Okay, I'll be straightforward about this. One question at a time.
- tAPI r16 will be the last update for Terraria 1.2.4.1, fixing as many issues as possible.
- tAPI r16 will be released before Terraria 1.3 gets released, or on the same day. There is no point in keeping it unreleased afterwards.
- tAPI r16 will require ALL MODS to be rebuilt. Can't be skipped, due to the split of tAPI.exe into tAPI.exe and tAPI Core.dll.
- tAPI r16 should keep working after the 1.3 update, but it won't have any of the 1.3 content/mechanics/code.
- We don't have any estimates on tAPI for 1.3.
- Truth be told, we can't even say if tAPI will be continued. There may or may not be plans for official modding in future versions of Terraria to keep the game alive (it just makes sense for Re-Logic to consider that), and we don't plan on competing; if there was supposed to be, say, Terraria 1.3.1 with official modding API, tAPI would stop having a reason to exist, so until we know at least this much, no work towards a 1.3 release will be done.
- If we decide to continue with tAPI, it most likely will get rewritten once again. And most likely won't have much support from @Yoraiz0r, who just doesn't have time nor the energy to continue working on it, considering how busy he is with Terraria itself. Not to mention the rest of the devs (including me) are busy with their life too. More regarding this issue below.
- If tAPI does get a rewrite, it'll most likely drop support for 32-bit machines - it has problems handling multiple mods at once on Terraria 1.2.4.1... I'm scared of thinking how bad 1.3 will be with all the new content. Dropping 32-bit support would let us use much more memory, possibly increasing the amount of mods you could load or world size.
- Another thing is the possible (lack) of Linux / OSX support. None of the devs (other than @MiraiMai I guess, due to her Windows setup being broken) use these. Also, that would require us to move onto Mono, causing some optimization problems. Another thing that would need to be done is handling mods for each OS. That would most likely require all mods to be pure open source (currently you have a way of releasing your mods as just .tapimod, which doesn't include the source (well, unless you decompile it, which wouldn't be very hard)).
- One last issue is our lack of time/will to commit to tAPI. I personally would rather not revive tAPI for Terraria 1.3, unless we get permission from Re-Logic to use a public github repository for hosting code. That would mean everyone could participate in the project and see the "original" (tAPI, not original Terraria - this one would still be the decompiled version) code without decompiling it, with all variable names, comments, constants, formatting, file organization, etc. I truly doubt anyone would get officially allowed to do that though, as we'd still be exposing Terraria's code.
Thank you very much for all the info, and for being so upfront about everything. The work you and the other devs have done has not only made Terraria enjoyable in a different way, but also allowed me to learn new coding techniques, and really made me feel amazing to know people were enjoying the mods I created.
If for some reason tAPI is continued for 1.3, and Re-Logic allows it, you may consider looking for new coders from this community. Many people here would love the opportunity to be a part of the team, make contributions to the code, and see it continued. And some people here have shown very impressive coding skills, and great dedication to their mods.
Even if tAPI is discontinued when 1.3 is released, I will continue to enjoy creating new mods, and tinkering with the ones I have. The work you and the other devs have done will continue to be utilized and appreciated long after tAPI is discontinued.
My sincerest thanks and appreciation to everyone who has contributed to tAPI, and to Re-Logic for allowing and encouraging tAPI, and to everyone here who utilized the bug tracker and/or showed support for tAPI!
Best of luck to everyone involved,
Neojin