Just curious what's next :)

News, read them! ;P

Unless I'm reading the wrong news, it looks like a laundry list of things that would be nice to get done. As a developer, we always have laundry lists. I'm curious on the actual plan.

the news is the actual plan and what do you devolop?

graphicboy: The news is a progress report for current development and possible paths for future development. It's an executive summary.

Consider the recent addition of the detail textures. There wasn't ANY mention of it in the news... until it was being done, or almost done. How can the news be considered an "actual plan?" I don't understand that.

You'll have to ask peytros on what authority and what basis he has determined that the news qualifies as an "actual plan."

Unless stuff like this can be a plan:

"...we'll be aiming to have some more significant and interesting releases next week, and be getting back on track for further Friendly Fire / Faction system changes, as well as expansions and improvements to Dynamic Warfare and the Economy"

Sure the news is one of the sources of game development progress, but to call it the plan is a bit of a stretch. Once upon a time there was a "design wiki," but that is no longer available. Don't know why that disappeared.

Please don't mistake my comments here as a complaint, I'm just trying to constructively answer the OP's question with some detail.

Kihjin, well aware. That's essentially what I was saying regarding the laundry list. We're on the same page.

Pey, since you asked, I've been a desktop applications developer for the last 10 years. And no, the news isn't a plan :)

No, actually, the news does represent the short-term "plan" at any given time. However, we often diverge from the plan due to timing or developmental problems that arise, or some situation that causes an annoying but necessary shift in priorities in some particular area. It isn't what would be "nice to get done", it's usually what we're actually trying to get done (with some longer-term goals sprinkled in), but then something else comes up and gets in the way. As I've said previously, we're only able to stay in business because we're so adaptive; we tend to take a lot of unforeseen hits, and this year is no exception.

If I were better about posting news every week, it would be more accurate.

News generally doesn't display a full long-term plan, only hinting at bits and pieces, but it usually does relate the current short-term goals, or at least some of them.

For example, the last few newsposts have discussed:

* Compressed Normal Maps
* Detail Textures
* Increased Marketing
* Multi-player Ships
* Website Event Registration

The first four all happened pretty quickly, and the first and second are still not entirely finished. The last one just went into production testing today, having been delayed by some other website issues that took a while to sort out.

Things like detail textures appearing as an "after-the-fact" announcement are due to.. circumstances and adaptation. In that case, the fact that I was away for awhile and needed to grab a project "off the shelf" that would require no oversight (as I mentioned in the post itself).

Hmm, OK, so as far as the next game play enhancement we *may* see multi-player ships.

When I looked back at the news items I found this from 6/18/09:
"We haven't forgotten any of our pressing needs with our economy, faction system, mining, missions, dynamic warfare, and the myriad of other topics that yell angrily at me from my TODO list. This graphics update is not very lengthy or time consuming, is already half finished, and should be of significant benefit to the "universe redux": the repopulation of the galaxy with vastly increased asteroid densities, statically fogged areas, and other content that will directly impact on the economy, grayspace traffic, piracy and other areas. Our new universe build tree and fully dynamic economy will stem from some of the new minerals and ores that come with the redux. Plus, it will make certain combat (such as fighter-level Dynamic Warfare instances) a hell of a lot more exciting. All in all, it should be a good use of two weeks."

That's why I said "laundry list".

Am I not looking at the right news here?

Thanks

..no. The April 28th newspost included "As a result, Ray is now working on making multi-player ships a reality in the near future." Multi-player ships were released a little while after that.

The paragraph you quote is simply a restatement of earlier newsposts that discussed those areas in more detail, and illustrating how the current work related to the longer term goals. That's also why Shadoen said "News, read them!", not "News, read the most recent one."

All this and my original question still isn't answered.

Collating news and changes lists back to March to figure out what's next is a hell of a lot of work to get an answer that should already be known, especially when as you state they're not entirely up to date since it's not posted regularly and so any conclusion I come to is most likely incorrect if not already outdated.

I don't really care if the news posts are old or rare, so don't take this as a bitch fest about that.

I was just curious if something exciting is in the pike since I happen to be bored out of my freaking mind.

I'm aware we're overdue for a newspost update, had planned one for this week, and I'll write it as soon as I get a chance. So far today, our ability to bill new users stopped working for a few hours, along with other excitement. So, right this instant we're working on fun features like "a website that functions".

Could you just make one little update for me, Inc? I'd like you--and you can do this after getting the website fixed and this guy's newspost up, but before that duel stats thing--to change his name from "graphicboy" to "bitchboy".

Pls hndl, thx

<sigh>. Graphicboy's questions are entirely well-intentioned, and our whole announcement/development-track thing are well known to be fairly opaque and confusing (that's why we're gonna make that Trac thing public! Won't that be great! Agnhmngmhntnh!) (For graphicboy/etc, the "Trac" is a system to make public our development roadmap that has been in the works for.. years).

So, anyway, let's not devolve this thread, please (Lecter). I'm not having a great day as it is, and that will not improve it.

I'll get a fresh newspost up as soon as I can.

Groovy. Public dev track sounds cool. Thanks for the response.

Incarnate It might help if you post a list of features you intend to add to the game soon(tm) so that we can get a better idea of where VO is headed. They are understandably curious as to where your vision is going to take us.

Personally for a small staff the trac system seems a bit more then needed... a simple notebook is all you actally require LOL. Heck linux comes with a free project management tool....Keep it simple and dont weigh things down with a lot of unneeded paperwork. I use to just keep a to-do list with a text editor along with my notes....

PaKettle, that's what I keep posting to Newsposts and then doing entirely different things because.. stuff happens. And Trac really isn't overkill for us at all, we badly need the ability to track various issues and revive the data when needed. It's just not an easy thing to get everyone used to using, aside from other issues, but we're getting there.

Anyway, I think we've answered the original question. And this greater "post a list of stuff so we can see your vision" thing has been beaten to death about as much as "landing on planets". I'm doing the best I can, and trying to improve things in that area, and it hasn't happened very quickly. I've also mentioned several times about my plans to post the milestone lists for 1.9 and 2.0 and blah blah. So.. yes, we're on it.

A map is only usefull when you know where your going......

graphicboy, from your post it doesn't seem like you know this but,

multiplayer ships have been out for quite some time now

ohhh landing on planets! is that coming soon?

kihjin: it's always been there - turn off your computer, and BAM, you're on a planet