While Alpha Challenge 2015 was a great success, it also ground regular development to a halt. At first I imagined I might be able to work on Alpha 4 while running the tournament, but between community engagement and working on the tournament backend there was simply too much to do. (Yeah, I could've put less effort into everything and kept it simpler, but low-effort isn't my style
)
That said, the
discussions and
data that came out of it will lead to some important improvements, the extra work just means Alpha 4 will be later than I'd like, and may include slightly different content than originally planned.
With Alpha 4 we'll get lots of little tweaks, some changes to propulsion mechanics, and
at least one new branch--I wanted to add three, but with all the other changes it's unlikely I'll have time unless the release is postponed even further, which I'd rather not do.
We'll also be getting a completely new "garrison" mechanic that will somewhat change how most existing maps play. It's been planned since pre-alpha, and is about time it was added since players have started figuring out how to game a particular mechanic that garrisons were designed to alleviate, while also adding some interesting new strategies and challenges.
In conclusion, Alpha 4 is at least a few weeks out. Even just organizing and prioritizing a list of all the things to be done for Alpha 4 took several hours just now
Since the Challenge ended, the
leaderboards have been restored to normal and
three new players won stealth runs within the first week. Congratulations to them, and thanks to zxc for
the guide 
