Yeah, data-driven mods take deceptive amounts of time because you can't change things as drastically as you could if you had a SDK like HL2 does. It's really easy to see how different a HL2 mod can be, but with EaW, we can only do so much regardless of the effort expended. Plus, having worked on both, FPSs are simply easier to do than RTSs.At its current state, the mod will proubably out do any previous efforts at an empire at war mod, and possibly any other mod thats out this year. But as you are going to move on in the first round anyways, you can wait, and release a "beta" launch, prior to the main voteing arangement (second part, where you only get three votes) The stratigic release of the beta version of the game might draw a little extra attention to it.
But, yeah, that's what I'm thinking with the release and voting. I could push it out today to boost our standings in nominations, but I'm fairly confident we will make it through those, so I'm waiting just a bit. It's a gamble, but I think I have to take it (actually, finals aren't giving me much choice). Fortunately, the mod is nearly 100% functional (minus some things I cut, which most of you won't notice) and most of what I'm working on yet is polish. It will be fully out - not just as a "beta" of a beta (it's still technically a beta) - before the end of voting.