A bit of a different title for the thread this time than before, but it is again time to talk about the next release. I’ll tentatively call it 0.5.10 (which is what the Github milestone is currently named). I thought that if we adopt the approach of renaming a release a week or two before it is due to be out, might make sense to also call this thread differently.
I think the format where people just talk about what they want to accomplish more than what we should try to push people to work on, works pretty well so let’s continue with that.
Here’s the milestone where I threw in some stuff already, I couldn’t help resist it so I actually put in some of the most major bugs we recently got reported in the milestone without really planning on working on them:
My personal plan for 0.5.10 is to:
Fix some of the major issues like auto-evo using changing population numbers, and a few other issues
Help push forward / finish some of the recently opened big changes like auto-evo exploring tool, cilia attraction (I might need to volunteer to work on the general part of an upgrade system if no one else works on this)
Probably do a few more small fixes or features
Continue onto the gameplay part of late multicellular prototype
I also plan to make a thread for discussing the microbe stage completion roadmap after I make this thread.
I’ll start by getting to a few features I listed last time but didn’t have the time to work on for 0.5.9.
Improve chemoreceptor visuals
Slime
Fossilisation
Thermosynthesis revamp
Cannibalism
My next priority after those are done will be attempting some performance improvements. This really isn’t my strong suit when it comes to programming, but I feel that performance is such a massive barrier to a whole lot of extra game quality that I’m willing to put in the effort. I can’t promise anything will come of it though.
I’ll also look into fixing several bugs, including continuing weirdness with the spawn system.
Assuming the next release comes out in October, I probably won’t have as much time to work on it towards the end. I start a software job in late September, and while I’ll still have some free time, I doubt I’ll want to spend it doing more programming.
I didn’t actually yet set the due date for the next release, so I’ll set it to 2 months for now. I think that’d be fine so we can have 2 releases before Christmas with about 2 months for each release (so the later release would be the first week of December).
And yeah, I don’t think we need a patch release 0.5.9.1 so we’ll skip doing a small release.
I’m going to hold off on committing to too many major features to work on, since I still want to get back up to speed with where development and the current concept is sitting. I also want to set up the dev environment on my laptop and when I can have that done by.
In the meantime, there are a few smaller but impactful features I think could help a lot that I could indirectly or directly help with:
Mutation Point Modifier. Created a thread to discuss it and looks like no opposition. Until I get the dev environment set up, I can indirectly help with design and concept art.
Phagocytosis Size Trait. Created a thread to discuss it. If we agree it’s a worthwhile feature, I can again only help with design and concept art until I get the dev environment up.
Biome Ambience Revamp. I will be posting my ideas for how to improve ambient sounds soon (Here it is). Since it does not require a dev environment, if people like my suggestions I can start working on this immediately.
I predict I will be able to finish these, and get the dev environment up and running smoothly, before the 2 month deadline, so when that happens I can come back here and post any further features I can help work on.
I’ll try to push discussion on a few cool things we can knockout really quick, like cannibalism, and, in light of the road map, ensure we hash out the finer details of the upgrade/endosymbiosis system.
Personally assessing gameplay, I think it would be very beneficial to liven up the environment in which the player swims around in. So if a programmer is willing to improve that aspect of the game, I can definitely assist in making sure any incomplete concepts are brushed up.
Improve pilus mechanics. Some kind of cooldown and proper stab to damage instead of wiggle meta.
Mitosis animation. Working on the engulfment revamp, I realized that mitosis can just be represented in a similar way, make a clone cell spawn from its “host” and then animate it moving out into membrane edge. An alternative and more “gamey” look: make a cell spawn from the edge of the host cell’s membrane where it started out at 0 scale and then scaled up to its proper scale. Should also improve multicellular budding reproduction representation away from cells appearing out of thin air.