Releasing a full, complete patch works better IMO
Since I think the team members or whoever are too busy to do pros/cons of partial/full patches let me throw some stuff out there to perhaps at least explain some general logic behind each option:
Partial Patch:
Pros:
- people get to start the game faster
- people who just want menus or other basics can get that
- people feel like progress is being made
- increases support for the project if the incomplete patch is decent, meaning slightly increased momentum
Cons:
- it takes a lot of time to invest into making the patch
- often times it means breaking up the process, instead of translating and preparing as one big step over a few months, they have to do part of it, then insert it into the game, then get back to translating/preparing, etc., this is detrimental to the speed of the project as a whole
- much more likely for bugs, glitches, etc.
- it's incomplete, derp
- people will complain about certain things that will likely be fixed in later patches, and until the team releases a new patch they will CONTINUE to say this
- nubs will question why it's not fully translated and ask about when the full patch is coming etc., wasting the people's time when they should be working on the final patch
- the opposite of the last "pro" can also hold true, it can backfire and decrease momentum if people end up complaining too much or releasing the incompleted patch can make the team lose their momentum and even say "whatever I'm too busy we'll just quit here"
- people who make progress on the incompleted version will likely want to switch to the new completed version once it's out, meaning the creator's have to then worry about supporting the transferring of saves, which can be not only difficult to explain to people, but sometimes impossible/generally difficult if the game's programming has been edited enough
- the experience of transitioning from an incompleted patch to a completed one is generally weird because people have to get used to all the translated text--as odd as it sounds that people might be thrown off by everything being translated when that's the goal, if you've followed enough projects, this'd probably make some sense (for one, if you're mid-playthrough and didn't know crap about the story besides inferences from cutscenes... -_- then the translated story appears and it's like "uh, wut?")
Full Patch:
Pros:
- less likely for bugs, glitches
- everything's done, so people can just sit back and enjoy the game instead of worrying about all the untranslated text, stuff that has yet to be done, etc.
- more professional
- everything is "consistent" so to speak, there's no "oh, they changed the name of X to Y from one patch to another" because there was only ever one name
- people spend less time annoying creator's and pushing their buttons
- allows them to focus and work on the project most efficiently instead of worrying about getting patches out
- pretty much, it lacks most of the cons of partial patches :|
Cons:
- it takes a lot longer to get released and in the mean time there's nothing to "keep people busy"
- there may be time spans with little to no visible progress
- difficult for someone to pick up the project if it dies unless the team shares their progress privately (which is totally feasible so :|)
Even if you're not good at reading and comprehending English, I think the pure quantity of pros/cons of each attests to which one is generally the better option
And ultimately, it's the team's choice, and if they're working on this translation hack for free on their own time, they have little reason to listen to the petty desires of people who contribute little to nothing to the game (with the exceptions of legitimate suggestions, which happen oh so not often)... i.e. to say, they can do what they want, and they don't have any obligation to explain themselves, nor does anyone have any obligation to follow the project and play it when it is complete
But there's also the whole "people being nice/reasonable and explaining their logic", as a hacker, project manager, etc. I took the liberty of speaking for translation teams in general, I apologize if I said something that doesn't apply, I just felt like giving my 2 cents on why full patches are preferable over partial patches.