major step backwords for the company, because it says that 4.0 was the last "official" work done on HTTT (release day, no extra money to spend on HTTT after release day?!!!) and anything else was a bonus. I'm not saying there should be no bugs, the current beta patch has bugs, I'm saying that major bugs like those that existed in 4.0 (no one has yet brought up how borked inheritances were on release) require a patch, which you did. You did a lot of work over several months and instead of reaping the reward of 4.1, you gave the impression that more work was coming, then dropped it, then gave the impression again that more work was coming, and now have apparantly dropped it again.
No one but you guys know your internal setup, but what I see as an outsider is serious overscheduling with these expansions. SF got quite a bit of work, but I guess now isn't going to get anymore and everything will be moved to the next HOI3 expansion. I suppose DW will be treated the same way as HTTT. I really hope you guys understand that for many people, the core competency of Paradox is the modibility of its games and the great support given to them post-release. This policy hurts you on both of those counts, and I say this as someone who thinks a lot of the criticism thrown your way is way overblown and who really doesn't play mods, in other words I think you should be given much more credit for creating incredibly intricate games, but I understand that a big chunk of your base, at least on the forum, doesn't see it that way.
Oh, and one more recommendation, don't call them beta patches if they aren't intended to be anything other than bonus material. Most people associate beta with a testing phase. If it's just a bonus that isn't leading anywhere, call it that.
