Definitive date for updated Level Editor / AMFP Assets / .3ds compatibility

[kojack]

but does anyone have a concrete date on when .3ds files will be compatible with the editor?

.3ds is actually a fairly poor format for games.
It has no vertex colours, no vertex specular colours, no normals (it only exposes smoothing groups), only one material per mesh, 16 bit vertex count and 1 set of 2d texture coordinates. Max has other formats that are better suited.

why not Blender seriously

Blender does have collada export. I haven't tried it with the hpl editor though.
The .blend format is rather complicated. Exporting to an intermediate format like collada is going to be easier.
I only know of one game engine that supports blender files directly: Gamekit. It combines Ogre3D with Bullet and was created by the author of Bullet.

Assimp (open asset import library) comes with a tool that can load many formats (including .blend, .3ds, .dae, .obj, .lwo, and models from various games like quake series, halflife, etc) and convert them to .dae.

(Assimp is also a library. Add it to an engine or editor and it will gain around 41 file formats)