Proposal for 2.4 TODOs (Unofficial For Now)

[odie]

Dear Creator, Dev Team, Helpers, Fanatics and Fans of UFOAI,

This is a continuation of a short conversation b/w Destructavator and me earlier in this Earlier Thread

Can I propose that this thread be to help us consolidate ALREADY AGREED UPON IDEAS to be put into TODO for 2.4-Development before officially starting the 2.4 TODO?

I am recommending that this be separated into a diff topic / sticky it, pls.
Thanks Destructavator for Sticking this.

Please take note that this is not the official TODO.

The official TODOs are still in the following links here.

Official TODO for UFOAI Homepage
The general open / WIP / done TODO
TODO for UFORadiant Specifics
The current Development Branch - 2.3



1) Create a TODO wiki Page for 2.4. (Pending - TBC once 2.3-stable has been rolled out)

2) Include contents including:

• A Bigger Base Concept as discussed.
• Destructavator Proposal for More Models for Soldiers and Civis / and their Armors.
  
  • Armors
  • Human Head
• More Models Left Undone from Zenerka Discussed
• Mattn's Proposal for Shortened Roadmaps for Future Releases after 2.3 is Rolled Out.
• Recruit More Coders - Mattn's Encouragements for More Coders
• ..
• ..
• ..
• ..
• For Updates..

3) Continue growing the list.


If this sounds good, continue to point me to the different threads where ok and agreed on discussions have been made, and i make the links to update this post.

For contributions please:
1) General Topic / Proposal Name
2) Links to which the topic was discussed and agreed on.
3) Main point person.

I will take some time to read and summarise it for us here.

Toodles! (PS: I am not around on weekends, so if u dun see weekend updates, no worries. I'll be back on Monday. I am +8 GMT FYI.)


To Mattn / BTAxis / Winter / Other Key Dev Team Members?:

Feel free to let me know to take out a certain point listed which u do not want.
Just state the reasons and i am sure future references can always be 'self-explanatory'. ToodleS!

[Destructavator]

At some point all the new soldier models, heads, armor types etc. need to be completed for the new animations.

I'm not sure if they'll make it in the game in time for 2.3, or if they'll have to shoot for 2.4.

I'm hoping Mattn will also offer his thoughts on 2.4.

P.S. - I'll sticky this as you asked, for now - although if Mattn wants things organized differently for planning 2.4 I'll comply with his wishes of course.

P.P.S. - Let's not forget that 2.3 is still a ways off at this point, but on the other hand if we can save some things until 2.4 it may help get 2.3 done quicker.

[geever]

I don't see the point collecting features for 2.4 yet. All these proposals should go into TODO/General.

There are quite some features I would like to implement. I won't do them for 2.3 but not even sure if they (all) will be able to get into 2.4. Short release intervals (suggested) and long feature list conflict. And we can't see that far ahead in future.

-geever

[Destructavator]

Hmmm....   You may be right, geever - I'm waiting to see what Mattn says about exactly how he wants this organized.

By comparison, I've seen roadmaps of other open-source projects where several (two to three) future release "steps" are planned out, with everything else put into a "general" TODO, and others where it is done just one at a time.  Looking at progress of other such projects, I can't seem to find any direct connection between which style of organizational structure they use and how fast they develop.

I will say that I'm against specific release dates - planned versions yes, but not specific dates, I don't think that would speed anything up really.

[Borsti67]

Yeah, only one "general" TODO-List makes people ask "when will we finally have feature X" over and over again...
Some kind of timeline/roadmap would be nice.

Most useful IMO:
- one list for current WIP, to be finished for the next version
- 1 to 3 list(s) for features of the next release(s)
- the "general" list for proposals, which are already decided to become implented, but not when

This gives a good overview on how the priorities are set. You don't need to ask for anything on the general TODO, because that won't come before all other lists are done

[bayo]

how many coders? how many 2D artists? how many 3D artists?
We are not a lot, then we dont need planning for game content because we can't respect it.

the only thing we can plan a little is the code feature/quality IMO.

[Thyranim]

http://www.reactos.org/wiki/Roadmap

ReactOS is doing a short list (current version is 0.3.10) of next version as far as able to plan

so this kind of list to use here let's say like

2.2.1 (current) - done
2.3 - WIP - features x,y &z
2.4 - planned - features a,b & c
2.5 - unclear - features j & k
x.x - see list --> here a link to the general-proposals where all future features are listed, unsorted

so similar list without dates, so noone has to say "oh sorry, got no time, have to shift date to the overnext month instead of this one... again"

[Mattn]

i agree with geever and bayo - and once we have 2.3 out of the door we will shorten the release cycle to 6 months - we define some goals and hopefully learn of the mistakes we made with 2.3 release cycle (the future will tell )

[criusmac]

I'm all for helping code stuff, but it has to be fairly easy sadly. I'm up for coding anything though, just let me know what the priorities are. My skills are a bit lacking, but they aren't absent.

[Destructavator]

Yeah, I see your points now, from all of you, and I'm starting to agree.

Should I temporarily lock this thread, to have it unsealed when 2.3 is out?

[Kildor]

I guess no, let`s collect some ideas? This is just a forum, our real-todo-list is in wiki, so we can move interesting points from here to it.

[Destructavator]

OK, sounds good.

@Odie: Perhaps in light of this you should point out in the first post that the official TODO is in the wiki, not here (for newcomers, to avoid confusion).

Side note:  Could one of the coders please help out criusmac, telling him what he can do to help with the code and where he could help the most?

[Mattn]

easy coding stuff would be scripting the campaign - we have people for scripting the menus, but not a dedicated person for scripting techs, weapons and missions. it would be nice if someone would take over this part.

[Vio]

@Mattn
What exactly would that look like? Isn't there some kind of AI in the works that generates missions based on "alien interest"?

Apart from that, the .ufo scripts really are easy to understand. I would encourage anyone to give those a try.

[odie]

OK, sounds good.

@Odie: Perhaps in light of this you should point out in the first post that the official TODO is in the wiki, not here (for newcomers, to avoid confusion).

Heya Destructavator,

I have taken your advise and modified the 1st entry of thread.
Pls give me advise if thats a valid clarification?
I took the liberty to link the 3 TODOs as well, so i guess it helps "rookies" to locate these TODOs faster.

Mattn,

I have taken the liberty to add your idea for a shortened roadmaps for subsequent releases. OK with u?

*PS: I am so tired, juz came back from my officer's training course.... and having an uber headache now. I ma going to retire soon..... catch up more for tml, ok? I ma checking out other forums b4 hitting the bed. Anything juz PM me.