Our new version!

[Fireburn]

Hello dear developers,

We want to start working on a new big version soon, which will be called 2.92 or 3.0, we don't know the name yet. This topic is for posting some features you want in the new version, so post all your ideas and suggestions. We want this version to be a huge improvement. Here's a list of what we currently have planned:

• A working objecthandler/streamer, for REAL stunt maps and other objectrelated stuff
  
• A ganghandler, which also saves gangs in our DB
  
• A cool new WW minigame
  
• New vehicle handler, with new vehiclelayout for LV which is more fun-aimed (karts etc)
  
• New banhandler, as already stated on the trac
  
• Some more features/improvements aimed at new players, as we want a lot of new players
  

Also, with this new version, we will start using our PreCompiler, which is a huge improvement.
Got more requests, post them o/

If yo have any other ideas for developing this version, also post them.

[Jay]

I love developing big versions

Objects

http://forum.sa-mp.com/index.php?topic=127905.0 -- been using it recently, it's very fast! Fuck my world objects handler :d

Racing
For 2.92, I'd like to do: http://trac.sa-mp.nl/lvp/ticket/145


Lag
I've been playing LVP a lot more recently, and I've noticed how laggy it becomes with > 40 players. we need to thread MySQL queries. This should have highest priority imo.


Fightclub:

I'd like to see some fightclub improvements (I was planning on doing this weekend, actually):
* Fightclub moved to world 0.
* /Fight watch doesn't use cameras, but instead teleports the player to the sidelines, resets weapons and allows them to watch freely. It should auto teleport them back up if they 'fall'.
* Round information in a textdraw, including how many rounds left, scores, and per player fc stats
* Command free! Like the old BA server, a fight starts when a player stands in either corner.

New statistics

I'm sure Peter wouldn't mind adding some new stats for the website. We could add statistics for how many times a player has killed another player, with each weapon.

Death Messages

When a player kills a player, a death message should show. For example, if a player shoots down a hydra, a message would show to the killer: "You shot Jay down!" or "Iced em". It looks cool and really brings out the feel of killing.

Minigame handler rewrite

I think the current deathmatch minigame system is Alpha's old gamemode one. It needs rewriting ffs!

Ingame object editing

.... would rock! If admins could create map zones ingame, which save, imagine how many we'd eventually have! It would require a nice little object editor (like medit). Maybe we could even support direct upload of MTA .maps through the website -> game server!

Refactoring
shit loads of old stuff. And while we're at it, remove the old ENG/NL language handler

Kill Frenzys

I planned this for 2.90, but it didn't make it due to time running out. Matthias, get scripting! Each kill frenzy should vary in time and weapons.


k I'll probably think of more later.

Fireburn: Would you mind creating a new board so we can discuss this better with separate topics and such?

[Matthias]

@ Jay: Frenzy thingy: The handler is about 90% done ;P.

[Jay]

Some questions:

When will the final roadmap be decided?
When do we start work on this?


and Peter tells me there is a deal with the Management and lead developers to keep the players updated on a weekly basis, like we've been doing since Christmas posting information with weekly releases - what's going to happen with that during 2.92's development?

[Fireburn]

Discussed it with the core-management. We are going to a once-per-2-weeks .91 release cycle, which will mostly be bugfixes, and 1 (small) feature to keep the players interested. We will still have a weekly blogpost, one week about a new feature, the next week about the .91 bugfixing build. All these fixes will be ported to .92 ofcourse.

@ Matthias & thiaZ, you still need to post with ideas!

[Jay]

So after refactoring and rewriting code, we're expected to go back to an older version of what we've just developed and add a feature? I could understand if it was a bug fix, but there are no bugs left in 2.91. Check the bug reports forum.

[Fireburn]

Neh Jay, I'll take care of the 2.91 part, don't worries. And there's still bugs and enhancements that can be made, as we still get messages in .dev on a daily base. You can just go work on the new version :p The features will be small so that won't be a prob.

[Jay]

This new version is going to be a lot of work. It's going to be much bigger than 2.90. At the current rate of developing, cleaning the source alone will take a good 3 months. 2.90 was mostly a 1 man job by me because of the amount of free time I had - something that I don't have anymore. We need as many developers working on it as possible.

People reporting stuff to .dev are mostly clueless about how it works. I'd say about 2% of the 'reports' are valid ones. I just don't see what needs to be changed with 2.91. It's been stable for weeks. The only real issue left was the SaveInfo which is why I worked hard on it for .19.

Posting updates every fortnight will decrease the excitement for 2.92 because people won't really be waiting for it. When I was developing 2.90, I think overall in the 11 month development period there where 3 blog posts. People were really excited, I think we hit over 70 players on the public beta. Afterward when you were releasing 2.90 updates every week, the topics were getting about 2 pages of replies because not that many people cared. When those releases stopped for a few weeks and I announced 2.91 details, it gathered a lot more interest.

It's clear one of the reasons for these regular updates is to keep the website news alive. Surely there are others ways of doing that?

[Fireburn]

You made 8 blogposts, I just counted them
Anyway, we now have a team of 5 developers working on versions, which will get us a faster rate of developing.
And about the .dev, last week, I fixed all .dev reported things, 90% of them were valid and actually required needing, so there are still enough things to do.
Another thing is, that if we now stop posting updates and do things on an unregular base, people won't be bothered visiting LVP anymore, they will think development will go slow and that we don't have anything to report. And that is something we can not use without an official listing, which gave us the players back in that period. But now we have to fight for players, and keep them excited by showing that we are improving with features they want.
With a once-per-2-week blog about 2.92 we can go into detail on a new feature, of which several will probably be added per week, and still keep a lot of things mysterious.

[Jay]

And about the .dev, last week, I fixed all .dev reported things, 90% of them were valid and actually required needing, so there are still enough things to do.

Alright, here are the logs of the dev reports buffered in my channel:

Code:

Message from jerico: dunno if it already is there, but maybe handy to have /p [id] shiplame to warn people for it

Already in.

Code:

Message from rice_j0: /kill doesn't give you anything in the kill list and no message [..]

Try again as a normal player.

Code:

Message from tBKwtWS: export only has 1 car now, and I see no cars outside LV

Incorrect.

Code:

Message from (UvH)THIAZ99: Notice to myself: Adding anti-lame for /world everyone is abusing it in fights

Already in place. /World commands have a hardcoded health change detection.

Code:

[16:52] <+Nowoni> Message from Harry: can we get a command that crew can set their spawnweapons so they get them every time they join

Useless suggestion that's a lot of work. Use /my spawnweapon

Code:

<+Nuwuni> Message from Harry: We should have a respawn all command that will respawn all empty vechicles

Useless and would cause a lot of complaints.

Code:

Message from Lithirm: /ctp'ing to the cruise leader should be possible even if their TP is disabled

Debatable, but fair enough.

Code:

Message from estroe: "Latest news: € totalling 0 sold properties."

Finally, a valid bug. Shame it was already known and fixed 3 days before.

Code:

Message from estroe: If you get killed by db in /chase you don't get a menu

Intentional.

Another thing is, that if we now stop posting updates and do things on an unregular base, people won't be bothered visiting LVP anymore, they will think development will go slow and that we don't have anything to report. And that is something we can not use without an official listing, which gave us the players back in that period. But now we have to fight for players, and keep them excited by showing that we are improving with features they want.

When I joined the dev team I done 2 releases then nothing for 11 months. Before that there were no releases for about a year. We were on and off the official list during that period. Mostly off. Players didn't get bored.

I don't think any release is going to increase permanent player counts unless there are some really really large features. 2.90 had over 200 features. Sure it attracted a few extra players for about a week or so, but 2.90 didn't change LVP, it just expanded it. No version will ever do that.

Additionally, posting a release every fortnight is one thing, but I strongly disagree with posting development details, and it's something that I'm not going to be apart of. It completely ruins the fun and surprises because people will know what to expect.