Let’s have the usual release planning thread after a release.
We just released 1.6 which hasn’t gotten that much feedback (other than bug reports, which I’ve been fixing today). But let’s try to plan anyway.
First off, the roadmap:
Which is luckily starting to look pretty empty as I think we’ll have just one full release (and maybe one smaller one) and one polishing release left until the end of the year when the multicellular stage should be completed.
So I will focus on the remaining roadmap items I think I can finish quickly, that should then give an idea on how many of the optional features we can fit in. And also I think we should reserve at least a month for just fixing and polishing any rough edges as otherwise the result will be a bit sloppy if we just cram in all the features we can manage before time runs out.
So for me I think the next items to work on, after I’m done fixing all the new reported bugs / backlogging them, would be:
Enabling axon for multicellular
Size-related costs that go up with size to offset all the bonuses and specialization (a bit of design, I think is needed)
Moving to macroscopic condition (ideas are very much welcome as to what the thresholds should be)
Non-cell parts. I think “shield” parts were the most requested one? This also kind of needs design work.
I’m hoping the game design team will handle the last 1.6 item on the roadmap which is the colony movement rebalance.
There’s a discussion currently going on making an architectural change to auto-evo so I will probably hold off on making significant additions there. Maybe only some small ones if that rework does not truly get going too early. Otherwise, I can still be tweaking things via the constants.
I think I’ll first work on making sure we have fully fleshed out designs for:
Deus already had concepts for:
But I’ll see what I can do to help polish that.
This is all numberwork. So I’ll either work on this myself or coordinate with Deus on this.
My main goal will be membrane stretching rework, as I have a better solution in mind and it will be much easier now having all the architectural basis in the game.
Other than that I would like to continue my work on microbe terrain (it’s been so long) and H2S damage rework (especially for multicellular). I’m also thinking about rebalancing the sprinting mechanic for microbes as I mentioned some time ago on discord.
It all depends on how much time I’ll have, maybe I will be able to put in some other small features that the community members have suggested in the past
My recent plan is still on `SimulationCache.cs`: there are tons of places potential bug fixes, performance improvement and code style changes, so it would take a long time; Meanwhile if those are all finished, I’m planning to contribute on auto-evo.
I don’t really want to be the “microbe AI guy”, but it just so happens that it’s (kind of) one of the easiest parts to work on. Maybe I’ll do terrain avoidance after I’m done with the binding agent? Either that or the size-related costs.
Been wanting to get back into doing some more models stuffs for Thrive. Will certainly want to take a crack at making these “shield” parts once we have a good scientific base and a good design to work from.
Will also see if I can slowly trickle in some remaining terrain chunks over the next few releases, specially for biomes lacking in unique ones, before we move beyond this stage into the Macroscopic stage.
And just as a general note, might also be a good idea to at least start thinking about potential parts, if needed, for the Macroscopic stage and later around about now (i.e. things that can’t be represented through the metaball system properly such as spikes, display structures, eyes?, etc.), so that there’s no fumbling around to figure out what to do (or what not to do) once we actually get there!
In the next few weeks, I will focus on finishing the texture generator, which, as I’ve mentioned on the livestream, is mostly functional, but has some annoying technical stuff to fix.
Other than that, seeing as many of the roadmap items are either done or in progress, I will take on some smaller features (such as implementing the cell type picker for gametes) and perhaps some bug fixes.
Lastly, I want to look into some other macroscopic features, namely:
Mesh rigging and animations. Assigning bone weights is something I’ve already implemented in the macroscopic prototype, so that will be the easy part. The hard part is figuring out the broad animation framework and animation generation.
Speaking of the macroscopic prototype, it might be worth it to start bringing over some of its features into Thrive itself. Metaball placement mechanics and manipulation tools might be a good place to start.
I won’t really focus on the editor specifically; I will probably focus on the more technical aspects of creature generation as I did before. But I’ll probably work on some editor features too, like the manipulation tools I’ve mentioned.
Finalizing some needed Multicellular Concepts - those related to parts are the current priority. Then, ensuring size-related costs are ready to be implemented and reviewing win conditions for the stage.
Social media outreach. I’m going to try to see if there are any YouTube creators out there that would be open to play Thrive and post a video.
Afterwards and beyond that, some concepts related to the Macroscopic Editor might be polished.