There has been almost no activity on these forums about how the game is progressing. Looking at the German forums shows that there is a lot more activity over there, but I don't speak German, so could someone kindly fill us in on what's going on?

at the moment unfortunately there's no official release since May 2011 (Alpha6.1 V0.81). I don't know when next release will come but my personal hope is that it will come in the next 6(?) months...better more quickly...

One way to be informed what's going on is here http://bote.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets ... we changed here into English -partly my bad English.

Another way is "BotE-Test Versions"
a) it's a requirement to be a registered member of the German forum (registration is free)
b) then see here http://birth-of-the-empires.de/phpBB3/v ... 664#p27664 - just download the file attachment "Repository Checkout" there
c) through Repository Checkout (first checkout will be around 980 MB, then -at next version- just do only small SVN-Updates) you get the lastest files (and source code)
d) second requirement is getting a BotE.exe. Latest one is also linked in that post. This exe must be putted into Repository-Download-Folder into ...\BotE Game\trunk (there also this file: botf2.vcproj). Please check if exe-file is really there...Win7 could be here a little bit tricky (use admin rights and please check whether there's also fmodex.dll in the same folder). For a German Game just start BotE from there.

e) for an English BotE test version I did a "Repo_DE_into_EN.bat" - please start this batch file and start BotE from the copied folder.

IMPORTANT for feedbacks and questions is version number of the test version. Best do your private save games like this "77140_humans...". At next test version=next developement it can be that savegames are not compatibel with previous ones.

AND we also should ensure that there's no misunderstanding about features with are not part of official released BotE - so nobody else should wonder about features we talk about which aren't part of Alpha6.1 yet e.g. the new random events.

Here http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... evelopment I listed some new features

...and be assured that we always try to think to you English speaking people even though English parts of the Wiki only grown in slow motion. Improvements of our English are welcomed .

Yeah, I can't get it to download. The best I got was to ~700 MB, and while the game will open up, there's no music and it's all in German. No batch file, either. There are obviously files missing, and trying to continue the download seems to cause it to try to update, not finish the download. Considering the time it took to get that far, I don't want to start from the beginning, and even then, trying to do so now results in errors and absolutely no progress. The latest error was:

REPORT of '/svn/!svn/vcc/default': Could not read status line: Secure connection truncated (https://bote.svn.codeplex.com)

at the moment I don't give up....I put \data\... into the attachment and added the batch file. Checking the batch file brings you the info, that there are just copied the EN-subfolders one folder higher

Best try again svn-checkout, but I think it's also possible to tinker it.

Difference to official is having the DevBote.exe-files in folder ABOVE the normal folders. Folder below is \game\... (e.g. \game\data\Buildings...)
=> That's the reason why the normal BotE.exe doesn't work with the svn-checkout.

with the attached data files then maybe some sounds or graphics will be missing but DevBote...exe should start

maybe the missing files can be added by copy from another race or from that part of svn-checkout which passed already...for sounds there's less difference which speaker speaks it...
for playing the omega alliance effort will be bigger (coping graphics\backgrounds, \others= buttons and so on)
for troops images with some effort you could get them image by image from here http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... _Forces.29

I would be glad if it works

[EDIT: attachment deleted]

Okay, I think I've got it in working order. I downloaded some of the files (such as the sounds) directly from the SVN website, bypassing TortoiseSVN completely. I have some comments on the version I'm playing; where should I make them?

I'm glad to here that

well, with an complete functional well svn-checkout it would have been easier for you but I know on my own that this website reacts sometimes slow and sometimes -when occuring problems- a complete new checkout may be necessary (I did it one or two times the last two years, not more)

for discussion of the test versions please use only following thread viewtopic.php?p=71595#p71595 ... there I also will announce when a new test version is avaible...

...and now: only for update discussion of official BotE this thread should be used further - Thanks

@mknote: I'm nosy to here your comments and by this way to have more traffic here in the English forum