The Balance Patch 2023 - How does it work?

Greetings, fellow T9Aers!

With the end of the year getting closer, it's time to talk the yearly update!

As previously stated, this years the project decided to apply different changes to the procedure, allowing design updates even for slim books!

How are things going?

Well, in general, the procedure was as follows:

- ACS investigated with community which were the problems, and prioritised them
- ACS and External Experts presented problems to RT
- RT sorted out which ones to send to GDT for redesign/simplification, and which ones can be fixed with points only
- GDT prepaired several proposals
- RT picked the ones which seemed to address best the issues
- the ones picked were then sent to ACS, GDT and BGT for review.
- Those clearly disliked were sent back to be redesigned again, for another cycle
- GDT and RT priced all the changes
- when all had converged to a solution, RT sent changes to RCT

More in particular, we divided the update in 3 batches, with this in mind:

	Actions	Batch 1 dates	Batch 2 dates	Batch 3 dates
LAB teams	Redesign delivered to RT	Deadline for changes Oct 03	-	-
RT	Design and price changes completed	Deadline for changes Oct 17	Deadline for changes Nov 01	Deadline for changes Nov 15
BGT	New names for new designs	Changes delivered Oct 18 - 1 week to work, deliver new names to RT	Changes delivered Nov 02 - 1 week to work, deliver new names to RT	Changes delivered Nov 16 - 1 week to work, deliver new names to RT
RCT	Design changes are turned into exact wording	Changes delivered Oct 18 without new names,Oct 25 with new names - 1(2) weeks to work, then deliver to layout	Changes delivered Nov 02 without new names,Nov 09 with new names - 1(2) weeks to work, then deliver to layout	Changes delivered Nov 16 without new names,Nov 23 with new names - 1(2) weeks to work, then deliver to layout
Layout	Implements text from RCT in latex templates	Changes delivered Nov 02 - 2 weeks to work, then deliver to translation and tool support	Changes delivered Nov 16 - 2 weeks to work, then deliver to translation and tool support	Changes delivered Nov 30 - 2 weeks to work, then deliver to translation and tool support
Transl.	Update non English books	Books delivered Nov 16 - 1 week to work	Books delivered Nov 30 - 1 week to work	Books delivered Dec 14 - 1 week to work
Tools	Update tools with the changes	Books delivered Nov 16 - 1 week to work	Books delivered Nov 30 - 1 week to work	Books delivered Dec 14 - 1 week to work
ExB	Is informed om coming release	Informed Nov 16	Informed Nov 30	Informed Dec 14
CET	TL distributes books and give to content creators	Books delivered Nov 16 - 1 week to work, then release Nov 23	Books delivered Nov 30 - 1 week to work, then release Dec 07	Books delivered Dec 14 - 1 week to work, then release Dec 21
PR	News message with release (draft release notes, find a time-slot, coordinate platforms, etc)	Release Nov 24	Release Dec 08	Release Dec 22
Administrators	Upload books to download pages	Release Nov 24	Release Dec 08	Release Dec 22

It's not a case we decided to publish such a table, it's to give you a glimpse on our working schedule and methodology.

Nonetheless, always remember that the mentioned dates are to be considered "Expected", meaning delays can occur.

Keep an eye on the Army Subforums, your friendly ACS staff will soon release some tasty news!