Roadmap for 0.4.8

Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 08 Mar 2011, 11:38

Now that 0.4.7 is out, we should prioritize what we want (besides mandatory bugfixes) in the next release.

  • Multilanguage support (if it's easy to implement in the code, the non-coders and potential newcomers would have a bunch of new easy work, this motivates a lot)
  • Normal mapping (at risk?)
  • further GUI improvements (both, visible and internal)
  • folder cleanup
  • Menu/Start screen with some basic buttons (new game, quit, ...)
  • (internal) Guidelines on everything (code, design style, etc)
  • improve graphics for existing objects
Any further ideas? What new creature and sounds do we want?
Last edited by StefanP.MUC on 08 Mar 2011, 13:26, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby TheAncientGoat » 08 Mar 2011, 11:42

What about a menu/start screen? If we want non-coders to contribute, it might help if the game could be started a bit more intuitively.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby charlie » 08 Mar 2011, 11:44

I'd like to disagree a bit. I'd go after some low hanging fruit and make 0.4.8 a simple release that will be a bit more polished than 0.4.7 - give people a nice route in to the project.

Then build bigger/better (i.e. more invasive) features in to a 0.5.0 which can be a bit longer in gestation because players are happy with 0.4.8.

Some low hanging fruit:
- better lava texture
- smaller, animated dig icon
- integrate the wall tile meshes by p0ss
- bug fixes for the inevitable bug reports from 0.4.7
- other easy stuff that gets done in the next month

That will settle nicely for 0.4.8 and then 0.5.0 can be a bit more ambitious.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 08 Mar 2011, 11:48

TheAncientGoat, yeah, I think this is really needed. The current release already allows to start per button ("System" tab, press the "GO" button), but we should really care for some polishing in the next time. I can easily set up a new OpenDungeonsMainMenu.layout file that could be loaded before anything else.

charlie, yes, upgrading graphics is always on the todo list. Don't need to explicitly put this on the list. ;)
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby oln » 08 Mar 2011, 11:50

I was writing a post, and then stefan made one before I was finished with it :p
Some suggestions:
  • Design, style and code guidelines should be a priority, we can look at DungeonHack for a good example of how this should be done.
  • Code:
    • Work on cleaning up the code, and make it consistent with the code style guidelines we decide on.
    • Work on getting normal mapping and team colouring done properly
    • Use more than one texture walls, ground etc as suggested by p0ss
    • If we got the time/resources for it, improve the sound system and multiplayer
  • Build system, packaging
    • create deb and rpm packages
    • Set up a PPA, possibly opensuse build service or similar for rpms
    • Make a dependencies package for windows to make building easier
    • Clean up the cmake scripts
    • More automated building, make it easier for programmers who want to contribute/list]
    • Media
      • Extend the media wishlist
      • Graphics, icons for buttons GUI
      • Get the new wall meshes into the game
      • Possibly some music?
      • Make some more sound effects
      • Replace ground textures

I have probably forgotten some stuff.

Agree with start-up screen, shouldn't be too hard to implement. We just need a mockup.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby svenskmand » 08 Mar 2011, 13:11

Sounds like a good plan. When I get Ubuntu Studio running on my home desktop i will expand the list of sound effects. I will also give the GUI Icons a try, then we can debate about how we would like the icons to look.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby charlie » 08 Mar 2011, 13:14

StefanP.MUC {l Wrote}:charlie, yes, upgrading graphics is always on the todo list. Don't need to explicitly put this on the list. ;)


... :?

Specific items, graphics upgrades, code or otherwise, absolutely should be on the list of next release tasks. Generic items are for "future" releases.

Looks like 0.4.8 is a long way away from what you guys are talking about. That saddens me a bit, given the simple ways to improve 0.4.7 (some of which I listed) and make it look a lot nicer.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby svenskmand » 08 Mar 2011, 13:15

I agree with Charlie.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 08 Mar 2011, 13:25

According to andrew the multilang support is easy (this doesn't mean that we want all possible languages now, only the support for it). And most other tasks (folder clean up, basic menu screen) are one-day works. As far as I understood it, the only real hard work currently is the normal mapping (this can easily be pushed back to 0.4.9 or 0.5).
The guideliness are important, but could also be a mid-long-goal (also 0.5 maybe).

I don't see what should hold back the 0.4.8 release very long.

But as you wish, I'll put the graphics on the list. ;)
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby Bodsda » 08 Mar 2011, 15:57

Keeping with the 'release early, release often' mindset, time consuming features should not be on the roadmap for 0.4.8. I agree with charlie, this release should be polishing what is currently there and fixing bugs, with only smaller new features

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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 08 Mar 2011, 16:16

But at some point we have to include "new" features - when should this be if not now? "New" meaning here "bring the game to a good playable state". The game is currently not in a very playable state (1 test map, 4 rooms, some random creatures, only a rudimentary user interface). And I think especially multilanguage support is something that should be considered very early: it gathers new people around the project that can contribute, it makes it more accessible for people around the world with no good english knowledge, and the most important point: now we don't have hundreds of text strings that need to be translated all at once.

It's not like we are near to a "1.0 release" (in this case I'd agree to "polish, polish, polish!"). But we are not even in an "alpha" state. So I'd say to follow the previous path and just add stuff as it comes until a fixed deadline, then give one or two weeks for bugfixing and then release. For example: Assuming someone get's "Super big feature X" coded, why shouldn't we include it? And if it turns out after a month or so that some of the goals for 0.4.8 were to farfetched, we then still can easily put them on the 0.4.9 roadmap.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby Bodsda » 08 Mar 2011, 16:20

StefanP.MUC {l Wrote}:But at some point we have to For example: Assuming someone get's "Super big feature X" coded, why shouldn't we include it? And if it turns out after a month or so that some of the goals for 0.4.8 were to farfetched, we then still can easily put them on the 0.4.9 roadmap.


If someone has a Super big feature already coded, then of course include it. What I was saying is dont waste 2 weeks attempting to implement something that is not really required yet. Go for the things that are half done, or would quickly make a significant benefit for players and contributors.

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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby svenskmand » 08 Mar 2011, 18:01

In the pollishing business I think documentation the most important right now. For example some of you mentioned a creature stats window, but there is no mention of this in the game controls on the wiki. But it is not only user documentation we should do, there has been allot of stuff done lately some of this also needs developer documentation, e.g. I have made a how to for building a msi package (the wiki page is still pending) for the game, and oln and I has worked on documenting how to build the game on windows (this also still needs some cleanup).
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby MCMic » 09 Mar 2011, 10:45

If it can help, here is what I would like in the next release, as a player :

A main menu, that allow to start the game, hopefully to choose the map or some option like this. (fullscreen, resolution, difficulty?)
Bug fixes :
-The game crashed after a while, units just stopped moving
-The algorithm for gobelins is buggy, they does not dug when I tell them, sometime they do nothing, they become huge in no time and kill enemies on their own (they're supposed to be weak, no?)
A new lava texture, please ^^
A few new features in the GUI : there are a lot of tabs, let's put buttons and infos in them ^^
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby oln » 05 Apr 2011, 11:35

We haven't done much of the suggested points for this release, though there are several other new things in the game now, and if we can get the new models, and voice acting in the game I think we could consider making another release, and postpone the rest of the goals for 0.4.9.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 05 Apr 2011, 11:46

Agreed. I'd try to do multilang support, but nobody really gave feedback in the other thread on what would be the best solution, so I was unsure (don't want to mess up something, waste time or get in conflict with other peoples plans for this).
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby svenskmand » 05 Apr 2011, 15:20

As CEGUI supports rendering unicode then I think we should just use our own getText function and then have a simple map file for each language which maps key-sentences to sentences in the selected language. We could use GNU GetText to also use the same convetions for the translation files, but if people do not like having more libs to depend on then lets just use our own getText function.

Also how is the status on the normal-mapping? I think we should priotize that the highest, I know that Skorpio is frustrated because it is not working yet, and it would really give the game a serious graphical lift.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 05 Apr 2011, 15:23

Ok, then I set up some basic framework for it.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby oln » 05 Apr 2011, 16:26

Sounds okay. If use a function it would be easy enough to change later if needed.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 05 Apr 2011, 16:48

OK, I started working on it. I plan to create a general GUI handler class that also handles the translating. This way we can also store the CEGUI window names in some const strings for easy access and modification, for example.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby svenskmand » 05 Apr 2011, 16:52

StefanP.MUC {l Wrote}:OK, I started working on it. I plan to create a general GUI handler class that also handles the translating. This way we can also store the CEGUI window names in some const strings for easy access and modification, for example.

You do not need to translate internal names in the code or CEGUI setup, only the displaying of text in the game.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby StefanP.MUC » 05 Apr 2011, 17:06

Didn't want to. I meant storing often used internal names in some consts. ;)
Example:
GUI elements have long names like "Root/MainTabControl/Rooms/QuartersButton".
If we want to access it in the code (event handlers, text, picture) we always have to type this long string and if it changes we need to change it everywhere.
So having a
{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
const string QUARTERS_BUTTON = "Root/MainTabControl/Rooms/QuartersButton"

will help a lot to synchronize the code with the GUI.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby oln » 05 Apr 2011, 17:13

Yeah, that should be done for all "magic numbers" and strings in the code.
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby svenskmand » 05 Apr 2011, 18:39

Ok
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Re: Roadmap for 0.4.8

Postby MCMic » 06 Apr 2011, 11:33

You should use gettext, don't re-implements things that exists.
And double-check if neither CEGUI or Ogre have something like that in it.

The getText file format is compatible with some great online collaboration tools for collaboration (for instance launchpad have one)
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