It's funny that every time you post anything in this thread it's to "crack the whip" as if the developer is going to read it or to instigate controversy. Conveniently you always seem to "not know" what caused the delays, it's almost as if you sugar pick which information to spread and which to hold to yourself.
The delays were mostly due to expansions of the summer patch and health issues across the team added to their new "we won't crunch time anymore" working 12+ hours a day 6 days a week mentality which honestly they adopted too late in my opinion considering how ungrateful most people that give them shit and yet don't even support them are.
Most of the supporters don't mind because experience tells us that:
1) Whatever they release, as usual will be better than anything else out there.
2) It will have more content in one patch than most full games out there.
3) We receive news from the developer on a regular basis on Discord and there's a 1~2 hour podcast almost every week.
4) We're constantly being updated with the state of development and receive new high quality CG's almost every week.
5) They are working on 3 games at the same time, technically 4 because the shota patch will have nothing to do with the core of Fleeting Iris.
Even if you disregard all of the above:
TL;DR: Starke said in the last podcast that the summer/final Fleeting Iris patch would come out soon and then they would 100% work on the Shota patch which will come out whenever it has to come out.
Cracking the whip ?
Because i call them out on the delay ? It's not like they made a post apologizing for change of plans and that the patch will take much longer then originally intended will only come out in 2022. Nah they delay by one month , then again a month and another one every time saying the patch is almost ready. Due to nature of Patreon it is hard to give them benefit of the doubt here.
Let me reiterate. Don't make promises you can't keep, if people ask about release date but you don't know just say you don't know.
Cause of the delays - ultimately i do not care what is the cause for delays because i can't validate it. I have grown accustomed to 2-4 weeks of delay. You double that ... ok unfortunate turn of events happen. But beyond that .. yea.
Crunch - we have no way of knowing whatever they are crunching or not. Ultimately it's them that commit to certain release pace. If they can't keep it up that is fine as long as they communicate it. Another thing is the fact that they are working now on multiple games now and i'm sure they said that the other game won't impact FI.
Interestingly neither the delay or reduced pace warranted a dedicated post on Patreon - the info is "hidden" behind podcasts. Meanwhile when someone posted about dev death here without any tangible source provided Starke made post on Patreon about it same day. This also addresses your claim that what we say here doesn't reach the developers.
You blame me for "sugar picking information" and what are you doing?
The discord lacks any sort of discussion about the game, at most people ask about difference between patreon and steam version.
"We're constantly being updated with the state of development and receive new high quality CG's almost every week."
Starke posted in general channel : 2.11, 12.12, 5.01, 14.01. where only the last was an update about the game. There are 2 previews posted a month while earlier this year it was 3-4 per month.
"Podcast almost every week"... Last podcast Dec 27, before that Nov 16 ... almost .
It's funny that every time you post anything in this thread it's to "crack the whip"
I guess you are so focused on defending the game you only remember the times when we argued over the release practices of the studio but you failed to register my other posts. That's ok be white knight all you want but i'm not one. I can like the game and still criticize it.