I have been waiting for this update since the first release. I haven't played any of the alpha. It has taken forever, it feels like - and before you take that as a complaint, know this: One of the things I hate, is getting an update to a game on here I like, and then feeling like I only got ten minutes of material, because I get very little out of it and then I'm stuck waiting again. It sounds like I'm going to have plenty of play time with this update, and so that makes the wait a ton more worth it.Yeah, I know this update has taken fooooorever. I definitely overreached a bit with how much I'm actually adding to the game. 16 new characters, 21 main story events, (although some are short conversations), new character models, combat mechanics, a ton of locations, new animations... etc etc etc. It was a bit much, and I take responsibility for it. I'm still a learning dev, and hope to improve as I go, I just started full time on development a couple months ago, it before that having just been a hobby while I finished college, so I still have a lot to learn haha.
Bottom line: At least for my part, don't kick yourself too much for how long this has taken, so long as I'm going to have plenty of new to see, I'll feel it was worth it. I'm sure there are many others who feel the same. There probably are people who would rather smaller rapid-fire updates, though. You can't truly please both groups, though.