Future Release Plans

lol

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Well, that’s our monthly dose of Moopli over.

On a serious note, @moopli when are you likely to have more time to contribute again?

It’s hard to say, as a few of my courses this term have big assignments that I actually enjoy working on, so it’s difficult for me to use Thrive to even justify shirking my schoolwork ^^

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lol

Anyway, I’ve updated the top post to reflect the things that I and others will be working on for 0.3.3. If I accidentally moved a feature to a next release that you wanted to finish for 0.3.3, feel free to edit the post. Also, I’ve added links to the features that have related threads.

Oh well, at least it happened eventually.

I’ve put a page on the Wiki covering the release roadmap in detail, which I’ve updated to reflect your changes.

I’ve just updated the OP to reflect the features of the upcoming release, moving those we didn’t complete to later releases. @TheCreator if you wouldn’t mind, could you make a new reply here once the release is up?

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I’m guessing someone already did it? Also, I’ll write up a full draft of the release plan for 0.3.4 sometime next week so that everyone knows exactly what features need work on.

We should probably decide what we want the priorities for the next release are. Work on Unreal seems a given to me, but other than that…combat, agents, etc.?

Pili should be easier in unreal since it’s a lot more documented than bullet, so combat (at least in that regard) should be done by the next release

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We need to re-implement features that people want back, but were removed. Editor access is one thing. I would suggest combatbut since we promised movement rework with 0.3.4 and didn’t quite deliver, that also needs to take priority

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After editing the OP of this thread to update proposals for future releases, I realised our guidance on what we’re working on is woefully inefficient. We have this thread, this wiki page and GitHub issues - spread out, inconsistent and difficult for everyone to update. It’s fair to say our plans for releases haven’t exactly worked out anyway, since we just end up implementing whatever happens to have been completed rather than going somewhere more directed.

Should we try to reorganise ourselves to work towards decisive feature goals? I’m not saying we have to, but I think it should be considered. The next release seems to have a pretty solid planned features list already: UE4 conversion (if that works), combat mechanics, agents and organelle upgrades. I think @hhyyrylainen suggested a Trello board a while ago. While this could work, I’m sure there are better options which integrate more effectively with what the sprawling mass of internet presences we already have.

That sounds like a fairly good direction to go in. Focused work is always better than disorganized chaos.

I think we should focus on github issues which can be collected into milestones that have properties like percentage complete and due date (if we could actually use that…).
And for longer term goals this thread or the wiki (if I get an account) would be better.

I made a few updates to the roadmap:

  • crossed off ue4
  • And questioned whether loadings screens and bacteria stuff will be in the 0.4.x series of releases
    • We still haven’t found a need for loading screens so that will be put off until we have so many resources that they need to be loaded while the player sees a loading screen
  • And the bacteria is still in a really confusing state. But maybe someone will get it implemented properly and merged
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bacteria is hard but there are some good ideas floating around.

I suppose this is good as any thread to discuss this. But now that 0.4.1 is done we can start planning the next release. If we want to go for a smaller release the next release should be 0.4.2, which is what I suppose @tjwhale wants to go for with the goal of having a new release in about 3 months time. Discussing the features for that should probably go into a different thread, like the feature discussion for 0.4.1.
I’ll make such a thread soon unless someone wants a bigger release.

Also discussing longer term plans in this thread would be good. I’ll update the OP to reflect the new release but I won’t touch the long term plans yet.

I’ll save the original plan (just in case someone wants to have a look) in this post (instead of cluttering up the first post {when editing})

EDIT : The ideas below are the original suggestions for a release plan. The list of planned features above will be constantly updated to reflect the team's current thinking.

When we’re finished with the final and official release of 0.3.0, we’ll have to look ahead to what we plan to do next. As discussed on Slack, this is an idea for a short term schedule.

  1. Current Release (0.3.0rc1)
  2. Update to fix any bugs in the current release after some playtesting (0.3.0rc2)
  3. Update to fix any bugs in the current release after some playtesting (0.3.0 final)
  4. Update to add in small features that were postponed from this release
    (colouration of membrane, more organelles, updated flagellum model,
    etc.) (0.3.1)
  5. Implement agents and bacteria (0.3.2-0.3.3)
  6. AI (0.4.0)

We’ve already finished the first and are working through the second. As we go it will be helpful if we have a thread to plan out what features we want to include for the next release.

The point of this thread is to list upcoming features, and plan which release they will be included in.

Upcoming Features

  • Major

  • Linux Support

  • C++/Ogre

  • Fluid Dynamics

  • Compound Clouds

  • 3D Background

  • Dynamic Membrane

  • Less Geometric Membrane Rendering

  • Membrane Colouration

  • Colour Variation Between Organelles

  • GUI

  • Improved Help Panel

  • Improved Compound Panel

  • Options Menu

  • Starting Settings

  • Easy

  • Updated Flagellum Model

  • More Organelles

  • Rescale Hex Grid

  • Rescale Organelles

  • Others

  • Bacteria

  • Agent System

  • Ambient SFX

  • Auto-Evolution

  • Improved AI

  • Microbial Biomes

  • Endocytosis for Organelles

  • Improved Reproduction

  • Improved Health System

  • Multicellularity!..

  • Rejigger Process Rate Calculations

  • Membrane Transport Rate Limits

  • Basic Population Tracking

  • Big Entity-Component-System Refactor

  • Random AI Microbe Mutation / Random Starter Generation

  • Smooth Zoom

  • Editor improvements (symmetry; divided sections for structure, surfacing, etc.; saving and loading improvements)

Upcoming Releases

0.3.1
-Updated Flagellum Model
-Tutorial/Help Panel
-Options Menu
-Linux Support
-Endocytosis (for organelles)
-Rescale/New Organelles
-Improved Compound Panel
-Starting Settings
-Bacteria/Agents/Clouds + Ancillaries
-Health Revamp
-Reproduction Revamp
-Better AI
-Big Entity-Component-System Refactor
-Basic Random Generation/Mutation of AI Cells
-Population/Chemical Success Tracking for Auto-Evo
-Fluid Dynamics

0.4.0
-Up for discussion

Whoops, this thread has been forgotten once again, the latest planning thread is:

And the whole microbe stage plan is complete and on our wiki (so if someone reads this years later up to date info should still be here):