06-17-2010, 04:26 PM
As you all know, a roadmap for the LVP3.0 development was written a couple of weeks ago. You might also know there has been a bit of a "compatibity-issue" between the Management and the Development team because of it.
The roadmap plans that LVP3.0 will be finished around February or March 2011. During this period, there are no updates planned at all to the live gamemode on the server. The management thinks this is a weakness, because players would start thinking there is no active gamemode development going on; players can't look behind the scenes where the development is actually taking place, and what the team is actually doing.
In order to improve on this weakness and turn it into something that the development team can actually benefit from, I've been discussing an idea with Fireburn and Wesley. In short, it turns one large roadmap into a number of smaller ones, each for a different version. The idea behind this, is that we release a new minor version every two months (2.92, 2.93, 2.94), and every four weeks a version that fixes bugs. Why? Allow me to explain.
By splitting the LVP3.0 roadmap in two-monthly cycles, a lot of not-major LVP3 features can already be implemented, tested and debugged when the final version of LVP3 is released. Especially clean-ups, optimizations, rewrites, removal of unused items can be done earlier on. Every minor version should also include some nice stuff for the players, for example the improvements to minigames, properties and such, so we'll keep them interested and entertained. After releasing a minor version, some bugreports will probably be made, which can be fixed in the bugfix-release of the current minor, and in all next versions including the final version of LVP3. This way, it is possible to keep the amount of bugs in LVP3 down, and prevent the undesired image with players that there are too many bugs in the gamemode.
Yes, the overall process of developing LVP3 might take more time this way, but that does not matter at all! As long as the bimonthly minors can be made, the development team and its work is clearly visible to the community, and that is important to attract and keep players.
The exact contents of each minor release is still to be determined, because it is most important to discuss this idea first.
To create a better idea of how this would look in practice, see the following example:
LVP 2.91 - Current
LVP 2.92 - mid July 2010 (including the most important cleaning and such)
.1 - mid August, if there are bugs
.2 - so on, until next minor
LVP 2.93 - mid September 2010
LVP 2.94 - mid November 2010
LVP 2.95 - mid January 2011
LVP 2.96 - mid March 2011
(after this, LVP3 could be released mid-May 2011, or if neccessary, all minors up to 2.99 could be made, which would mean that LVP3 would be released November 2011 in the worst case)
The roadmap for future minor versions and the final version can be changed during the development period. The roadmap for the minor version in development at that time is locked. This way, new features still to be thought of can be included in LVP3.
However, before this can be put into action, we (Fireburn, Wesley and me) would like your opinion and views on this idea. Also, we can use your input for the roadmaps for the minor versions.
Discuss.
The roadmap plans that LVP3.0 will be finished around February or March 2011. During this period, there are no updates planned at all to the live gamemode on the server. The management thinks this is a weakness, because players would start thinking there is no active gamemode development going on; players can't look behind the scenes where the development is actually taking place, and what the team is actually doing.
In order to improve on this weakness and turn it into something that the development team can actually benefit from, I've been discussing an idea with Fireburn and Wesley. In short, it turns one large roadmap into a number of smaller ones, each for a different version. The idea behind this, is that we release a new minor version every two months (2.92, 2.93, 2.94), and every four weeks a version that fixes bugs. Why? Allow me to explain.
By splitting the LVP3.0 roadmap in two-monthly cycles, a lot of not-major LVP3 features can already be implemented, tested and debugged when the final version of LVP3 is released. Especially clean-ups, optimizations, rewrites, removal of unused items can be done earlier on. Every minor version should also include some nice stuff for the players, for example the improvements to minigames, properties and such, so we'll keep them interested and entertained. After releasing a minor version, some bugreports will probably be made, which can be fixed in the bugfix-release of the current minor, and in all next versions including the final version of LVP3. This way, it is possible to keep the amount of bugs in LVP3 down, and prevent the undesired image with players that there are too many bugs in the gamemode.
Yes, the overall process of developing LVP3 might take more time this way, but that does not matter at all! As long as the bimonthly minors can be made, the development team and its work is clearly visible to the community, and that is important to attract and keep players.
The exact contents of each minor release is still to be determined, because it is most important to discuss this idea first.
To create a better idea of how this would look in practice, see the following example:
LVP 2.91 - Current
LVP 2.92 - mid July 2010 (including the most important cleaning and such)
.1 - mid August, if there are bugs
.2 - so on, until next minor
LVP 2.93 - mid September 2010
LVP 2.94 - mid November 2010
LVP 2.95 - mid January 2011
LVP 2.96 - mid March 2011
(after this, LVP3 could be released mid-May 2011, or if neccessary, all minors up to 2.99 could be made, which would mean that LVP3 would be released November 2011 in the worst case)
The roadmap for future minor versions and the final version can be changed during the development period. The roadmap for the minor version in development at that time is locked. This way, new features still to be thought of can be included in LVP3.
However, before this can be put into action, we (Fireburn, Wesley and me) would like your opinion and views on this idea. Also, we can use your input for the roadmaps for the minor versions.
Discuss.
