The data lab is taking way longer than expected to recover the data. I think I will have to move the expected release date to the end of the year because of that along with some unrelated things that are going to keep me occupied for a while.

My hard drive was corrupted and I had to send it to a data recovery lab. Development of the expansion pack will be delayed for about a month because I'll be away for a week in addition to that. However, I believe I can complete Expansion Pack II by September, so that it is released in late September after testing.

I've decided on a middle ground that kills two birds with one stone based on the recent shift in popularity rate. Just like Zenith, there will be an anniversary update for Krein. It will be branded as Expansion Pack II but, of course, it will not be the fully fledged expansion pack that was imagined prior. Having said that, development is being done for this anniversary update, which will be the last content update.

Based on current numbers it doesn't look like there's enough interest to continue development of Krein with a second expansion pack. If this somehow changes in two weeks then I'll have to change the title of this post. There is a precedent set where these kinds of mods receive an anniversary update, but I'm not sure that will happen, either --and even if it does, it wouldn't have as much content as an expansion pack. Regardless, here's what would have been in Expansion Pack II of Krein:

Version 1.1 of Krein, titled Expansion Pack 1, has been released. In addition to this, there have been plans made to port Krein into Skyrim: Special Edition. However, there are critical issues with a direct port of version 1.1, due to some complications with the core game file. What would have been a conversion project that would've taken a couple days of development and a couple days of testing has now blown up into something that may take months.

The first public beta version of Skyrim: Krein has been released! Check the portal for details

I bit my own tongue over poor predictions once again, so at this point I won't even bother saying when anything is going to be finished. What needs to be done as far as level design now, due to some significant changes and/or additions, are five different level sets of varying degree of sophistication. The goal is to complete this project by the end of this year. In terms of those five level sets, which constitute the major portion of effort, I am only about 20% done. However, in terms of the total number of levels completed, I am over 70% done.

I've made a brief-run down of how the progress should be measured to improve the accuracy of my estimations. As the development of this highly non-linear mod is more sophisticated, unlike that of Zenith, it can't be said whether percentage really means anything as some parts of the mod will be easier to move through than others. That being said the mod is approximately 20% complete and the current phase is the quest and level design, although the levels themselves are about 80% complete.

I figured I should rename the article headings now that the title has been released. It's true I'm terrible at estimating dates but I've never given up on a project I committed to. Based on posterior probability you should take this with a grain of salt, but I believe that beta testing for this Skyrim mod will begin around the end of this year (2019)

It's been a very long time since I've posted here but the short story is that I'm far more confident now that I will be able to release and finish the Skyrim project I've been working on by the end of the year. Most likely it will be ready for open beta testing by the end of this summer. It has gone through various transformations through the months but its form has basically solidified and most of the level design is finished, which happens to be most of the work. If I were to give a guess I'd say it's about 70% done.