I really fucking hate short episodes with cliffhangers.
Well, we hate short episodes too. But on the other hand, people also wish updates were faster. So, we compromise by simply making the best updates we can in the timescales. This episode was neither shorter nor longer than any others in real terms. It was non-stop work from the moment the prior update was completed until this one was, and the very minute this one was released, MrKnobb started work on renders for Ep4.
If this one seemed shorter, honestly, it was because it was pretty packed, and because as you get more involved in the story it just seems to fly past. We honestly pack as much into each update as we can.
As for cliffhangers, well, to an extent they can't be avoided when you have a complex story released in episodes. But of course, the second we knew there were always going to be cliffhangers, dangling threads of story, we decided to make it a feature and embrace it.
I'll explain more ... in the next episode...
