Samual's Personal Development Roadmap

Hey guys, so I got a request earlier to give a bit of an update of what i've got planned for the project. Here's what i'm going to do: I'll lay out a simple version of my development roadmap so you can see what i've got planned.

Currently On The Table

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• Helping migrate the game over to the new compiler (GMQCC) and fixing/hunting any bugs it presents
  
• Notification system re-write (better handling of centerprints, console messages, announcements, etc)
  
• Finishing new Crylink secondary (essentially just a slow and accurately directed burst with very high negative force, intended to slow players down a lot when shot.)
  
• Helping BitBomb finish the new announcer sounds
  

Near Future (after previous list is accomplished)

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• Update the Shotgun to no longer use shells and instead have infinite ammo. (this also means updating the effects/sounds/visuals to match)
  
• Replace Machine Gun with Arc Cannon (lightning gun is redundant with MG, so we're moving MG into the "New Toys" mutator)
  
• New ammo system: Split up cell ammo so that only Nex and Electro use it, and create a new energy ammo type for Crylink and Arc. Additionally, remove Bullets and Shells.
  
• Create compatibility system and special algorithm for autobalancing map ammo (and potentially health/armor as well) in the best possible way given the variables.
  
• Move Rifle to "New Toys" mutator.
  
• Rename some weapons so that all weapons have specific pronoun names. (Old->New... Laser->Blaster, Shotgun->Shockwave?*, Rocket Launcher->Devastator)... By this point, the new core weapon set will look something like this: Blaster, Shockwave, Arc, Nex, Devastator, Crylink, Electro, Mortar, Hagar. 9 weapons in total.
  
• Hard coded game mode designed specifically for duel. (allowing unique rules and such for duel deathmatches)
  
• Powerup system re-write; Merge minstagib powerups to be in all modes, add new powerups like "self destruct" or "team healing" potentially, etc.
  
• Further improve "superweapon" powerup weapons (including: "Fireball", "Hookgun", and "Minstanex"... all of which may be renamed potentially) along with powerup system re-write.
  
• Improve the serverlist in some various ways
  

What Else I Really Want (but probably won't have time for)

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• Centralized server information menu (for MOTD, welcome message, server information, etc)
  
• Tip system or help system regarding weapons and items, to better allow new players to understand the weapons.
  
• Expand upon this help system by creating in-game documentation in the credits window. (instead of being only credits, it'll be called the "About" window... and there will be multiple tabs: Credits, Weapons, Game Modes, FAQ... etc, something like this.)
  
• Taking this one step further, integrate all of that into a singleplayer tutorial level.
  
• Integrate XonStat and show the player profile in the menu (allows people to see their statistics and such without ever leaving the game)
  
• Integrate IRC support into the game directly. (allows us to create rcon2irc bots without weird external scripts and other such features)
  
• Finish anti-vehicle weapon design by improving Minelayer and Seeker.
  
• Round based or time-reversing CTF (perhaps to allow non-symmetrical maps to be played more fairly?)
  

This is generally what I have planned. If something needs discussing, i'll certainly bring it up for discussion... but for now, this is generally the solid "de facto" plan on my todolist. Go ahead and ask questions for some specifics, but please don't drain the hell out of me or expect me to answer everything in extreme detail... I don't have time for that. I know what i'm doing, the game will be good, etc etc

Thanks.

I could use help picking new names for Shotgun, Fireball, Hookgun, and Minstanex BTW.

Nice

I could use help picking new names for Shotgun, Fireball, Hookgun, and Minstanex BTW.

perhaps use piratepad like we did for the announcer demo?

also "Nex" isn't changing?

Thanks a lot!

You forgot an integrated email client

Did you not have plans for nexball too?

You forgot an integrated email client

Did you not have plans for nexball too?

Email client? suuuuuuuuuuuure

ah, that fell through when I realized how little time I have.




Also, for name brainstorming on piratepad: http://piratepad.net/xonotic-weapon-name-brainstorming

rocket launcher : the luncher (it will spill out ya lunch if ya get hit by it)

maybe better rocket flying?

(just a bit more)

ill get ya something nice 4 ya troubles

t

:^

rocket launcher : the luncher (it will spill out ya lunch if ya get hit by it)

maybe better rocket flying?

(just a bit more)

ill get ya something nice 4 ya troubles

t

:^

I support keeping the "nex" as nex. Slaughter and violent death and all that. I imagine one-word weapon names will make things easier to handle

Assuming my NetRadiant is working by then, I'll go through my (successful) maps and rework the ammo. I'd also be willing to help with the tutorial map (again, assuming radiant is working).

This last thing is more of an "eventually" feature, but it would be nice to "friend" players (using player stat id presumably?) and have a GUI for joining them automatically.

I like these plans. If you need help with documentation text-wise for the about tab, I'm volounteering to offer my help and support. I'm still working on a comprehensive game "manual", and probably would be able to spit out small digestible text chunks for that purpose.

Thanks for the updates.

Rocket Launcher->Devastator

Is this in homage to the Devastator weapon in Duke Nukem 3D? I'm not sure if this link was thought of on purpose but I would not think it is a good link. The Devastator in Duke3D fired lots of small rockets and was if anything closer to the Hagar therefore. The Devastator in Duke3D was to the RPG what the Hagar in Xonotic is to the Rocket Launcher.

The Devastator is also a Perfect Dark weapon. Grenade launcher with slow refire. Shoots sticky grenades in secondary mode.

The name "Devastator" has nothing to do with any of those games, there is no intentional link. I had none of those weapons in mind when choosing that name, I just like how "Devastator" sounds and looks.

Additionally, I don't care if another game used it. There are countless games which use the name "Rocket Launcher", who cares?

My suggestions:

fireball -> ballonfire
hookgun -> chaingun
shotgun -> electrorifle
rocket launcher -> railgun
grenade launcher -> grenadethrower

will make the game so much less confusing and more unique, I expect 100-400 new players DAILY alone to that change

The name "Devastator" has nothing to do with any of those games, there is no intentional link. I had none of those weapons in mind when choosing that name, I just like how "Devastator" sounds and looks.

Additionally, I don't care if another game used it. There are countless games which use the name "Rocket Launcher", who cares?

Yeah, iirc the point was to get rid of generic names, not names that are used in other games.

EDIT: asyyy, don't flame please.

I dont like the fact that we have 9 weapons for some reason. First one is that that new Nexuiz has 9 as well. Second : if we had 3 ammos, and all 9 used ammo, then it good, but in the end, we have 7 ammo-users which is a prime number thus cant be divided into groups.
I think we should make a brand new weapon, I dont know whatis it going to be, but by 1.0 we should have it.
Ammo: Blaster and Shockwave dont use ammo, that good. or OK. I think that Electro(look at its name!) and Ark should use electricity provided by the same cells. Nex which is a railgun is problematic. It needs power as well as bullets (or other shels) to shoot. So the ammo for itshould be sell with somthing solid. Judjing by the spacing between rails, it canfire anything as big as 12.7 mm (.50 cal). I think we can say that Crylink melts the solid bulletss into plasma and spits it out. Maybe it will work... HaGar and Mortar clearly should use the same ammo.

I dont like the fact that we have 9 weapons for some reason. First one is that that new Nexuiz has 9 as well. Second : if we had 3 ammos, and all 9 used ammo, then it good, but in the end, we have 7 ammo-users which is a prime number thus cant be divided into groups.

This has been the source of my agony for several months, I don't think it's likely to change AA.

Improve the serverlist in some various ways

Refreeeeeeesh button!


Shotgun =>> Trout ^^

The Devastator is also a Perfect Dark weapon. Grenade launcher with slow refire. Shoots sticky grenades in secondary mode.

Damn OP weapon. =D

Speaking of the announcer piratepad script, I got the mic preamp in, and the professional grade replacement tubes (tube mic preamps always come with cheap tubes) should be in my mailbox any day now. This means we are now equipped for professional quality voice recordings, so things are looking great on that front. I will do a few tests on my own with the stock tube vs the pro tube, get used to the new gear, and then will set up a way to record the annoucer sessions streaming so we can do it the right way, with directors 'behind the glass' so to speak. Will advise.

That's a hell of a list. Every single thing on it would be a major improvement to the game and just a handful of them would be the equivalent of a major face-lift. That last item would probably be one of the coolest, as I've yet to see another game that does it out of the box and would make CTF in Xonotic A LOT more interesting than CTF in other games. It would also mean that someone could copy/paste CTF Eternal Cave from UT99 and still get fair matches on it lol

Neat.

organized the piratepad at http://piratepad.net/xonotic-weapon-name-brainstorming

everybody come contriboot

That's a hell of a list. Every single thing on it would be a major improvement to the game and just a handful of them would be the equivalent of a major face-lift. That last item would probably be one of the coolest, as I've yet to see another game that does it out of the box and would make CTF in Xonotic A LOT more interesting than CTF in other games. It would also mean that someone could copy/paste CTF Eternal Cave from UT99 and still get fair matches on it lol

I think one could make it even cooler by taking hints from street basketball... e.g. teams do not only switch after a certain time, but if a defending player reaches a certain point in the map with the flag on him (e.g. flags don't get reset on touch) or if the flag is hold a certain time by that defending player etc.