Future Release Plans

Here are a few sources:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/flagella-definition-structure-functions.html

Not sure how credible these are but they’re study guides so I’m gonna assume they’re legit. You’ll find lots of results you google “eukaryotic flagella”

If we get the features being worked on at the moment done, and things like new UI, CPA updates, etc. are still on the horizon, I think we should just release, and save the other features for later updates.

It doesn’t have to be a helical flagella (that was just the option listed in the OP). The flagellum model at the moment looks a bit flat and blends into the background.

yeah i’ll have holidays then and should have plenty of time, and besides that at the moment I’m only working on mock ups of the basic layout of it and then after I’ve done that i’ll work on different variations of designs so it’ll be a while anyway.
also besides that no one has given me a straight answer of what exactly going to be on the options menu other then the very general resources we have now, so that makes it harder.

Oh, I hadn’t realized. If you want, start a thread for discussing the new options menu. I remember I wrote up a list for that a while back that I could provide you (or it may have been new game options).

I’ve moved around a few things in the opening post list, in particular moving the planned but not started items for 0.3.2 to 0.3.3. The reproduction system overhaul is ahead of schedule too, so I moved that from 0.4.0 to 0.3.3.

I’ve seen a few people on Slack talking about releasing in the summer, and this worries me. Yeah, we probably would collectively have more free time then, but that hasn’t exactly helped in past summers. I think we should aim for April 30th at the absolute latest for 0.3.2. The two big features, compound clouds and a tutorial, have been effectively done for ages now, and we’re mostly waiting on performance improvements and some tidying of the CPA code (and sound effect things, but I have that covered…hopefully).

I’m even willing to say if the performance improvements remain in a half-finished state all the way up to the end of April, then we say screw it and push them to next release. I think it was @hessnake and @SpasticMelon who were working on that, and they’ve…uh…kind of disappeared, so I don’t see much hope of it being completed without us getting more programmers, which won’t happen until we do more outreach, which we’ve decided won’t happen until we complete 0.3.2. So basically, unless @moopli or @crovea get more time, we’re stuck in a catch-22. We could wait for that to happen, but in my opinion we can’t keep waiting too long. It’s what nearly killed the project between 0.2.4 and 0.3.0, and when we have the opportunity to do so much after the next release, we can’t afford to let that happen.

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How much would thes performance improvements affect playing the game? The idea of getting some good outreach done for this release was because the game would be in a state that would attract programmers (and others), I.e. a good looking game. Would not included these improvements have much affect on that?

If not much, then I say we release in April with what we’ve already done, and try to get more people. However, if they do then we’ll just have to wait until someone can complete them, because we don’t want to put potential developers off.

The performance improvements were basically to up the framerate. The only time this would be noticeable would be when new microbes pop onto the screen and the game freezes for a second.

There’s also the stuttering of the cell as it swims, which is pretty noticeable.

I would support just releasing what we have now (unless we have something very near to being finished), and then work with ease on the other features for the next release.

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I think it’s about time to start preparing for the next release. What exactly are we going to complete and what aren’t we by the end of the month?

@TheCreator did you get toxins working with the compound clouds? If nothing else, that and the sound effects (I’ve had a couple of attempts since I posted on the topic, but none have sounded that good, but I’ll keep working on it) could be completed. We could also finally fix the disappearing menu bug as we now know what’s causing it, assuming that doesn’t throw up other problems.

Well, I haven’t really worked on them :blush:, but I feel like I should be able to finish it this weekend. That said, I strongly suggest we wait until @moopli finishes implementing his compound processing system.

If that’s the case, I suggest we check with moopli to see how close he is to being finished, because if not soon (no rush) I’d prefer we do a test release of what we have now and prepare that for full release. The players haven’t actually gotten to experience the compound clouds or tutorial yet.

Presisely my thoughts. We should do a test release to the forum on Monday and then spend the remaining month fixing the bugs that will likely pop out.

I’m guessing you won’t want the Devblog for the test release?

Since when did another month get added?

But yeah, a test release would be a good idea.

No, but have one ready for the proper release.

My bad, that was a typo, I meant week/ few days depending on how many bugs we find.

Sounds good. Unless there are any objections, let’s release the first test release on Monday.

I’ve adjusted the OP to match what we’ve completed for the release:

[quote]
Fluid simulation
Compound clouds
Temporary text tutorial
Sound effects overhaul
Wobbly cell membrane
Smoother scrolling
Minor adjustments and bug fixes[/quote]

The only items left to complete for tomorrow evening (aside from merging all my sound effect meddling) are:

[quote]Bloom and blur visuals
Agents acting as compound clouds[/quote]

What’s the wobbly cell membrane?

Also, is there anywhere I can get information on the fluid sim?

@stealthstylel: http://youtu.be/G4IZXbQjirk