(CC to Wesnoth forum)
Thank you to everyone who contributed toward the success of 1.0. Very
few Free games get as far as we have come. I would like to say some
words of thanks to a few contributors without whom, 1.0 may have never
been reached. I list these contributors not to try to exclude anyone,
but simply to note some exceptional contributions. I think something
that has struck me about how supportive these contributors are is that
they have always been supportive of the project, even when decisions are
made which they might disagree with:
fmunoz -- who recognized Wesnoth even when it was incredibly ugly, and
made the first steps toward making it something people would actually
want to play
ettin -- for the thankless task of maintaining our web site, making
interface suggestions, and sticking with the project for over two years
(and he was even nice enough to make my wife and I a web page for our
wedding!)
miyo -- for his counsel, supportiveness, and hard work doing the most
thankless of tasks. If I had asked him to, I know he would have stuck
with the project all the way until 1.0.
Jetryl -- for his persistence and dedication and refusal to accept mere
'average' quality
isaac -- for his dedication and hard work on the project over a long
period of time, and great tolerance.
freim -- for his excellent work in an area that few people want to work
in, as well as his generous donation of use of a server
Ivanovic -- for doing all he could do to push the project to 1.0 at a
time when the energy of others waned
forcemaster -- for being willing to fix many bugs that he himself didn't
cause.
This list isn't meant to belittle any of our other contributors, of
course. It's simply a list of people I think should get a special mention.
Anyhow, I think it's time to discuss where we want to take the project
next. I think the first question is, do we want to take it anywhere? One
option would be to be happy with 1.0, and occasionally release a bug fix
release, and be content to simply maintain the project. This is a
perfectly respectable option: it wouldn't mean our project has died,
rather, we've produced a good product, and are now happy to simply enjoy
playing the fruits of our labors, as well perhaps as moving on to new
projects.
I believe, however, that there are a substantial number of people who
have the time and energy and want to contribute to Wesnoth to add new
features that they would like to see in the game. Also, I think if we
continue development, we will also attract new talent to join the
project, and add their time and energy to it.
I, however, will not be able to contribute to the project as much as I
have in the past. My wife is pregnant, I have a rather involved job, and
eventually I might want to start a new project. I will have to pass much
responsibility to others. I will still be able to help by making
important decisions, and writing some code, but I won't be able to
continue contributing at levels I have been.
I am appointing Jetryl in a role as a senior developer, ultimately in
charge of most aspects of development. I will be able to veto decisions
he makes if I want to, but usually won't, even if I disagree with them
(if I did veto one it would probably be on the grounds of it being
technically unsound, rather than me simply not liking having
frost-breathing mutant turtles in the game). I have grown confidence in
Jetryl's abilities in terms of game design, and I think he can do a good
job. He has the combination of dedication, enthusiasm and ability that I
don't think anyone else has, and I think he has earned the right to have
his ideas tried in the game.
For those who don't like changes that we make to the game, we will be
maintaining the 1.0.x (stable) branch, and backporting some features
from the 1.1.x (development) branch.
Here are some changes I would like seen made to the game. Ideas with a
'*' could be backported to 1.0. It's far from an exhaustive list of
improvements we might make though.
* ability to skip replay when observing game
- multiplayer campaigns
* different rooms on multiplayer server
* interface for game management (mainly kicking out obnoxious observers
and replacing sides)
* support for tournaments on multiplayer server
- removing most obvious cheating avenues on multiplayer server
- development of new campaigns which have higher production values than
any existing campaigns. Having a team work on a campaign rather than one
person with some contributors.
- revamp of some game rules including addition of new abilities and
changing behavior of existing ones (perhaps removal of some abilities)
- continue refactoring code; try to make some sections of code modular
enough so they could be easily reused on seperate projects.
- addition of Boost as a dependency
* addition of Zlib as a dependency and allow compression of saves and
compression of data sent over the network
- make map generation and AI scriptable in Python. This would allow
scenario designers to have far more control over the AI than previously.
One of the big problems with the existing AI is that it is necessarily
very general (must be able to play on any map, with any settings, with
any faction). It is very hard to program a good general AI, but much
easier to program a special-case AI.
- improvements to the map editor, and possibly the existence of a
full-fledged campaign editor.
I would like to note that we are going to try to maintain our production
values and methodology. KISS is still our core ideal. We are going to
continue developing things in an evolutionary fashion: one step at a time.
Also, we are always looking for new contributors. If you want to become
involved in Wesnoth development, there is no better time than now. :)
David
