Well, my estimation is that the focus is entirely on the core. From the public statements by the various folks there, the team is really digging into the base. That base can easily be shifted to artist -- that's no biggie there. I think that PA2 may indeed be a form of propack, although I'm more inclined to suspect it will incorporate some of the materials system from 5 into it with some "ease of use" stuff based on this last interview. ANd no, they are not only fixing the bugs. They will add new stuff -- just nothing big or huge like they did with p5 or p4. It will be much simpler, and hopefully much more useable i the sense of a smoother operation and leaner mem footprint. But it won't be new code. That's simply not going to happen with p6. And they've been working on P6 for over a year. So what you are talking about is, essentially, a better version of P5. To call that "just a fixed P5" is a disservice to the countless hours they put into it and the hard work that they have done. They have also said that it will be this year. When this year is questionable, but this is the year of P6. I also believe that this year D|S will be version 1'd, and work on 2 will begin immediately. While I understand that the prior company did make certain promises that were left unfulfilled, I'm also aware that that company hadn't expected to actually release P5 until a year after it ended up coming out -- and had also made those promises on the basis of having a partner that was actually going to give them the money to staff up so they could meet those promises. I seriously doubt they will simply release P5 again -- which is what is implied. No -- P6 will be a modest update to P5. The two will probably be available side by side for a while, as well -- or I would expect that. Complete idiot, though? no -- I don't think so. I would definitely understand how some people will simply refuse to buy P6, and others will wait for a few months. I also expect patches to be released over time, too -- I'm far too jaded a participant in software development not to expect it. While the goal may be to have none, the reality is far from that. Is it going to take a huge team to do that? no. But the team that is doing it needs the time and relative peace to be able to do it -- they've had that -- over a year of it. Go through it, make the notes, see what's what, tweak the code, rewrite here and there, and so forth. Let's you see the core engines and such, let's you decide how to do it better next time -- and if you take that time to roadmap your next time, right then, you can get the job done faster. THe tools for writing code have changed a lot over the years, too -- making it faster and easier, enabling you to write smoother, more complex code in less time and with fewer bugs. So a big team isn't needed, and no, it won't take forever. Now on to the Great Hope. ya know, as much as i'd love to say politics should simply NOT play into it, I'm not that foolsih (even if I am pretty foolish half the time). No -- there may be some stuff that becomes "enhancements", but, by and large, I'm almost certain that if the hacks are primarily used by a particular company, then they will NOT appear in P6. The bad blood there runs deep and goes back to P4 and is so freaking stupidly ingrained in both sides now that any hope otherwise is pretty lost in my mind. The best I'm hoping for is that there will be "new" methods for it -- here's the new thing, sorta like the old thing, but not the same. MAT poses are the thing that comes to mind, personally -- there's already the rudiments for it in P5, but something in the code is specifically blocking it. I think it was pretty much a left unfinsihed thing, and they can finish it now. And, if I needed stronger proof of this more than ever, I simply need look at a recent product line shakeup, where the "newest" version of that product suddenly goes back to the old way of doing things and the older, hack version of it suddenly becomes free. hmmm. No. I really think a lot of people will be REALLY pissed when that 130 plus bucks they spent suddenly becomes a waste becuase they can't use it in the newst version of Poser. And you can bet there's some positioning going on to deal with that on all sides. (Frid. Strictly Frid...)

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)