Hello All! Today I want to outline the goals for
version 2.6, and what will happen after this build. As most of you
know, 2.6 is our Gameplay freeze which we will begin developing the
Campaign scripts. During this time, we will have development paused,
in order to compile all the bug reports, so they can all be fixed.
Then a 2.6b will be released, and tested. 2.6c will contain our first
demo mission, and we will have our final bug report compiled. We will
then take 4 months to completely develop this campaign (at the most,
I doubt it will take that long). So, we're looking at a solid 8
months of work here, possibly putting out our demo campaign by March
2010, with the initial campaign released Summer 2010. After that,
TPOF development will go through one more debug run, which we will
de-mothball the entire codebase. If the fan base is large enough, we
will then develop an expansion kit for TPOF which will run with TPOF.
If not, we will take our plan for Slipstream: Uprising to another
engine and begin work with a modern engine (or do an entire engine
ourselves, which after working with basic C++, I can do the same
thing I did with LUA code, and simply build on those experiences.)
Which ever runs, TPOF will be completed by the close of 2010.
Unfortunately, there will be no more development after 3.0 on the
TPOF codebase, as we do not want to ruin a piece of art. Not to fear
though, blowing up code is what we do best. Now, lets go over the
Goals for 2.6.
TPOF v2.6 Goals & Features.
- Tidy Up Code. This basically means fix
all of the code problems, and tie-up loose ends, removing features
that are unwanted or redundant. - Weapons Freeze. We will be freezing
our weapons systems, halting development for them. So, if you have
any concerns about the weapons, please report the bugs. We do not
wish to deploy something the people do not want. Whats the point in
that? We're not Microsoft. (Little Joke there) - Retexturing. We will begin large-scale
retexturing of ships/megaliths/what-have-you. - Electronics, Strategy – We are
FINALLY going to introduce some new modules and abilities beside the
ones found in stock homeworld 2. - Final implementations of our “Mercury”
UI design. - Gameplay Tweaks/Effects tweaks.
- Custom Soundtrack – Myself, My
friend Jim, and DJZ4K are working on a custom soundtrack for TPOF,
that will replace homeworld 2's soundtrack. - Final maps + Backgrounds – adding
the final Maps, and making new backgrounds for them.
As you can see, we have a LOT of work to accomplish in these short few months. Stay tuned for more details! I hope you all are ready, we are also going to be gearing up 10 = 8 very very soon.
I look forward to following TPOF into maturity :)
Although I'm sure it's been said before, this is indeed the best mod ever made for Homeworld 2. I am most ecstatic to hear that campaign gameplay is forthcoming. And may I say well done, well done indeed!