What percentage towards the next stable release is Wesnoth?

[Glowing Fish]

Since I know that "It Is Ready When It Is Ready" is the case, I will just ask what percentage the development version is to 1.4

Also, I am curious what the road map is after 1.4
Will there be a 1.5 branch?

I keep on putting off going and compiling an unstable version for myself, because I am assuming that one day apt-get dist-upgrade will take care of it for myself.

[Iris]

Since I know that "It Is Ready When It Is Ready" is the case, I will just ask what percentage the development version is to 1.4

Also, I am curious what the road map is after 1.4
Will there be a 1.5 branch?

I keep on putting off going and compiling an unstable version for myself, because I am assuming that one day apt-get dist-upgrade will take care of it for myself.

We are next to a feature and string freeze. Expect something new for New Year .

Also, there ought to be a 1.5 branch. Remember the version numbering system we use to distinguish stable branches from development ones.

[Glowing Fish]

What will be in 1.5?

1.2 is actually just about complete, and as I understand it, the major changes in 1.3 were to redo "Holy" damage (mostly because Undead vs. Undead was a boring matchup), and then to balance it from there.

So once 1.4 is out, what major changes will go into 1.5?

[Blarumyrran]

What will be in 1.5?

1.2 is actually just about complete, and as I understand it, the major changes in 1.3 were to redo "Holy" damage (mostly because Undead vs. Undead was a boring matchup), and then to balance it from there.

So once 1.4 is out, what major changes will go into 1.5?

oh? but new adept/mage/drake/iknowimforgettingsomethingmore sprites? leader gender selection? lots of new mainline campaigns (the best step ever imo, better than holy/arcane for sure)?

i bet people thought it was ready at some 0.4 too. but there is ALWAYS something to add (some things i think might come in 1.5 period):

• new campaigns
• GUI stuff (most important imo of the stuff that has a chance of getting added)
• pillars&walls indoor terrain
• new mainline eras & units (although logic tells me it wont happen because all the more commited/talented spriters (jetryl, eternal, neorice, redeth, etc) for some reason focus on making animations, despite the fact that new animations take a lot more work & are far less visible than would be a whole new era with all-new units, it would be so cool it has to happen.)
• TC-ed ghosts, mermen, nagas; new dragon; maybe new spearman & bowman sprites too, they look too retro (as in, belonging to the times of the previous set of elf sprites)
• more sprite animations (i cant say im very enthusiastic as of this)
• mp server nickname registering
• more WML-ed mp maps coming with core package (and i dont mean just some RPG). that would be, like, SO cool. currently its just a survival and a ballgame. although im quite sure the ultraconservatives like noy would stand up against such new mainline content)

[Viliam]

So once 1.4 is out, what major changes will go into 1.5?

Special units for faster moving and transport, such as horses and ships. Units like Elvish Scout will no longer exist, instead you "recruit" a horse (or gryphon), and put any Elvish unit on it; the unit with horse receives extra movement points. Ships have constant movement and can contain a limited number of units; however if ship is destroyed, all units which cannot move on that terrain type are automatically dead.

Mages will receive mana points. So far the developers have not decided if we will use multiple "mana colors" for all types of magic, or different colors (white = divine, red = fire, green = nature, blue = water, black = undead); the reasons is that most mages use only one color of magic. However the new 4 and 5 level advanced mages could posess multiple colors of magic.

Attacks across multiple hexes, so that ranged units are finally implemented. Archers will shoot across 2 hexes, catapults across 3 hexes. Attacked unit can retailate only if it can shoot at that distance. Catapults will have a critical role in attacking castles, see below.

Constructing buildings like new castles and villages, guard towers, etc. Will require additional resources, such as wood and stone. Castle fortification will be very expensive, but it will provide high defense value for castles, thus increasing the strategic importance of terrain.

Many different races and traits. Units will be able to gain experience by using their traits, such as leadership or healing. New graphics includes female versions of Drake and Undead units.

Etc... see more in the Future Possible Improvements list...

[Glowing Fish]

Villiam, you are a very, very bad, and very, very clever man.

I had you figured out by the second paragraph, though.

[Glowing Fish]

oh? but new adept/mage/drake/iknowimforgettingsomethingmore sprites? leader gender selection? lots of new mainline campaigns (the best step ever imo, better than holy/arcane for sure)?

But you don't need a new unstable testing branch to add campaigns. Campaigns could be added inside of a 1.4 line

i bet people thought it was ready at some 0.4 too. but there is ALWAYS something to add (some things i think might come in 1.5 period):

• new campaigns
• GUI stuff (most important imo of the stuff that has a chance of getting added)
• pillars&walls indoor terrain
• new mainline eras & units (although logic tells me it wont happen because all the more commited/talented spriters (jetryl, eternal, neorice, redeth, etc) for some reason focus on making animations, despite the fact that new animations take a lot more work & are far less visible than would be a whole new era with all-new units, it would be so cool it has to happen.)
• TC-ed ghosts, mermen, nagas; new dragon; maybe new spearman & bowman sprites too, they look too retro (as in, belonging to the times of the previous set of elf sprites)
• more sprite animations (i cant say im very enthusiastic as of this)
• mp server nickname registering
• more WML-ed mp maps coming with core package (and i dont mean just some RPG). that would be, like, SO cool. currently its just a survival and a ballgame. although im quite sure the ultraconservatives like noy would stand up against such new mainline content)

Most of that stuff doesn't need a separate branch. Especially any art or animation changes, which have no effect on game play. I don't know what TC-ed units are, and therefore I don't know whether they need an entire unstable branch to be released.
As I discussed before (Well, I asked the questions, others answered it), is that since Wesnoth isn't a commercial game, there won't be "sequels" like there is in say, the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Once the game has reached a certain point, core development will stop (except for cleaning up bugs or what not), and further creative development will be done with WML, in user created eras or maps. At least, that is the plan as I understand it. The only question, AFAIK, is when this will happen. In 1,4, 1.6, or 1.8?

[torangan]

How complete is the game? Hard to say. We're approaching feature/string freeze but at least for 1.0 this phase was very long. Depends on how many bugs are found and how hard they're to fix, wheter coders are motivated etc.

What will be in new versions? Well, 1.0 was complete. There's no major change in gameplay in the latest development release. Graphics, music and sound got way better, WML is much more powerfull, we have more content and a lot of small but usefull features. Expect the same kind of changes for the next stable release series.

PS: New factions/eras are quite unlikely. The goal is to get rather complete sets of animations for all mainline units and constantly adding new doesn't help. Not that Wesnoth would have a lack of units, there are already more then in most games. OTOH there's one addition in progress by the MP developers but this is a very slow going process as the bar for entry is put quite high.

[Blarumyrran]

PS: New factions/eras are quite unlikely. The goal is to get rather complete sets of animations for all mainline units and constantly adding new doesn't help. Not that Wesnoth would have a lack of units, there are already more then in most games.

and again, complete? then we want all-directions standing frames. but then we also want all-directions-facing attacking, defending, recruiting, dying, idling, leading, healing, ranged-defence, being-underwater-or-swamp defence, terrain-based idle, damage-type-dependent death etc frames and i would bet that before ALL 'default' units get ALL of those, it will be some year 2013 and wesnoth will be relatively abandoned (in some point of time, its bound to happen).

OTOH there's one addition in progress by the MP developers but this is a very slow going process as the bar for entry is put quite high.

(uh care to point me a thread or something? im really curious.)

But you don't need a new unstable testing branch to add campaigns. Campaigns could be added inside of a 1.4 line

no. new campaigns are constantly updated, and stable line must be completely STABLE, meaning no bugs of any sort. on development line, campaigns get feedback on bugs from players; on stable, there mustnt be any.

Attacks across multiple hexes, so that ranged units are finally implemented. Archers will shoot across 2 hexes, catapults across 3 hexes.

i remember in some recent version you actually COULD do that it got fixed tho.

[Shadow]

...

OTOH there's one addition in progress by the MP developers but this is a very slow going process as the bar for entry is put quite high.

(uh care to point me a thread or something? im really curious.)
...

The Kaifas. Thread is known I quess.

[Noy]

There is almost no chance there will ever be another faction added to default. There is one small possibility, the Kalifa, but it has been agreed that the faction will never actually be included in default. Instead it would exist in a special era that would be default+Kalifa.

Why no more factions? because we're trying to put together a gaming experience that is stable, polished and enjoyable. We have enough problems balancing with the factions we have now, adding more would just increase the level of balancing complexity by a order of magnitude, likely without much benefit and serious deterioration in balance.

The Kalifa was designed at the outset to include some interesting unit concepts, a movetype uncommon to any other faction in default, a couple of new abilities, and resistances that were balanced vis-á-vis other factions in default. Finally it also had a definable history and backstory that tied in with other factions.In essence it was designed primarily as a default era faction, and nothing else. No other faction was designed with that in mind, and its difficult to shoe horn them into what limited development space exists in the era.

[Shadow]

I think we know the arguments already. Others too. I don't think you need to persuade anyone.

[Noy]

Actually I was thinking that its never been specifically stated as such, so maybe it was useful to say so in this instance and explain why. That way I can answer the question and link to it later on.

[Blarumyrran]

There is almost no chance there will ever be another faction added to default.

i understood that long ago, but how's the chance of another era being added mainline? (or is that entirely animation-quantity-dependent, and if so, then whats the threshold)?

[Noy]

depends. Does someone have the time effort and experience to balance another era play test it extensively and work out bugs? Its not very encouraging. Remember that the default era has the advantage because it gets playtested alot because it is the default era. This is in contrast to other UME, that don't see as much playing time, or the same amount of effort. We have three developers playing all the time, and over a dozen or so people who are always playing and adding comments. Thats been pretty constant for three years now. Can any other era compare to that? Not really. Maybe over time it might happen, but its not encouraging. In some way its a self reinforcing circle that doesn't look like it will change.