It has been over half a year since the last post here in this thread, so an update is more than overdue. At our last online voice chat meeting on June 28th we decided to aim for autumn for the 0.5 release, and for the creation of the 0.5 release branch in mid August (we very likely might not be able to meet these goals, considering how much still needs to be done, but we thought it is necessary to start setting ourselfes some goals to eventually get things into a release-ready state...
).
To achieve that, a lot of things need to be done, polished, finished - as the
top post of this thread already outlined all that, and much of what I've said there still applies, I'm not going to repeat it all here, but just point to you back there. Please re-read the
top post (and ideally the rest of the thread) to freshen up your memory.
I'll try to summarize the important/relevant points and what progress has been made on them since (to my knowledge), and also ask for anyone who knows to also report on progress made (or comment on my assessment thereof):
- Polishing/balancing Policies and Influence production/costs: Much progress has been made here, from what I've heard things are now in a place where (while of course still rough around the edges and a lot of room for improvement left, so still a lot of work ahead) things have matured enough for a first release. However, I want to hear your comments on that topic especially, as it's the main new feature of 0.5. Are we at a point where things aren't too broken anymore for a release?
- Broken AI: Here also a lot of progress has been made, thanks to Grummel7 (who joined our ranks not too long ago) who had been very productive in helping out the AI team. If I understand correctly, the AI too is now in a state where it isn't completely broken anymore, but able to play sufficiently well for a release. Again, please give your comments on that, as it's a very important issue regarding release-readiness.
- Changes/additions to the combat system: As far as I am aware, things on that front have been finished and should be ready for release. Any comments on that?
- Stealth: It has been noted that stealth isn't in a usable place, specifically the impossibility to use it in a defensive way against players. The question has been raised if it's possible to get in fixes for 0.5 to at least alleviate the problem to some degree. I don't know what (or if anything at all) has been done regarding this, and in what state those fixes are. Can anyone comment on that? If nothing has happened yet, I'd strongly recommend to drop it for 0.5 and get that in for later releases.
- Lacking/incorrect/out of date pedia content: Specifically pedia content for the new Influence/Goverment mechanics and Policies has been found lacking (aside from the ever present issue of incorrect/outdated content). What's the progress on this? While we won't be able to get the pedia into a perfect state, have things improved enough so the pedia is in an acceptable state for a release, or does it still need work? If the latter, how far along are we, what needs to be done still?
Anything else that needs to be addressed for 0.5, which I have missed?
Our main tool to keep track of what needs to be done for 0.5 (aside from this thread) is our github issue tracker. I want to reiterate what I said in the top post:
- Please go over the open issues and PRs and assign all of them that need to be addressed/finished for 0.5 to the 0.5 milestone. If you lack the rights to do that, post a request for the issue/PR you want assigned to the release milestone here in this thread.
- Open issues/provide PRs for anything you think needs to get addressed/included into 0.5 on github (and assign them to the release milestone or ask here for a dev to do that for you).
I've made this thread sticky and provided a link to the open issues and PRs for 0.5 in the top post. I'll also provide that link here:
https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/milestones/v0.5