[Downtime]
There's no set downtime, and updates will be done when they are done, but we won't do a beta test until the game is stable enough in regards to client patches being deployed. We expect about a solid week of patches and fixes based on previous expansions, and considering how many issues there have been in the past few months alone with getting new systems deployed and other issues that resulted in patch rollbacks, we're not going to rush out any builds (as has always been the case, but just to reiterate).
Each client update requires a new EB build. When the game patches a lot and the servers are unstable, it's a highly stressful time for everyone. As a result, things need to be settled down before we start pushing public builds. As mentioned before, this has always how we have operated, and this time won't be any different. Expect lengthy downtime for this update, as it is the largest update GGG has ever done for this game.
Every expansion we get people asking if we can release a version that might not be fully updated so they can start farming currency. This is not possible, and we'll only do a release when we're comfortable with the state of the project. We'll drop API support or have limited functionality as we need though. For example, if the API is fully updated, and we had support for Acts 1 - 4 done, we'd not delay a beta release just to finish 5 - 10. In the same example if the passive tree changes due to a new system being added, we'd temporarily drop support for it rather than delay the beta release if everything else was ready. Other than that though, the API needs to be fully updated for the bot to work.