Footkerchief's breakdown of the release history sums up everything that needs to be said, but I am definitely on the side of people saying feature creep is letting DF run away from Toady. I remembered a comment like what Foot had made a while ago, so I looked it up. I was a little surprised. I can't quote the thread that it's from, so here it is-
Cardinal sin time. Forgive me oh lords, for my chest need unburdening.
So four months is the new nebulous everyone-nods-in-agreement time frame? The last update was September 6, 2008. If this last stretch of squads, sites, and finalization takes more that three months and a week, that would make an entire year between releases.
This development arc includes descriptive paragraphs, a vastly improved material and body system and damage thereof, an overhauled and expanded stat and skill system, a restructuring of squads and governance, an industrial scale healthcare system, and a slew of new map features. Each of those bullet points is awesome, but none of them are directly dependent on each others' implementation. Each could have been released in turn.
Now, I'm not threatening to stop playing or anything. I'm not going anywhere, and as soon I pay some bills I'll be donating again. But I'm a die-hard fan. An entire year between 'updates' is getting silly, because a lot of people are just going to stop paying attention or caring. I say again, screw save compatibility or whatever the need for bundling so much work into distinct releases, and let us play with it.
That was me in
June of 2009, when we were still after eight months, and would be still for another nine months, waiting for DF 0.31. I can't say that I've ever been happy with it, but this is just how Toady operates. Saying so hasn't changed him in the last two years, and I don't think it's going to now.